Someone I met today was from Australia.
That's not that interesting, I meet a lot of people from Australia all the time. The thing is, he has a bag that one of my coworkers uses. It's funny when you feel a certain kind of kinship with someone who owns the same product as you. No wonder ad campaigns that feature celebrities with relatable products work so well.
Someone I met today is a data analyst.
He was asking me about the different laptops we have, while also admiring the design. When he asked if it came with the mouse, I said no.
"Wow, you guys just charger for everything. They don't do it over there at the Apple Store."
"I can definitely tell you that Apple sells their mice separately from their laptops."
He backtracked immediately.
"Oh, you're right. No no. These are good devices. I'm not an Apple guy. Really, I like these a lot better."
I mean, before you make snarky comments, you should probably be aware that anyone in sales knows their competition.
Someone I met today owns a company with her husband.
The two of them ran a company for electrical services. While talking to them, it was clear the wife wanted to have a practical solution that wasn't based on a trend. The husband, however, just wanted the coolest, latest thing. I had explained the differences between a few products already, when the husband asked, "What's the difference between the book and the laptop."
She was irritated, and responded, "Eh, the difference is that this one get one GPU and that one doesn't."
I whispered a "thank you" as I was annoyed he wasn't listening and surprised she answered that way to him.
"Don't worry, I was listening."
While she didn't buy anything yet, she definitely did crack me up.
Someone I met today wanted to understand everything logically.
He was having problems with his phone and prefaced everything with "Is it logical to assume..." Most of the comparisons he was making had to do with something being a worse product or service that something else.
My responses generally consisted of either:
"I can't say, because I have no experience with it."
"Difficult to tell, because the experience varies depending on location."
"Depends, because it's dependent on the service."
Eventually, I just flat out told him no. I realized during the conversation that he framed the questions this way because he didn't understand. For this, I felt bad... But it goes back to people telling you that you're wrong when you try to help them.
Someone I met today runs a Korean BBQ joint.
We went here with our friends instead of going to the gym. The woman was very nice, and she even brought a fan over to us so that it wouldn't be hot. It definitely helped that one of our group members knew how to speak Korean.
The place wasn't very busy, so the woman was very accommodating. I appreciated that very much, though I'm not going to deny my friend's friendliness had much to do with it.
Someone I met today loves Excel.
I had only corresponded with this person via email before. Since I do work with the Special Olympics sometimes, I assumed it was a female since I literally have never seen males at the Office.
I was wrong.
I was trying to help them figure out something on a computer when he rolled by, and my friend, Mollie, introduced me to him. He was excited to meet me, and I was just really surprised. I really was expecting a female.
"Hey! Yeah! It was really cool you told me about that stuff. I didn't mean to sound like a total nerd, but it was cool."
We chatted about Excel and visual basic for a little before he headed off to work. Funny how jumping to conclusions can get you into sometimes innocuous kinds of trouble.
Someone I met today has a green card.
This is only important since I learned that it can be complicated to hire someone who isn't a citizen, but authorized to live and work in the US. Not saying it's uncommon, but if it isn't a process you do often... Well, it can be confusing.
Someone I met today is a professional football player.
I don't really follow sports, but I do volunteer at random events throughout the year. I met Michael Bennett today of the Seattle Seahawks doing work with The Bennett Foundation. We didn't talk much, but a couple things stood out. He's huge, well to me, a 125 pound 5'4" person.
When I met him, he was sitting as his booth rapping to himself as kids ran drills on the football field. It seemed like a pretty chill day to him, especially considering that he wasn't in the sun at all. Either way, it's cool that he participates in this community despite not coming from it.
His wife is from Hawaii, but he used to be extremely overweight despite the fact he plays football. Combined together, his foundation works to fight against childhood obesity. That's awesome.
Someone I met today knows me from pictures.
I know I mentioned once that it's weird when someone knows you before you know them. This was one of those instances. I was introduced to a bunch of different people, and one of them shared, "Hey! I've seen you from all the pictures."
Jokes on him though, I think I've heard more stories about him than the other way around.
Someone I met today is a future student of Embry Riddle.
She came in asking about one of our products, as she owned the previous iteration. I shared with her that information, and asked her what she wanted to use it for. She shared she would be starting at Embry-Riddle to study aerospace engineering.
I thought it was cool, and told her about how NASA recently announced their astronaut candidate class, and Johnny Kim was one of them. No joke, this guy was a NAVY Seal and studying to be a doctor... And now he's an astronaut.
I joked with her that it's one way to overachieve and hoped she would enjoy school.
Someone I met today was hosting a tournament at a bar.
I went out with some of my coworkers to check out competitive gaming at Osoyami Bar. One of my coworkers had gone earlier because he wanted to enter the tournament for fun.
After about an hour, we were wondering when he would be placed into the bracket. Eventually, one of the works approached us with $5.
"Uh... Sorry, we didn't really we had 2 Josh's so we didn't include you into the tournament bracket."
Fortunately, Josh was a good sport about it. He knew he was out of his league anyway. It was just amusing to me because I'm sure there are websites and apps that can manage that for you.
Someone I met today is a police officer from Australia.
He was really interested in our product, and joked to me, "I'm only here because I've heard you're the best sales person here."
Truth is, he had been watching me demo different products to people and got them excited about it. I showed him a few things, before he divulged he wanted to know what the latest and greatest was.
I asked a little about what he did and does, and he shared he's a police officer. While they currently use iPads, he wanted to upgrade. He shared, that unfortunately, it takes a while to upgrade since he's part of a government entity.
"You know how that goes."
Someone I met today is a waiter.
I think in these past few days, I've met more people who have transplanted to Hawaii. It was a waiter today, from South Africa. We talked about how there aren't very many people from South Africa here, and he himself has only met 3. I told him my high school teacher was one.
He shared he was planning to travel the world. But when he came here, he just knew it was where it wanted to be.
Someone I met today works for the Hawaii Polo Club.
If you didn't know, we have a polo field in Waimanalo. This fellow, was a British man who's kind of wandered all over and decided that he liked this place best. I helped him, and he was waiting for his boss to roll in.
His boss eventually did roll in, and it turns out that this guy owns a media company and possibly some other stuff. I wouldn't have guessed that he was, or is, a professional polo player, but that's what was disclosed.
Someone I met today is a retired post office lady.
She always thinks it's funny I remember her as that, mostly because we've built up a casual friendship outside of that. I told her post office people fascinate me because you're always running into different kinds of people and their homes when delivering mail.
Anyway, we know each other because of my work. One of my favorite things about this woman is that she just travels in her free time, wherever she can. Last I saw her, she went to Antartica. Now, she's planning a trip to Iceland... Which I've done recently. Obviously.
I gave her my best advice, but it's all up to her. She's a cool old lady.
Someone I met today is an active soldier.
Kayte and I were going to the beach today, and the whole family was meeting their friend at a coffee spot. He and his wife recently moved from Germany to here. He seemed very friendly and personable. We talked about how his sister, a nutritionist, hated that he cooked his meat rare and scolded him when he ate it in front of her.
When he left, Kayte shared with me that he has PTSD, but loves his wife very much. It reminds me of how her husband used to have it, but she helped him through it. You never know what people are going through, but it definitely highlights the importance of a support system.
Someone I met works for a food truck.
Tam and I decided to go to Eat the Street today since the theme was spicy. After walking around, we decided on a food truck called La Roux. They serve Cajun and Creole food. Seemed legit.
We waited in line for about 15-20 minutes, par for the course at any food truck thing. As we approached the counter we heard the following:
"Can I order the sampler?"
"We're out of gumbo."
"How about just the jambalaya?"
"We're out of that too."
"What about the dump truck fries?"
"Oh... We ran out of steak."
At some point, we were thinking, why don't you just say what you do have. The girl then proceeded to announce what the truck didn't have to the line... Except no one could hear her. It wasn't going to be a good experience for anyone after that.
We ended up getting the etouffee and crab fries... And they were alright. Almost not worth the line at all.
Someone I met today was on a scavenger hunt.
She rolled into our store asking for a product over $1000. I showed her the signs and offered to hold the sign with the picture. She asked to take a picture with me as well, mostly since that was also one of the requests. Her shirt said "Family Connections" so it was easy to see it was a team bonding activity.
I've always liked the idea of scavenger hunts. The idea of it feels adventurous, even if you're looking for mundane things.
Someone I met today works in public health.
More accurately, he operates in a few Public Health Care Agencies. When I asked him where he worked out of, he said a few of them were in the state, but he also does some in Guam and Micronesia.
"Oh! One of my friends works with public health in Micronesia."
"Oh really? Do you know where?"
"Yeah, she does non-communicable diseases in Yap!"
"If you get a chance you should visit her, Yap is beautiful."
The guy was really chill for the most part, and was only buying himself extra accessories. You never know what kinds of people you can expect to meet when you work in a place I do.
Someone I met today works for a partner company.
I don't know if you've ever been in a business meeting; I generally never am. The reason we met today is because I'm supposed to be working with him on a business presentation. When he was talking, a lot of his ideas fell out of our scope of services. I remained composed and convinced him to change his presentation talking points to something that the store could cover.
In the end, he agreed with most of what I said and provided me with the tools needed to do the presentation. Overall, a win for me. Sometimes, meeting other people lets you learn more about yourself in certain situations. I liked who I was in this one.