Day seventeen...was busy, busy, busy.

Three visits to retail stores, one dinner meeting plus a side trip to Orange City.
I think the trip to Orange City might be the most humorous so I’ll start with it first. As you might know from previous blog entries, I deal with rage. All sorts of rage. ‘Store rage’, ‘stage rage’ and I think maybe ‘caged rage’. ‘Caged rage’ is when anger isn’t dealt with appropriately and builds up into an explosion.

As I drove past Orange City, I remembered a victim of my ‘caged rage’. I decided to stop in and deliver some sort of peace offering. After all, this explosion was ten years ago. It was lunch time when I arrived in Orange City and I was pretty hungry. Stopping by a local pizzeria, I asked Milton, the manager if I might be able to buy one slice. He looked at me and said, “No. It’s six slices or all you can eat.”

Now for a person trying to watch carbs…six slices or all you can eat seemed to be an awful lot of food. I said, “Look, just sell me a slice. I promise I will never return here.” Milton looked at me dumbfounded. “How could you be so rude?” he asked. Then I started laughing. I told him that I had come to Orange City to apologize for being rude ten years ago. Now, as it turns out, I was rude to him too, the first person I met up with in Orange City.

Milton laughed and said not to worry, that it must be a character trait that I can’t control. We became fast friends. Wow. I think they should start to offer EQ101 in college for people like me!

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Milton at CiCi’s Pizzeria in Orange City.

As far as my visits to retailers, they were very positive today. I met up with some good people. As soon as you see Roberta, owner of The Apple Tree, you’ll see she’s one dynamic lady. She’s had her store at the same location in Holly Hill for the past 21 years, and also has a second store in DeLand, Florida. With her experience as a Special Ed. and primary school teacher she is really able to help parents and teachers choose what they need. Roberta and I also had something else in common. Growing up in Buffalo, she used to frequent Port Dalhousie to watch her husband compete in rowing races on Martindale Pond. Every day in the summer I watch racers on Martindale Pond from my kitchen window. I even tried racing myself for two seasons.

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Roberta [left] and her store, The Apple Tree [right].

Next stop was to Miller’s School Supplies where I met with Becky Tindall, the buyer in their head office, and Marie Miller, the manager of the Longwood store.
This company really excels in customer service. Becky and I had a good meeting and by the time I had left Marie’s store, I had eaten lunch in their staff room and used all of their facilities. A big thank you to Marie for making this stop fun and memorable. Millers School Supply has two stores. The second one is in Orlando, Florida.

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Becky [left], buyer at Miller's School Supplies and Marie [right], Manager of the Longwood Store.

Last retail stop of the day was to Education Express of Orlando located in an upscale plaza known as the Marketplace. Unfortunately the owners, Julia and Lisa, were not in but Kristen, the sales clerk, was happy to show me all around.

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Kristen [left] the friendly sales clerk who showed me around Education Express [right].

Before retiring for the day I had one last meeting. Maria Alvarez, a social worker in Kissimmee (just outside of Orlando), met with me for dinner to discuss how our resources could help her clients. In the near future she hopes to make learning resources more accessible for youngsters in the Kissimmee area who are struggling with life skills and literacy.

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Maria, social worker with a vision of linking
resources to the community.

Wow! What a day. Time for a rest. I’ll take a few days off soon just to get cleaned up. It’s starting to look as if I’ve been sleeping in my van.
Take care.