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Author Archives: mary jean ziska
thursday July 28th 2011 @12:20am ( people on teh phone who have once again mixed up myfamily with the wrong family what the hell…. ????)
so in mysearchforjjsutice.com i mentioned so many times about the wrong ans i mean really wrong people… late tonight my fake mom on the phone was bad mouthing my sister Maura.. saying she was cold hearten and unhelpful that she didn’t want to help me with my home auction situation… . or anything…. luckily i spoke with blake fletcher earlier today… and yesterday and had him also confirm that my sister is great… she is nice i mean she is a really strong and smart woman… who knows her mind and who stands up for her beliefs.. but i know for certain that she has a really sweet side to her… and a really great personality …. and who actually has a very sensitive side…. i remember talking to her abut the “soup for the soul stories”… and i remember her talking about when we imagined having children children.. …actually ….when we both had children…( of course i never got to have the opportunity) and if we had the opportunity to raise children…. it would be nice so that they knew their cousins… and so that they could be friends…
my sister actually both sisters would not have been so loved by all their friends… if they were as mean as these people on the phone keep trying to make them …. and i know she( MAURA) always has had so many friends… maura and mattie coudl go to any town.. int any place… and make freids.. and be loved by all…. really quickly… i always admired that about them… i was sometimes a bit more shy around strangers but woudl warm up after a while
For some reason people don’t want me to have anyone who can help with this whole hoe auction… don’t know if they are themselves making a profit off my suffering…. or just sticking me with all the wrong people … who aren’t my friends or family…. or influential people who could actually help…. i couldn’t in a million years ever think that my sister would want me to go through anything bad…. lose my home over a simple and actully a small amout of money…. for most of the real people i used to know…. and the continued misunderstandings… and the series of events that seem to have lead here… mysiter maura is not soem mean ogar…. who want s me to go through soethgn bad..jsut liek i had some idiot who said that she was actually picking on my mom… how rdiculious…. totally not myisiter…. who woud lbe so cruel a sto pick n a 74 year old woman… who mad sure we had a great chidhood and who made sure that we had evereythign we ever needed includgn tris al aoud the world… and so many woderful experiences…. i honstly thnkit has been 8 years of havong the wrong family.. maybe longer… but its jsut not right…. who thought of this sick and psycho game of ruining families.. and lives only to steal property and businesses .. do they have a consciousnss? do they have a loving mother or sister?
Did i mention that i had someone telling me they would help me… with solving this whole auction thing and the right of redemption but that i wasn’t allow to work for the babysitting business s anymore? What type of freak could that have been? … didn’t sound like someone who actually knew a dam thing about what i did for the business… and how hard i worked with out pay ( which by the way is kicking me in the rear… i need pay stubs and verification of income to get a loan from the bank… and if had those i wouldn’t have been trying to have any assistance… from friends and family…. (if i could actually get in touch with them. the funny thing is … looking back on when i had the 15, 000. in petty cash and lots of business… i guess I had alot of friends … where are they now? .
since i cant reach anyone…. i am wondering if these were really great friends.. or is it that the scummy con artists have “used up” all the resources from my friends…. because if ever i needed to contact my genuine friends and family now was the time…. I’m not sure now if everyone was a true friends.. i think they were.. i usually select really great people who are genuine… and not such swayed by if you have money today or not.. in fact growing up in Saudi i don’t ever remember ever thinking about money.. it just wasn’t an issue… you liked people for who who they were… and of course we were growing up with them…. in a small safe environment where everyone got to do pretty much the same things….
i cant even talk to them to let them know the conditions i was trying to set for repayments.. for interest.. or for even an extra bonus to sweeten the deal as they say….
it is so frustrating to talk to someone whois supposed t know youand really love you.. and hasnt a clue about what yoru family was really like.. i sont know if allthese peole believe allthe lies… andi cant stop the lies… irealized that with karn kahel…. and her lies… telling me she knew my mother… and my own mother was saying horrid things about me.. just like the liar today who is saying my sister would not be nice and smart and successful… and wouldn’t jump through fire to be there for her family… ( who ever she knew must have been as evil as her… to have to make others look bad and feel bad so that she could feel better about herself.. definitional of a bully by the way….. and it was more for the boys she trespassed into the strand for…. the boys she screwed ….. those boys… may have been the fake mothers who stuck up for a bully so they could get laid…. and those boys and girls… who wouldn’t be my choice for my friends or family …. who could have been on the phone as my mother..( you can change your voice to sound like a girl if your a boy…. that i researched… )
and these people are still getting away with saying bad things about me and my family…. perhaps its the girl around the corner the boys play with.. who likes upsetting me to tears or to raising my voice…. does she do it to try to prove she is superior… the better person who or better family with her lies… gosh they are so pathetic… .anyway enough of them… i guess iwont get to have my real family back unti i see them in heaven.adn there will be no more bullies.. no more lies.. no mare intentional manipulation… and it will be everything i had wanted my life to be like here…. .
so looking back on 8 years of all of this.. not one full year of great fun and peace and happiness without some major trauma or drama i was to endure… ( i still for the life of me think of what i could have possibly done to have so many horrible people pick on me.. so much.. and destroy pretty much all of my life…. but i mentioned before .. i now know that I i don’t matter… they have made that fact perfectly clear… also I realized that it was or is like this whole horrible series of horrid events is all calculated… the gilr who stole messages.. from our phones and files from my home… .eventually stole a business (my mom started in 1990… ) . then they completely shut us out of a business that was my mom’s legacy… and stole a business by stealing the babysitting jobs… stealing contracts … and well…. doing anything and everything underhandedly… jsut not ethical.. moral or good business.. in the long run i hope what goes around comes around for these thieves…. i have thousands of thee type of examples and experiences that have changed the course of my life ..
and who maliciously and with deliberate intent were executed by whoever these people are…… i know they are not brave enough to own up to their responsibility for ruining lives… when i say i wasn’t paid ( by whoever was pretending to be my mom at the time…. ) for they years of work helping to create websites.. and all sorts of avenues for advertising, marketing, deemed necessary for a business to succeed… these people on the phone… sometimes get really defensive.. one time it was like argue with a bratty little kid… who wanted to justifiy why he or she stole…. there is no excuse.. hate to tell you people .. but you can lie all you want .. what you did was wrong… to steal is wrong… you should have to deal with the consequences of your actions.. just like i have to live with the consequences of your actions…. your lies on the phone…… .your bulling just unforgivable…. ( you know i realized that karn kahel never once said she was sorry…. not once… ) hummm you boys still think karen, katie or kimmy or whoever is nice?
another example… happening right now… now.. trying to reach people who would help …. in a heartbeat… they would help… but after years of god only knows what was told to them… so many people are probably not wiling to believe everything… an now is when i really need to make sure i can reach my genuine friends and family…. for real…. but by manipulating the emails.. and the messages… they have not only wasted precious time… but not allowed a positive solution for a horrible situation… i know for a fact that my sister Maura could have fixed all of this before the condo went up for auction…. she is a real estate lawyer…. she would have most probably had the lawyers fees and interest dismissed..or waived.. she would have know all about he right of redemption… and all the things i have to learn about on my own… but just by getting rid of the fees.. the total due would have been so much less… approx. 21,000 to come up with….. and i bet she would have been able to post pone or work out a settlement that i could have used the equity in the condo… to redeem the value.. so i could have paid it myself…. . and it would have been all over in a few days if not a week…. if you are able to talk to the correct and helpful people it would have been fixed…. easily fixed… and for my benefit… and there wouldn’t be a horrible outcome that is totally the result from the manipulation of the situation…. once again i say… malicious intent…. premeditated, deliberate… and calculated…..
Maura has never been like some punishing god who wants to harm me… its not who i ever knew as my sister…. ask gloria fletcher.. or blake fletcher… or anyone who knows her…. for Gods sake this isn’t a game it is my real life…. and i have to deal with the real consequences of not begin able to contact the family/friends who can help me make everything right… dont you get it?… you are ruining a real life.. my real life….
again i repeat.. my sister Maura.. is not like some punishing GOD… who is out to harm me to see what will happen .. or worse yet who doesn’t care what will happen… she just wouldn’t . do that or be like that …. she’s a great lawyer…. with great advice… and i know would have fixed this situation in a minute…. ….
It feel as if these sickos onteh phone also don’t want me to have any friends.. and especially any friends who made wise choices and have secure finances…. even family or friends that would be willing to help so i could just borrow the money .. get my home back..then pay them back….. some of these people on the phone have wanted to really profit and i mean big time profit… off my misfortune.. .. they have yelled at me.. not knwing anything aobut me or mywork ethic.. theytellme to go get a job… that they have been telling me this for years… which is a lie.. that acuallyjstu started recently… of couse th eiditos ont he phone dont knwo tha i helped mymom whtn i ws 10 or 11 and we allhelped withher tours… learneto ansere th aphone with proper etiquette… and gained tha entrpreneural spitit. aobu the same time…HA! theydont knwo tha kathey yung an i started a peanut brittle busniess.. when we wer 11 or 12… that i thought it ws funto hve money adn starte busnesses.. i still do…. in fact they had no idea tha i had contracts 15,000.00 per project… when i was still faux painting for my own business… with a minimum of $825.00 to walk into a room ( including stenciled boarder or a powder bath… to do anything…. that my contract s for the projects.. the sample boards.. and every aspect of the business.. i was excited to create… all i can say is that i know last year when i was working with group of sitters at the Edwards Jones group…. one sitter named Andrea mots said her husband was yelling at her to get a job.. now i never met the man… and i don’t know who these people are acting like but I can definitely tell you i don’t enjoy this personality at all…..not one bit!… who needs about be accused of not working enough.. or yelled at to go get a job when they know nothing of me or my life… and my family helped to chose careers not just jobs.. and carers that you were passionate about… my dad was really big on finding something hat you liked to do… since when you love what you do it isn’t like work…
i can tell you … the truth… its just not the same…. nothing like that philosophy… has one of the conversations… nothing nice.. and thought provoking… or inspirational… who are these people? mostly i get upset at them trying to predict a horrid future for me… or who are they acting like?…. its not like my family…. and its like sometimes it is a repeated tape… nothing real or original..or normal… hen they find a sore spot.. like i get sensitive when they talk bad about my sisters..then they so for the kill… and try to make me really upset.. or when they want t me to believe the worst thing ever…. ..that i have to move from a home i have had since1999…. that my mom and dad helped me to pick out… lose my home and have nothing…then they l go on and on until i have a stomach ache and get mad… and eventually cry…. …. its like they have a series f scripts thy read from… or a series of events/ stories…. with the argument.. the same hurting… but like different people saying the same things…. does that make any sense… its like they only know one page of dialogue.. nothing before the page and nothing after.. jut one page…..and if its rotten page…. then i get to cry a lot…. and its like the girls know who might be listening.. who they want to make me look bad for and how… they are clever i must give them that.. and sneaky and of course so fake it isn’t funny i bit they put on a fake smile and act so sweet.. ( not genuine in the least….especially if they can bully….. like they do… well… then ti guess evil comes in all sorts of packages… ) but karne used to actually trespass at eh exact moment i was leaving my home..in fact a few times she ran right in front of my car…. and i would be upset for house… same with the cards i would get that&nb
sp; were post marked from Cleveland.. and anonymous.(of course) .. but had mean messages inside…. i eventually became so frightened to open anything… that might be from the bullies… an their families…. and when i did by mistake… i and would get upset…it would take so long to calm down… i guess that is why they did it to spoil holidays…
my voice is horse.. and stomach hurts.. i hate that thee strangers want me to have this horrid unloving and rotten family… so not only is it o.k. to bully me… and make me cry.. but to isolate me form real family members who actually know and love me…
i’m assuming since they have tried to get me to speak bad of y sisters.. they have most probably done this to them… made them speak bad of me?.. or did my sisters stand up for me? ..i wonder…. anyway… tired and have written allot… its ashame thiswebsite was supposed to be all about he fun of dating and meeting mr. right… and love and romance.. and….
Wednesday July 27th 2011@10:08pm ( stories written by me… requested by david bodnar)
story #1
Sunday July 24th 2011 @7:36pm ( downto the wire… )
…honestly i cant talk about the possibility that i will lose my home.. i get all choked up.. and cry…my stomach hurts…. and the future looks really bleak… i actually had a really mean person who forgot how much i actually did for the babysitting business..and the etiquette school…. the contract that actually landed the Waldorf exclusive sitting… the non compete form i created.. the websites i created.. the business plan and executive summary I created… even time helping to restructure the business cards.. pick up the cards when they were finished.. just everything…. . helping my mom to organize the school facility… labeling … there was a lot…. and yes these are all skills that i can use so it wasn’t a waste…it just didn’t help that i worked with out pay stubs and without documentation like even deposit receipts for money being paid.. (since I didn’t get paid… no receipts)…. that could l have helped me to get a loan…. then i wouldn’t be praying and hoping that something will come through… like a miracle… we left a message with the priests again…. i posted all 530 of my facebook friends.. to ask for there help and ideas.. and help… i emailed everyone… i tried to call a bunch but i don’t know if any of my calls ever got through… .my mom even had an idea… if 530 people put in a loan of 82.00….and i paid them all back 100 dollars…. adn coudl pay them all off in 12 to 18 months…. then i would have enough to pay off the loan… bit by bit… my idea was to put in an extra 10,000 on top of the 43,000 at whatever interest…. and then they would surely have an incentive for the loan….right? …. i want everything settled in my favor now!… so i can rest peacefully tonight… knowing that i will have my home in my name… and then the next task is to get additional work… if the church wants me to work …. i don’t know if they would want me to work for free.. ( which i just recently discovered hurts me a bit in the end…) or garnish a portion of my wages…. so now … i will just have to wait…… i called in prayers to my old high school/ boarding school villa maria… i first called them on the 14th of July …. when i first found out… I also called st Williams.. and put in prayer requests for ave maria.. and for st Williams… even the St Jude websites…. i both called and put a request in writing.. when i was talking to sister jean(from villa) she said that the day (or two0 when i got so frustrated with god that he wont hold my anger against me .. for whatever i said… like in the bible… when peter denied christ 3 times… . he still became a saint… and was a stong believer…. i am jst totally frustrated and i feel that this whole thing is so manipulated… actually all the bad and horrible thing i have been through…. have been so manipulated.. and trying to prove i can take more pain.. is like a really sick / cruel individual that i would never want as my family or as my friend … the people who want the phone numbers of those individuals who could help me.. i thought they were trying to help..when in fact hey weren’t trying to help…. the ones who yell at me on the phone… on purpose.. to make me look back knowing i will get upset as well…. those are really nt nice people…and really not on my side for me to have a great and wonderful life.. who is so jelious..and so mean to ruin a life…. on purpose? and a person’s real life… my real life… why?
anyway just typing about it… gets me upset… so no more… just wanted to put in an entry to say when i prayed and who was praying with me…. i can’t wait to be able to say that god came through with answering my prayers…. right? sister jean from villa asked me to call her and let her know when my prayers were answered.. the Carmelites will be really disappointed if this one prayer isn’t answered so will the convent full of blue nuns at villa…. and anyone i have been telling that i have been saying a st Jude novena… will be just so much harder to say they believe in prayer… right? and for me….. what i told God today…if he didn’t come through i just don’t think i could go to mass again.. or pray again… i don’t think i woudl see the point in anything….. when he forgot me…. and abandoned me… and let a bunch of really elfish people jump up and down and say they won they won… by being evil and lying an cheating and stealing.. by manipulating and ruing my life….and dong so on purpose… then for real evil will have won…
Saturday july 23rd 2011 @ 10:30pm ( teh ntoe i wrote adn gave to teh ritz carlton gormet shop…. simialr to allteh thank you notes i wrote and gave out yesterday… )
to everyone at eh Gormet shop ( rttz carlton beach resort naples florida )
i dont knwo if in a card i can honestly and with teh sincerest heart let you know how gratedful and thankful i am fo r yoru kindness oyour friendship adn your warn smilesagreetings over these past years.. but inthis card i will certainly tryto convey the epth of my appreciation!
When people or teh workd woudl seem to make me cry or bully me.. i knew when i woudl ‘run away.. to teh ritz carlon beach resort come to the gormet shop and get my vanila icecream i knew somehow things woudl start to get better mytears woudl stop your smiles and warm hello great and familiar faces were always so freindsly sweet an cice and chaged whatever was going aroun me.. i jstu want to take a moment to thak you fromteh bottoma o fmyheart for al tyour kindness decency adn freindship and to let you know that you mada positive diffeence in my life an i cant begina to tell youthank you enough.. incase i sont get a chance to bring any small gifts acrds aro giagngerbtad men this holiay season i want to make sure you ar aware of how much i appreciat al of ou guys and all teh peole and the ritz carlton beach resort ni naples
I guess you can consider this a bit of an early holiday /christmas card wth teh warmenst of wishes for ou and yoru families.. i am stil saying that st jude novena everyday and include your an yoru familys with a prayer for protection form harm adn for blessign youadn yoru families may bl yoru wishes adn dreams come true adn may ou ahve a great new year! with sincerest than kyou for everything luv mary jean ziska
Thursday July 21st 2011 @ ( events of yesterday and today..).
late last night i went to go and say my novena… at st John’s catholic church …. I also stopped by see the beach. I hadn’t been there in a while… and it is always so peaceful… and private…. i do my usual… lucky rub on the camel head… bless myself… and soak in the waves… the sights the sounds and the wind… say a small prayer.. say out loud where the hell are you god?…. and then I went by the ritz carlton beach resort… I had written early thank you and holiday greetings cards… and gave one to the valets.. and found out the time the gourmet shop was supposed to open… in the morning… I wanted to wake up early…. go there get their delicious scones and croissants avec chocolate… and start my day trying to see if god and all my friends and family would be able to produce a miracle for this horrible situation of my home being auctioned …. or the hoa to be paid… no auction… and this to be all over…. no more tears.. no more of someone profiting from my suffereing…. and for great adn wonderful things to start happening…
i did wake up early… and get on the treadmill.. showered and had some breakfast… then by the time i was ready to go to the ritz… it was too close to the time i had set up an appointment for the bank.. i went to two banks to see if it was possible to get a loan.. to do something… there was an option of having a CD or savings account and getting a loan based on that… would have been the fastest way to do something… but to no avail….
so starting to cry..to feel like God and everyone had basically abandoned me….. at least everyone i had spoken to on the phone…. i went to St john’s catholic church to see if father Len was there so i could tell him that God hasn’t come through with a miracle … and it was really cutting it close…. and to ask Why? Why hadn’t my st Jude prayer been answered…. was i saying the prayer wrong? or what was the real deal…
Father Len wasn’t there so i spoke with a new priest Father tom Kelly….. super nice .. and about my age… we spoke for a really long time… we had a chance to talk about everything … not jsut about god.. or about prayers… he let me sit in his seat and we did a bit a of a roll reversal i guess you could call it.. where i was telling him to believe in miracles… to be positive and that the church has a ton of resources that everything was going to work out according to my heart and desires..that god doesn’t give his child a stone instead of a fish when he is hungry…( totally misquoted…. the scripture .. sorry….) but we talked abut the newsboy song ” shine.” and how people should be something other s want to emulate…. that is how or why people will start believing and have faith… we spoke abut all the horrid experiences i have had to go through…including bullies and i even showed him karn kahel’s picture adn todl him she used to go tht st john’s …. and how the one tme i went to church she even went to sit by me and when I moved to another seat… she moved.. to be close to me… i guess it scare me… or make me feel uncomfortable… who knows why anyone bulliles..or harms others except for their own selfish intensions… he even pulled up my website www.mysearchforjustice.com . We talked abut families.. and i told him of the most recent people who couldn’t possibly be my family… especially that dad… a horrible dad who said if i committed suicide it wouldn’t affect his life… definitely not my dad.. or even a friend… lt alone some one who cared and loved me… i must say by the time i left i wasn’t crying anymore.. and i have hope that this entire situation will be resolved and i will have my home… and in my name… and life can hopefully and god willing go back to what it should have been…. please pray for me…. we even talked abuot some ideas for the church to introduce some great new services… like helping to encourage and assist in people starting new businesses.. or angel investing so they can help businesses grow… he thought my calling was to be an entrepreneur… (at one point in time he thought maybe i had a calling to suffer… to which i replied …absolutely not…. HA!) we talked abut a service where businesses could find assistance and resources to help them be more successful… then do a donation …. maybe a time of service and money to then help another person and business to succeed… my mom said it was a bit like a “pay it forward” situation…. ( and guess what? on channel #96 tonight is the movie “pay it forward”… weird coincidences… right? )
anyway…. after seeing father Kelly I was soooo tired and exhausted… I came home and ate something and crashed….. i felt like i could have just slept forever… even thought i wanted to just rest my eyes until the swelling went down… and my stomach and heart stopped being upset whenever i thought about what some people are wanting me to go through…. to lose my home.. my business.. and everything…
I actually had someone on the phone tonight tell me its no big deal..losing everything….. finally I thought of a good comeback… I should just tell these people… the ones who want me to lose everything… is so good for them to know that since possessions or a home doesn’t matter to them it is good to know that they will give up everything they have…. for someone else… or jsut lose everything…I bet they wouldn’t be so passive… if it was happening to them….. right? or to their children….
I forgot to mention that when i left the ritz i saw two police cars pulling over this silver car… one car ended up leaving and for a light moment he was behind me and i felt safe.. safe like when my friend Scott or anyone who was really a friend or great family member would protect me from all harm… like someone ” has your back”…… and i will be safe from harm.. and after meeting with the priest… that somehow a miracle will happen and I will have my heart desires… my condo in my name with it all paid off and be able to start fresh with no drama and trauma… except I would want to have a video security surveillance.. to stop all future drama and trauma…. gosh wouldn’t that be great….. or a multimillion dollar lottery ticket…. immediately… ( the lotto and power ball tickets for wed the 20th didn’t win at all…. )
Thursday July 21 2011 ( have you ever? )
trying to retype my post of the have you ever ….. weird things with the computer.. last post…
have you ever really believed that miracles happen?
have you ever really wanted to speak to people from your past.. or even your present and make sure they knew how much they mean to you… and how valuable they are to you? to thank them for just being a part of your life… for making you smile…. and laugh… and make damm sure that they know i mean really know that they made a difference in you life?
have you ever wanted to make sure that everyone knew that you loved them…
have you ever wished you could actually spend time with loved ones or friends… one last time…
just I think it is so important to tell everyone what you want them to know… I learned that fact when david stupay killed himself at boarding school…. at military school …. that is why i wear his ring.. to try to remember to say what you mean… to be honest.. and to actually say everything you want to say… part because you never know what is going to happen… didn’t 9/11 teach that as well?
Have you ever cried so much that you think there is no possible way
you still have any tears left? and then felt so exhausted…. just
emotionally drained… that you went to lie down in your bed and just
didn’t get up for hours… .. have you ever honestly thought that there
was a god who could come through even if it was last minute with a
miracle? have you ever jstu wantd to talk to people who were special
to you and let them know how important they are to you… well if you haven’t make sure you do….
Thursday July 21st 2011 @7:10pm ( have you ever?)
Have you ever cried so much that you think there is no possible way you still have any tears left? and then felt so exhausted…. just emotionally drained… that you went to lie down in your bed and just didn’t get up for hours… .. have you ever honestly thought that there was a god who could come through even if it was last minute with a miracle? have you ever jstu wantd to talk to people who were special to you and let them know how important they are to you
July 03 2011 @5:48pm ( so much to catch up on….)
Well this past week i feel like i have been fixing and re fixing computers… downloading and re downloading info and disks and just when i think that i have everything fixed i would plug in something into the usb port and kaboom.. the blue screen o f death saying ” bad pool header”…. or some other message that made no sens to me… and would leave me scrambling to Google what i was to do to fix it.. or contacting my computer website that has an automated chat… and is really not much help… UGG so i have tons to catch up on ….
my sisiter was in town for two weeks and it was like a stranger was here… i don’t know who she was acting like but i have to say this visit was nothing like any other visit i have ever had with a loving and caring sister… it wasn’t like my best friend.. and i feel even more lonely after her non visit…. this un-twin who shares my birthday… who i considered one of my best friends… who i wanted to go to Europe with… to bless with having her hopes and dreams come true…. actually made me cry… and when i cried i thumbs up was given by her… sh acted like a uncaring boy… like a stranger… and like someone who just wanted some thing from me… i found out at the end of the visit it is a photo album… did i mention that this person hung out with Sheri one of the babysitters instead of my mom? weird… so no after giving a diamond and sapphire ring to what was supposed to be my sister and she said score as if she had just conned me out of a ring my sister had told mt to keep safe….i won’t turn over any of my families possessions ….. i have had far to many con artist in my life since meeting gerard and his scummy parasitic associates…ugg….
you know the anticipation of having your best friend come to visit… hoping you can just catch up and talk… can share all your new hopes and dreams… hoping you can ask advice.. and hugs and memories… i mean when i went to a reunion with kathy young, and carolyn walters and kathie higdon in texas… it was like not a minute had gone by.. we could chat about ……. growing up… literary…. they knew everything.. we even went through our old jr high journals…. with tons of notes… still dint know how we managed to learn anything.. all we did was write notes….
from memories of jr. high..we talked about …. life in Saudi.. about memories and new adventures.. about family and children… about everything… like real friends …. i used to talk on the phone for hours and hours to all my friends…
i often wonder when i stated talking to the wrong people on the phone.. i still want to think it was 2003 when gerard got terrible about me always having my cell phone on and with me at all times… when he threatened me on the phone..
was it when i had my own business… starting when i moved into my condo in 1999? or when i met the scum of the earth in 2003?…. was that when jobs and business were first stolen?
possibly…. i was too naive… too innocent and too trusting then…. … i just saw the Italian job… (a movie about criminals)…
when will anyone make some nice movies that don’t involve making criminals glamorous? in the movie… n criminals were manipulating lives by screwing up their phone lines.. even having a fake cable person come to fix the cable… life imitating art? or art imitating life……. also these criminals had the knowledge to manipulate the lights at intersections to divert traffic… its no fair… criminals winning… bullies winning…. its just not fair…. when will any of the good guys actually win… succeed and when will these criminals be put in jail and not allowed to harm anyone ever again?
Monday June 13th 2011@5:07pm ( an inspiring article… after one hit wonder)
After the One-Hit Wonder
They hit it big. Really big. But then what?
By JEFF MAY
Pet rocks. Cabbage
Patch Kids. The Rubik’s Cube. The marketplace, like the Billboard
charts, is full of one-hit wonders—products that come out of nowhere,
capture the national imagination, then just as quickly turn into punch
lines and trivia answers.
Journal Report
Read the complete
Small Business report
.
But what about the entrepreneurs behind these creations? What do they do after the novelty of their novelty products wears off?
We decided to find out. We tracked
down four people who introduced some of the most popular fad items of
the past few decades to find out how they handled their sudden
prosperity—and rapid exit from the limelight. Some were relaxing and
enjoying their spoils. Others were trying to capture lightning in a
bottle one more time.
Here are their stories.
Stuck on Poetry
A sneeze helped make Dave Kapell the spiritual bard of the refrigerator door.
Back in 1993, the Minneapolis native
was an aspiring musician who liked to cut up his diaries and rearrange
the words to create song lyrics. But he was prone to allergies and, with
the pollen count soaring one day, he sneezed and scattered an
almost-finished song. An idea was born: Why not stick magnets on the
bits of paper and affix them to a cookie sheet to keep them in place?
The contraption stayed in Mr. Kapell’s room for a few months until he
threw a house party and needed the cookie sheet for baking. The word
magnets went up on the refrigerator—and throughout the night, Mr.
Kapell’s friends kept stealing back to the kitchen to scramble the
lyrics. The next day, he got a half-dozen orders for the magnet kits.
“Within a month of the party, it was like I was selling drugs out of
my house,” says Mr. Kapell, who is 48. “It went viral before viral was a
term.”
Soon he was making more from his Magnetic Poetry kits than from his $8-an-hour job in data entry, which he promptly quit.
Friends in retail said he might not have a lot of time to exploit his
big opportunity. So, he pored over books on start-ups and worked
90-hour weeks to build the brand. By 1995, Mr. Kapell and a partner had
set up a company, U.S. Magnetix, to produce custom magnets in China. To
get prime placement for his kits, he prowled gift-shop conferences and
craft fairs, where he found himself treated like the rock god he once
dreamed of becoming.
“I knew that I had hit an atypical home run,” he says. “At trade shows, everyone would say, ‘Everyone wants to be you.’ “
Mr.
Kapell wooed big chain bookstores to get prime locations in their
checkout aisles but didn’t ignore mom-and-pop stores. He says his close
relationship with that close-knit segment has kept copycat products off
the shelves.
To encourage repeat customers, Mr. Kapell started brainstorming new
ideas, such as packs with oversize words for kids, foreign-language
versions and ones with themes such as geeks, Christmas and bike lovers.
“I don’t necessarily like the business side of this,” he says. “Dotting
the i’s and crossing the t’s is not what I’m best at. But I like coming
up with new products.”
That urge, however, led to some missteps. In the late 1990s, Mr.
Kapell tried to develop a software version of the poetry kits, as well
as a game. Both led to steep losses. Another venture, Poetry Stones—a
kit that let crafters frame their messages in quick-set cement—was
initially successful but tailed off quickly.
Fad Blasts from the Past
These days, the recession has hurt sales, as
have the tenuous fortunes of his two biggest customers, Borders and
Barnes & Noble. Mr. Kapell says he is looking to broaden
distribution and is considering a Magnetic Poetry app for the iPhone and
iPad. He’s also making changes in his company’s online store to make
direct sales easier.
In general, though, he says he’s content to issue a half-dozen or
more variations on the original kit each year. A zombie-themed kit is
popular, he says, and erotic-word versions are perennial favorites. A
recent golf-lovers’ kit, on the other hand, was a dud.
Mr. Kapell wouldn’t respond to questions about exactly how much he’s
made from the kits. But, he says, even with the current slowdown,
profits from Magnetic Poetry have allowed him to play gigs more than he
ever could as a struggling musician. He frequently plays ukulele with a
local burlesque troupe and drags along a vintage stand-up bass on
camping trips with friends. His house is decked out with a grand piano
and a 70-piece ukulele collection.
And he thinks the business has staying power. “It’s not a pet rock,”
Mr. Kapell says. “It actually has utility. We get letters from people
every day who are fans.”
It’s All In the Wrist
Robert Croak had built a nice business marketing novelty
products, but he wanted something that could lift his company into the
big leagues.
On a trip to a supplier in China in
2007, the Toledo, Ohio, businessman came across a product that seemed to
fit the bill: a thin, brightly colored silicone band shaped like an
animal. It was designed for office workers, but Mr. Croak thought the
concept had much greater potential as a mass-market bracelet for
children. So, he began working on his own variation on the theme—Silly
Bandz.
The 47-year-old Mr. Croak says the product sold in dribs and drabs at
first. But he says he knew he had a hit on his hands when a store
called in late 2007 and ordered 500 packs. “Within 10 days or two weeks,
the phone started ringing off the hook,” he says.
Marketed in theme packs for under $5, the bracelets became a huge
schoolyard fad and eventually sold in the millions. To stoke interest,
Mr. Croak and his team at BCP Imports LLC kept releasing new themes,
from animals to popular cartoon characters to corporate logos.
Early on, however, BCP couldn’t keep up with demand—or answer all the
calls coming in from frantic retailers. An eight-line phone system was
hastily upgraded to 48 lines. The company’s lone server proved
inadequate after a CBS News segment on Silly Bandz led to 11 million
hits on the product website; the company now has three servers.
“It was difficult,” Mr. Croak says. “We had to figure out how to
handle all the growth. But I always tell people, if you hear me
complain, slap me.”
As
the economy crumbled in 2008, sales of Silly Bandz kept growing. At one
point, the company was so overwhelmed with shipping orders that Mr.
Croak sent out a plea for night-shift workers on Facebook. A few hours
later, a line of applicants snaked around the block. “We had to lock the
door because we had so many people show up,” Mr. Croak says.
The hiccups in logistics allowed copycat manufacturers to get a
foothold. “I don’t think the knockoffs would have really gained any
ground had the retailers not been in dire need of inventory,” Mr. Croak
says, adding that BCP is vigorous in protecting its copyrights.
Although demand is rising for Silly Bandz abroad, the product has
already peaked in the U.S. Mr. Croak says he was planning for a slowdown
a year ago, and so BCP has introduced a range of new items: the Slap
Watch, which has an oversized, brightly colored silicone wristband; Rad
Bandz, thick rubber bracelets imprinted with stylized words such as
“Drama” and “Epic Fail”; and RadRingz, a colorful, two-finger ring—Mr.
Croak calls it “half a brass knuckle”—with removable faceplates.
“The goal is to become a lifestyle brand of fun, innovative new fashion products that kids can buy for under $20,” he says.
Mr. Croak won’t disclose just how much his breakout product brings
in, except to say that the profits are in the “millions per year,” and
he’s probably set for life. What’s more, “Silly Bandz gives me the
capability to dream big and not be stifled by lack of resources.”
He says he realizes he may not ever have a hit like Silly Bandz
again. Yet he still gets a kick when he sees his products in a store,
and wants to keep the momentum going. “To me, it’s about the chase and
conquer,” he says.
Million-Dollar Baby
Michael Lerner’s journey to entrepreneurial stardom
began with a white-knuckled ride down Storrow Drive in Boston.
Mr. Lerner had agreed to drive his
18-month-old nephew home after a Sunday gathering at his parents’ house
in 1984. Childless himself, he soon realized he had failed to account
for the hell-bent traffic on Storrow, a notoriously busy expressway
along the Charles River. “People were tailgating me and cutting me off,”
he says. “For the first time, I felt like a parent feels when they have
a kid in the car.”
Soon after that nerve-wracking trip, a friend called with a tip for
Mr. Lerner, who was looking to move out of the executive-search business
and into consumer products. Two sisters wanted to sell a safety sign
for car windows; they had seen it in Europe but didn’t know how to
market it.
It was kismet. Mr. Lerner struck a licensing deal for what would
become the Baby on Board sign. “I believe things happen for a reason,”
says Mr. Lerner, now 59.
Using his contacts in the retail industry, he started pitching to big
department stores. The first month, his company, Safety 1st, sold
10,000 signs. Within nine months, it was selling 500,000 a month. “It
ramped up real fast,” he says. “Around Boston, I couldn’t go down the
street on a particular day without seeing one.”
By 1985, the first knockoffs started appearing, but Mr. Lerner had
developed strong relationships with his retailers and was able to
protect his shelf space. Sales really didn’t start to dip until the
parodies came, like “Mother-in-law in Trunk” and “Baby, I’m bored.”
“They weren’t funny at the time to me,” Mr. Lerner says. “But they really were a little funny.”
By
the start of 1986, the fad was fading. Safety 1st had already
introduced other products, including a Tot Spotter decal to help
firefighters quickly locate bedrooms where children might be sleeping.
But Mr. Lerner saw a bigger opportunity in child-safety products for the
home.
At the time, gadgets like outlet covers and drawer locks were
consigned to odd corners of hardware stores and other hard-to-find
spots. Starting in 1987, Mr. Lerner began transforming the sales niche
with more colorful packaging, new designs and lower prices. “We had a
really good, innovative team,” Mr. Lerner says. “We were very nimble.”
Safety 1st also capitalized on the rise of the big-box stores,
developing strong bonds with companies such as Toys ‘R’ Us, Wal-Mart and
Kmart. Between 1989 and 1996, sales grew to $105.8 million from $7.7
million, according to regulatory filings. By 1999, with sales at $158
million, the company began fielding buyout offers—and ultimately agreed
to be acquired by Canadian company Dorel Industries Inc. in June 2000.
It was then that Mr. Lerner got his big payday. During the Baby on
Board boom times, he says, he reinvested the profits from the product to
fund the growth of Safety 1st, so didn’t see any real money until the
sale—$38 million, according to regulatory filings. (He also sold some
shares during Safety 1st’s initial public offering.)
After the sale, Mr. Lerner spent much of the next decade traveling,
spending time with family and playing golf—which led him to his current
venture. He damaged some ligaments in his thumb, and after surgery the
digit would get inflamed after workouts or golf games. Then he started
using a therapeutic band that helped eliminate the inflammation and the
need to routinely ice the thumb.
The band worked so well that he decided to sell his own version of
it, through a Boston-area start-up called True Power. The company, which
has testimonials from several New England Patriots, claims the bands
use negative ions to speed oxygen delivery in the blood, which in turn
hastens recovery from injury and fatigue.
“I know there’s some skepticism about the product with some people,
but it really does work,” Mr. Lerner says, adding, “It’s easy to sell a
product, but it’s more meaningful to sell a product that adds value.”
Big Hair Day
May 2007 was not shaping up as a banner month
for Kelly Fitzpatrick-Bennett. Her career as a mortgage broker was on
the rocks as the California real-estate market imploded, and her first
husband had just filed for divorce. “I was sitting in my room crying,
which is unusual because I’m so optimistic,” she says.
An episode of “The Big Idea with Donny
Deutsch” popped up on the television, and Ms. Fitzpatrick-Bennett was
captivated. Mr. Deutsch talked about finding something you love to do
and using that to come up with a money-making venture. She watched the
program three nights in a row and read through a list of recommended
books on start-ups.
Ms. Fitzpatrick-Bennett, now 48, knew one thing she loved: styling
hair. She had run a small salon from 1994 to 2001, and her customers
invariably wanted their hair to appear fuller. A good stylist can bump
up hair to give it more volume, but that wasn’t an everyday option for
most of her clients. At the time, she wondered if a hair insert could
solve the problem, but never followed it up.
Now she pursued the solution with a vengeance, crafting prototypes
out of popsicle sticks, Velcro and whatever else came to hand. She used
her college-age daughter, Katherine, as a half-willing test subject.
“Growing up poor, I was a chick MacGyver,” she says. “If you didn’t have something, you make something.”
She
enlisted a design engineer to help smooth out flaws in her model, a
crescent-shaped insert that propped up teased-back hair and gave it
extra loft. Ms. Fitzpatrick-Bennett dubbed it the Bumpit, and a friend
with a plastic-injection-molding business began limited production of
the device.
She also set up a website and an office in Fresno, Calif., for her
company, which she called Big Happie Hair. Her title: chief executive
optimist.
Ms. Fitzpatrick-Bennett started going to hair-product shows, and the
response was immediate and overwhelming. “Our booth would be mobbed the
entire day,” she says.
Her friend’s manufacturing business could only provide 200 units a
week, not nearly enough to meet demand, so she found another supplier in
San Francisco. With more inventory, the company was ready for more
exposure, but Ms. Fitzpatrick-Bennett didn’t want to pay for a
professionally produced commercial. So she made a homemade one featuring
her daughter and some of her sorority sisters, who were paid $50 each
plus dinner from Panda Express.
When the ad showed up on MTV, orders came pouring in. Soon
celebrities were touting the Bumpit, including Carrie Underwood,
American Idol participants and Miss USA contestants, Ms.
Fitzpatrick-Bennett says.
Big Happie Hair’s 20-person operation found it difficult to keep up
with orders, and Ms. Fitzpatrick-Bennett realized she needed a partner
with better distribution. In 2009, she struck a deal with Allstar
Products Group, a company that licenses such products as the Snuggie
blanket, promoting them under its “As Seen on TV” brand.
Last year, though, sales started to slip, and parodies started
popping up on TV. Ms. Fitzpatrick-Bennett says she doesn’t mind the
backlash. “As long as people are talking about it, it’s good,” she says.
“Most late-night shows did spoofs, and we loved it.”
At its peak, the Bumpit sold at a clip of a million units a month.
Ms. Fitzpatrick-Bennett’s current business plan calls for sales of about
20,000 a month. “I was pretty realistic in knowing it would only have a
year of good life and then it would just sit and stop,” Ms.
Fitzpatrick-Bennett says.
With more time on her hands, Ms. Fitzpatrick-Bennett has begun to
look for bargains in rental properties and foreclosed homes. She won’t
say just how much she’s taken in from her signature product, but “she
could retire now,” she says.
Meanwhile, the money has allowed her to buy a large Tudor mansion
with four guest houses, and she drives a new Honda CRV instead of a used
car. (Some of her newfound good times aren’t tied to money, of course:
She remarried in December.)
A follow-up product to the Bumpit hasn’t fared as well as the
original, but “I would love to continue inventing other products,” Ms.
Fitzpatrick-Bennett says. “If I had a dollar for everyone who said no,
I’d be richer than I already am. When someone says no, there’s always
another avenue.”
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