Hi. I’m that guy that was least likely to succeed, most likely to end up in prison and/or die in a flop house in Tijuana, Mexico. I guess we were all wrong.

 

My wife, Mary Jo, and I will be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary next March. I retired from IBM in 2016, after a successful 40 plus years in the IT industry.

 

I have a make believe, crazy friend, named Andy, who thought we could get rich by creating a GoFundMe page.

“It’s easy,” he said, “just put your name, birthday, SSN, checking account number and mother’s maiden name on the website, and wait for the money to pour in.”

I have another make believe friend, who is smart.

“Dan, I told you not to listen to Andy, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Never publish personal, sensitive data on the web.”

I guess that explains where the money went.

 

I love to write so I thought I would take a shot at writing a novel. At first it was going to be a true autobiographical expose, naming names, telling it like it was; but then how would I explain Andy and Andrew. So I made it a fictional memoir, and my make believe friends became the stars of the show, so they tell me.

“It’s a best seller, I knew it would be,” Andy said smugly.

“He means best cellar, as the sales are still in the basement,” corrected Andrew.

“You’re both nuts,” I said, “I shouldn’t have listened to either one of you.”

 

Although I did not graduate from SLPHS I consider myself to be part of the Class of ’69. I am looking forward to seeing people I don’t know, others I do and who don’t want to see me; and the few girls I would’ve asked out if my irrational fear of rejection hadn’t held me back.