I'm having trouble studying my travel agent manual. Not because I can't get motivated or because it isn't somewhat interesting. The problem is that my cats don't seem to like it when I work. I think that is what Jingle's problem has been for months. They perceive anything I do other than sitting around as a distraction from them and it cannot be tolerated. They can hear me open the loose leaf binder that I put the manual in from any room in the house. Even if Shiner is out on the patio, he hears it open and they both come running.
Once the troops are assembled they attack. Jingle starts his meowing. This particular meow sounds like he is trying to say something like "I'm sooooo lonely and all you ever do is work on that book!!! Do you love that book more than you love me???" Shiner just does this thing where he pats your arm with his paw and looks up at you with his little "I used to be homeless and sometimes I still get lonely and need to be reassured" face and whatever I am doing has to stop so that I can sit and pet the cats. Then Shiner lays across my manual to ensure that I will not pay attention to it for the next hour or so. I have to hand it to them. There aren't many better ways to thoroughly pull me away from anything. They are smart little cookies.
But still I believe I have managed to get a lot done in the last few days. Perhaps not as much as I would like. But I'm nearly half way through the training manual, I have a webinar scheduled for this afternoon, business cards have been ordered along with personalized thank you notes with the business name on them and I have joined 3 networking groups one of which meets tomorrow evening. Today, I need to really try to figure out how to set up the website. I think this could be what gets me which is why I haven't gone back to it since I purchased the domain name.
The good news is that my distractions today should be minimal. With this perfect weather, the cats will stay fairly well preoccupied with the birds and squirrels outside since I'll have windows and doors open. I cooked yesterday, so I don't have to cook anything today and I only have two errands to run this morning after I finish the blog. My errands consist of getting cat food and one of those headsets with the mic on it for my webinar. I'll also, be able to use it on my telephone for later so that I can type while I am on the phone with a client. So, I think it will be a good investment.
I want to get as much done as possible in regards to training today and tomorrow. I am taking a fair day on Wednesday. One of my cousins will be in town from Oregon and we are going. Then Thursday I am going to Nacogdoches for a few days. The cousins from Oregon will be going there and I'm going along. I'll stay at my brothers house this visit since Cindy and family will be at Mom and Dad's house. It will be fun.
Last week I talked to some friends who work at AAFES and they said that their employer gives them a fair day. I think that is the sign of a truly great employer. Sometimes I wish I had grown up in the Metroplex just because I know that all the kids around here get a fair day every year. A fair day sounds like the perfect day. I mean it's like a snow day or a tropical storm or hurricane day without the bad weather! You can't beat that!!!! I never went to a school or worked for an employer who gave fair days. Well, I mean until now. Now I work for this great woman! Late in the afternoon, when everything is starting to wind down for the day, she will even sometimes, allow me to go in the kitchen and pour a glass of wine to sip while I finish up. I've only worked here for a few days and she is already giving me Wed - Fri off this week. Of course, next week she'll no doubt be cracking the whip.
So, since Wednesday will be kind of like a bad weather day without the bad weather and I have no previous experience with fair days I'll tell you about a bad weather day from my past. When I was a sophomore in high school we lived in Lumberton. That year in April I turned 16 but a few days before my 16th birthday a really bad weather system came in and it rained buckets for days. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a tropical storm or anything just because it was only April. But anyway, it flooded our neighborhood. The night that it got really bad, my parents woke us up and told us to put anything we wanted to keep up on our beds. Once I finished stacking my Barry Manilow albums and stereo on my bed, I went into the kitchen and Mom and Dad were each at a door with a bucket soaking water up with towels as it came into the house and wringing the towels out into buckets.
They stationed me to work the garage door for a while. By morning we were able to stop doing that when water stopped coming into the house. But for days we were stranded in the neighborhood. On the second day my dad was able to go to work by going to the creek and being ferried across where someone from work picked him up. But the entire neighborhood was nothing but a big lake with houses and trees coming up out of it. Ronnie and I got our little john boat out during the days and rowed around the neighborhood. But you had to be careful not to create a wake because that would send water into someone's house. I don't remember how long we were stuck in the neighborhood. But I know that we missed several days of school while we couldn't get out.
On my birthday my mom baked me a cake but since she couldn't go to the store she had to use what she had available. So, she baked a layer cake from scratch with this fluffy white frosting and since she didn't have candles she used chocolate chips to put a big "16" on the top of the cake.
Several days after the initial flood we had to sweat it out while waiting for the rivers to crest. No one was sure until the rivers finally crested whether or not the house would end up with water in it. My mom and dad have pictures at their house of the water around the house and me and Ronnie in the john boat rowing down the street. Let's face it, I just reread that and it didn't sound fun at all. Other than missing school there was nothing good about it. So, in all honesty, the only kids in the state who really get to miss a day of school each year and know that it will be fun are the kids in the metroplex. Even with snow days, they aren't guaranteed plus you have to be cold. So, I'm just going to go ahead and say it. Fair Days ROCK!
I'm going to see if these cats will let me study. Have a good day and I'll talk to you tomorrow.
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