 I'm not one for public spectacle of every possible little problem that we face as humans. Aren't you sick the many solicitations you get either over the phone or in person to sponsor someone in the next greatest Walk For Something?
So when my wife told me that she was going to enter us in the American Cancer Society Relay for Life Walk, I wasn't too excited. Of course we have to raise money for this and other illnesses but something rubs me the wrong way when I have to ask my friends to give me money to sponsor me in a walk. If they want to give on their own then fine.
But, being in the ad business, I should know that the only way to make people aware of something is to create a spectacle.
And a spectacle it was.
I have to admit that after going, it was a good thing. I tell myself no one would be there if they didn't have some stake in this illness. I can't even tell you how many people have come up to me following my cancer and told me that they either had it at one time or someone they knew had it. It's incredibly pervasive.
For me, cancer was always something that happened to someone else or something you saw in a weepy movie. It would never affect my life. Well, you don't control as much of your life as you think.
I will tell you that it was very difficult to hold back the tears when I took the Survivors lap around the track at Ayer Highschool. Hundreds of people had camped out for the 20 hour event and every single person was applauding us the entire 1/4 mile loop as we slowly paraded ourselves around prior to the start of the Walk. We even had the ubiquitous hairless Cancer Kid leading the parade. Now that may sound harsh as I have always thought it was such an abuse of a child and a shameful tactic at awareness. But, after walking that lap behind that child and his mother and his Aunt, it just seemed so right. I'm 40 and a survivor of colon cancer. That child was not more then 8 years old! It puts all things in perspective.
So I am glad I finally crawled out of my "it's nobody's business" cave and shared in all the emotions that the event blessed us with. Cancer is killing us. Chemotherapy is a "dumb" drug that kills all cells that are like cancer cells which is why so many people have those awful side effects. The good cells are being killed with the bad. But there are actual "smart" drugs in trial use now that know to go after the "bad" cells and leave the "good" ones alone. Very soon, Cancer will be cured by swallowing a pill. We are not there yet. But with time, money, and the amazing effort I witnessed at the Relay For Life, that pill may see the light of day.
So I am glad I did it.
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Right now, this minute, at the time stamp on this post, it is snowing! SNOWING!! May 18 and it is snowing. Just thought I'd share that.
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Never before had I given girls a second thought as I was 10 at the time.
But on one Summer afternoon at one of those neighborhood fairs that people used to have before we were all afraid of child molesters, my eyes perked up to the sight of Robin. It was amazing. There she was wearing jeans and a jeans jacket. Her long blond hair was dancing to the tune of the wind as she ran over to area that I was visiting. Instantaneously, I was drawn to the widest, biggest, and friendliest smile I had ever seen before in my short life. Beaming is an understatement. It had all the excitement and innocence that a child has before the world gets a hold of them.
I don't think we even talked that day but I knew that forever, she would be a beautiful memory that I would keep forever.
The next time I saw her was in school after that Summer as she had just moved to Concord. We were not in the same class but in adjoining classrooms that in those days resembled wide open play pens with little structure. I'd steal a glimpse of her through the open door occasionally while she sat at a table with her other classmates creating that wonderful childhood art that our parents bring out to show us many years later when they get all weepy and nostalgic. Our eyes would lock. She would smile. I would smile back and then get immediately embarrassed and head back to the center of my classroom.
Since she lived in a neighborhood close to mine, we shared a bus ride home which was indescribably heaven-like, especially when I was able to sit next to or near her. After all these years, I have no idea what we talked about or how much we talked at all. All I remember was that I looked forward to getting on that bus every day so that I could bask in the beauty of Robin R.
So the year went buy and it being the end of our 5th grade in school, we both knew that we would be going to separate middle schools. The thought of not seeing her every day created the kind of childhood sadness that no parent can comfort. The last day of school, I sat with her in the back of the bus. The back, of course, being the cool place to sit. We talked, I'm sure, although about what I have no memory. All I really remember is the imagery. Just the pure beauty.
Well, the bus finally got to my stop , which was before hers, so I had to leave my beauty and get off the bus to face another Summer of relentless camp and other activities. I walked around to the side of the bus. The bus started to move up the street. My eyes were searching for her in the window and finally our eyes locked. She was sitting in the same back seat that we shared looking out the window at me. Not just looking randomly out but looking right as me. As the bus slowly pulled away, I wandered into the middle of the street with my eyes still locked on her sweet face. Then, and this image is forever locked inside my memories, she turned around in her seat never losing eye contact, raised her hand, waved to me, and beamed that big brilliant smile to me through the bus window. I thought I was going to faint! As the bus pulled further up the street, I returned her smile and waved at her with my arm raised high in the air wondering if I, ever again, would see this beautiful girl.
Well now that would be a tragic story if it ended right there. But, over the next three years of middle school, I'd run into her downtown, at the local swim club, or at the town library and we'd sort of look at each other not quite knowing what to do or say so we said nothing. In high school, she ran in very different circles then I did so we really never connected at all. There were just those fleeting moments passing her in the hallway between classes where the memory of her in the back of the bus would surge within me.
I never asked her out. It just seemed like it would ruin what once was. Besides, in high school, I was a pretty shy guy. And, I had no idea if she had any of the feelings that I had for her. So time marched on. I'd catch an occasional glimpe of her around town. I even saw her once in the grocery store and she looked at me, waved, and said hello. I returned the gesture but she was on the way out of the store and chasing after her like a forlorn lover would have been just plain awkward.
Then, many years later while I was working in an ad agency, the receptionist yelled to me as I was walking up the stairs telling me I had a call. I go to the receptionists desk and she hands me the phone and whose voice do I hear? Robin! The same feeling I had when I first saw her in her little jean jacket and when the bus was pulling away so many years before gushed though my body made me feel like that shy kid again. I was about 30 at the time I think.
We talked briefly. She was actually calling for our production manager and she worked for a printer at the time. The call was only about a minute. I don't remember the exact words but she, being as surprised as I was that the two of us where on the phone after all these years, said something to the effect of, "I can't believe it. I make this business call and I get my childhood crush on the phone". That single statement, if I got it right, put to rest the wonderment I had for all those years as to whether she even knew I existed. The relief was incredible. beautiful.
Well, no romantic ending. We asked the usual boring questions of each other: "Are you married?" Where do you live?" "Do you have kids?" "How do you like work?" Perhaps neither of us had the courage to say what we really wanted to say. At least for me, it would have been, "Robin, I fell in love with you that Summer day so long ago. I've been in love with you ever since."
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Does anyone answer their friggin phone anymore?? I mean do you really think that a sales person is going to give up simply because you do not answer your phone? Of course not. They are going to hound you until the get you. Or at least get a reason as to why you should no longer call them. It's called qualifying the lead. No good salesperson will stop until they have a category to put you in. So...a piece of advice for you perpetual procrastinators: Answer the fuckin phone and simply tell the person you have no need for their services at this time. Is that so difficult? Do you actually LIKE having a full voice mail box?
And what's this shit about, "I'm sorry, I can't give out her phone extension" What the fuck? I can get the person from the dial by name directory so what's the difference?
People! Save yourself the anguish of the haunting salesperson. Deal with it today, don't perpetually procrastinate!
Just a humble suggestion from one who has had the great displeasure of navigating all the fucked up phone systems that companies have put in place thinking those systems will make it all more efficient.
Hire a receptionist. I guarantee you it will cost less in the long run and your customers will be happier.
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 From DM News:
Disgruntled Company Wages War at MTAC With T-Shirt Campaign
May 16, 2002
WASHINGTON -- Attendees to the usually orderly Mailers Technical Advisory Committee reception here at the National Postal Museum were greeted by a banner that included a drawing of a postal official using a vacuum to suck money out of a man's wallet. Bewildered postal officials and major mailers entering the affair were also handed T-shirts and postcards using similar imagery by representatives from a law firm representing CIGI/Consumer Insurance Group Inc., a small insurance company suing the U.S. Postal Service over its revenue assurance program.
I love this kind of stuff!
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From AdAge:
"NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- In the wake of one of the worst years for any TV network, ABC Television has drastically revamped its prime-time schedule, adding three new comedies and four new dramas.
True to its promise of going back to family-oriented shows, the network, a division of the Walt Disney Co., has added sitcoms and moved other shows into its key 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. time slots -- a period it is developing under the theme "Happy Hour." Bcom3 Group's Leo Burnett Co., Chicago, is the creative agency developing that branding campaign.
Three of the new comedies will arrive on Tuesday night. 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, starring John Ritter as a father dealing with his two daughters, will run at 8 p.m. At 9 p.m., Life With Bonnie, developed by its star, Bonnie Hunt, is a part-scripted, part-improvisational sitcom about a local TV show host. At 9:30 p.m., the office workplace comedy Less Than Perfect is scheduled."
Give it up, ABC. Trying watching HBO for inspiration.
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Another Marketing Coup?
When will it stop? When will companies realize that they are producing products so unhealthy that ruin our health? I'm sure the new Vanilla Coke tastes great but what is it doing to out teeth? And what is in Coke anyway? Not much more then sugar.
Better than the real thing?
And you wonder why America is a fattest nation in the world!
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For some unknown reason, I feel the need to revisit all the past emotions I felt and how each one of these girls made me feel and what they meant to me. Probably none will ever see this but it is something I need to say. So, stay tuned to this blog for a riveting and emotional outpouring on the following pieces of my heart:
Robin R - My first realization that girls where something important
Beth O - My first awkward courting methods
Gretchen S - My first problematic relationship
Amy P - A brief fleeting moment on the dance floor
Gail P - A great girl who might have been my prom date
Liz K - The swim club Hottie
Eve F - My first " I wish she would like me" relationship
Jeanne M - The first time I realized the poetic beauty of a woman
Sue I - My first close female friend
Caroline F - My first "quirky" romance
Anne S - My first on-again, off-again flirtation
Timi S - My first burning sexual fantasy
Barbara K - My second, and more sophisticated burning sexual desire
Lisa S - The cute young girl I moved way too quickly with
Lori R - My first "really sexy friend of a girlfriend" girl
Diane K - My first intelligent relationship
Walden Pond Girl - My first experience in a "girl away too young" relationship
Barbara D - My first "girlfriend turned to enemy turned back to friend turned to long lost" relationship
Sue R - My first truly serious, long term love, turned to longing memory
Kim D - My first "I really like you and want to have sex with you and finally have sex with you but get Clamidia" girlfriend
Mary G - My final turn at love
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 You can perceive this any way you wish. I'm a letch. I don't get out much. I haven't been laid in a while...
So I go to Vox in Boston to get together with some friends I haven't seen in a while that I used to work with. Great to see them but I don't really remember much of anything anyone said.
You see, and of course all guys are like this, I could not keep my eyes still.
EYECANDY!
It was the Eyecandy. The parade was nonstop. Just as soon as I had admired one incredible beauty and forced my mind and eyes back to the conversation at hand, there passed yet another eye popping beauty queen.
Why is it that is is almost impossible for me....and most other guys I assume, to loose all train of thought and just gawk? It's rude, it primitive, and I'm sure annoying to the ogled one.
Should we justify it by saying, "Hey, I'm just admiring one of God' beautiful creations." Or maybe , "Gee, I don't really need to look her in the eye when I am talking to her, do I?" Or, "Well, the poor girl could only find a shirt that was 4 sizes too small for her so she feels bad and needs the attention." Even, " Well, something just might slip out of her shirt...and I just want to be there to shield her from all the other loser gawking guys." Um...yea right!
Anyway you try to rationalize it, it just sounds stupid. So, I don't. I just look. Yup, I look. If I get caught, I smile and look away....well for a few seconds at least!
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