Wow, is it different working in San Mateo County. The clientele range from briskly attired government workers to young skateboarders with no hair and baggy pants. Every once in a while some fruitcake comes wandering in the front door and yells, "JESUS LOVES YOU!" or asks if we have the number for Amtrak and then explains all about their parole officer not really understanding their needs. It's funky. It's lots of fun in a weird, in-your-face sort of way.
I don't have an established clientele other than my coterie of friends who follow me from agency to agency, so I take a lot of cold calls. Today I had some beauties. A gentleman named Chin Tseng, or possibly Tseng Chin (we didn't establish how he wanted his name on the reservation) told me he was interested in taking a cruise from Honolulu to either Shanghai or Hong Kong. I explained to him there isn't a lot of cruise traffic between Hawaii and Asia. In fact, there's only one line that travels that route and they go intermittently at best. It would be either a 14 or a 22 day cruise with Holland America, I said. He was retired, he replied, so he didn't care how long it took. He just didn't want to have to fly to Shanghai because he hated airplanes. I see, I said in a level voice, so what you're saying is you want a slow boat to China.
He didn't laugh.
I also got to deal with three guys named Jesus, Miss Jamilla Abdullayah who furtively requested she be called Jamie Smith, and a secretary named, I swear, Nelly Nunu. All the agents seem to appreciate the particular weirdnesses of this job and its location. Wackiness ensues pretty regularly at Raving Loon Travel. It's great to be doing leisure travel full time once more. Vacations are fun to research, and they're often fairly exotic. This week I set up trips to Sardinia, Disneyworld, Turkey, Las Vegas, Ireland, the Azores, and Flint, Michigan. Okay, so Flint wasn't that exciting. It's still better than spending half my day doing upgrades and arranging limos. People who don't have a lot of money to spend really appreciate the work you do for them. On the other hand, I can't be so lax about accepting checks for payment, but oh well.
I think this time it's going to work out just fine.
