Timbo, Rocky & Jim

Wednesday September 24th, 2008 - Waukegan, IL

I didn’t do one damn lick of the work I had planned to do today but I still had a fantastic day anyway. I hung out with some people I don’t normally hang out with and the vibe was positive the entire time. It helped keep my mind off the fact that today is the 46th birthday of my childhood best friend Timbo. It didn’t finish the job because I still remembered it.

He’s the guy that tried to blame one of the two bank robberies he committed on yours truly and it does haunt me even now. I still have nightmares about it and I’ll wake up in a cold sweat in some hotel room somewhere and then stare up at the ceiling and rehash it.

Timbo was my best friend for all the important formative years stuff. He was as close as close gets - even closer than my real siblings. Having to wear a wire and get him to admit he robbed the bank is still THE hardest thing I’ve ever had to do and I’ve had my share of difficult things to do. If this life is meant for lesson learning I’ve got about a dozen PhDs.

I know today is Timbo’s birthday just like he knows when mine is. I have been asked if I would ever talk to him again and I can’t answer that honestly. I don’t know. He wasn’t a very good friend to put me in that situation in the first place and then he lied about taking the blame for it like he said he would. He tried to throw me under the bus and it hurt a lot.

I’ve had a couple of people over the years say they’ve spoken to him about it and he has only bad things to say about me but if we were one on one I don’t think he’d be so cocky. There would be a few heated words exchanged I’m sure but he knows he’s the one that is at fault here and I do too. There isn’t anything to argue about. We both know all the facts.

It’s a shame that this had to happen and I don’t know if I believe that there was a reason for it like a lot of people think. What reason could there be? He decided to rob a bank that he used to work at because he was angry he was losing his security job. His intention was to stick it to the bank president who fired him. How is it that I had to fit into all that too?

I don’t know but it sure wasn’t pleasant. In the end who won? NOBODY. He did prison time and I lost a best friend - but he did too. I sometimes will be watching a Packer game in some strange town and know he’s watching it too. We used to call each other afterward and dissect the game and there was a close bond there for both of us. Now it’s a memory.

It’s been over ten years since I’ve seen Timbo and the last time I actually spoke to him I was wearing a wire for the government while sitting in a George Webb restaurant before I was going to testify in front of a grand jury. That’s not really a good way to end things up but that’s how it ended. I remember walking back from the restaurant and crying bitterly.

I’ve had a lot more problems since that day but none of them could match this one. It’s a lingering pain that I probably will always have but if he came to me now and wanted to be friends again I think I would have to say no. It hurts too much even now. But if he saw me on the street and came up and talked to me I don’t know what I’d do. I honestly don’t.

Maybe some of this baggage is why I have been farting around with the movie script for so long. Am I afraid of this story? Again, I really don’t know. Does it still hurt? Yeah. It’s still a heartache even this many years later. I thought about it as soon as I woke up today.

Getting back in touch with my writing partner Rick Kaempfer last week was exactly the thing I needed to get this project jump started again. He gave me a copy of our script and I read it all the way through today. Was it just a coincidence that it was Timbo’s birthday?

I can’t answer that but again I did think about it. It seems kind of weird but this whole damn situation is about as weird as weird gets. I tried to read it from just the standpoint of how funny and well constructed I thought it was and I do have to say I was quite pleased.

There are some laugh out loud funny lines in it and yes it still needs tweaking but it is a quality product in my opinion and I am not ashamed to show it to anyone. That’s the key. If I don’t believe in it how can I ever sell it to someone else? I really think we nailed it.

This wasn’t the major part of my day though. I had breakfast with a former student who is a sales person by trade and was making a sales call not far from me. We hadn’t visited for a long time but cleaning out my email stack put us back in touch again. He’s a sincere and honest and funny guy and I love his vibe. His name is Rocky Ruggiero. Great name.

Rocky and I had breakfast and kicked around ideas and I was thrilled to get back on the radar of a positive guy like him. We both agreed we want to surround ourselves with that and today was a good start. We sat and kicked around ideas and I learned a lot just from a single breakfast. Rocky has excellent organizational skills while mine are akin to a goat‘s.

The first thing I did after breakfast was go to the Office Depot and buy some binders for comedy classes coming up. I have always meant to do that but now I have all I need to get prepared and make sure I have paperwork done and not be running around the day before.

I had a dentist appointment today but it got postponed because my dentist just got back from a visit to Russia where he’s from. My appointment was botched and he apologized but what could I say? I wasn’t angry about it and it will save me the cost of the crown he is going to put in that I’ve been dreading for weeks now. I’ll have another week to wait.

Tonight I went to the car auction in Waukegan with a very good guy named Jim. He’s a reader of my blog and emailed me asking if I wouldn’t mind going along to show him the ropes at the auction. I never mind that and in fact I totally enjoy it so of course I said yes.

Jim drove down from Milwaukee and it was very flattering to hear him say he reads my blog regularly. He’s a smart guy and also a dented can and I hope I helped him get a feel for the auction. He shared a little of his story with me and I could relate to every bit of it. I respect the fact that like me he chose not to let it defeat him and he’s making his life now what it wasn’t as a kid and I respect him beyond words for doing it. He bought me dinner too and didn’t have to do that. I hope I can return the favor. Rocky and Jim saved my day.