That's no Subway Jared

Jen reminded me today about a story that I just gotta reveal. Back-in-the-day in the S.L.C. (047 reprezentin') I worked at La Mesa RV. I worked with a guy who was a detailer, he lead the team that washed and detailed motor homes for delivery. All-in-all he was a good hard worker. He had fallen on tough times in the past and he let me in to his world from time to time.

Anyway his name was Jared, and everytime he came in to the room I would kinda sing "That's Jared" after the "Jared, the galleria's of jewelry" jingle. Jared loved it, I think he liked the attention 'cause not many people were his friend for some reason.

I was often the first person at work in the morning, and had to open the front gate. One morning Jared was waiting for me in his beat up little Nissan Sentra. He was in tears and informed me that some personal things had come up and that he had to quit, but came to tell me this and to say goodbye. Kinda sad, I didn't pry, most of the times guys don't want to talk about what's going on right at that moment. We need to internalize things, work them out in our own minds, and when we're ready, we'll let it out.

The next day when I got to work I had a huge, and I mean huge, sports trophy on my desk. It was a karate trophy of a person I didn't know, a name I'd never heard, oh and by the way this person had taken like 3rd place. I have included this picture so you can get an idea of what the trophy looked like.

So of course I'm like "What the hell is this", who left their gimungous karate trophy on my desk. So I set aside without much more thought. About an hour later Jared comes in to my office and sits down. He proceeds to tell me what a great boss I've been, how much he looks up to me, and how sad he is to have left. He tells me he gave me the trophy and wanted me to have it. He said he worked really hard to get it (remember the name on the front of the 3rd place trophy was not his). I tried to give it back, I told him that the trophy meant far more to him than it would to me but he insisted I keep it because it meant so much to him for me to keep it.


That night I showed up at home with said trophy in hand. When Jen saw it she fell on the floor laughing he guts out. Here's a grown man, holding a 3 foot tall karate trophy in sparkly metallic blue paint. To be honest I felt guilty for years for having that damn trophy. I had it until we moved to AZ, then it had to go.

I know this story seems a little sad, on Jared's behalf, but it really was very funny.