Guest Post by Barry Lancy

In the 21stCentury conversations, as well as friendships, might be just a little differentthan they were even 20 years ago. A few days ago a friend, (that I have onlymet in person on 2 occasions), and I were talking / texting online. We werediscussing whether she should go out for martinis or wine. I suggested a verynice little restaurant named The Social. It has a great menu and an even bettermartini menu. Her suggestion was that we all meet for drinks, but on thisparticular occasion I had to decline, saying that I was working out of town upin wine country on the central coast.
Since I hate turning down an invitation for dinner anddrinks I asked if I could bring her back anything form the area. Those of youin the text / email / IM world know how brief questions and answers can be, andsometimes very vague responses leave more questions than answers.
Guest post.
The simple 2-word phrase was the sole response to thequestion; Can I bring back anything while I am up here?
Now my stupidity runs on several levels. First I considermyself reasonably intelligent, but I am no wine expert. The wines I like, Ireally like and the ones I don’t like I assume I just haven’t acquired a tastefor them yet. I also consider myself fairly computer literate, since I workwith a computer everyday, and spend far too much time on my Blackberry and onfacebook. But the phrase “guest post” hasn’t ever been part of my immediatevocabulary.
So I did what any red blooded male of the 21st centurywould do. I grabbed my blackberry and typed in “guest post Paso Robles” intothe search area and hit send. Hundreds of matching pages showed up.
Hmmmmm.
Not being sure if I had just promised to find a bottle of“Guest Post”, or if “Guest Post” was the name of the winery I was looking for.
So I typed in “Guest Post Chardonnay”.
Believe it or not, several hundred matching pages showed upfor that also.
Ok, “Guest Post Chardonnay Paso Robles”.
Trying as I might, I couldn’t narrow my search enough tofind the winery that I knew must be there.
Admitting defeat has never come easy to me. So back to thefacebook conversation I typed “Guest Post????” Then I sat there looking at thelittle screen, waiting, rereading, did I promise to buy a bottle of Guest Postsfinest? I stared at the little screen on my blackberry, with a look that I canonly describe as the same look your dog gets when he is confused. I read thentexts with my head tilted to one side, lips scrunched. Then tilted my head theother way, eyes squinting. I reread the entire conversation.
Then it appeared, “ Write me an article for my blog.”
Oooohhhhhhh!!!!. Guest Post.  Duuhhh!!!!!
I’m not a writer by any means, but given the choice betweentracking down a bottle of Guest Post Merlot and writing an article, I choosethe article.
So now that I know what a guest post is, I will be more thanhappy to contribute an article from the road. Now I am not a wine expert. Ilike what I like, but I do run across a nice restaurant here and there, so mysecond guest post might be about one of them.
Barry Lancy is a sales rep for a book company and travels thecentral coast putting on Book Fairs for a company named “Books are Fun”. Hiswife Wendi runs a local food pantry named “Help the Children” in Santa Clarita.  They are both also sales repsfor a company named www.Melaleuca.com ,which supplies healthy everyday home products. This year they will celebratetheir 23rd year of marriage. (From Eve: Look for Barry’s next guest post – now that he’s established what that is – next week.)

3 thoughts on “Guest Post by Barry Lancy

  1. He's since admitted to being a writer – I hope to get him every week! Go Barry!

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