Selling hot chocolate

Some of my friends described my new job to other people as selling hot chocolate. The truth is that that's not exactly right. Here is a run down from today:
-Get up at 7 (eeg), actually no, try to get up at 7, get up at 7:23 with difficulty, 45 minute commute to work in West Bridgewater, MA.
-Check email/read some fair trade/international articles sent to me
-Not feel too bad about using Outlook (very annoying program) and having to organize in a program called CRM (this is where all of our customer's info. is held)
-Prospect - we look for grocery stores (mostly) who would carry our bulk coffee, since this is where the real $ is at. Hot chocolate is really not so important, at least as much as it is delicious. On a side note, we just came out with a drinking chocolate that's $9 that is most the premium hot chocolate drinking experience I have ever had-it is like drinking pure goodness.
-Cold call = try to talk to this guy Stepan Yang at Mulberry Market in Philadelphia (this is where we are concentrating right now) and here for the 6th time in a heavy accent that he is not in...explain to other people that fair trade is not the same as free trade and ask if their customers care (about organics, fair trade, etc.) which most of the time they don't
-Informational session on the nature of worker-owner coop. and what it means to be a worker-owner (this happens in your 2nd year) but is central to the company, or coop rather
-Observe boring board meeting
-Return to van for long commute home
The good: this was kind of a boring day but some days we have Brew Crew where we learn how to do coffee cuppings (like wine tastings), or go visit accounts, or talk to the hippies at Whole Foods, or do competition analysis. This is not just another office job with the same thing every day. The people are also cool.
The bad: Even though I am trying to promote some thing good; namely, small farmers from poor 3rd world countries and an alternative trade model, I have to reconcile with the fact that I am a sale's man (or sale's person if you want to be PC about it). It's not really a bad thing except I get the feeling people look at sale's people like lawyers, except on a less prestigious level. Luckily, I'm not selling stupid retail, tchotkes, or selling cars and saying: "I've got a deal for you! Just today, because I like you, I'm going to give you my special price. For just 10 easy installments..."

The Northern Racoon Eclipse

I don't know why but I threw together a couple of interesting things I saw tonight for my blog. The picture of the eclipse here is current and cool but I did not expect the weirdness level when I went outside into the chilly Boston night that I saw. There was the eclipse, but there was also a tree with a raccoon sneaking around (I actually have seen another urban dweller in the last two days -a skunk) and peering over at me as brief faded northern lights streaked across the sky. It was surreal. Besides that, I was sent an interesting political art page here that people might want to check out:
http://www.brazilianartists.net/home/flags/

Beer Map

Feeling Young Again

I've just started my new job at Equal Exchange, 45 minutes south of Boston. This is how I've felt most of the time (see above -clueless, inexperienced, and ridiculous). When the secretary at EE first saw me she said: "Who's the new 10 year-old?"
I'm trying not to be too self-conscience of my appearance or reveal to the 40/50 + year olds working next to me that I am 22 (and yes, probably look younger). But I guess this is normal in a lot of work places.

It's just weird that at the end of college you feel sort of grown up and matured and then you enter the real world and you are the youngest again; like being a freshman in high school but worse. To add to that, my house mates are 32, 30, 28, and 26, which isn't really a big deal, except that they ask to see my I.D. when I drink a beer.

So other than that, the move has been pretty smooth so far. My new house is good, the roommates are cool, and the job seems pleasant - more on this to come as well as some pictures hopefully of my new place.