In A Fish Bowl

"The more you look--the less you find."
-2000 French Film
"Just a Question of Love"

Twenty-five years ago today

February 11, 1986
Tuesday

What a morning! To start off—the nine people in the office that reached excellence for the month of JANUARY 1986 had their names written on small sheets of paper and placed in a fish bowl. The drawing winner received one-hundred dollars CASH! It was me! I won! I was ecstatic…to say the least.

The bad news came when the Oakland Placement Center called to tell me that my CLASS rating for the Advertising Sales Rep. transfer was going in as a CLASS 3. That was disappointing. The reasoning behind the low CLASS rating was that effective December 1985 the requirements were changed for a CLASS 2 with a minimum of two years of face-to-face commission sales experience. I don’t have that experience. I only had eight months, so that was bad news. I received the CLASS 3 rating.

All day long I was making calls—on the side---on my behalf with regard to decision-making on how I should change my job transfer requests. I may change from Advertising Sales Rep. to Directory Sales Rep. or Directory Office Rep. or Copy Service Artist.

I had a brainstorm idea to try and get my foot in the door by getting an Advertising Sales Rep. position in Spanish Yellow Pages. I’ll make some calls regarding that tomorrow. Then I may go forth and acquire new Job Transfer forms. This whole transfer business takes forever to get on file. The girl at the Oakland Placement Center recommended to my supervisor, Stephanie, to enter my name in the ODBE program as an Account Executive/Management Level Position. I hope that works out. I shall consider that another hopeful avenue that I’ll need to research.

I remained home after work. It was a kind of a downer day except for the one-hundred dollar WIN, of course.

I briefly did some reading about my UC Berkeley interest in getting my teaching credentials. It was mind-boggling. I’ll need to see a counselor.

I telephoned RAND Information Systems. They received my resume and cover letter.
The RAND lady said, “There are sales position openings.”
“Great. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.”
I just don’t know. Digital Equipment is supposed to call me back to let me know if my resume and letter were received.

I telephoned Chad, sharing the news about my one-hundred dollar win, the CLASS 3 rating. I also told him my idea to change two of my existing transfer requests. He made me feel a bit better.
Chad said, “I didn’t go to school yesterday or today. I’m feeling sick.”
“Oh, that’s too bad,” I empathized.

Steph Redding called and she’s all excited about working for Jean-Pierre International.
“Once I’m established,” Steph exclaimed, “I’m going places!”
“That’s great.”
What else could I say?
Steph asked, “Would you like to go to a Fashion Show?”
“Sure, when?”
“It’s tentative. It’ll be at the Sir Francis in San Francisco.”
“Well, sure. I’ll go.”


Cedric Green telephoned.
“Guess what, Mike! I accepted my job transfer request to come to your office starting March 3rd!”
“That’s great.”
What else could I say? I was glad to hear it. We talked a bit more, mostly small talk.


Chris Cordellos telephoned.
“Mike, I’ll move to L.A. with you if you moved.”
“You would?”
“Yeah, I think it’s time to cut your hair, too.”
“You can come over tomorrow night and cut it here at my place.”
“Okay. You know…I was looking through some old pictures of us.”
“Oh yeah—funny because I stumbled on that little St. Christopher ‘Friends Forever’ medal the other day. I still have it. I’m just glad we’re still friends.”
“Me too,” Chris said happily.


I ate some sardines and folded some clothes. I had a JO session and fell asleep.

"In elite circles you never say NO. You say I'll think about it."
-1996 German Film
"A Girl Called Rosemarie"