Dancing in Quarter to Three Time

Sunday I had to deliver a bit of a presentation to the 40 employees at my store about sales & customer service and all that crap. I had only a basic idea about what I wanted to say, and some situation cards written up for a silly seller/customer role-playing thing, but I really didn't feel to confident about what I was presenting or how the store would react to it. I had to fill up 20 minutes, of which I felt I could get a good 5 minutes of my talking, and another 5 of no volunteers for situation skits.

When it came to my turn to speak, however, I felt pretty good. I started talking about how customers could react to sellers attitudes and behaviors, and I went over the scores that our store received recently (my General Manager gave these to me just before the meeting). I didn't really care if anyone reacted to me, and one of the associates spoke up to add his bit, which I helped a bit. I thought it went pretty well and I started going a little long over my allotted time without even pulling out the situation cards.

When it was all over, my General Manager said I did a good job, but he did mention that I kept walking back and forth too much. I thought about how I was moving around, an he was right. The entire presentation I kept walking forward and backward, left and right, and I think nearly in circles. It was like I was dancing by myself to an invisible waltz beat. For all intents and purposes, I might as well have been giving a recital.

Now I realize I'm just writing this as though it were worse that it really was, but the I know the reason I kept moving like a freaking boxer the whole presentation was because I wasn't really prepared. I did well with the things I said because I knew what I was talking about, but body language never lies; I wasn't ready to give my presentation and there was no way I was going to get away with the lie.

The moral of the story is, of course, don't be the presentation. I should have broken out the situation cards first and let the group be miserable. Instead of dancing I could have looked like I was making their lives a living hell. Yeah, that's what I should have done.

The Left Shall Rise Again

Over the past few weeks I have lived only to watch CNN. It became my lifeforce, because I could catch all of the most recent information about the 2004 election at any moment. I was hooked on it like a drug, and depressed because there looked to be a pretty good chance that we would be stuck with the same lame-ass president for another four years. Stress levels were at an all time high.

Once the election came and Kerry lost (not to mention the losses in Congress), I felt like I had no direction. From my point of view, the future looked pretty bleak. It's not that I though flowers would bloom, birds would sing, and the world would become a fairytale just because Kerry would be president, but I've just been very afraid of what Bush and the conservatives could do with another four years. I still am afraid. But after 3 days to let it all sink in, I think my ability to hope and think about the rest of my life is beginning to return.

I was lucky enough to see my friend Jon at exhibit5a from NYC, and he reminded me to keep looking forward. Politics and government isn't everything even if it does affect our lives so directly. We have time to gather together and work on a new plan. The left shall rise again, but in the meantime we shall taste food and enjoy wine. There is music and film to experience and there are blogs to write.