Man, what a weird day! I was all over the place literally, and in my head and in my moods.

The day started with an early hurried trip to the tile shop to pick up the new samples. Bill told me I looked nice and asked if I felt better than I did yesterday. Even though it's been 2 years since I worked for the manipulative and abusive "Cattys" of Once Upon a Tile, I still have to slow down and get it through my head that Bill is just a nice guy who is trying to run his business as a win-win situation. I stood there thinking about all the possible "meanings" there could be behind what he said. There weren't any! He just meant to give me a boost before I went out on my sales calls and ask how I felt.

Anyway, I guess it did give me a lift, because once I got someplace that was open it was almost as if I could do no wrong. "Doesn't she have a nice laugh? Makes you want to laugh right along with her." a dour old tile guy said, I guess thinking I was out of earshot in this HUGE showroom in the city. There was no way I was gonna get my tile in there. They had everything, and I do mean everything, and they were stocking most of it.

When I finally found the place (which was 8 blocks in the opposite direction an no where near the intersection the super pages online map showed) I was stunned by the sheer size of it. I decided I would just go in and let them know that Superpages had their location all screwed up so they could contact whoever handles that part of their advertising, and that it would be good practice for me to do a "Hail Mary" pitch. Finally, I got to talk to the owners assistant, who was a very downcast little man. He's already getting Panaria, though not my line from New York and said he gets a truck from them every day! That almost stunned me into silence, but fortunately my famous Auxiluary Personality held me in good stead and I said, " New York! But we're ever so much closer! Don't they charge you a fortune in shipping?"

He kind of equivocated, as if he had never given it much thought. And really, I must say he was a very tough little nut to crack, just as a human being to have a conversation with. He kept his head down, looked through the paperwork and spoke in such a low voice, that even though I was hunkered down over the counter with him, I could hardly hear him. The whole time I'm thinking "this is great, no wonder I can't sell tile, I can't even make eye contact!" Still I kept lobbing stuff into the conversational court, and he kept answering me. Finally, he said he would talk to the boss, who gave a little head waggle. I recognize the waggle. It's the "what the hell waggle": as in, the samples are free, let's take 'em and give 'em a try. He came back and I thanked him for his time and asked for his card, "It would be terrible if I didn't remember who gave me the opportunity!" I said.

He took a card and wrote the bosses name on it. His buddy, the formerly dour tile man laughed and said, "How could you forget Fred?"

"It's the boss you have to talk to. I'm not anybody" Fred said. And I was genuinely shocked that he said that. I mean I know he was a short middle aged guy with a mild resemblence to Stephen King and an extremely soft spoken manner - but he IS the bosses trusted assistant, the man with the keys to the kingdom. To someone in my position, he's not nobody, he's EVERYBODY!

"Of course you're somebody! You're the guy who just took 10 minutes to stand here and listen to me yammer! You're the guy that could've just tossed me out, but didn't!" I said.

"Oh, well, that's nothing to listen. And it is good to know about this map thing, you know." And we chatted for a few more minutes, by which time he was standing up straight and he gave me a mild smile, and I could see that, behind his heavy glasses he had really deep green eyes, that shade that are truly like emeralds, which you almost never see.

And, though I certainly hope we sell something there, the trip was worth it just to see that fellow square his shoulders for a few minutes.

Then I left and wrestled with several more problems created by crappy maps off the internet and people not keeping their business hours. I visited two showrooms to which I had called ahead to confirm hours and found them locked up tight, without so much as a "gone fishin' " sign by way of explanation. I may be a business novice, but even I'm down with the fact that, in order to do business you have to show up!!

Even places where all I could do was drop off brochures I was met by pleasant people, who were interested enough to ask questions and circle phone numbers. Then I met with my next success, which, as per usual, had nothing to do with my "sales skills" or the tile. My foot lodged firmly in their door with my wackey sense of humor ( "Hi can I help you?" "Well, I'm either a tile rep or a rep-tile....am I lookin' kinda scaley and scarey to ya?") and my propensity to just go into "dog mode" whenever I see a dog ("Oh, hi, Sir Dog! How ya doin'? You're a terrier, I know your type of dog..." etc.) Only in this case the dog's NAME really was "Sir Dog" and when the owner asked how I knew that, I said, from the floor where I was being assertively sniffed, "Why, he told me of course! You're a very clever dog, aren't you?" Which sent the whole place into gales of laughter. Thus, I met everyone in the place, learned their schedule, ( the dog works as the greeter 4 days a week!) was able to answer a lot of general questions they had about ceramic tile, handed out a dozen cards, insisting that they call us if we could do the smallest thing for them, etc, and was walked to the door with them calling out "be sure to bring us samples of your new stuff as soon as you get it!"

And, for a rep tile, it just doesn't get any better than that!

Maybe I ought to wear my beat up old linen jacket with a pin covering the ink stain more often....or is that just how stuff like Lucky Socks gets started?