University of Iowa Physician Reminds Us That There Is Still Good In The World

 The world a lot of times can be a depressing, cruel and unforgiving place. There's a lot of dishonesty, among selfish and heinous behavior. The darkness is never difficult find. My girlfriend Ashley and I are all too well aware of that. Over the years of my life I have become more and more of a recluse and a misanthrope. I have my small circle of family and friends that I cherish, and I don't associate with many outside of it, beyond an acquaintance level. I've just been burned one too many times. I've been conned a few times in my life. In fact two & a half years ago Ashley and I were scammed by a guy that cost us everything. Our house, all of our money, the life of our beloved cat & so much more. We're still feeling the effects of what he did to us & in a way probably always will. I've had other people do some awful things to me as well.  It's gotten me to a point to where I know deep down inside that there are good people and that there is light in this world, but it can often be difficult to believe that. 

Matter of fact, about a week ago we were reminded how dark this world can be. Ashley had misplaced her phone at work. We believe that it may have fallen out of her pocket when she was getting into the car.  At the time she lost it, it was at 77%.  We called it once looking for it, trying to see if we could hear it to find it. When we went to call it again it went straight to voicemail. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that someone had found it & that someone had turned it off.  They saw it was a pretty nice phone and figured they could use it for themselves or probably sell it at a nice price. They may have even tried to see if they could get important information off of it, like credit card numbers. It just makes you sick to your stomach that not only are there people like this in the world, but even worse, they're not as small of a percentage of the population as you'd like them to be. Sociopaths that have no consideration for how their actions might hurt others. No concern for the right and wrong of a situation. Ashley needed that phone. It's how she communicates with the rest of the world. It's how work gets a hold of her and how she gets a hold of work. It's how she communicates with me. It's how she communicates with her family. For someone to be so insensitive to that, makes the world seem so unkind.  We were due for a random act of kindness. For a moment to be reminded with the apathy that often surrounds us that empathy still exists. That good is here and within all that is wrong with the world, there are still somethings that are right. 

We were out paying bills and Christmas shopping the other day.  Lots of bills to pay and gifts to buy.  It became apparent to me that I didn't have my debit card.  I went into a panic. Now wasn't the time to have lost or misplaced my debit card. Especially around Christmas. I worried that I had left it somewhere and someone had found it.  That they had taken it, went online and went on a shopping spree. I didn't know what to do, other than to sit and make myself sick about it. It was late Sunday & I wouldn't be able to inform the bank until 9:00 a.m. on Monday morning. 

That's when I got a message from a stranger on facebook.  At first I thought it might be one of those scammers who is always trying to con you out of your money.  Yet when I looked into it, I noticed that it was a Ontology and Hematology physician from the University of Iowa.  I thought to myself, "Why would a doctor from the University of Iowa be messaging me?"  I responded to the message. Turns out that my debit card was found by someone and he he was the someone. 

Upon finding my card, he took it and put it in a safe place. He then went to work trying to find me.  This man found my card, kept it safe for me and returned it to me. I was very grateful to him, not only for what he did, but for also reminding me, showing me that there is still good in this world. That there are other people in this life worth getting to know. That not all strangers are bad people.  

Losing my debit card on Sunday night could have turned out disastrous. There are so many horrible things that could have resulted. Had my card gotten into the wrong hands, it could have meant an inability to pay bills and get gifts for the people in my life I really care about. It could have very well ruined our Christmas.  But it didn't end up in the wrong hands. It ended up in the right hands. It ended up in the hands of a man who ended up keeping it safe and returning it to me.  

I needed reminded of the good in the world. Of the light.  A University of Iowa Hematologist reminded me of that.  

CALIFORNIA DREAMING

 While my life hasn't been all that successful it has been interesting. I've known some fascinating people during my 37 years of life. When I first graduated college I was eager to go out into this world and try and make it on my own. My friend Dennis was renting a house a mile or so west of Tiffin and having a spare room that wasn't being used, we agreed that it'd be good on both of us to split the rent. What Dennis forgot to tell me when I packed up my bags & left my mom's house in Sigourney was that he had already been given an eviction notice. 

It was the start of the second week of September when I moved into that house & we had to be out by October 1st. While this deeply concerned me, it didn't seem to phase Dennis much. He knew that my Step-Grandfather owned a few different properties in North English, South English & Webster and I think he had it in the back of his mind that if we got desperate enough, we'd be given one of those properties to rent. I am thankful that it never came to that because had those family members ever met Dennis, they might have held it against me till the day they died. 

I can remember getting in huge fights with Dennis about our situation. How he'd tell me that it wasn't that big of a deal if I had to leave the Iowa City area and move back in with my mom and step-dad. He didn't know or realize the humiliation and embarrassment that it would have caused me.  Both my father and my sister Sara were always looking for reasons to call me not good enough and a failure. The last thing I wanted was to come back to Sigourney, giving them another reason to feel they were right.  This is when Ratko came into our lives. 

Ratko is a Croatian who has never spelled his last name the same way twice. I have a million Ratko stories, but I'm sticking with the one I'm telling now.  Ratko was dating a woman, who's husband was currently in prison. He owned a trailer out in Lake Ridge trailer park that was currently sitting empty. Ratko made us the offer to go in with him and rent out the trailer.  I was all for it. Dennis was against it. 

As the days went by, Dennis began to realize that I wasn't about to see if one of my Step-Grandfather's properties was available. With his horrific credit and the fact that I was fresh out of college with nothing, we didn't make much of a team. It wasn't long before the last days of September were over and the first days of October had started. Now out of the house in Tiffin, Dennis and I were technically homeless.  We spent two days staying over night in a Chiropractor clinic owned by one of Dennis's friends. That in itself is a story. On day three, I had gotten a hold of Ratko and told him that I was in. Dennis realizing his options were limited, agreed that he was too. 

Now the six to seven months I lived with Dennis and Ratko could literally be made into a sitcom. I've had a lot of roommates in my life, but those two together were something else. The stories I could tell you are endless. It all came to an end one day when the owner of the trailer got out of prison. That's a day I'll never forget. 

Laurie, his wife got a hold of Dennis, Ratko and I letting us know Tim "Guido" Margaraci was out of prison and that he was going to have a meeting with all three of us.  We sat on the couch my mom had brought up for me as Guido laid out our futures. 

"Dennis, pack up your shit, you're out of here," Guido said. "You too Ratko, you're history." 

Turns out that Dennis wasn't paying his or I's fair share of the rent. I was giving Dennis my third of the rent trusting that he was giving it to Guido. Turns out that Dennis was taking part of it to pay our lot rent to the trailer park. The part of it he was supposed to be paying towards Guido, he was pocketing.  Ratko who was with Laurie wasn't paying anything at all towards rent. I sat there learning all of this thinking that I was next. He was gonna point a finger at me and tell me to get the Hell out too. Instead he smiled at me. 

"You wanna stay living here kid?" He asked me. "I could use a roommate." 

So for the next three to four months I was roommates with Tim "Guido" Margaraci.  I lived vicariously through him. He had worked out in Hollywood as a lighting director since the mid 80's. He had lit some of my favorite films. He had mingled with celebrities. Had them over to his place to dinner, he'd gone to their place for dinner. He'd even gone to basketball games with some & beaten them in bets. The guy had some serious money too. It was nothing for  him to knock on my door and say, "Yo Steve, think you could give me a ride to the airport?"  When I'm bored I try and find something interesting to watch on T.V. When Guido was bored, he'd fly to Minneapolis or Chicago for the weekend. 

I probably would have done myself a favor by hanging with Guido more than I did. Who knows where life would have led me had I gone out drinking with him or partying with him more. At the time though, I was working around 80-90 hours in Cab business & what spare time I had I was either at the gym or I was doing professional wrestling. I didn't see a whole lot of Guido, but what little I did see of him, left plenty of stories to tell. 

I once came home from a pro wrestling show in Illinois to find a woman sitting buck naked on the couch. Guido had an easel as he was painting a picture of her.  With all of her goods hanging out she just looked at me as if we were two strangers boarding a bus. She said hello, I said hello back.  Guido asked me how my night was, I told him and I went to bed. 

He also worked at Paul's for a while and he'd have me give him rides to and from work. It always struck me as weird that he was working at Paul's. For one, he didn't need the money.  This was a guy that would fly to Minneapolis for the weekend cause he was bored.  The $9 an hour Paul's was paying him wasn't going to do him any good.  Secondly, he would only work for a couple of hours at a time. It made no sense to me. I'd drop him off at 9 a.m. and by 11:00 a.m. he was ready to go home.  I noticed whenever I dropped him off he would never go into the building. He would always stand outside of the door and watch me until I was out of sight.  I decided one day I was going to investigate.  After I dropped him off, instead of heading back towards the trailer park, I pulled into Kentucky Fried Chicken's parking lot where he couldn't see me.  I then watched him walk down the road to an old establishment known as Touch of Mink. It was a gentleman's "Massage Parlor."  I then drove home and waited for his call.  

"Hey Steve, come pick me up at Paul's at 11:15"

I drove and parked right in front of Mink.  I'll never forget the look on his face when he came walking out of the building. His eyes were the size of balloons. 

"Ha ha, ya caught me," He said as he smiled turned serious. "Not a word to anyone." 

A while later he came to me and said that Iowa was too mundane and boring of a place for him.  He missed the excitement and adventure of California. He needed to head back to the city and get himself back in the hustle and bustle of Hollywood. I didn't want him to think I was trying to ride his coattails or that I was trying to use him to see if maybe there might be something out there for me, so I was cautious in the way I spoke to him. He was aware I had dreams as a writer and as an actor, and he played to them. 

He had a van that he wanted to pack up that he wanted with him in Los Angeles. Yet he hated to drive and he wanted to fly back.  He approached me to see if I would drive the van to L.A. for him. I was ecstatic. I was thrilled to do so.  I took a week off from the cab & I felt like a little kid who was being told he's going to Disneyland. 

We had it all planned out.  Guido said he'd give me his credit card and that he'd trust me to use it for gas, meals and lodging. I told him that I didn't mind sleeping in the van, as long as I could stop at a YMCA or a gym to get a daily shower. He told me that once I got out there he'd show me around & even introduce me to Eric Roth, the screenplay writer of Forrest Gump & The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  I can't tell you how excited I was. 

I was gonna leave super early on a Tuesday.  Drive out & arrive late on a Thursday.  Guido was gonna show me around on Friday & Saturday, and I was gonna fly back on a Sunday.  Man was I excited.  I absolutely love road trips, I was gonna get to see Hollywood & I was gonna get to meet some famous people. 

Guido called me up about 10 p.m. on Monday.  I had already gone to bed anticipating the start of the next days journey. 

"Hey kid," He said to me. "I'm really sorry but I'm gonna have to have someone else drive the van out to L.A. for me."  

I was beyond livid. I think I had a right to be. Some would argue that I buried myself, burned a bridge, or whatever they want to call it, but who in their right mind wouldn't have been angry? You can say that I said stuff that I shouldn't have said to him, but let's take a few things into account here. There was more to this than meets the eye.  For one I had taken off an entire week of work, and now it was for nothing. Thankfully Yellow Cab had people call in left and right so I was able to more or less get my hours back, filling in for call ins and no shows, but I was still pissed.  

I'd come to find out quite a while later that I was replaced last minute because Guido had a "pick up" in Reno that he wanted done and he didn't think that I'd do it. He was probably right about that.  The other thing that I wouldn't have done is stay in super fancy hotels & used his credit card to buy expensive booze, take out money to gamble & go to events and shows. Turns out the guy who was willing to do the "pick up" for Guido was also willing to spend Guido's money as if it were his own. The guy who might not have done the pick up, would have ate Perkins along the way and skipped out on the gambling. 

Years later Dennis called me up on the phone saying that Guido was trying to get a hold me me but didn't have the right number. Dennis asked if it was ok for him to give Guido my number. I said sure. 

Guido was coming back to Iowa to Laurie's daughter's high school graduation. He wanted to know if I was available because he wanted to hang out. I found it sort of odd that he'd want to hang out with me.  Dennis told me it was because Guido didn't have a lot of friends, and he didn't know a lot of "real" people. I was living in Des Moines at the time. I didn't have the ability to drive to Iowa City or the time. So I skipped out on hanging out with Guido. 

He called me again another time out of the blue in the middle of the night. I think it might have been out of guilt. He apologized about what happened & told me that I was a good guy. Genuine and sincere. If I ever did make it out to Los Angeles, look him up. He had an extra room I was always welcomed in and an old bronco that I could drive around in. It was the last I ever heard of him. 

Many years later I finally did make it out to California. I tried to call Guido but the number I had for him didn't work. Dennis didn't have a working number for him either & it'd been years since I heard from Laurie or Ratko. Most likely had I have gotten a hold of him the room and the bronco probably weren't anymore available to me now than what they ever would have been.  

People come in and out of your life all the time. Guido was one of them for me.