Я благодарю вас

I thank you

Thank you Thank you Thank you

3 parts: Thank you. Big Momma. Way over there.

Part 1: Thank you

First of all I would like to thank all of you that are actually reading this. I don’t know what you’re getting out of it but it’s been good for me. Thank you for taking the time.

The next two sections are inspired by things I found while digging through clutter.

Part 2: Big Momma

There were times when my mom was pretty darned cool.

Like, deeply, seriously cool.

After my parents divorced she did things. One of those things was have Japanese exchange students. She would try to get them to do stuff.

Hiking, plays, musicals, anything. It was all fair game.

If I remember correctly Mizue was the student she got along with the best. Mizue was willing to do just about anything and loved to go on big hikes with my mom. They went everywhere. I think I went on a few but it was really about the two of them. I think they even climbed Mt. St. Helens together. They were peas in a pod and when she left Mizue gave us this lovely thank you. I don’t know if I really deserve to be on there - it was all mom. (thank you sister S for sending this to me).

One time, when I was in college and she had another exchange student (maybe it was Mikako… I’m not totally sure, but for the purposes of this writing I’ll say Mikako) my mother called me up and asked if I would be willing to take Mikako to see Phantom of the Opera at the Moore theater in Seattle. I wasn’t into that kind of show, but free tickets? “Sure!” I had no car and mom lived in Olympia so it was a bit complicated. Mom made it happen. She drove Mikako with the tickets up to north Seattle, picked me up, drove us downtown, treated us to dinner and then dropped us off at the Moore so we could enjoy the show on our own. I dressed up as best I could. It must have been winter because I wore my London Fog wool overcoat. Mikako was lovely in a black dress and fancy wrap. I think we were both extremely nervous… I know we barely talked but I still remember the happy glow she had after seeing the show (it was splendid). I don’t know what my mom did for the three hours. Thank you mom… and thank you Mikako…

Part 3: Way over there

Steve C. Thank you.

I was the Director of Customer service for a while. Not my dream job, but for the most part I liked it. One of the reasons I liked it was because I had some cool bosses. Steve C. was one of them. When Steve was there we were using a company in India to handle a large portion of our customer service inquiries. The first year we used them a few of their managers came to the U.S. and visited us for a week. We worked together in the office and in the evenings we would take them out and about. The biggest thrills were WalMart and Outback Steakhouse. Oh.. they were fun. They bought many many bags of Halloween candy, electronics and they ate STEAK… I believe it was the first time for a couple of them.

The second year Steve insisted that I should go to India. Was it really necessary? No. I don’t think so. But he insisted. They came here, they’ve invited you, you may never get this chance again. So I gave in. Not only that, but I also got a ticket for Katie. It was only a week, but it was super cool. Super duper cool. We had a fancy hotel. I worked nights and had a driver that would pick me up and take me to the office where I worked with the team. Somehow I ended up visiting the Zappos customer service team, had dinner with a big wig executive fellow and was courted by another customer service company with another fancy dinner. If you ever get the chance to go out for fancy Chinese food while visiting Chennai, India - do it. Wow.

Katie got to spend the days being a tourist and she took full advantage of every moment. On our last day my colleague, his wife and kid took us down the coast south of Chennai and gave us a full on personal tour of the area. In the end the Chennai team gave us a bunch of gifts and this nice thank you. I’m still friends with a bunch of them on Facebook. Hi everyone!

Btw - they mention “inconveniences” but I never knew what they meant. Everything was great in my mind.

But that’s not all Steve did. Less than three months later Katie and I went on our honeymoon to New Zealand. 5 weeks! Steve had been planning on quitting. He was ready to go. His commute had been brutal. But he knew if he quit before my trip the big wigs might not let me go. He stayed an extra five weeks just to make sure the customer service department ran smoothly while I was gone. Then he quit. I never saw him again. Thank you Steve. You’re amazing. I’ve tried to find you a couple times but what the heck - you never reply to my inquiries!!! I still have your metal “imagine” sign. It’s up in my classroom at school.

It’s not only about being fabulous. It’s about pushing others to be fabulous too.