Fairs, Birthdays and Airplanes

So, I'm a little stressed. I am part of a direct sales business. It's similar to Tupperware, except its jewelry. But the construct of the company is basically the same. The secret to this type of business? Bookings and recruits, neither of which I am very good at. One of the best ways to boost your business, or so I'm told is to have a booth at your local fair. Display your product, get people to sign up for prize drawing and then call them with the contact information they left on their prize entry for booking a party. I hate doing that. So I don't. However, the Manager in our area put a deposit down and paid for the booth last year. She did this thinking that we would have such a large group that it would be no problem for people to pitch in to pay her back.

Currently the cost of the booth is divided among 9 people so the cost per person is $75. That's a lot of money for me considering I am not even going to call these people who might book a party. Also, I am only working 2 days of the fair. That is my choice. I told my manager that I would work the days that noone else was available. However, since we aren't permitted to bring our children, I have to pay a babysitter a drop in rate $7 an hour. That will be about $70 when this is all over. But wait, there's more, evidently, I am the only one in our group who has any creative talent. So, booth design, decoration, and building has been my 'contribution'. I don't really mind those, I enjoy that type of thing. However, it's really difficult to get anything done when every 20 minutes Dani has to go potty and drink out the hippo watering fountain.

I wanted to decorate the booth in a Fiesta theme because the company this trip this year is to Mexico. Nope, theme of the fair is Feast or Salmon. Is it normal for fairs to have a theme? Seems like I never remember that when I was a kid. But then again all I cared about was riding the ferris wheel. Now, we aren't required to decorate with the theme of the fair, but that's what my manager told me to do. Which I have some issues with. She is a manager only by position in the company. She does not tell me how to do my job or make a schedule or anything like that. The nice thing about a home business is that I do that myself. I work when I want to. Currently I am having about 4 parties a month. And I really love it. It's so much fun. It is literally a treasure hunt every time I do one. Pearls and jewelry, need I say more? Ok, one more thing, we find the pearls in the oysters.

The fair aside, I don't think there is a day that goes by without my infertility rearing its ugly head. Yesterday should have been my son's first birthday. I intended on making some cupcakes just to make myself feel better more than anything else. I was so busy and tired after setting up the booth that I couldn't go grocery shopping and I made bacon and eggs for dinner because that is the only food I have in the house. While going to bed last night my husband and I were discussing the stressful day that we had and I told him that I had wanted to make cupcakes. He asked if for anything special and only a tiny part of me was offended that he didn't remember. I told him why and he understood. He's really good about that. Just don't count on him to remember anything. I'm amazed that he knows my social security number.

OK, I saved the best for last. Yesterday I call my mom to talk her about the birthday and I didn't get to mention it because, she told me that I should call my credit card company and dispute a charge that the airlines did when they missed their flight in Seattle. Well, what happened is this:

My mom and stepdad fly standby as far as they can get, in this case Seattle.

They needed tickets from Seattle to Fairbanks roundtrip.

I found flights and booked them on my credit card.

On the day of their trip they get stuck in Dulles Int. Airport.

They will miss their flight that the tickets start in Seattle.

She calls Expedia and tells them that they are delayed and will not make the flight.

Expedia tells her that she will need to repurchase new tickets and the charge for doing that on the day of the flight will be about $4000. The $1500 already paid will be deducted from that charge. Did she understand that?

Somehow another $2100 was charged to my credit card for new flights. My mother says she explicitly told the man she spoke with on the phone that she could not authorize the charge because it was not her credit card.

This incident happened on 19 July.

My mother told me about this YESTERDAY!!!

YESTERDAY!!

My husband told her he wished she had something when they got here, or anytime that they were here..... her reply, "Yeah, I guess I should have."

Thanks Mom.