November 1. Tuesday Night.

Hi Journey.

Bloom Team meeting today, and guess which topic out of all dozen things we were going to discuss dominated the conversation?

Yep. Selling Paint.

Not a single good new marketing idea arose from the damn meeting. But man, did we ever discuss to death the pros and cons of retail. (For one brief moment of insane leftover anger at Mark Forney the idea sounded good even to me. Don't worry, J, I came to my sense pretty quick.)

Shelly of course is still the driving force behind the paint-peddling idea. Vivian is rock-solid behind her, and was definitely the most strident at the meeting. Vivian was a tad dogmatic today. At first I thought she was trying to subtly slam or rile me. But now on reflecting a bit I think she was sucking up to Shelly. Odd.

Joni at least seems to be coming gradually to her senses. Her accounting instincts are starting to surface. Dana cloned Vivian's sentiments.

I kept my mouth shut. I'll give it a week more, maybe two, at these weekly marketing meetings; but I guarantee you Journey, there is no way we are going to sell paint.

Today it was Dana's turn to chair the meeting. Just her second time. Overall, I'm pleased with her job as chair. She didn't overbear, and never once tried to steamroll the group with her own opinions. That's not really her style, anyway. She seems curiously content to follow Vivian's lead. The two of them are a good team—someday they'll give Shelly and me a run for our money tag-teaming a new client.

But not yet. Dana still burrows waaaay too far back in Vivian's shadow. I've sat in on two of their joint client presentations. No mother-henning, J; just observing. Each time Dana peeked at Vivian to see if it was her turn to speak. No problem there; that's what a good presentation team does. Shelly and I've been interacting the same way for 2 ½ years now.

But the difference is that throughout her part of the pitch Dana kept glancing at Vivian for approval when she should have been looking at the client. And if not the client, then at least me. I do sign her check every other week. But no, she kept looking at Vivian for approval. Odd.

I know the two of them had some classes together in college. Dana actually has 2 weeks seniority at CD (if you can call it that). She reco'd Vivian for the job. I'd think that, if anything, Vivian would owe Dana a bit of cow-towing to.

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