Did you know Blimpie International held its convention with its franchisees in Miami this past week? Well, now you know. My "mum" was nominated for the Franchisee of the year in the West Region. Since I am not working at this time, I could not tell her I did not want to accompany her to the convention. This will teach me to stay employed at all times.
Monday was a traveling day to Miami. I was ill right away with motion sickeness. I also forgot to bring any medication. Way to go. We first stopped at Denver. It was cool morning which was a great change of pace. We got on the rail to Concourse B, where our flight took us to Miami. It was a hellacious ride for both of us. I felt all the symptoms. You know, dry heaving and sweaty palms, etc. All I could do was to keep calm and breath easy. Somehow, I managed to keep everything down until we got off the plane. Let me just say, I gave back all the cinnamon roll to porcelain god. I felt better afterwards.
Landing in Miami was as expected. Hot and wet air hit my face as I exited the plane. As I was making my way over to the porcelain god, I heard this thick Cuban accent. I mean I heard a woman announcer with Ricky Ricardo like accent. I knew I was in Miami. Where else would you hear a public announcer with a Cuban accent? Too cool. People with all kinds of hispanic accents were all around.
My impression of the Blimpie convention is the meeting of overworked franchise owners with their families. First day was about registering and reception. The reception was a buffet of hotel food, which was mediocre at best. I was pretty tired so I did not go on exploring Miami Beach.
Second day, I sat through company rah rah's in the morning and walked through its trade show in the afternoon. Wow, I was not having fun. I guess this is what we call filial duties. My mother was hoping for a good bonding time with her son away from her crazy everyday stuff. We walked on the boardwalk and went out to dinner. It was nice, but walking long distance in sticky weather is not fun.
Third day was full of accolades for my mother. She won the West Region Franchisee of the Year, which qualified her in National Franchisee of the Year award. I was proud of her. Many came to congratulate her, and some knew her from reading the company newsletter that featured her. All this happened during the breakfast. During lunch, franchisee had a meeting which included a town hall meeting and voting. Wow, what fun! Reception and dinner was a little different. It was more awards and some dancing with dinner. Good news is my mother won!!!!! Very exciting. God, she needed this. She does not get enough appreciation from this ungrateful son. We watched as other under appreciated franchisees and under partied Blimpie Corporate employees danced the night away. I wanted to call it a nigh early, because we had to catch a plane out next day at dawn. Ouch.
I medicated myself so the trip back was much more pleasant. Of course, I sat in front of an inebriated woman. Flight attendant refused to serve her. Thank God, she was a polite drunk. I could not stop grinning as the situation seem so funny to me. She had slow speech, nonsensical speech, slow movement, and was little combative.
This trip was good for my mother and I think that is good for me at the end.
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