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I choose to be inspired.



Thank you, Julie

The reaction from someone who read my journal on 11/21:



read your journal...HOLY SHIT



I cant even find other words to say..me who is never speechless...



wow



hugs







I'm honored beyond words. Now I'm going to have to get the doorway enlarged to get my swelled head through.

I just discovered yesterday that one of my business partners wrote himself a check for over $28,000. This comes after a meeting the three of us had about how tight our budget was going to be this quarter. We’d earmarked $50,000 for our long-standing charities, and about $25,000 for employee bonuses. That left us money to pay our normal partner draws, pay our sub-contractors, and end the calendar year with nearly $10,000 left in the bank.



I’m at a complete loss over this guy’s sense of ethics or reasoning. He told me yesterday when I confronted him that the money was for un-paid expenses. He has produced no receipts, doesn’t travel, and has never bought anything for the company or the office. I fail to understand what expenses he needs to be reimbursed for.



I refuse to hold back from charities we have always supported, employees who have been there for me in a pinch, and sub-contractors who have completed work for us on good faith. I can go without a paycheck for a few weeks, and my “good” business partner is better off than I am. We’ll make it to the new year.



But I am forced to kick the other partner to the curb. He will go kicking and screaming, but he has to go. I’m not going to be in a very good mood for the holidays, but this has to be done. It’s on.

Someday there will be a reckoning. Will I be found wanting for the things I have done? I try not to pass up opportunities to help others or do good deeds. But will that be enough to compensate, I wonder?

I love Halloween. It is one of the few holidays that I celebrate. I’ve had Halloween parties for years and years, and I decorate the house and front yard to get into the spirit of the season. I enjoy dressing up to give out candy, sometimes scaring the trick-or-treaters a little, but that’s all part of the fun.



Several years ago, right before Halloween, the local utility company was replacing the gas lines on my block. A trench was dug through the front yards of everyone on my side of the block. The trench was still open on Halloween.



I had an adult costume party going on at my house and we had taken turns answering the door and handing out candy. It was getting late, about 9:45 PM, and all the really young kids were home by then. I hadn’t scared anyone really well in a while, so I thought it was about time. Bands of teenagers dressed in their athletic team uniforms were still out going door to door, and they were my intended victims. I was dressed in a black duster and was wearing glow-in-the-dark demon mask and monster hands. I ran from my front door to the trench and jumped in, crouching down. I was planning to leap out at the next group of teenagers who came by.



Several minutes went by when I heard them approach. They weren’t talking, just making a lot of noise walking. I waited until they were on the sidewalk right next to me, and leapt out, screaming and waving my arms, intending to terrify the group of teenagers and send them screaming into the night. But it wasn’t teenagers. And it wasn’t a group. It was a solitary child, I’d say about 7 or 8 years old, dragging an oversized shopping bag half full of candy. (That was the noise I heard, the bag being dragged.) His eyes got as big as saucers, let out a scream to wake the dead, flung the bag straight up into the air, and fled. I stood there, calling for him to stop, but it was too late. By the time his hard earned rewards had finished raining down around me he had reached the end of the block and showed no sign of slowing. Feeling awful for what I had done, I gathered what wrapped candy I could find, refilled his bag and carried it inside. I set it next to the front door, expecting an irate parent to appear looking for retribution. I filled the bag to the top with the remaining candy I had. The bag sat next to my front door for almost a week, waiting for its owner to come and claim it. The child never returned.



That happened in Illinois. If that child (now an adult) is out there reading this, I sincerely apologize. I will replace the candy you lost and I will reimburse you for years of what must have been very expensive therapy.

COMMENTS

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Requiem
00:52 Jul 26 2011

o.o OH. My.





=/ Is it bad I am giggling at you? That poor bastard.

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