Balloons by Absolute Value

It is September 11th a day that most of us will never forget. That also changed our lives forever in many ways. It is still hard for me to grasp what happened that day and the days that followed.

I am sure we all have our stories of that day and the days following. The thing that struck me on the following days it was so quiet. Not a plane in the sky and the birds didn’t even chirp or sing, the quiet was deafening.

The country came together in a unity and for the most part supported President Bush. Twenty years later there are people and companies that won’t let 9/11 be forgotten.

One of those companies is a restaurant named “My Neighbor Felix”, it is ironic that this restaurant wasn’t around twenty years ago but it’s parent company was.

They offer great deals to Vets and men / women who are presently in the military. There food is great and everyone who works there has a super friendly attitude.

My thanks goes out to all the employees of “My Neighbor Felix” for being my customer.

Sunday June 6th was the end of a big run of events for us. The Parkinson Association of Colorado a long time customer was missed last year because of Covid. They however were the first non-profit to organize and book us for a non-profit walk / run this year.

This is a very easy event to put together two arches: one for a photo booth and the second for the start / finish line. A bonus is we get to see hot-air balloons.

There are two things I am not crazy about: one is a 40 mile delivery and the other is everything has to be in place by 6:30 am. Which means my crew and I are getting up at 4:00 am to inflate balloons. No beauty sleep for this old guy.

Kyla and Joseph didn’t complain because we all know someone who has Parkinson’s. We also know a lot of the volunteers who give up their time each year. It’s like seeing old friends who you missed seeing last year.

I felt like Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth or Henry Aaron on May 30th. Cause I hit a grand slam home run when we decorated for a Bat Mitzvah. My client Rebecca and I put a plan together in less than two weeks from beginning to the end.

After a bunch of phone calls and emails we came up with something that was elegant, fun and whimsical. Some of the other requirements were it had to be shades of pink, bright and have the big “WOW” factor.

It was a rainy overcast day my son Joseph and daughter Kyla carried in a lot of bags full of balloons and 15 green stanchions. We were busy as bees assembling the flowers due to a limited time to decorate, less than two hours.

We formed an assembling line production, each of us had a specific task to do: put the balloons on the base, next the leaves were attached, finally the flower was assembled and attached to the stanchion.

Then I inspected the final flower and placed them on the tables. Lastly “ELLA” in silver mylar letters was place on the far wall.

The caterer and his staff, photo booth guy and the deejay were totally amazed and gave us a standing ovation. When the parents and the mitzvah girl arrived all they could say was “WOW” . The mitzvah girl’s eyes were as big as saucers, she just keep saying this is “amazing”. Plus she had the biggest smile, one of the biggest I had seen in years.

The big test came when the guest were arriving. You could hear gasps, “WOW”, “”I have never seen anything like this”, “MAZEL TOV”, “You’re a magician”, “You’re a Mensch”. I walked out of there with my chest puffed a little bigger knowing that what we did was amazing. I couldn’t have done this without my teammates Joseph and Kyla, they were awesome.