Yum?

That's it. I'm not forcing myself to eat this bowl of death anymore. The said bowl is a bean stew that I created last night. This ultimately proves, even moreso, that I am Norwegian and German; people who rock potatoes and meat....not beans. Sad thing is that I even added extra sugar and spice with chunks of meat and let the darn thing simmer for 2 1/2 hours. I guess I should've let it simmer just a little longer. I think I'll try to turn it into a 'fiesta bake' tonight. That will equal the addition of dairy products to it and throwing it on a tortilla.

Luckily my culinary skills aren't always that poor (but seriously, you could actually mortar walls with this stew, I'm not lying!).

I am going to give praise to my work (job). As in, I am a very lucky person in such a way that I have the ability to make all final calls on where I go and what I do for marketing/sales internationally. The bad thing is that I'm good at marketing but that whole sales thing kinda eludes me. I've been trained my entire life on the marketing edge but lack that final push for a sale. It's a bit frustrating. Granted I'm in a whole new territory with a specialty product (i.e. it's not commodity and tariffs are a pain in the ass for our product thus allowing for many cold call skeptics!).

The challenge is nice to have. But remember the saying, "Be careful of what you wish for?" Yeah, I'm totally feeling the reprecussions of that. Starting about 8 months ago I had wished for a more challenging job with great freedom. Now I have both and I'm wringing my hands over it. My desk is covered in about 5 inches of paperwork, research books are sprawled about and my email reminders are dinging me into a permanent headache.

So far my only ways of curing all 'aliments' of this job is by consuming container-load quantities of Dunkin Donuts coffee (to a point where I shake), work until the daylight is no longer a thought and email until my fingers bleed. I understand that in sales you need to 'talk' to people. But my world is a bit different because A) my clients speak little English, B) Our products require specific specs (documentation) and C) My clients work hours are between 8pm - 4am EST. Now, I do work late at night so I can make calls....but again, that whole language issue usually results in me speaking VERY loudly and slowly, sounding like an idiot.

While my job does present some challenges that are to be expected at the first six months on the job, it has more perks. My freedom. The ability to travel. Opportunity to better understand the flow of monies worldwide, etc. Not to mention, it's for the food science nerd in all of us.

If only I was given a budget for my Dunkin Donuts coffee breaks....then I'd be set.