Smelling the Roses

Although I miss writing my Hotel Chronicles, one of the best parts of this new Sales role is the fact that I make my own schedule. On a day where I made sales calls early, I was able to skip lunch to be the guest speaker for career day at Tali 1′s school.

I spoke to two sets of kids. First up, the 4th graders. They were very organized and had a list of questions to ask me. They also took notes in their notebooks while I spoke and had follow up questions for me at the end of my presentation. I kept looking over and I could see how happy my son was that I was in his class. His teacher told me I was the most engaged parent so far. The kids had lots of questions about how many famous people I met, do I get to see any of the Eagles (especially De Sean Jackson and Michael Vick) and are the people at the hotel really mean? I practiced role playing with them and made them act like the angry guest while I diffused each situation with a smile.

After the 4th grade, I was in front of the 2nd and 3rd graders. They had a slightly lower attention span and I was keeping them from lunch so I made it more fun. They also had a great time asking lots of questions and letting me know about ALL of the hotels, cruises, car trips and pools they have been to. My favorites were the ones who raised their hands frantically and when they got called on froze up and said “I forgot my question!”. So cute!

School trips are not my favorite but career day was fun. I started out in my career as a teacher so having the opportunity to get back in a classroom was fun. Sometimes, I miss engaging with young people but being able to speak about all of my travels, cool customers and crazy groups made me realize that I really do love my job. I’m not missing a thing.

I can’t wait till Tali 1 gets home so I can hear what the kids “really” thought. Maybe I will do it again next year?

One to Grow On

“Did you hear? We are going to have a cheerleading squad and everybody is trying out.”

When I heard those words in 6th grade, I didn’t give them a second thought.  I had always been a pretty secure kid and I had my own interests. Cheerleading was never something I had dreamed about doing. After school, as I walked up Flatbush Avenue with my bff Lisa, all she could talk about was tryouts. Turns out, after finally getting a basketball team, cheerleading was the key way to spend time with the boys. Lisa was BEYOND boycrazy so she was all hyped up to represent for the Holy Cross Crusaders.

After hearing her (and every other girl in school) talk about it for the next two weeks, I inevitably got dragged to the tryouts with her. I was sitting on the sidelines as all of the nervous girls were lining up and stretching. My job was to reassure Lisa that she would be fine. One of the 8th graders came over to talk to me. “You should try out.” I looked around to make sure she was talking to me. “Who Me?” “Yes, you should try out. It’s going to be fun.” Since I could never say no to a challenge (and secretly, maybe a small part of me wanted to wear a short skirt like my friends) I said why not.

I was in the first batch of tryouts. They showed us a routine. Then said go. I was able to muster my way through that. In my head, I thought….that’s not so hard. Then they asked all of us to do a roundoff and a split.

Needless to say, my brief cheerleading tryout was over.

I watched my bff Lisa become a cheerleader. Soon afterwards, she began dating a basketball player. After that, all of our music and book discussions turned into discussions about making out, wearing his chain and “who was that girl staring at my man during the school dance”. My friends were growing up at a faster rate than I was. While they were hit with the boy bug, I was still reading the Hobbit and the Chronicles of Narnia. My nerd tendencies ran deep.

I thought about this experience today for some reason. I’d like to think that not making the cheerleading team was a pivotal moment in my pre-teen development. I learned that not everything was for me and to trust my own instincts and be myself. I also learned that I was not good at everything. Failure can be a good experience, especially when you can pull a lesson from it. I never did have an interest in cheerleading but I did graduate Valedictorian from my Junior High School. I also learned that while I was not set out to do leaps, kicks and pyramids, I was still a pretty good athlete. I found my niche playing softball, tennis and running. That failure set me in motion to go outside of my comfort zone and find other things I was good at that I enjoyed doing.

There’s something to be said for not always accomplishing a goal and what you do when faced with rejection. I learned that I’m a pick up the pieces and move on kind of girl who can’t do a split.

Each One Teach One

This week at work is Customer Appreciation week. There have been a series of events taking place for our customers. Several breakfasts, luncheons, receptions…a whirlwind of activity.

The industry I am in is a tough one because you find yourself always having to be “ON”. My face hurts from smiling so much. The best part about this week is what happens today.

This afternoon, we are volunteering at one of my favorite places….PHILABUNDANCE. Philabundance serves the greater Philadelphia community and in simple terms, helps to feed people.

We will pack up boxes full of canned foods, pasta, rice, etc as they prepare for their busiest demand time of year, the Holidays. My mother, always stressed the importance of helping others. Even if we didn’t have much, we always had enough to share with someone that needed our help.

I have fond memories of my mother cooking dinners for neighbors and friends. In my adult life, community service is a huge part of my life. Through my husband’s fraternity and my sorority, we participate in some form of community service almost monthly. We have done blood drives, delivered messages to mothers in jail from their children, served hot food in soup kitchens and helped to clothe battered women and children. These are causes that touch our family and we never want our children to grow up without knowing how much of a blessing each day and every hot meal are.

As parents, we want to instill values that our children will have for a lifetime. It’s great to have a nice home, cars and clothing but when you look around and so many people are struggling just to make ends meet, it’s our obligation to help others in some way. It’s easy to write a check but the feeling you get from physically doing a good deed and seeing how your direct actions help the individual are immeasurable.

What a great ending to a crazy week.

An Open Letter To Kim K.

Dear Ms. Ka.rda.shi.an:

May I call you Kim? I have watched your show. I even watched pieces of your fake wedding. From my perspective, your family started out with a somewhat normal life.

Your dad was a high powered attorney. Your childhood was one of privilege. Your mother left your dad for Br.uce Je.nner and you continued to enjoy the limelight and a good life. Your friends were famous. You grew up hanging out with the likes of Ms. Hilton and such. Young Hollywood. You saw how P.ar.is became famous for nothing and you and your mom saw a business model that you could all follow.

The tape with Brandy’s brother ensued and you became a household name. Your mom (and Rya.n Sea.crest) seized on the opportunity to make money for the whole family and your show was born. Every second of your life has been filmed for the past few years. Public scandals, breakups, intimate details of all of your relationships. Your mom has seen to it that none of you will ever have to work a real day for the remainder of your lives. I can’t knock the hustle.

However, you just went through yet another very public relationship, over the top million dollar wedding and 72 days later, filed for divorce. I can’t believe that you are truly happy living like this. Always having to be in full make up. Always getting followed by a camera and photographed. Always on display and needing to be that way for the sake of your family’s income.

Think about it….What marriage would survive a 24 hour camera crew and daily meetings to discuss what moments of your life will make it on the show this week?

All of the “real” men you dated all left because they didn’t want to deal with you and your family and the constant scrutiny. Any man that would want to be with you at this point probably has a touch of fame whore running through his veins. Every guy you meet on the show often has a snippet of you “warning them” what your life is like. *sigh*

Now you’re saying you are leaving your husband because he wanted to move you to Minnesota (to have a real marriage) and you couldn’t leave LA, your family and the spotlight? WOW. When is enough money enough? That 17 million added to the rest of the empire wasn’t enough?

If you want to ever have any semblence of a real life, you need to man up, put your big booty girl panties on and kick your family to the curb STAT. Seriously. Put your foot down and take some time off to stop self promoting uh….whatever it is you do. Scrape that make up off. Travel. Breathe. That life you are living is not real.

Now if you were a part of all these shenanigans and the entire wedding was dreamed up for ratings and money….then you win the double side-eye award. BYTCH.