Hey~~ I'm Home!!! And more thrilled with that than I can say. I feel like I've come through a time warp.
I've been up in a small town in Georgia, just about 80 miles north of Jacksonville. It's a small town. It's a quiet town. It's funny, when I was walking through the parking lot, I swore I heard banjos - but that's another story!!
We were having a team meeting to see our brand new state of the art plant. And it is pretty damn impressive. 202,000 sq. ft of mfg. space and the office space is unbelievable. Everything is state of the art, and hell - I'm very impressed. We had a sale, so we were on the phones for a hunk of the day on Tuesday and then Wednesday afternoon. With meetings and presentations floating around in between.
But this is the funny part. No Where in Town or by the plant can anyone get a cell signal. No WHERE! 14 sales reps, 1 regional VP and one Divisional VP and no cell phones. Oh and did I mention no internet hook-up in the rooms?! No, I didn't! Well, it seems the company will not allow us to connect via "roaming", and our dial-up doesn't have anything set up for this little town. The hotel had FOX News (surprise!) but no HBO or internet capability.
In other words - I'm So Happy To Be Back In Civilization!!!!
I did talk to my boss. We discussed what's running through my mind. I've been told that I'm being a bit emotional and need to just step back and take a breath. I've lost my confidencel, so he tells me. I swear if I were in Victorian times they would have given me smelling salts and had me rest before I become "overwhelmed" in my "delicate condition". It's been a while since I've been condensended to so badly.
We went out to a local sports bar and had dinner and played some pool on Tuesday night. I enjoyed the hell out of it, in the beginning. Country music blaring over the speakers, fried food every where I looked, pool table in the corner and a nice little dart board on the side. I was hanging with a couple of the guys and getting ready to take my turn at the table. Good Times. Sorta. It seems the guys are a bit afraid to let their hair down around me. That's kinda different for me.
I have an earthy sense of humor. In fact, it borders on twisted. I also love to cut loose and have a good time. I WILL NOT let all my guard down unless I know someone has my back, but that doesn't keep me from enjoying the hell out of myself. But these guys don't know me. They are afraid to tell jokes or stories around me, they are so worried about being politically correct that it's awkward. (but yet, they are condensending as hell) The divisional VP even said the words - "be careful little lady" when I was shooting a bit of a tricky shot on the table. Yeah - he said those very words. Yeah - he's ok, I didn't hurt him (but I did sneak in a shot of Gold after that one!) So - it all spun into an evening of me sitting at the bar with some of the locals telling stories and laughing at really bad jokes. My team thought I had lost my mind.
Anyway - I'm home again. I've got some stores to hit this morning and then I'm taking Friday off and celebrating my neice's birthday. I'm just so glad to be back.
Posted by Tammi at August 5, 2004 07:57 AMWell, I'm so glad you didn't commit mayhem... little lady... OMG!!!
Posted by: Teresa at August 5, 2004 10:45 AMThanks! ;-) Teresa, you've met me, honestly - is Little Lady a term that comes to mind?!?! What an ass!! I didn't even mention the "babe" comments!!
Posted by: Tammi at August 5, 2004 11:15 AMYou know, we were having this discussion yesterday at work. Along the lines of, would you be offended if you were called any of the following, "Little Lady", "Sweetie", "Dame", "Broad", "Doll" and so forth. It's funny where the hot buttons lie. Sort of like being called "Ma'm" by a fetus store clerk, it's the equivalent of being called "old hag" or other better words, in my opinion. Or is that just my hot button?
I digress, the fact that you didn't "dent" anyone is a testament to your strength (O Beautiful Amazon Goddess!). I'd say you're a definite Dame...but not a broad. You've got better class than that! I've seen it!
Welcome home, welcome home!
Posted by: Lee Ann at August 5, 2004 12:52 PMLOL Lee Ann! Yet, that is not a bad descriptor: Beautiful Amazon Goddess. *G* Am amazed there were no dents inflicted on apparently solid skulls, but then again she does tend to wait and go for the soft spots -- isn't that right LL?
*G, D, RLH!*
Posted by: Laughing Wolf at August 5, 2004 03:40 PMI used to hate it when stuff like that happened to me. It didn't happen often, but when it did, it really got under my skin.
Wonder what they would have thought if you had called them, "Little Man".
Posted by: Boudicca at August 5, 2004 08:23 PMOK...story time. So, we have (actually had, but that's another story) a regional team that is like 5 people. Me (woman) and four guys. One day we all traveled to our KC branch (my home base) and were meeting the new sales reps and branch manager. Two guys. After hours, we all go to dinner. Sitting around a circular table, we spread out, interspersing with the KC team (head guy thinks this is the best way to insure that it doesn't look like "them" and "us"). NOw there are 8 people. 7 men and me.
I sit next to one of the new sales reps. Now, I don't know this guy from Adam. He's brand new. Everybody is chatting. One or two slightly off color jokes get told. They harass the one single guy about dating. It's all cool. Pretty soon, everybody is kind of chatting with the person next to them.
The new guy next to me says, "So, you like horses?" Uh?..oh. I'm wearing a shirt under my suit and it has three horses embroidered on it (did I say I was busty?). I realize at that point that he was staring at my chest. But, what could I say?
I say, "Yeah. Like to go riding once in awhile." He breaks into this story about his youngest daughter being gaga for horses. That's cool. Pretty soon, he reaches over and pats me on the leg and his hand stays there. I'm like, "What the F'?" Now he's entered into "sleezy car salesman" mode and proceeds to tell me a rather raunchy story about his long ago days as a guard at a women's correctional facility.
I'm looking around for rescue at this point, but everybody else is busy chatting. So, I rescue myself, "excuse me, I need to go powder my nose." and I smile in that gritted teeth way, leave him in the middle of his raunchy story. When I stand up, everybody is looking now and I tell'em I'll be back shortly.
Guess the guy proceeds to finish telling the guys at the table his raunchy story and it makes EVERYONE uncomfortable. Table is pretty quiet when I get back and now I am REALLY uncomfortable because these guys know that bozo went over the line and now they're afraid to talk. Dinner is finally done and we walk out to the cars.
Head of sales comes over and apologizes, says he had a talk with the guy. About then, the branch manager walks over and asks me if he had seen what he thought he saw. Did that guy have his hand on my leg?
Now, I am super embarrassed, but I said yes, but it was taken care of (ie, I got up and removed his hand and now that the head of sales talked to him, I felt that was sufficient).
Next week, we were minus one sales rep. For about three months, the branch guys were extra careful about saying anything. Finally, we're all back together having dinner and the branch manager cracks a joke about a sign he saw for dating (1-800-something) and I tell him his wife would probably have his ass grilled and sauteed. We all get back to normal.
The pain of being the lone woman.
Posted by: kat-missouri at August 7, 2004 04:11 PM