Alone Again.

Well, the hubby is gone again. This will be our last long term separation before our upcoming move. He will be gone for four weeks, which really should fly by. For now it's just me & the furbabies. Oh, and a clean house. Funny how it is SO much easier to keep a house clean when you live in it alone! I did a deep clean (we're talking 6 hours deep) today and it is spotless. Luckily, it will stay that way! I'll probably be on here a lot in the next few weeks...just killing time and learning how to do new things. Then sharing them. :)

Success

Success is a funny feeling. A quick rush of relief & satisfaction and then, inevitably, an urgency to keep working to earn it again. In sales, specifically, success is usually followed with more work. Soon there are higher goals and higher expectations. You cannot just ride on your success; you have to create it month to month. People who produce success out of honest hard work will continue on the path of success throughout their life, but it isn't easy.

This Friday I experienced the highest point of success in my career. All I can think about is what I am going to do next. How I am going to make this success work even harder for me. In my industry part of the job is selling a product, a specific medication. However an even greater task is getting a product on Formulary. In other words, the branded product must be recognized by a managed care organization as worthwhile enough to place on their preferred drug list. Until a drug is offered to patients at a discounted rate at the pharmacy, patients often have a hard time paying full price especially if a "comparable" generic product is offered at a little to no cost. Therefore, the samples that were handed out at the drs office go to waste if the patient decides they will not fill their intended script and replace it for a generic. When I approached my regional contact about this one account, I was told it was too small for a national rep to handle and I was on my own.

This large account, which also happens to be the largest employer in the city of Sioux Falls, SD (350 physicians in 150 locations through SD) has never covered my products. The way the system is set up, the physicians get a report monthly of how much of each product they are writing. If they write off formulary, they get reprimanded. So even some of my best customers were telling me that they were writing my product for patients that were covered by insurance not provided by this huge employer and were getting reprimanded for doing so. I felt this was so unfair--that patients were putting their health care providers in the middle-having to choose between giving patients a product with the most therapeutic benefit or not getting in trouble and giving them a lesser quality product. Well...after nine months of targeting the right people, turning the decision makers into advocates of my product and inspiring them to take action, my product is now on formulary!

Such a huge task, suck a huge reward. But really a win for women's health care in SD.

Fall

Having grown up in a California climate that really shows no extremes, I never experienced Fall until I moved to the midwest. My first Fall here was met with uncertainty and dread for the coming cold...so much anticipation about driving in the snow that I think I missed all the beautiful colors that was the show before the blah grey.

Last year I remember perusing craft show to craft show (a common weekend activity for Nebraskans) window shopping all the homemade creations. I dont think I ever bought a single thing, but in my jeans and sweatshirt I watched the leaves blow across the parking lot as I witnessed the community gathering that is a craft fair. I am eagerly anticipating the start of the creative season...

This year, as I complain about having to drive so many miles for my job, I have forgotten what a blessing it is to be able to stare out my windshield and see the beautiful, colorful landscape that I am moving through. I made the trip from Omaha, NE to Watertown, SD (famous for RedlinArt) and back to Sioux Falls, SD for an overnight stay. I clocked a total of 398 miles on my odometer today alone. However, as I passed the cattle, the buffalo (and babies!!), the piggies, the dairy cows...all I could do was notice the amber, crimson and deep green landscape that now covers I-29 N. I wish I would have brought my camera, but it is never as beautiful on film as it is in person. You cant smell the start of burning wood stoves or the crisp air that makes you breathe just a little deeper. With a move to the balmy south seemingly inevitable, I can't express how much I will miss this time of year.

The fighter planes from the nearby Guard base are rumbling over my hotel and as I look outside I see them streaking over the dark sparkly sky. As much as I have dreaded it in the past, I will miss this weekly South Dakota adventure.

I had to be Sioux Falls for a 9am appt which, is three hours from home which is why I have pictures of this beautiful sunrise!

This time of year all of the little black birds fly from the trees & cornfields in big groups presumably, heading south for the winter.

My favorite billboard, just south of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It works everytime!

Names

Naming things has always been a struggle for me. This is likely due to my secret fear of commitment. (I get scared when I think of having to name my future children--there is so much in a name I don't want to f-it up!) I have long thought this is the reason that I haven't begun a blog...I couldn't figure out what to name one. Why would anyone care what I have to say if I cant even think of a name to call my little corner of the Internet!?! Well...I found a name.

After one failed attempt to begin a blog with a name that shall remain a secret failure, here is my next attempt. Tres Chic is french for very fashionable, very stylish, very smart...and well...Tres Chic was taken so it is logical to add a "k" right? Since I am one fashionable, stylish, smart chick. Ok...enough about that...after all-it is JUST a name.

I hope to use this blog to share little pieces of me and my creative nature. To explore style successes and failures, creative genius and surely some blunders. I'd love your comments and stories so feel free to share. It's a pleasure to be on here. Let the creativity begin!