..........Thank You For Being a Friend..........

"If you threw a party and invited everyone you knew. You would see the greatest gift would be from me. And the card attached would say... Thank you for being a friend."

Today we say goodbye to Estelle Getty, Sophia Petrillo Zbornak to so many. She died at the age of 84 in Santa Monica California.

Sophia is survived by her friends Rose Nylund, Blanche Deveraux, and son, Dorothy Zbornak.

I have to admit I watched way too many episodes of Golden Girls (and "Mama's Family" for that matter.)



In any event we won't let "Stop or My Mom Will Shoot" or "Mannequin" take away from what a great actress you were. Forever in our hearts you'll be "ma"

Thank you for being a friend!




...and then there's this guy,

It Took Seven Months But I Finally Got to Witness The Power of Direct Marketing (And Why You Can Too!!)

So I don't get it. Really I don't get it. There's all this juice being sold here in Utah. There all from some weird plant and they all make you feel so much better and cure your dog's cancer. They also all taste like crap.

Why?

Why do Utahans subject themselves to Amway Fruit Juice sales pitches?

I don't know either. All I know is that last Wednesday I was taken to a lunch by my future brother-in-law, lets just call him Rusty Jackson and I was told how amazing this opportunity is. So here I was eating a "free" lunch while I learn about the power of "Seven Plus".

You see the thing about "Seven Plus" is that they take all six of the crappy fruits and get their crappy tasting extract out to form an "exfuzion" of epically crappy proportions. (The seven is important because they are always looking for a new and more powerfully crappy fruit to add to it)

I've been told that it can heal the lame, make the blind see and if poured into the gullet of the Dread Pirate Roberts, can bring him back "to blathe".

I'm in this restaurant hating life and hoping it will end. I am in awe of how assumptive the Host's sales pitch is.

The first thing I'm thinking is "I have no idea how multi-level marketing works." I've never been a part of it and try to run away from these sales pitches.

As I'm trying to figure out how it works our host is talking about a company called "NuSkin" which I've seen advertising for but I've never stopped to learn about. I guess they're big and have notable "Top Sellers". He mentioned names of people who I assumed worked for NuSkin at some point and had made the move to Exfuze. So Exfuze has to be good. Right?

I wish you were there (You could have had chicken parmesan with a side of mashed potatoes, really potatoes?)
because I don't think I'd be able to give the presentation justice.

He played a DVD of what this juice can do (his pitch also was that he's just a normal guy and all he has to do is play a DVD). They had testimonials of people who were using it and loving it. Lawrence Taylor, that's right former cocaine addict and New York Giants great, Lawrence Taylor tried to sell me the health offerings of Seven Plus.

After the DVD there was some more song and dance about how the product is moving out to California and beyond.

I have a great opportunity to be a part of something huge. I have to get in now.

After the meeting I had a phantom phone call which I had to take and hoped that my ride would be finished soon.

Rusty Jackson and I rode with a current Exfuze rep. The rep was busy taking advantage of a couple of Spanish gentleman that were reallly excited. "The Hispanic Market is just waiting to be reached!" exclaimed the rep.

I don't know what I'm supposed to do to sell this stuff. I have no clue what the buy-in is. All I know is that you get bottles of this filth every month and you pay for it.

If you can trick enough people to also buy a product they don't need or want, it starts to pay for itself.

Then there's like "down-line" and "up-line" and residule checks and who knows what else.

I don't speak "Alientate my friends and family and pressure them every time we have a get together juicey juice talk".

I'm gonna be fine not making that great passive income.

Why I love Brooke Michelle Eaton

This is Brooke Eaton. I am in love with her. For a while now I've been asked about this new woman in my life. Recently a friend of mine, Brandon Ogden and I were talking about her. I stopped for a minute and told him, "It's so hard to encapsulate my feelings for her. I feel like whatever I try to verbalize won't ever come close to how I really feel."

That being said I will give my best effort to at least bring you to some understanding of what kind of person she is and more so what she means to me.

The "How we met":

I suppose I met Brooke about two years ago. I was in Utah for a company picnic at a golf and games place called Boondocks. I stayed at a friends and over the weekend we went to a movie (Invincible starring Marky Mark) To be completely truthful I don't really remember her being there. I do remember Saturday morning going to Dave Eaton's house with my friend Craig Tovey and while there Dave's sister (who honestly I didn't remember who she was) came to use the pool with two children who I assumed were hers. In any event this was my first time meeting her and it was completely in passing.

This last November I went to my friend Craig's Birthday party and spoke with her again. She was a very nice person.

In mid December of last year I moved to Utah. I was pretty sad. I spent time with Brooke and her family. Brooke was a great support. She was so soft to me and so fun. I can not tell you how much of a blessing it was to have her in my life. I fell in love very fast and she is so much of what I needed and need in my life.

So let's get into the "why I love her":

She wants so badly to love her children.



Okay so this isn't her child, she has yet to have one. But I use this picture as an illustration of how much a loving mother I see in her. I cannot tell you how much she and I want to be parents and how much I truly and deeply I love her for her want to be a mother.

When speaking of my own mother I am often brought to tears when I tell people "My mother always wanted to be more than anything the best most loving mother she could be. My mother loves her children more than any other I have ever known." I mean that. My mother loves us so much. I am so grateful that Brooke's desire is so strong to love her children. If anything all the pain and hurt that I have had longing for a family and children of my own was worth the pain knowing that Brooke will be the mother loving our children. I cannot tell you how much I know that she will love our children. I see it in every interaction she has with her 26, soon to be 27 nieces and nephews. I cannot imagine how hard it was for her to see all these children born and raised. How patiently she has waited to become a mother. I am so humbled to think that I have the opportunity to raise a family with her.



Before she was a wife she was a missionary:

Brooke served a sister missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I am humbled by her sacrifice. I joke with her a little bit about it (that it was for 18 months rather than 2 years) but in all honesty it takes a lot for anyone to leave there family and friends and serve. What's more she became a Spanish speaking missionary after arriving in Southern California. Her efforts as a missionary have continued to be an influence in her life and now mine. I get a "To Do" list from her by way of email every morning. It reminds me to read my scriptures, take care of today items, "do something for someone somewhere" as well as spend quality time with Brooke (that's my favorite). I know that comes from her dedication as a missionary. The best part is it's not nagging at all. I look forward to it. I love that she wants us to be organized and proactive. I love that she was a missionary.



She loves me:

Brooke and I have had very lonely times in our life. We both have tried very hard to be good, faithful people. When we met we were both very lonely. The time together has helped that. There were many who were surprised at the suddeness. Some were concerned about it. Even we looking back are regretful that we may have been too selfish and rushed some things. We have accepted the consequences both positive and negative. Some family members have gotten sad, some have only ever shown support knowing how much we need to be happy. Throughout it all she has always loved me and supported me. I love her for that.

Brooke is an amazing women. She is beautiful, talented, funny, amazing just amazing. She has the voice that would call ships into dangers. She can make you feel like the greatest man that ever lived. She is so soft. I love the way she makes me feel. I love that she is the last person I talk to at night. I call to say good night each night and then I call again one more time.

August 1st we are getting married. I cannot tell you what it means to call Brooke my wife. That she will be a mother to my children. That we will be together.

That's why I love Brooke Michelle Eaton.

What I've learned by not logging out of my email

So I sometimes use my friends computer (name withheld for safety reasons) so anyway this friend, lets call him Rusty Jackson sent an email on my behalf to a former colleague of my in Connecticut. It was embarrassing and though I was able to smooth it over it was pretty hard to believe that I had to fix it. Well I did my best going forward not to forget to sign out.

So in the process of time I have been trying very hard to get a position with two great companies. It's been a long process and I haven't worked since a short lived position with a Connecticut based company and a Park City Benefits company.

I enjoyed my time with the Park City company and I am grateful for that opportunity. I worked with great people and had opportunities to create things.

Since it's been taking so long to hear from these new companies I've been a bit worried about having a job. I'm sure others including my friend Rusty have been concerned. I get that.

Now this is what happened. Yesterday I checked my email and saw that I got an out of office reply from my former boss. I thought it was weird but I didn't think anything of it.

This morning I was talking with Rusty Jackson and he asked me if I had heard anything from "Don" at the Park City company.

I couldn't believe it. "You didn't email him. Please tell me you didn't email him" I said.

"I just know that you need a job." Rusty said.

"Come on man, I don't even want to work there again. Come on you didn't really email them."

"I just sent the email it'll be okay."

"Rusty you can't do that, I'm gonna go check."

I went to my gmail account and sure enough in my sent emails was a letter to my former boss. And I'll quote...

"Hey Don,
I've been thinking about my departure. Career wise, I'm not sure if it was the right move. Can you let me know if any positions open and reconsider my employment?

Have a good holiday.
Chris"

But you know what the best thing is. At the end of each of my emails is a link to my blogspot. Which if you're a reader of my blog you'll know that I recently posted a video with Craig Tovey. So the best part about the email is that if my former boss clicks my blog link he'll get to watch that video and get to see my bare bottom. Yes, me in a towel.

Thanks Rusty Jackson. Pretty awesome.

***As a note. I just found out that he sent four other emails.So That's awesome***