memoryloot

I can’t believe I’m on the half-way mark of my vacation. Can’t say they were dull. Spent the first day of my vacation in Sun City, Ca at our 4th Annual Christmas Party. We had lots of food to eat, had our gift exchange, played a home-made game by Sophorn, sang karaoke, and finished the night with a Trivia Pursuit game. The fun didn’t stop there. I delivered some gifts on Christmas Eve and went over to my sister’s for our annual tradition of opening gifts at midnight.

4th Annual Christmas Party – December 23, 2006

I received some great gifts this year! I received a set of Memory Foam Contour Pillows, which by the way eliminated all the shoulder pain I’ve been experiencing with my old pillow. I received a pair of Converse All-Star shoes, a GPS, and some motorcycle and car related toys. It’s amazing but I didn’t get any gift cards this year. I did however received alot of picture cards from friends.

Christmas day was spent with the parents eating Hot Pot and hanging out at Billy and Jen’s watching movies and eating at a buffet. The day after Christmas and the Wednesday afterwards was spent at the Harrah’s Casino in Rincon, San Diego. Played some poker and lost about $130. Still on that losing streak. Thanks Drew for setting all that up.

Here I am today with nothing to do. It’s a great feeling and I’m glad I do this every year. Gives me a chance to reflect the events of this year and usher in the new year. I’d have to say 2006 was one of the better years in my life. I became debt free, went to new places, continue to challenge myself at work, began investing, and just enjoyed life. There really isn’t anything else to complain about. Except maybe living on my own, but I have feeling I may be able to make that happen in the coming year or 2. Hope everyone have a safe and happy holiday. Let’s make this new year a good one too.

A good way to find out what I’ve been up to is going through some people’s photo albums / websites.

You can first find me at Johnny’s Photoblog. He’s getting pretty good at his craft. We were just hanging out with Ann during Thanksgiving weekend.

You’ll also find me on Jamie’s Picasa album for her first social event @ Jillians for our APAF organization.

Finally, I was volunteering at the Olive Crest Christmas event on the CBS lot. I think I’m going to make this an annual volunteering event that I’m going to attend every year.

When I was in college, I bumped into an old friend who use to go to high school with me. She was a year younger and was looking very dressed up for a would-be-college-bound girl. I asked her what she was doing at the time. She explained to me that she was doing her own business and that she was making alot of money. She had a knack for selling and did a great job in explaining to me how she made money. Little did I know, I agreed to go with her to a seminar for her company… NTC, the now defunct multi-level marketing telephone company. I got all my friends involved. We had great results signing up our families but that was as far as it went. The income was non-existent because the momentum slowed and the time commitment required to really go out and sell this product competed with my desire to stay on track at school. It was at this time that NTC’s recruiting strategy was at it’s peak. Everybody knew about NTC and recruiting new member was getting much more difficult due to the saturation of recruitment to the colleges. After losing hundreds of hard-earned dollars and dealing with my family and friends complaints about the outrageous cost of the service, I vowed never to join another MLM again. Years past and I was invited to other groups. But I fought off every single one of them. And to this day I have not met anybody who has struck it really rich doing this.

I only mention this because I’ve noticed that recently there’s been an increase of the next set of eager 20-somethings trying to pitch their MLM to me. I do not want to know how to get out of debt. I don’t need to join something that Donald Trump supports. I don’t have the need to sell any mutual funds or other financial tools to people or have someone join under me so I can get income from their sales. That to me brings back really bad memories. I don’t want to sell-out my friends and family again. I will help them my own way. I will get rich the old fashion way without feeling that I’ve made sacrificial lambs out of my friends and family. I’m not saying MLM won’t work. But for me it doesn’t and I realize that well in advance. I’m saying “No to MLM”. So to all that know me and are pitching me their MLM, STOP!