Thank You Mr. F!

So I was sitting in the athletic office of a high school I substitute teach at this past week, when a quiet, unassuming man at the next desk mentioned he was attending a massive motivational speaking conference being held in St. Louis next week. Naturally my ears perked up, as I had been hearing about this for months, and, of course, was DYING to go! The speaker line-up included: Rudy Giuliani, Dr. Robert Schuller, Kurt Warner, Steve Forbes, Laura Bush, Krish Dhanam, Howard Putnam, Lou Holtz and General Colin Powell. Yeah. A-MAZING! And also $225 dollars a ticket. Needless to say when I heard a high school athletic teacher was attending the first thing out of my mouth was “Awesome!” Closely followed by, “Whoa Dang! Aren’t those tickets, like, $200!?”

He smiled self-deprecatingly and said, “Well, I know people.” We talked for a bit more, and it turns out he worked as one of Kurt Warner’s athletic trainers (as well as several other big name professional athletes.) Whoa! Towards the end of the conversation as I’m getting ready to go sub health class, he says,

“Well, do you want a ticket? I can get you one.” I was floored!

“Yes! Sure! Trade my first-born child? Where do I sign?!” (Actually I think my jaw dropped and I said…”really?”)

He said, “Yeah, one or two?”

“Umm…two? If that’s ok? If you don’t need them?”

And he REACHES INTO HIS DESK DRAWER and hands me TWO $225 TICKETS!! Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!! Unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable! Turns out Kurt Warner called him up and offered him ten comp tickets. Talk about right place, right time! Thank heaven it was ME sitting in that swivel chair eating my broccoli! Whoa Nelly! What a fabulous guy! What a fabulous day! What a fabulous world!