Wanda to Elliott

It's always wonderful to hear from you. Everyone here is just fine. Nicole just moved up to Playa del Rey and Ryan is 1/2 way done with law school! Hard to believe, remember when all our kids where still running around?

BI certainly is different now. If I wasn't so close to retirement and have so many years vested here, I wouldn't still be here. they just did away with service awards, so no more thank you gifts for f,10,15,20,25, etc years of service. They are now calling it a recognition award, which to be is who can play the game the best. Oh, well, it is what it is. I am very glad I am calling on Kaiser though. We are a little bit more insulated because of our sales volume and the fact that not just anyone can get in those accounts and move sales! bob Johnson mentioned at the last meeting that going forward they will be hiring contracted sales people to fill openings in the primary care sales force and only specialty and institutional positions will be filled with current BI people. Although these PC reps will be "Inventiv" employees, they will report to a BI manager. It kind of shows the direction this company is taking. It seems to me that relationships are out the door and no longer looked at as relevant to the job.

That is really exciting news about your vineyards and your books. You must be so proud and having a great time doing something you love.

Hopefully, we will be able to have a reunion of some kind this year. It would be wonderful to see everyone.

Take care and give my regards to Donna,

Happy Holidays

This is my first attempt at blogging so I hope it comes out OK. Wow, what a year 2009 has been, a real roller coaster ride. The good news is that I am still employed and still calling on Kaiser accounts, the bad news is if the stock market doesn't continue to climb, I don't know when I will be able to retire. Between work and my real passion, rescuing cats and kittens, I rarely have time for anything else. I joined another organization this year, Safe Cat Foundation whose philosophy on rescue aligns more with what I want to do. This is a awesome small grass roots group that is truly interested in saving cats and not just paying lip service to being a rescue group.

Nicole is still living in Long Beach and working at Sketchers. She loves to travel and can be found jetting off to Las Vegas, New York or coming home. Ryan is half way done with law school at UCLA and hoping to get into corporate law! I can't wait until he's done. I will feel so much more secure.

I wish all of my alumnis at BI best wishes for the holidays and the very best in the new year! Hope to see everyone soon, perhaps we will have another annual get together in 2010!