Attitude Adjustment

I hate feeling left out. That’s a little hang-up that comes from way back. So, this weekend we had the big RV show in Albuquerque. Since I’m the newbie, I was instructed to stay “back at the ranch” at the dealership while most everyone else went down to work at the show. I started feeling sorry for myself. It was really slow, and I kept hearing about all the action down at the show. I asked my boss on the third day if I could please have a chance to work at the show. He kindly said, “You need to crawl before you walk, and I don’t want you to get overwhelmed. I really need you back at the dealership this weekend.” 

So, I went home and really thought about it. I had to do a little attitude adjustment. I recognized that feeling left out and sorry for myself was a type of “victim” mentality that I definitely don’t want to have. I let that go, and focused on feeling grateful for having a boss who was looking out for me, and for being in a job that gives me the chance to have wonderful training and mentoring for as long as I need it. I went to work the next day with a positive upbeat attitude, completely happy to be where I was.

Guess what? Because I was at the dealership, I was able to help a couple that came in, completely unrelated to the show. We found the RV of their dreams, and with the help of one of my mentors, Nancy, I made my first sale. I even got an extra bonus because it was during the show. What a trip! It was so fun, and I learned a ton – in more ways than one.

Working Hard

I’ve been at La Mesa now for about 2 ½ weeks and I’m totally loving it. Who knew that working full time would make me so happy. It’s scary and challenging, but it’s right where I want to be. I am so happy to be on staff at La Mesa. What a great crew. Everyone who works there has been really friendly and welcoming to me. The atmosphere is refreshingly positive.  It makes me realize how I had gotten used to “making the best” of a somewhat toxic, negative work environment. I love being part of a new team who is committed to creating a culture of respect and helping each other to be successful. 

Today we had the whole sales crew in, and I won’t lie – we just aren’t that busy with customers right now. It seems that everyone is out Christmas shopping, and RV’s aren’t actually at the top of their lists. So, being the busy little elves that we are, we decided to decorate the windows of our showroom. At first, there were only a couple of us painting, but by the end of the morning, I think everyone on the sales crew got into the spirit and picked up a paintbrush for the cause. We really had fun. It turned into a wonderful team building activity. I’m the newest addition to the team, but since we just opened recently, the oldest member has only been here for a couple of months. After the bitter cold and snow of the past couple of weeks, the bright sunshine was a welcome sight. We were all happy to be outside. 

After we finished the windows, we were treated to a catered “quarterly luncheon”. Holy cow, what a spread! I got to see the whole staff including service, detailers, and transport. We had Christmas music and raffle prizes and lots of camaraderie. What fun. All in a day’s work.

A Really Big Change

It’s the end of 2011, almost, and my life is about to change in a really big way. I have been a teacher in one way or another all of my adult life. I’m good at it, and I “get” kids. However, I’ve never really fit the mold of a typical school teacher.  I have always sought out “different” types of teaching gigs. The past few years of teaching in a public school have been a mixed bag of rewarding and disturbing. The state of education is a terrible mess. It’s not about kids anymore, only the bottom line $$$. So, when my position was cut to half time with no benefits, I could see the writing on the wall.

In the meantime, I was getting intensely interested in RVing. Lorene and I started to talk of the possibility of retiring early and hitting the road in an RV. I began to follow the blogs of full time RVers. We didn’t have our cabin anymore, so we had the itch to explore. It started with buying “Charlie Brown”, our big, beautiful one-ton, dually, 4-wheel drive Dodge pickup. Holy Cow, do I LOVE that truck! We bought it with the intention of getting a fifth wheel, but then we chickened out. They just seemed too big and scary. So, we got a pop-up trailer instead. I know, total overkill on the truck. But we had some really fun times. The dogs loved having their own bed.

Then, a few months later, we were realizing that the pop-up was kind of a hassle. Packing, unpacking, setting up, taking down. And the flapping of the canvas kept us awake all night. We began to think about a fifth wheel again. Turns out, the dealership where we got the pop-up would take it back if we upgraded to a bigger rig. Done. Now, we had a fabulous rig to match our beautiful truck. It was super scary towing it for the first time, but we quickly got used to it. We’ve already had some really fun times in it.

 

Our wonderful salesperson, Doug, heard about my salary cut and suggested that I think about joining the sales team at La Mesa RV. I doubted that I would have the qualifications for the position. Well, turns out, I have a perfect skill set. I’m good with people, I’ve had my Shaklee business for 12 years, I love RV’. I guess my whole life has prepared me for this opportunity. Hired!

So, next week, I start my new life in RV sales. I’m so excited. It was tough saying goodbye to all my friends, students, and colleagues, but now I’m not looking back. The biggest drawback is going to be working weekends. Lorene and I are going to have to get creative about how to carve out time together. It’s so weird not to be tied to the school calendar. She’s got 5 weeks vacation, so I’m sure we can work it out.

Now, I will have to revise my blog to reflect my new adventure. I’ll be posting about our travels and about our birding adventures next year. It’s our favorite thing to do, birding. We kept a year list this year of all the species of birds we saw. We will do that again next year, but I will be documenting it in my blog this time.

Lorene with the RV dogs, Zoe, Jake, and Izzie