(no subject)
Hey everyone.
So, my job hasn't really gotten underway yet, but it seems promising. I've been to several days of training up in Maine, and I have way too many papers to go through, and a big textbook of insurance info. Main reason for not getting into selling yet is that I have to get licensed first, so lots of textbook studying for now. Actually, lots to come up, because I haven't been doing enough of it yet. My normal procrastinatory self, but I'll get it all done in the long run. The state test is next Tuesday. Then, assuming I pass, I get started with company licensing for the specific insurance plans I'll be selling. In the meanwhile, I go with my manager as he makes sales, or I book appointments myself but have him do all the selling, so that I can learn by seeing an experienced person do it, I have something to do before being licensed, and I can jump right in once the licensing stuff is finished. I get 3 months worth of commission on those (vs. commission for as long as the customer stays, once I'm licensed and doing everything myself.)
In related news, I finally cut my hair. My manager strongly recommended it (it wasn't couched as a requirement, but might have become such had I made more of a fuss about it.) Essentially, he says, when I'm first starting in the field, I should conform to people's expectations of a businessman, and not give myself extra hurdles to overcome. A year or two down the line, once I'm better established, I can grow my hair out or break the mold in other ways and customers will look past it, but when I'm inexperienced and trying to break in, I should aim to be what my customers expect visually, in order for them to keep their expectations of my business.
So, pictures. I haven't taken any yet, but there are plenty of "before" pictures, and I'll take a few "after" pictures soon. It's pretty radically different, for those of you who have only known me with long hair, but I think it still looks good. Remind me to post that if I don't remember on my own tomorrow...
Other life things: Church choir is still going great. Temple choir even paid me a little recently, which is a help in this in-between time before I can start making sales. My relationship with Elena is as wonderful as ever. I almost feel like I should stop mentioning that, because it has been so stable and isn't really "news" any more, but it has never been like that for me with anyone else, so it's amazing to me that I don't have to worry about it now. She's currently in Argentina, on tour with the Williams choir, and I'm sure she's having a wonderful time.
Elizabethans reunion was last weekend, and it was wonderful. All the '06 alums came back, with scattered attendance from classes '04-08. Heath was the sole representative of the prior decade ('98? ...Sheesh, that was my Bar Mitzvah year...) It was far too short, but wonderful to see everyone again. Elizabethans was really the most important thing in my life for the 4 years I was at Williams. They were the center of my social life, and directing provided a great deal of musical experience, making it academically important, too, for a music major. It's hard to imagine my college years without Elizabethans, and I really miss them -- both the music/directing/cohesive unit and all the people who were part of it.
The one less than perfect thing for me these days is my band. Let me preface this by saying that they/we have a lot of potential, and that's perhaps why it's so frustrating when we don't really meet it. This past weekend, we were supposed to get together on Sunday, but it was cancelled last minute. The previous weekend I was at Elizabethans reunion, and the week before that rehearsal was cancelled for weather. The previous two weeks, I was in Denver and Vegas. The two weeks before that, though I forget which order, one was cancelled and one we had a vocal rehearsal, without the drummer. And no one else seems to be available for rehearsals any time other than weekends. I think they rehearsed once without me in this time, during Elizabethans reunion. That means that the last time the whole band rehearsed together was around a month and a half ago. This is not good.
I've been away for some of it, but every time I AM around, something else gets in the way. The weather was sort of a cheap excuse, seemed to me, because the times we'd have to drive to rehearse were really only on the fringes of the storm, not in the worst of it, though it was a bad one. More often, it has been related to Ricky, our drummer, whose house we've been using, and who is in process of a very messy probable-breakup with his girlfriend -- messy and drawn out mostly because of their two kids. It's understandable, but also very frustrating. So Scott, our bassist and probably the driving force behind the band, talked with Ricky and decided they'd try to finish recording all the drum parts this week, and then Ricky would take a break from the band for a couple months or so to deal with his personal life. During that time, the rest of us could work on recording, writing, etc. at Scott's house, and not have so many last minute things come up where shouting and arguing makes the recording space unusable...
So, anyway, that may come back together in a couple months, but for a little bit we have no drummer, and we have an absolute minimum of 2 1/2-3 months (2 months with Ricky away, a few weeks to get him back up to speed) before we could possibly start performing. I joined this group in August, and we haven't yet performed once. Thing is, they're good, but I'm starting to have my doubts because we all have other careers, and rehearsals are always getting cancelled and never more than once a week to start, and it just never quite seems to get off the ground.
I was invited recently by the director to join the Oriana Consort, a high-level amateur choir near Boston, but I had to turn him down because of rehearsal schedule. If I accepted, I'd be singing from about 8:30 AM to 9 PM on most Sundays, less driving time and meals. I got that message and turned him down Friday night, and then had second thoughts about it on Sunday -- my band rehearsal got cancelled at the very last minute, and it was just one too many times, and my first thought was "hey, if this band is going to keep dragging its feet, I could just drop it and join Oriana."
So, I guess that's about it. Goodnight!
So, my job hasn't really gotten underway yet, but it seems promising. I've been to several days of training up in Maine, and I have way too many papers to go through, and a big textbook of insurance info. Main reason for not getting into selling yet is that I have to get licensed first, so lots of textbook studying for now. Actually, lots to come up, because I haven't been doing enough of it yet. My normal procrastinatory self, but I'll get it all done in the long run. The state test is next Tuesday. Then, assuming I pass, I get started with company licensing for the specific insurance plans I'll be selling. In the meanwhile, I go with my manager as he makes sales, or I book appointments myself but have him do all the selling, so that I can learn by seeing an experienced person do it, I have something to do before being licensed, and I can jump right in once the licensing stuff is finished. I get 3 months worth of commission on those (vs. commission for as long as the customer stays, once I'm licensed and doing everything myself.)
In related news, I finally cut my hair. My manager strongly recommended it (it wasn't couched as a requirement, but might have become such had I made more of a fuss about it.) Essentially, he says, when I'm first starting in the field, I should conform to people's expectations of a businessman, and not give myself extra hurdles to overcome. A year or two down the line, once I'm better established, I can grow my hair out or break the mold in other ways and customers will look past it, but when I'm inexperienced and trying to break in, I should aim to be what my customers expect visually, in order for them to keep their expectations of my business.
So, pictures. I haven't taken any yet, but there are plenty of "before" pictures, and I'll take a few "after" pictures soon. It's pretty radically different, for those of you who have only known me with long hair, but I think it still looks good. Remind me to post that if I don't remember on my own tomorrow...
Other life things: Church choir is still going great. Temple choir even paid me a little recently, which is a help in this in-between time before I can start making sales. My relationship with Elena is as wonderful as ever. I almost feel like I should stop mentioning that, because it has been so stable and isn't really "news" any more, but it has never been like that for me with anyone else, so it's amazing to me that I don't have to worry about it now. She's currently in Argentina, on tour with the Williams choir, and I'm sure she's having a wonderful time.
Elizabethans reunion was last weekend, and it was wonderful. All the '06 alums came back, with scattered attendance from classes '04-08. Heath was the sole representative of the prior decade ('98? ...Sheesh, that was my Bar Mitzvah year...) It was far too short, but wonderful to see everyone again. Elizabethans was really the most important thing in my life for the 4 years I was at Williams. They were the center of my social life, and directing provided a great deal of musical experience, making it academically important, too, for a music major. It's hard to imagine my college years without Elizabethans, and I really miss them -- both the music/directing/cohesive unit and all the people who were part of it.
The one less than perfect thing for me these days is my band. Let me preface this by saying that they/we have a lot of potential, and that's perhaps why it's so frustrating when we don't really meet it. This past weekend, we were supposed to get together on Sunday, but it was cancelled last minute. The previous weekend I was at Elizabethans reunion, and the week before that rehearsal was cancelled for weather. The previous two weeks, I was in Denver and Vegas. The two weeks before that, though I forget which order, one was cancelled and one we had a vocal rehearsal, without the drummer. And no one else seems to be available for rehearsals any time other than weekends. I think they rehearsed once without me in this time, during Elizabethans reunion. That means that the last time the whole band rehearsed together was around a month and a half ago. This is not good.
I've been away for some of it, but every time I AM around, something else gets in the way. The weather was sort of a cheap excuse, seemed to me, because the times we'd have to drive to rehearse were really only on the fringes of the storm, not in the worst of it, though it was a bad one. More often, it has been related to Ricky, our drummer, whose house we've been using, and who is in process of a very messy probable-breakup with his girlfriend -- messy and drawn out mostly because of their two kids. It's understandable, but also very frustrating. So Scott, our bassist and probably the driving force behind the band, talked with Ricky and decided they'd try to finish recording all the drum parts this week, and then Ricky would take a break from the band for a couple months or so to deal with his personal life. During that time, the rest of us could work on recording, writing, etc. at Scott's house, and not have so many last minute things come up where shouting and arguing makes the recording space unusable...
So, anyway, that may come back together in a couple months, but for a little bit we have no drummer, and we have an absolute minimum of 2 1/2-3 months (2 months with Ricky away, a few weeks to get him back up to speed) before we could possibly start performing. I joined this group in August, and we haven't yet performed once. Thing is, they're good, but I'm starting to have my doubts because we all have other careers, and rehearsals are always getting cancelled and never more than once a week to start, and it just never quite seems to get off the ground.
I was invited recently by the director to join the Oriana Consort, a high-level amateur choir near Boston, but I had to turn him down because of rehearsal schedule. If I accepted, I'd be singing from about 8:30 AM to 9 PM on most Sundays, less driving time and meals. I got that message and turned him down Friday night, and then had second thoughts about it on Sunday -- my band rehearsal got cancelled at the very last minute, and it was just one too many times, and my first thought was "hey, if this band is going to keep dragging its feet, I could just drop it and join Oriana."
So, I guess that's about it. Goodnight!