And I thought I was wasting my B.S. in BS over here!

I am again furiously typing at my computer with my dog by my side, sipping espresso at a French café and feeling pretty cool. I like telling people I’m a writer because it makes them think I’m engrossed in my work, creating masterpieces and articles and whatnot, when in reality I’m just rambling. Tee hee. It’s my lil joke on the world.

But it dawned on me just now that while I may not be experienced enough to call myself a writer (I just know how to say that in French rather than explaining I’m a recent college grad whose just bumming around), I am actually using the skills I learned at BU for money. And housing. That counts as using my degree for a job, right?

I just checked my email and have many notes from professors demanding to see some articles in magazines. They promise me I’m talented enough to sell my work and, like all demanding professors, tell me to get on it! They’re right. I spend most of my days lounging around with Tequila and writing; I might as well clean some of my accounts up and pitch them to a magazine or two.

But that’s not even what I’m really thinking about when I consider myself having a “real” job using PR and marketing skills. You can laugh, because this is really a stretch. But that’s what I do – I stretch the facts to appear in the most favorable light. I’m a spin-doctor. Or something.

I “work” at Le P’tit Club. I have yet to stand behind the bar and spend most of my time there socializing with the clients, managing to have most buy me drinks. Sure, I might help polish the glassware at the end of the night, but that’s about it. But I’m always working.

I’ve given myself the official title of “Promotional Manager” or “Marketing Director” – I haven’t decided which yet. Socializing is a huge part of PR. I bounce from table to table at the bar, making sure everyone is happy and content with the service and quality of the place, seeing what I can do to make people keep coming back. I have regulars. That’s right, there are several groups of people who come back night after night solely to see me. If I’m not there yet, they ask Dennis or Jerome where I am. They, of course, never know where I am. I’m not sure they really know what to do with me. This week there’s a group of Dutch people living at the campground that come to see me for local advice, a group of Ramatuelle natives who come to see me to teach me French and enjoy quality conversation, a group of French military men who come to see me for reasons I’d rather not explore, another group of natives who come to see me to practice English (and let me tell you their English is terrible, so it’s mostly another exercise in French for me), and a couple of British kids who come to hang out with someone whose first language is English. (I’m going to interrupt myself here to reflect on how bad this sounds – I live at a bar, I’m not even a bartender and I have regulars, and I have a dog named Tequila.) It’s fun, though.

Everywhere I go I meet people (I’m a social butterfly, what can I say?) and when they ask me where they should go for a really good time at night without the outlandish prices of St. Tropez, I tell them all about Le P’tit Club. I give them directions and flyers, I promise them drinks for no more than 5€ instead of no less than 25, I promise them good music to dance to and pool tables and foosball. I tell them about the bowl of card games the bar has so that clients can sit outside and drink and talk and play. And when there are people at the bar in large groups, I bring out this bowl of tricks and encourage them to play – sort of an icebreaker and a good time for all.

Of course, I don't want to get carried away. All my ethics in college warned against some of the crazy practices of people like Bernays, who had no problem instigating a CIA coup of some small, third world country solely for the sake of his client - a fruit company. I did just tell a 14-year-old girl about P'tit Club. Eh, they start young here... (kidding! kind of?)

So there you have it – I recruit business, I work to keep the clients happy, I plan social events, I create a buzz about the bar, I spread its name all over this city. Isn’t that what PR/Marketing is all about? Being social and friendly to create and keep business for your client? I ought to start writing articles about Le P’tit Club in French, pitching them to the local newspapers. Then I’d really be in my field.

So yea, I think I’ve earned my keep.

Hahahah, I love this job!