Thursday, December 15, 2011

The Holiday Reboot

It's about that time of year again! Being a commission-based insurance guy, any type of day off is a rarity for me. In the past two years, I've taken a single sick day, and only the sporadic vacation day.

The end of December, however, is an exception.

Every year, I take the last few weeks to recharge the insurance guy batteries, so to speak. Mainly, the timing of this is just due to the fact that no one actually wants to talk about insurance during this type of year. But, of course, I have various holiday gatherings to attend as well. Whatever the reasoning, the end result is the same: it's time for some much-needed time off.

So for those of you looking for your friendly neighborhood insurance advisor, you're likely better off searching hole-in-the-wall restaurants in the area. You likely won't see me around the deep, dark insurance mines for the rest of the year.

Until we meet again, have a great holiday season! May the rest of your year be filled with family gatherings, friends and of course, great food.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

The Office Party

Here in the deep, dark insurance mines, having a holiday party isn't always a top priority. In fact, we haven't had anything other than a last-minute deal at a chain restaurant for years just due to budget restraints. Thankfully, that changed this year.

It wasn't anything over the top, nor was it held at the actual office (and thank goodness for that! Deep, dark insurance mines aren't generally a party environment), but it WAS a blast. I'm a big believer in fun gatherings outside of work. It's a heck of a lot easier to work with folks if you can laugh and visit with them every now and then without being on the clock.

To those that generally avoid this type of event, I give you this note: the people that miss out on these parties are often the ones that could benefit from attending them. If you could have seen my workplace on Monday and the sheer amount of laughs, story-telling and overall good cheer that went along with it, you might understand.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

The Dreaded Holiday Push-Off

It's that time of year again! Everyone is in full holiday prep-mode (myself included) and people are flocking to the malls to buy presents, look for great deals, get decorations and everything else folks seem to do around this time of year.

Do you know the one thing people DON'T want to do?

Talk about insurance!

Ah yes, the dreaded 1.5 month window between Thanksgiving and the end of the year: every insurance guy or gal's worst nightmare. The refrain we hear over and over? "Call me after the 1st."

Now admittedly, I can get a little bit focused on the holidays as well, but don't people generally like saving money around this time of year? That's what we're trying to do here, folks! In all seriousness, I'm not at all offended that people would want to wait until January. I might even push some things out until that time of year too. But does EVERYONE have to do it?

So if you'd like to make your friendly neighborhood insurance advisor a happy person, make their January a little less crazy. Put down the Christmas lights and ornaments for a few minutes and finish up some business sooner than later. Trust me, it will be appreciated!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

SactoMofo 3 Recap

Circumstance is a wonderful thing sometimes, isn't it? In this case, the awesome crossing of paths was this: one of the organizers of SactoMofo is my client.

So, mobile food guy and dutiful insurance advisor I am, I pitched in. So did the future Mrs. SactoFoodAndInsurance! It made for quite the fun morning actually. Running around, strategically placing garbage bins, previewing all of the trucks, and making a last-second stop by a Kinko's to get some color copies made me feel like I was on the Amazing Race.

And then... the feast.

The fiancee and I went as a pair, so I was sad to be without a big team for the first time. However, as I was posting signs, I ran into a few friends of mine from the Sacramento Dish Crawls and we did a quick impromptu team-up. As you may have seen me note before, teaming up is the way to go. Everyone splits up, hits a truck for everyone and meets back up with food in-hand.

Behold! The spoils of a group working together. We sampled delicious food from the following trucks: Chairman Bao, Hapa SF, An the Go, Bacon Bacon, Cajun Wagon, El Porteno, JapaCurry.

Some of the big stand-outs of the day? The breaded catfish from the Cajun Wagon was crispy, flavorful and overall delicious! As always, I'm a big fan of the garlic noodles from An the Go. I also sampled a pork bun with what appeared to be curried daikon radish from Chairman Bao, and that was a one-way trip to flavortown. The savory empanadas from El Porteno were wonderful toasty treats for a cool day. Plus, I'm never going to turn down pastry stuffed with beef or mushrooms. Honorable mention goes to the crazy double-barreled-pork-blast-to-the-face that was the pork belly and bacon taco from Bacon Bacon.

Speaking of honorable mention, I was not able to sample any food from Seoul on Wheels, but a big shout out to them. They broke down on the way, and they got towed a pretty major distance. For them to overcome that and still show up to put on a culinary show speaks volumes of how they run their business.

The crowds weren't too bad, either! I'm not sure if it was the location or the number of trucks, but everything seemed a bit more relaxed from SactoMofo 1. I hope that it still led to monster days from all trucks of course, but it was nice to be able to avoid multi-hour long lines.

Overall grade? A+. Great trucks, wonderful folks (both in the trucks and eating from them) and an overall good feeling about the day makes this a must-see event. If you haven't done one of these before, mark your calendar as soon as you see the next one on the horizon. It'll be worth your time and money.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

On Renter's Insurance

The other morning, I heard quite a few sirens when I was getting ready for work. And they were quite close, too! It's one of those things that made me start to wonder if something had gone wrong not far from my house.

That train of thought suddenly brought me back about 5 years when I was living in an apartment. On my way home, I noticed a pretty pronounced plume of smoke from my neighborhood. I then started to panic. I had been cooking in a crock pot that day! What if it shorted out, or boiled over, or did something else to cause a fire? Could my split-pea soup end up destroying the place I lived and all of my things?

Luckily enough, my long distance vision wasn't so great and it ended up coming from down the street. Still, it got me thinking! What if it had been my place? How would I even replace my wardrobe, which was now filled with suits, slacks, button-down shirts and other insurance-guy apparel? Or my pots, pans and other food-guy accessories?

The answer was simple: I wouldn't be able to.

Being a fledgling insurance guy at the time, my cash reserves were not so great. I would have been in a very tough spot! So the next day, I practiced what I preached and got myself a modest renter's insurance policy. Nothing outlandish, but something that would make sure that my most important items were covered. Thankfully, it was simple and inexpensive. If my memory serves me correctly, it ended up being about $20 per month.

So ask yourself the same question I did: how would you replace your belongings if something DID go wrong? If you don't have a good answer either, strongly consider protecting yourself. Consult your favorite insurance advisor and see if they can come up with a good plan for you.

And oddly enough, if you don't have an insurance advisor, I happen to know a pretty good one. Go figure, right?