Single, Successful, but Struggling in Seattle: Something we CAN do (for my pal Chris Stipp)

My good ole pal Christopher Stipp....where do I start with this guy? When I first met him, I didn't think I was going to like him actually. He was taking over a sales position at my previous place of employment that had been formerly housed by the infamous Christopher Anderson, who was moving to Austin, Texas to explore other opportunities (too many Chris's in my life...seriously, I have about 9 Chris numbers in my cell phone right now). Mr. Stipp and I were going to be working directly with each other, every day, and his desk was right next to mine. The thought that I wasn't going to like him didn't come from his first impression, but rather the fact that I wasn't certain he would appreciate my dry, witty sarcasm as much as Mr. Anderson did.

For those that know me, I have a tendency to joke around a lot, and as I mentioned before, it mostly runs on the sarcastic side. I have to keep myself in check from time to time because some people just don't know not to take it personally, and some people can't tell that I'm not being serious...well, most of the time anyway...sometimes I reserve that blunt shit for the folks that deserve it.

Anyway, back to Mr. Stipp...at first I thought he wasn't going to get "me", but luckily I was wrong. He could take it and dish it out with the best of them...even with Mr. Anderson (only thing he was missing was the gift of doing great Anthony Mills impersonations). For those of you that don't know these folks, Anthony was the resident ginger kid....we picked on him alot, but he loves us anyway (I think!).

Enough about Mills, though. Stipp is one of those guys that is always busy. He gets up early in the morning to exercise, makes it to the office early, and plugs away all day. He's like a little squirrel, hunkered down in his cubicle eating these random nuts and berries and burnt popcorn thingies that he buys in bulk somewhere while he's going over a proposal from some random agency person. He's conscious of his spending, so he rarely headed out to lunch with the likes of us gluttons, but rather opted to eat the lunch he brought in while using his free time to pursue another passion of his...writing movie reviews. Click here to read some of them.

If you ask Stipp what he's doing over the weekend, it is usually something with his family...taking the kids to the park, going hiking, etc. You'll notice that all of these types of activities require little, if any, money. Stipp's family, like so many others, has fallen on hard times with our current economy. Click here to read an article about his current situation. It boils down to the old saying, "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do." This guy is doing whatever he can to provide for his family, and that includes entering a contest that is being put on by McDonald's that offers up $50,000 in prize money.

Why am I blogging about this? Because he needs our votes to win. Click here to vote for Christopher. And while there are a vast number of things that we can't control in the current state of our economy, this is something we CAN do to make life a little easier for a great guy with a great family that's fallen on hard times. This could just as easily be one of us in the future, and I'm a firm believer in what goes around comes around. So, help yourself out a little in the karma department and vote for Chris...if nothing else, you'll feel better about yourself for doing so. I mean, how can you say "no" to this family!