It felt great to see my boys take off in their prospective businesses. Nick, so successful already and Joe ready to take on the world and head into the uncharted waters of self proprietorship. My advice, over and over again to new entrepreneurs, is to get ready to jump without a parachute. After thirty six years without an outside “Paycheck”, I would know. The ups and downs of self employment are extreme. That being said, my business was again heading into the holiday season. The twenty eight or so straight days of work between Thanksgiving and Christmas were going to kill me. This year, the store was breaking records. Hopefully, it would be a banner holiday season too. We shall see.
The usual fatigue that I experienced for so long followed me everyday. Every night around nine o’clock, for twenty years, I faithfully downed my Gleevec, now Tasigna, knowing fully well that without this chemotherapy agent my Leukemia would return. The bright yellow plastic zip lock bags emblazoned with a large Radiation symbol and “Caution- Chemotherapy Agent”, “Please store and handle with care”, are visibly laid within the shelf of my bedroom end table. The brown pills, that are individually stored in blister packs offering one months supply per pack, were my lifeline. Rounding the corner towards twenty seven years of handling this uninvited phenomenon called cancer, I feel that in this point of my life…I am just rolling again. My first blog, three years ago, began with the same title.. ..”Just Rolling”. It meant that my life was going smoothly. That business was cruising along and growing. My family was growing, we had a new nice single home and the future was bright. ” Just Rolling” should be my mantra moving forward.
We spent Thanksgiving up in the great State of New York at the in-laws. “Da Bronx” was always an adventure. The mass amount of humanity encountered while driving on the Cross Bronx Expressway and Bronx River Parkway engulfed you in vehicles of every make and model imaginable. The mass amount of food and family banter was always enjoyable and after stuffing our bellies for three hours, we filled the car with leftovers and injected ourselves back into the masses. The next morning, I would be getting out of bed and entering the Black Friday mayhem. A big economic weekend forecaster of future business for the rest of the holiday sales season. Ours flat out sucked. Last year was huge on the same weekend and we had great sales through the end of the year. I was pretty worried. The following Monday, back to the grind, something unusual happened. We got hammered! Everyday from that day on was crazy. Who cares that I got shut out Black Friday weekend. Business was brisk and the numbers fantastic. We ended up having one of the best December’s in the history of Belaggio Jewelers. Also, one of the best years! Yep…”Just Rolling”. It feels so good to say those words again. What a great state of mind. I just wish for peace and prosperity in the world this new year approaching. After completion of my January bloodwork at U of Penn and the tests that accompany them, we’ll see if the good luck and rolling vibes continue on. After all, we’re finally getting caught up to the present day life and times of Jeff. Let’s get through the results of my new testing coming up and fingers crossed…we’ll keep rolling.
Next up: Labs Are Great…But…*%$#&!