July 3rd and july 4th

311 was good. Poker went good. I think Jason went all-in and won. I was sick as hell on July 4th. Long car rides with winding roads and boat rides with waves..too much. Ugh. Came and threw up all night. Andrea is a really good knee border. I was able to ski for the first time in a long time and I got up right away. Those VHS's and training SKI's my dad bought really helped me out.

I am still dizzy right now from being sick all day, but I was able to go for 2 mile walk. This 4th of July I will remember for being sick and the beautiful weather.

3rd of july

I went for a two-mile walk today. It was beautiful out. I loaded up my zune and phone with a decent playlist. I have been listening to lots of The Police lately. I haven't gone deep in their collection, just the hits. I deposited some money to the bank. My general theme for today is "get by with less" and "be smart" I always want to buy crap I don't need and be a real jerk. I just am trying to enjoy my day but not come home with a bunch of crap I don't need. Andrea came over yesterday, we watched some HGTV. She likes to complain while watching, but I make sure to let her know when she pays for cable she can complain all that she wants. You know how the saying goes. Don't buy the hand that feeds to HGTV. Work is going o.k. I have 5 sales so far. I wanted to be team captain and I put in for it, but my friend Ralph got it. I even brought candy bars as bribes. I got more votes than I thought I would get. Ralph is a dude at work a couple years older than me, good head on his shoulders good worker. My friend Keith is a younger guy he really has a knock for working hard and selling. Aaron of course is my supervisor and his calling card is positive no matter what. Positive about everything.

I think that is it for today. I am glad I didn't wake up with a hang over today. I actually had enough energy to give Andrea chocolate and coffee. It wasn't quite roses and a box of chocolate, but hey I am from st joseph, she is lucky I didn't give her cigerettes and a rottwiler.

Long walk

I was able to go for a two mile walk today. This makes me feel good because I always try to hammer out walks and eating decently. I have been eating pretty crappy but I do eat veggies and fruit. Anyway I know I only have two or three things or skills I want to hammer on in a lifetime. Taking care of my body is one, my mind is two, not drinking is two, and being patience with people is two....wait...did I say two a whole bunch? I probably drank too much.

This next essay is about when I was in a bad mood on Sunday what would have happened if I drank that day. I would have gotten all drunk yelled and pushed my girlfriend around. Then headed to the bar...I would have ran up a 50 dollar tap before starting a fight. I would have gotten my butt kicked and sent to jail. Broken glasses/cell phone/angry girlfriend. Bailed out of jail on my credit card probably...then put my glasses cell phone and roses on my credit card...at a 22.99 apr the interest would have gathered lots of dollars and I would have put up with a crapload of emotional crazyness while I try to get through the day explaining why my glasses are taped up and why there is a boot mark on my head..

Instead I didn't drink and I just told people I am in a bad mood, let me play Double Dragon and leave me alone.

Wednesday

I had a decent night at work yesterday. One man asked me how long I have been in customer service. I explained I worked at Blockbuster for 5 years and I worked at insurance company for 7, and now I work at this new place. I strive to understand people have have patience and empathy people. He then explained "Whoa buddy I don't need your entire life story!" then he hung up.

I didn't owe any interest on my Amazon card this month which makes me think I paid my entire balance from the previous statment without knowing. Sometimes I will pay 100 twice in the same period and even though in my mind I am carrying a balance I actually paid the entire in the previous period.

Lets say my bill is 200 dollars and I get it and I pay a 100 dollars right away

so in my mind I am carrying a 100 dollar balance.

then I use the card more and run it back up to 200 dollars again

then pay another 100 dollars...at the billing date in my mind I think I am carrying 100 balance and I should be charged interest. But actually I paid off the entire 200 dollars from the previous billing statement so I don't have any interest and the 100 dollars I charged is going on the next billing statement.

I am a nerd yes I know.

I bought a card shuffler off of amazon and it is a pile of crap that throws the card everywhere. I get a good laugh out of it at poker night because it is awful. I was thinking we could use it to have people not cheat or something, but it is truly bad. It cost me amazon points and it cost me 3 bucks. I guess I am trying to get 20 jokes out if it or something.

I changed my address on my vanguard retirement website. I recieved a nastygram telling me to update my address. It was nice to see my 1325 dollars worth in retirement. Can't wait until I roll in that money when I am at retirement age like Scrooge Mcduck.

gratitude list.

I am grateful and thankful I saw the USA mens team play at sporting park. It was a great run and I think soccer in this country is taking a step forward. Now zusi and besler please get rested to save Sporting KC please.

I am grateful for Andrea. She has been goofy lately and I need to be more goofy as well. In improv they always say "don't say no to a joke you have to keep the all rolling" lots of times I am in a pissy mood and I say no to her jokes. Need to work on keeping the good times rolling.

I am grateful for my job, the gym, soccer, baseball, my parents, my parents work ethic, my parents religious ethic? My grandparents, my jeep, my liver, my brain, my college, and of course the Lenexa police department for keeping me from getting shot at by criminals.

Two sales.

Two sales went for a walk after work. Did a good job with people on the phone. People like my effort to have a good tone of voice and I make sure I show as much as I can I appreciate customers.

New month new goals

Yesterday I finished out the month 6th overall in my company. That is sales/quality/compliance/account retention. I should be proud of that number because that is 94% better than everyone else in the company. I am pretty bla about it right now. It is time to start thinking about how I want to handle this month. Account retention....I need to listen to my supervisor....I need to be positive....I need to sale obviously....I want to be #1 I will do whatever it takes to be #1 and it starts today. I felt good yesterday finishing out the month. I was able to take every customer and write out how patient I was with them. I try to do whatever in my power to help the customer and do the right thing, even sometimes when it hurts my stats. I got 12 reviews last month with people doing a survey of how I was and all twelve gave me 100% This is somewhat an outlier because there is sometimes people that are mad and just give the customer service rep a zero because they are angry, but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth and I will take the score of 100% as a good sign of me really working hard to be a good employee and grow in my patience and empathy with people. I can always work on my skills as a salesman, I can work on finishing peoples needs to have them not call the call center back, I can continue to have empathy and patience with myself and people. On every interaction I know how important it is to let people know that they are value-able, that they are listened too, that we are working on getting better, and that we strive on building a good customer and business relationship so we both win. My approach is to have every interaction through my day be a professional interaction with patience, empathy and kindness and I know if I can do that consistantly I will be fine. I know that it is easy when I feel good but tough when I am tired and frustrated. That is why it is important to ask for God's help when times get tough and it is important to grow my work ethic so when I am tired and frustrated I can focus in on kindness, being professional, and making sure people get taken care of.