something i realized yesterday about the way i am in the world

so
i had a grand tasting yesterday
and i don't set those up, that's my regional manager
but i have to order the quantities and set up the tables
make sure everybody's confirmed
ya know, etc.

so
when i first started doing it
they sent me these crappy people, generally
who didn't have any idea what they were doing
and i couldn't understand
because the guy who had this job before me
he used to periodically get this seven foot tall auto show model

now
i neither need or necessarily want, even
for them to be that beautiful
but, they should be able to do there job
and i was calling every time to complain

so then we got to a general level of competency
i stopped expecting them to actively sell the wine, really
and was pleasantly surprised if they did

any time i got someone good
i wrote something like !EXCELLENT!
on their paper work
and i started getting those as repeats

plus
anyone who is competent
starts looking for events at my store to request
[i know this because they've told me]
apparently
a lot of grocery stores and whatnot
they have to go in to the store
find the thing they are supposed to sample
set it up on a table they schlepped in themselves
put the stuff away themselves

for me
they gotta bring ice and buckets and cups

the cold stuff is chilled
the non chilled stuff is breathing
the product is set on the table and if they are highly likely to need restock
there is a box of it under the table
they have towels and trash cans

they are
in other words
free to devote all of their energy to the task of sampling the wine


so yesterday
three of the six show up like forty five minutes early
one shows up, like, right on time
and two are late
one is maybe ten or fifteen minutes
one is thirty minutes

the fifteen
she just does a good job and whatever

the thirty
she might be in workout clothes
she's mumbling something about changing her shoes
she doesn't know she's supposed to have ice

cindy told me she told you, i say
because the woman who runs the tasters calls me to confirm

oh, well, maybe i just didn't read my email, she says

whatever


so
everybody's set and going
i go to lunch

this is a lot of windup, but this is now the part that's important 

while i'm on my lunch, i get a call from cindy

apologizing


the main guy from her company
who is actually going to be there the next week end
sampling that same mimosa product that sketchy girl is now sampling
because i set that up like two months before with the mimosa rep
because he and i decided people by their easter booze the day before

he texted cindy
and the woman on the other side of sketchy girl
who was there that day for a different company but also works for cindy
she texted her too

oh
and
maybe unrelated, or maybe not

the lady down on the end
who only had one wine, poquito a 375ml spanish moscato
that didn't count in the big wine sale

i gave her four cases of it
and i told her she was at a little bit of a disadvantage
because her wine was not in the big sale
but
that it was super cute and tasty and would make an excellent hostess gift
for people who were going to someone's house for the holidays

and she sold almost three of the four cases

she told me i was like a conductor at a symphony
which kind of surprised me


so
i'm not sure what to call that exactly
gravitas?