But What Do We Sell?

So I'm looking for a job here in the middle. I had been considering a career change before we left Portland and I figured a move to the middle would be a good opportunity to make a clean break and start something new.

The first thing I did was to post my resume on the major internet job sites. Just throw it against the wall and see what sticks, you know. As I soon find out, you get some interesting responses when do this. Most of them having little resemblance to a respectable job.

I get a lot of emails from emails like recruiting15281@fakecompany.com asking me to send them personal info. That's encouraging and makes me feel better.

I also get a lot of emails for jobs I have qualifications for, like IT Director of Microsoft. I assumed they read my email before sending out potential jobs, but that may be a bad assumption.

So I got a call from one company: they told me they do the marketing and sales for a large (I mean, LARGE) financial services company. They asked me to attend informational session. Not having much to do, I went.

The info session wasn't great, nor was it terrible. It just was. Most importantly it was short in specifics. They talked in generalities about selling mutual funds and life insurance. Now, I'm not really into sales, but I figured maybe I could get some financial certifications out of the deal. So I made an appointment to meet one of the guys for an 'interview.'

We met at a coffee shop. The first thing that surprised me was that the guy didn't buy me a cup of coffee. A couple things about that: (1) a cup of black coffee, even at Starbucks, costs like $1.50. If you can't cover that, it's not encouraging; and (2) I'm terrible at business ettiquette, but I know enough to at least offer to buy something for the other person: offer to pay for lunch, a cup of coffee, anything,especially if you're looking for something from that person. I don't know, maybe I was supposed to buy him coffee, since I was looking for the job?

Anyways, after BS-ing for a while, my first question was, 'So I'm new to the area and don't really know anyone. How will I get clients?' After telling me it wasn't too hard to go up to people and just start talking to them, he explained that we had access to resumes we could call. Again, I've never done sales, but it seems strange to call people who post their resumes on line to sell financial products.

After some more talking, it became clear that I was to call these people to see if they wanted to be on my 'team' and sell products. So I tried to clarify what it was we were selling, because everything he had said so far was about hiring more people instead of products they sold. The guy was definitely avoiding the answer, making me more suspicious.

After some more questions and some evasive answering, I finally asked how I was to be compensated. When I was told that I got promotions based mostly on the number of people I hired and less on the products I sold, I decided I didn't need this job.

The guy told me that he liked me and that he would feel comfortable having me on his team. He told me he wouldn't want to hire someone who he wasn't comfortable having baby sit his kids. He said he would want to talk to my wife before I decided to join, since he wanted to make sure she was on board; all I could think of was how Kimberly would laugh in this guy's face as he explained our 'products.' He told me I should go home and pray to God on it, as He would tell me what to do.

I need a job, but I don't need to be involved in a job where they sell nothing. Or where I'm expected to baby sit my 'teammates' kids.

Chris Dodd Missed A Great Ending

A couple weeks ago, we were invited to go to the biggest event in Iowa not called the State Fair: the Iowa - Iowa State football game, often referred to as the Iowa Super Bowl. This is a big time rivalry, with the coveted Cy-Hawk Trophy up for grabs (ISU is the Cyclones; Iowa is the Hawkeyes. I suggested it be called the Corn Trophy, the Pork Chop Trophy, or at least Trophy on a Stick(my favorite), but no one seemed to like any of these ideas). Recently, ISU has been winning in the rivalry more than they should be, even though Iowa is a superior football team with a longer tradition of success (Iowa won for like 15 straight years before 1998; Iowa has won like 6 of 8 since). This year, they played at ISU, where wewe live a short trip from the stadium.

The tailgate area, full of custom RVs and buses. People here really
like flags, as you can see.

I was pretty excited, since I went to a school that got rid of its football program over 30 years ago (or as we like to say, 'Undefeated since 1974'). And Kimberly never went to a game as a spectator, even though her football team was pretty good and went to the Rose Bowl. So going to our first football game, and it being a rivalry game, was pretty exciting.

On a perfect crisp fall day (although Kimberly thought it was cold; she'll learn soon enough), we headed out to our pre-game tailgate party, which some friends invited us out to. The game started at 12:30, so that meant we HAD to start drinking at 10; it had been a long time since I drank before noon and I wasn't sure how I would hold up. On top of the early start for drinking, the event turned out to be a party for the Democratic Party of Iowa, which promised to be a happening place, what with the Presidential caucuses coming up and the candidates needing to take advantage of every opportunity to show off their 'everyman' persona.

[One interesting thing that we've touched on a couple times here, but should probably expand on at some point, is that Iowa is the first state in the Presidential whittling-down process, so there's always news of one of the candidates having an event close by. It's very interesting]

The tailgating scene was pretty crazy. Apparently, this is the biggest tailgate of the year for the ISU fans; they aren't so good at football and really get up for their big rivalry game. I think that the tailgate at big football schools like Texas, Oklahoma, the Florida schools, and most Southern universities is probably bigger and crazier than this, but people were definitely living it up.

'Official' ISU tailgate tents. Notice the eye-catching color combo.

We started out with some cheap beer, that stayed nice and cold due to the outside temperatures, masking the lack of taste. And we stuffed our faces with over-cooked hot dogs and hamburgers. There was some potato salad, but I was disappointed there were no casseroles or jello salads (I was informed I need to go to a Lutheran church gathering to fully experience these culinary delights; and I use the term delights loosely).

Our fearless authors, a few beers in. If you'll notice, Kimberly has a winter hat on. In
September. I fear she may turn into a popsicle in February.

Our Iowa friends who invited us to the party; guess who they were rooting for
(hint: The U of Iowa's colors are black and gold)?

I have to tell you, it is pretty strange to be drinking a beer at 10 am while you're talking to Chris Dodd.

'Isn't that guy running for President?'

Yup, Chris Dodd. Senator from Connecticut. Democratic candidate for President. He was there, as were representatives from some of the other candidates' camps.

After we were petitioned by several candidates' camps and they started making sense, we decided we had had enough beer and it was time to head into the game.

On the way into the game, we noticed a pretty good split in the rooting interests of the fans. We were at ISU, so there was definitely more Red and Yellow in the area (ISU's colors are Red and Gold, derisively referred to as Ketchup and Mustard by the Iowa fans). But the Iowa fans had a pretty good showing, with at least 25-40% of the crowd sporting the Black and Gold (Iowa's colors).

The ISU Stadium is named after Jack Trice, the first black athlete ever at ISU in the 1920's,
who subsequently died during a game.

We really didn't have any rooting interest in the game, even though Kimberly attends ISU. We decided we would hope for a good game and let the people surrounding us try to convince us who we should root for.

Apparently at Iowa, they let the convicts out to cheer on their team.
Actually, for some reason the striped pants, and especially the striped overalls,
are really popular for both teams.

This ISU fan looked lost. I think he was looking for the 'Food on a Stick' stand. This may
be my new most favoritist picture ever.

Once we got inside, we were pretty evenly surrounded by both Iowa and ISU fans.

These 2 women, who were sitting behind us, were very 'hands on' in their support of Iowa. The one on the left told me 'If i get excited, I might grab you, so be prepared.' Um...

The two of them were ringing cowbells the entire game. Here I am right before I threw it away since it was giving me a killer headache.

My 'Iowa Great State Map' T-shirt got rave reviews from the crowd.

They were less touchy with Kimberly. But they did offer her beads, which she politely declined. I would have taken them; those things are valuable, especially during Mardi Gras.

Chris Dodd also came in to watch the game. He was stuffing his face with hot dogs pretty much all game. Then he left in the third quarter. He missed a pretty good ending.

'No really, I'm running for President. I'm such a regular guy
I don't even bother ironing my pants.'

At first, I was disappointed that he didn't have on jeans and a plaid shirt, so he could be a 'regular' guy. But then I realized it was kind of nice he wasn't posing and went with the 'relaxing day at the yacht club' look of khakis, loafers, and a Member's Only jacket you might expect of a Connecticut-ician. The weird thing is his pants were not ironed and the cuffs were all frayed. You would think a Presidential candidate could afford an iron, no?

So behind us, we had the loud touchy Iowa fans. In front of us, we had the way too nice ISU fans. They were resigned to the fact that their team was pretty terrible, and if they were to win this game, it would be quite the upset.

Everyone's nice in Iowa, even when their team is generally terrible. Check the
overalls on the guy on the left; he's apparently the pediatrician from
some small town of 7,ooo people. He snuck in Vodka in a water bottle.

All the fans were actually really nice. This picture was taken as Iowa was about to lose to a team that isn't very good. As you can see, people are still generally happy.

So, as for the game, ISU was leading 12-0 at half time, with 4 field goals. Iowa came back to take the lead at 13-12 with about 4 minutes left in the game (Chris Dodd was gone by this point). Iowa fans were pretty happy at this point, because they were going to win a game they should win.

But then ISU took control and marched down the field. With 5 seconds left, they lined up to kick the winning field goal.

By this picture you can probably guess how the kick worked out:

I remember when Red Sox games used to make me feel like this.

After the field goal was good, Iowa had one last chance to run back the kickoff. The kick returner brought it back pretty far, but eventually ISU was able to tackle the guy, and the game was over. Resulting in:

The ISU Students rushing the field. Some people were taking chunks of the
turf. I guess it would kind of be cool to have 3 square inches
of turf from a football field. I guess. But really, who am I to talk - I have a paint chip from
the old Boston Garden that I used to carry in my wallet.

As the guy in front of me explained that ISU is an engineering school, so they know
better than to rip down the goalposts like other schools.

The ISU players, surrounded by some students, carrying away
the unfortunately named Cy-Hawk Trophy.

So ISU upset Iowa in the Iowa Super Bowl even though they couldn't score a touchdown. It was a pretty big deal in the sports world, as Iowa was on the verge of being ranked after earlier impressive victories. Now both teams will be forgotten.

The ISU crowd around us was real happy, but weren't jerks about it. The Iowa and ISU fans all talked about what a great game it was and wished each other good luck. Being a child of the Red Sox - Yankees rivalry, this 'good sportsmanship' was a new and novel idea to me.

The students were understandably jubilant walking back to campus. I'm not sure if there was any rioting, but I'm pretty sure the parties were pretty good. I can imagine a lot of headaches and hangovers this morning as a lot of people were partying from early yesterday morning until the wee hours of last night/this morning. 24 hours of drinking can really take its toll on the body.

More pics from the big game here, and in handy slide show presentation here.

[Edit: As I look over this post, post-publishing, I realize that the ISU colors really clash with our blog formatting. That's a big strike against them]