Prepare for a long post...

Wow, I didn't realize that I haven't posted for over a month. I must have been really busy the second half of last quarter. I'm glad I finally get to enjoy a relaxing break after such a grueling quarter. Many of my friends are taking cool trips this week, but I'm content to just settle with a good book (in this case Tuesdays With Morrie), sip Tazo tea, and check up on my hyacinths that have been blooming since I was away. Hmm, I sound like I'm 50. Or more likely it's because I've been fighting off a cold for several days and it has only succeeded in taking over my throat so far. Rob has planned a mini trip to Napa next weekend so that I'm not just piddling around the apartment and running errands my whole week. I'm happy that I got a lot of errands done already including fixing my laptop that had been acting up since winter break. Rob and I also went to San Francisco on Easter Sunday for a timeshare presentation by a very popular resort company*.

We mainly went because they offered us a 5 day/4 night stay at one of their resorts in Honolulu where we'll be vacationing this summer (after my study abroad program is done). We had never been to nor heard of what happens at a timeshare presentation so we didn't know what to expect. The presentation ended up being pretty persuasive but Rob and I didn't feel that we were ready to commit over 45k to buying a timeshare at this point in our lives. We are not married, don't own our home, don't have kids, and I'm not established in my career yet. Most of the other couples that buy timeshares are way ahead of us in those departments (or way behind us in financial practicality). We both agreed that these were our first priorities and only after the first two (and hopefully last) priority is achieved would we be looking into purchasing a timeshare. Our salesperson seemed nice and he said that there will be no pressure to buy and that he's going to try to "kill us with kindness" in order to get our business. I was happy when he said that because I believe that many commissioned salespeople use unenlightened self-interest to get business and it was refreshing to hear someone who seemed willing to step back and encourage this opportunity with no sales pressure.

Apparently, this only applied to before and during the presentation. Afterwards, we were ushered to our own table with the the salesperson and he "killed us with kindness"...De Niro-style. He drew up many good points but Rob and I both ended up feeling very pressured to buy. Three things that I did not appreciate and turned me off: One, he made it seem as though if we didn't buy a timeshare then we might not stay together in the long run. He even called it "relationship insurance". Rob and I already have relationship insurance. It's called good interpersonal communication. Second, he made it seem as though if he let us walk out the door without purchasing then we'll never come back or consider purchasing in the future. Do or die. That kind of mindset is a self-fulfilling prophesy. If you treat us as if we are of no value if we choose to take more than the allotted three hours to think about it, then perhaps we'd go find some other company that values us when we do decide to purchase in the future. Three, after realizing that he wasn't making much headway on us, he used guilt-both verbal and through body language. "You guys said that you were going to have an open mind about this." Um, open mind does not equal open checkbook. I also felt that he didn't respect our end decision.

Throughout all this unpleasantness, I felt a strong bond with Rob because we were on the same page. Had we not been (me wanting to purchase and him not, or vice versa), it might have been easy for the salesperson to draw on that weakness and create turmoil in the relationship. One partner pitted against the other. Relationships can be fragile in certain situations and a stupid timeshare presentation is not worth the risk of conflict. They told us at the beginning that their goal was to have people leave happier than when they arrived. I'd have to say that they failed in that respect.

Thankfully, we were finally freed and we headed to the Ferry Building to explore. Many of the shops were closed because it was Easter but many good ones were open. We went to Scharffen Berger and browsed their assortment of artisan chocolates. We didn't want to spend too much so we got a little tube of their semisweet chocolate covered cocoa nibs. Big mistake cuz now we're addicted! Next, we walked over to Cowgirl Creamery that carries the some of the best cheeses you can find around here. They let us sample a variety of cheeses before we purchased. Rob chose a french sheep's milk cheese and I chose the tried-and-true Mt. Tam. With some bread from Acme bakery next door, we had snacks for later and enough to share with Mike when we picked him up from the airport. We had noodles and drinks from The Slanted Door for dinner and Ciao Bella gelato for dessert. We walked up and down the Embarcadero for several hours until we got tired. We then chilled in the car and munched on bread and cheese, and sipped on a mini bottle of wine each. Mike's plane arrived so we picked him up and drove him home. We hung out at his place for about an hour and then headed home. We got home at 1am and were sooo tired from all the events of the day. It ended up being a fun Easter even though we didn't celebrate properly.

*Our experience was purely subjective and does not necessarily reflect the overall experience of people who attend timeshare presentations at this particular company. However, our honest intellectual opinion is that they suck.