noelle + phx

well, hello again there internet universe... here i am in salt lake city nearly done with my year of promotions for that cheese company! the last eight or so months have been awesome, crazy, whirlwindy and overall, unforgettable. i figure i should make an update and start blogging little recaps of where and what i have done since my last post in january when i was first hired to be a cheese promoter. let's start with tour spot number 1:

PHOENIX, AZ: late january - february 2011

we started off in phoenix, arizona at the end of january and stayed there through february. it was great getting to know my new coworkers, learning the job and being in a new city i had never visited before. really though, arizona is not my kinda place... it was hot, really hot and i kinda thought the people there were just okay - not as friendly as i'm used to in oregon. although, at work i met a ton of great customers and had lots of long talks with retirees who just want someone to listen to them... i like being there for someone to talk to even if it's not 100% about the cheese. i have heard some great stories this year - that's for sure! one of my most distinct arizona memories was working at a grocery store where there was a whole row of golf cart parking. only in arizona, right?! snowbird and retired people's haven! we also spent a LOT of time driving around the greater phoenix. we must have done grocery stores in all the surrounding cities and we were driving for an hour or two hours each way for work, per day. the phoenix area is very spread out... they've sure got a lotta wide open space down there!

in my off time there, i didn't to a whole bunch. this was kind of my acclimation period to getting used to living on the road and in a hotel room. many of my off days were spent bumming around and then hitting the town with my coworkers. it was also my first experience not having the actual weekend off. our non-work days on tour have typically been tuesday and wednesday. there are aspects about this that i like but it also gets a little annoying to never have an actual weekend day off.

i also got very, very sick with the flu about three weeks in. it was horrible! i laid in bed for three (off) days in a row. i sucked it up for work when i was starting to feel pretty crappy but it seemed the real sickness hit for our off days anyhow - funny how that works, isnt it?! ;) i eventually made a full recovery of course after downing about 17 bottles of orange juice/vitamin water combined with bed rest for 72 hours! being sick away from home is always extra lame.

i also made great friends with my coworkers during this time. it's like we are one big tour family and this was my first experience spending so much time with 7 other people. it's like college, living in the dorms all over again and getting to know complete strangers very well in about an instant! we all got to know each other incredibly fast! and now, i can't imagine life without my tour family at this point!

at the end of february, we packed it up and rolled out about 8pm for our 7 hour over night drive to san diego, california.

to be continued...