phew

I think I could like sales....!!! seriously! :-D

Okay. So the trip is going well. I've missed the Minneapolis snow, which in and of itself is amazing. It is, however, pouring buckets here. And it's freezing. And i'm already always cold...so when the two guys I'm traveling with blast the air conditioning the two hour drive to the facility tours....i'm pretty much a solid ice cube when we arrive. And I forgot my sweatpants for the hotel so i've been cold pretty much the entire time so far. But i've been eating like a king! (translation, GUY) Ribs and beer last night....steak and wine tonight...I'm going to need to go running for SURE after this! Anyway, I'm learning a ton. Seriously, a TON. Oh my goodness though I feel a bit outside of my league. I've never even known anything about sales and now I'm on a call. OY!

Anyway. I'm super into trying to predict company moves....as far as marketing stuff. And so when Applebees announced last week they were closing 10 stores, I immediately began guessing which ones they would be. The funny thing was I'd been wondering lately if they would be closing any stores because they had really saturated the market. I mean, there were at least three stores withing two miles of my house. That seemed a little excessive to me. I also don't live in the nicest part of the Minneapolis, so I was wondering if they were seeing a drop in same store sales growth because of the demographics of their locations. I'd seen a recent article covering their recent menu additions (the special chef ones - i highly recommend the bruchetta burger with parmesan fries) and how their current typical customer had kept them from introducing something like this earlier. Well, bottom line, I'd decided this one applebees by my house, right off the highway, was probably going to be the one to close due to it's extremely small size, awkward location, and general "city location".....and sure enough, not more than two days later, it was vacant. We're talking signs are down and you wouldn't even know that an Applebee's used to be there. Go me! :-D

In other news, what are thoughts on this recent Imus radio station issue. I read a comment in the USA today that said that everyone who heard Imus' comments was offended. Perhaps I spent too much time in the overly sensitive and highly charged politically correct environment of housing and residential life at the university of minnesota - but I thought tolerance means we're supposed to put up with stuff that we would typically take offense to.....isn't that the whole line that the left is pushing? Okay, I'll admit I've put a right-type slant on the view...but seriously. I thought we weren't supposed to censor anyone anymore. Or are we just not supposed to censor people who agree with the left's views? I'm not saying that racial comments are good or that we should support them....but personally I feel like I've been beaten down to the point where I'm only allowed to say "well, it's interesting you feel that way, i'm not sure that I entirely agree" and leave it at that. I thought we weren't allowed to say anymore that people are wrong.....right? Anyway. I just get pissed. If you want to get down to it....I get offended when you take Christ's name in vain....it's horribly terribly offensive - but you don't see me going on national tv every time some says that on the radio. And I'm also super offended when people begin to attack republicans ascrazy religious nazi's. Or when I get ridiculed as having little to zero intelligence because of my Christian faith. And even the fact that because I've now stated that i'm right-leaning and religious (and not just any religious thankyouverymuch but christian) that now I have to state that by no means am I advocating or supporting this radio guy's comments, okay? Basically, bottom line, if you're really truly supporting freedom of speech (in all the insane ways that are occurring) then you've gotta swallow the whole pill my friend. You don't have to support what the speech is - you've just gotta give them the right to speak.

And off my soapbox. (and again, just to state, i don't support his comments. thanks.)

Alright, is it wednesday? I'm beat people. I fly home tomorrow night, gotta bake something for this weekend, AC quote friday morning, work, and then straight out of town for church retreat. AH!
Love.
-R