I understand that we are currently in very scary times. People are getting sick and dying. And everybody needs to have something to protect their face in public.

In fact, it’s a NJ government mandate at this point. And when I was driving the kids to their dads, I needed to stop off to poop & I saw the Wawa in Galloway NJ as my beacon of hope right by the Garden State Parkway.

I went to put on the face mask that usually accompanied me in the car, but it appeared as if it was missing from the vehicle (i.e. my significant other threw it away because of multiple uses). I found what I thought was a practical solution: zipping my coat over my nose & mouth.

I saw other people with similar looks and I entered, beelined for the bathroom and had a glorious poop. Ten minutes later, I decided to grab a bottle of water & a small snack. But it was not to be that day at the Galloway NJ Wawa.

Knowing that my coat wasn’t as good as a mask, I stayed 6 feet away from everybody while shopping. About 3 minutes later, an employee approaches me (handing me a piece of paper with their mask requirements) and tells me to wear a mask next time.

Okay, cool. 30 seconds later, the manager approaches me and tells me I need to leave because I don’t have proper face attire. I try telling her that her employee said what he said, but she wasn’t having it and let me know I can come back if I wear a mask (even though my germs have already been not optimally covered).

I looked right ahead of me and saw a guy with a bandana covering his mouth, but not his nose. I think to myself, “how is that better than my coat that covers my nose & mouth?” I mean, his germs are coming out of his nose.

So I leave the water bottle on the floor and walk out. A customer is nice enough to give me a mask, one that’s bigger than the ones we have I might add. Well, I go back in and buy a water & a snack while telling the original employee I interacted with what had happened.

His response was apologetic and seeming like he misunderstood what his manager had said (or he didn’t want to enforce the ruling). As I walk out, in walks some lady without a mask. Nobody says anything and this maskless woman turns out to be an employee at the Galloway NJ Wawa.

Now, I’m pretty livid. How can someone who is going to be there for a number of hours just waltz on in without a mask? Who knows who she interacts with, might have the coronavirus, etc. I even let the employee know that as I walked out, never to return to this particular Wawa again.

Was I in the wrong for going into the Wawa without the best possible face protection? Yes, but I felt my nose & mouth were completely covered with the zipper over my nose tight. Were the employees/management at the Wawa wrong for treating one of their own to a different standard than a customer during a pandemic? Yes, because you don’t know what people do off the clock.

Business Card Count: 41,414

Sometimes, I get some distinctive business cards in terms of looks. Other times, it’s because of the unique job titles that people have had. Inspired by a blog post for years ago about 2 different Comfort Consultants, here are some of the most distinctive titles an employee or boss has had.

Sam Kolb, Chief Monster

Let’s start at a top in a monstrous way. Sam Kolb proclaimed himself the Chief Monster of Habit Monster, which is a mobile game that helps create and maintain health habits according to their Twitter page.

This cutesy red cyclops is designed to be an avatar that represents you. In fact, the Habit Monster game is all about taking care of a customized monster by caring for yourself. They last tweeted in February 2016 and their site is no longer up & running, so it appears that the Habit Monster has been slain.

When doing further research, Sam Kolb became the Senior Director of Engineering at SurveyMonkey after his run as his actual job title listed on his resume for this role: CEO & Co-Founder (not Chief Monster) of Red Lozenge.

Doing more digging and reading this article, it appears that he became paralyzed after being shot by a police officer in a bizarre altercation. I hope Kolb is doing well after everything.

Chris Wilkinson, Chief Soaksperson

Like with the case above, the person in charge can give themselves any title they please. And that’s the case with Chris Wilkinson, who is the Chief Soaksperson at Soak Wash.

I get the play on words with spokesperson and the name of the Canadian company. From what I saw on their US subdomain, they have various fragrances for soaking laundry in for washing sensitive garments by hand or on the gentle cycle in the washing machine.

I don’t know if Chris Wilkinson is an actual spokesperson, the chief of the whole company or just a president of some division. I would assume it’s the boss of Soak Wash, but I went to their blog site (last updated in 2014) and it appears Jacqueline (no last name given) is the Director of Possibilities & Founder of the company. Another interesting job title.

Cryssy Cheung, Art Mercenary

Now that we’ve got a couple of chiefs out of the way, let’s get to some others. And what better way to start than with Cryssy Cheung, who is an Art Mercenary performing illustration, design & motion design.

It appears that she’s her own brand and doesn’t work for a company, so she can call herself whatever the hell she wants. And from looking at her business site, her work looks to be very good.

She’s done a variety of things, ranging from business campaigns & labels to things inspired by pop culture icons. I also took a look at her various award wins, projects she’s directed & her clientele on her resume (uploaded in 2015) and it’s impressive.

Corinne Bracuto, Creative Mastermind

The last card I’m going to look at for this particular blog post is of Corinne Bracuto, the Creative Mastermind at Love Letter Studios. I enjoy the theme of her business card since it looks like a letter with the company logo in the stamp.

As the company name states and their site says, Love Letter Studios does a lot of work with paper for events and it appears Bracuto does the work out of her location in Hoboken NJ.

I also don’t know who Shelby at Yes I Do is, so I’m sure it’s just a note whoever gave it to me. I assume my ex-wife based on the area code of Bracuto’s phone number wrote on it and the fact that we probably got it while doing wedding things including the invitations who we ultimately got from Holland Designs.

Check back with my blog, as I’ll be adding more fun & absurd job-titled business cards in future blog posts since I had a lot of fun writing & researching these!

Business Card Count: 41,410

The holidays are a time of giving and ultimately receiving. And every year, I get birthday and Christmas cards from the team at Prudential who handles my finances.

Specifically my retirement account and life insurance. And the two guys who have been handling it since day 1 are Anthony Rutigliano and John Hartnagel. Not sure what the CLU, ChFC & CLTC abbreviations are, but I’m sure they’re financing certifications.

I just Googled all 3 acronyms and I was wrong. The first 2 are positions (Chartered Life Underwriter & Chartered Financial Consultant) and the third is Certified in Long-Term Care. But this post isn’t about financing titles, it’s about holiday gifts.

And this is the first year the team at Prudential sent me something more than a card, in the form of a holiday gift basket from Tate’s Bake Shop in Southampton NY. How appropriate since Tate’s is on Long Island along with my financing team.

I was shocked to see this box arrive at my house, which said “refrigerate upon receipt” and that made me curious as to what was inside. Turns out, it was a bunch of packaged pastries.

The Tate’s Bake Shop holiday gift basket I received contained:

• Chocolate chip cookies, which were thin, crispy and very tasty
• Pecan square, which was the highlight of the whole package
• Coconut macaroons, which were well baked, hard on the outside & soft on the inside (though I’m not a big fan of coconut)
• Lemon pound cake, which didn’t taste all too lemony but I just added some whipped cream for a less one-dimensional flavor
• Blondie, which tasted good but wasn’t the end-all-be-all for a blondie
• Brownie, which was alright (I’m also not a huge brownie person either unless it’s a homemade corner piece) but my little girl sure enjoyed it

Apparently, Tate’s Bake Shop is well known since my significant other actually told me that she’s seen gift baskets from them before. I had no idea they had such a reputation, but I wouldn’t drive over 2 bridges and bear through Long Island traffic to get to their home base for fresh baked goods.

**Update: I went to the grocery store & saw Tate’s Bake Shop products there, so perhaps they didn’t go directly to the source to get the basket.**

Business Card Count: 41,023

For my cell phone service, I chose Boost Mobile.

I opted for an iPhone because I wanted to be able to Facetime with the kids & my significant other. And that’s pretty much why I got the iPhone 6S to replace my aging Moto Z2 Play.

I enjoy the iPhone overall, but the service is noticeably inferior at times when trying to go online when your WiFi is turned on & you leave your wireless range. I have to either turn the wireless on at home or turn it off when I’m not home unless I’m on someone else’s WiFi.

One convenience that comes about is the automated payment I set up when I bought my phone at the Boost Mobile kiosk at the Woodbridge Mall near JCPenney, unlike what it says on the business card.

And another thing that the business card falsely advertises is the Free Phone. At least, that was the case for my iPhone 6S since I had to pay like $100 for it. But they did have a few other phones for free, but those were definitely inferior models.

As much trouble as I have sometimes with YouTube or other streaming apps in certain areas outside of home with the WiFi on, I’d rather spend half on my phone bill.

Business Card Count: 40,986

My uncle went to a tattoo convention recently and gave me some unique business cards from the various artists who had booths at the show. And one set of cards really intrigued me since they were inspired by the card game Magic: The Gathering.

There were a total of 5 that I got and they do look like genuine Magic cards including being a different size than a normal business card. And the odd thing is that they’re for artists from 3 different tattoo studios including:

• Electric Chair Tattoo out of Bay City MI
• ISM Studios out of Saginaw MI
• Momentum Tattoo out of Tampa FL

I would assume that these 3 shops have a partnership of some sort since I can’t see this as a coincidence. It’s definitely a great branding move since Magic: The Gathering is popular among a certain sector of people and the cards themselves have some impressive artwork on them.

I remember playing Magic as a kid with a variety of different decks based off of certain mana colors and the pictures of certain cards are still etched into my memory like:

• Elder Dragons Nikol Bolas, Palladia-Mors & Arcades Sabboth
• Baron Sengir, who I almost wrote as Baron Semedi from James Bond
• Black Lotus, a rare card I never had
• Time Walk,  which I saw valued at $50,000 for one in pristine condition

I know the rules we played by at our age were modified slightly, but I never competed in any sort of tournaments. I played with my brother and some friends back in the day, but they changed the rules since I played. Most notably, I found out that they took out the Interrupt card type in the 6th edition to show my age.

I also remember getting tricked out of a rare Magic card called Jester’s Cap from the Ice Age pack. I got a deck of like 50 or 60 cards with the cap in it and a kid I knew from middle school conned me by trading a card I’ve never seen before for it. It’s a shame since the Jester’s Cap was my favorite card.

Moving away from Magic: The Gathering, I decided to highlight some of my other favorite cards I got from my uncle based on the tattoo artists’ artwork. Whether it’s beautiful or just unique, I decided to show how artistic these type of business cards have to be.

I don’t have any tattoos and I don’t foresee myself getting any. For whatever reason, it just doesn’t appeal to me at this time but I can always get inspired some other time.

Business Card Count: 40,929

One thing my significant other loves to do is clean. Especially when it comes to getting rid of material possessions just taking up space without being used for a while.

Her philosophy is if you don’t use it in over a year, then it can go. I think a bit differently since some things I want to keep around like my old gaming consoles I don’t play that often and some wrestling books I’ve already read.

I did some autumn cleaning and wound up finding like half of my board games to donate along with some clothes I don’t wear anymore and a pair of shoes I wore only once for an all-white party. But this blog is about something my significant other found: a book of business cards.

These cards were hers and she kept them for a variety of reasons. The one up front is from a place called Bamboleo Night Club in Elizabeth NJ where we spent a fun evening once or twice while dancing & playing pool.

Some of the other business cards that she had saved include:

• Restaurants in the 5 boroughs where she’s eaten at including Green Field where they bring you meat on a skewer like at Fernandes Steak House 3
• Old or duplicate business cards from companies in our area like Colonia Chiropractic & Dr. Thomas Galski
• A business card of one of her old friends who I first met quickly after we got together
• A couple of her old business cards from past jobs
• A memorial counselor at the cemetery where her grandmother is buried

There were other business cards in the bunch as well, but all of them helped tell a story about some of the event of my significant other’s life. Whether it was a fun time that was had or a time of tragedy, I thought about her going through the experiences it took her to get those cards.

And that’s why I blog in general: to talk about my life experiences through the business cards I collect.

Business Card Count: 40,621

I always get people knocking on my door, whether it’s the Jehovah’s Witnesses or people trying to inform you and/or sell you their services. That’s how Jerel Stewart helped me sell my last home.

But another real-estate sales associate Mariatheresa Carranza decided to self-promote on Halloween in a most unique way: by reverse trick-or-treating. As you can see from the picture, she decided to bundle some candy with her business card and a house that she just sold in the area.

Peanut M&Ms are not a bad choice. I personally like the crispy M&Ms the best, but peanuts might make a bad impression on people with allergies in this PC world we live in. My top Halloween candies are (in no particular order):

• Twix bars (left or right, I don’t care)
• Reese’s peanut butter cups
• Kit Kat bars
• 3 Musketeers (a rare choice)
• Jawbreakers
• Nerds
• Starburst
• Sweet Tarts

I always remember trick or treating when I was a kid walking around my neighborhood in my various costumes over the years. The only one I remember distinctly is being a Ghostbuster since I was obsessed with that movie as a little kid.

I also recall going to a middle school dance in the 6th grade where I dressed up as a robber in the black & white pinstripes. Luckily, my friend Jerry was also dressed up as the Unibomber with some weird multi-colored plastic chains so I wasn’t alone, but felt like such a goof for being one of the only ones in costume.

My love for Halloween went away for a while until a couple of years ago when I started dressing up again. I guess it was around the time of my divorce when I started doing my thing since I was unhappy inside for a while.

Dressing up in costume can be fun, but expensive. My Riddler outfit last year didn’t quite fit and it was like my pants were falling down the whole time while they were super tight around my thighs while I was out on a pub crawl. But my significant other was Poison Ivy, so we had matching themed costumes.

This year, I was the unicorn on the cob and I really enjoyed the costume. I also dressed up my dog Levi as a taco and the kids were a scary nurse & Ghostface from Scream, while my significant other was a very sexy Cruella de Vil.

I guess Mariatheresa Carranza’s reverse trick-or-treating took me down a Halloween memory rabbit hole.

Business Card Count: 40,601

I’ve seen some companies use known images on their business cards to help trigger a memory for people to associate with their brand. But this one might be the most blatant.

We Got You Covered Home Improvement decided to use the logo from the prominent Tim Allen sitcom to make their company stand out. I personally feel companies should have their own logos since it makes you look second rate and the perceived cleverness just comes off as corny.

This isn’t to say anything badly about We Got You Covered Home Improvement or make the work that Vincent & Sonny do be less credible because I never used them. But this business card inspired me to talk about my thoughts on the TV show.

I first remember watching Home Improvement as a young kid and enjoying the show. I always enjoyed Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor and the destruction he caused since it was like a cartoon in some ways.

I also recall Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor and his grunting & growling. He was like a living onomatopoeia and when searching for the theme song to listen to, I found that someone actually compiled every grunt ever from the show.

I also know that Jonathan Taylor Thomas, who played the middle child on the show, was a big deal since he was cute according to the young girls (and certain boys) watching. I never saw the big deal out of him and apparently, he became a recurring character near the end of the show.

Speaking of “near the end of the show”, I remember the earlier episodes more fondly than the later ones since I assume that’s what I was exposed to through syndication. I can see how it jumped the shark in later episodes.

I also remember the neighbor Wilson since you never got to see his face, not even during the final curtain call of the show. Google exists and I looked him up… his face looks weird to me from the nose down all because of Home Improvement.

Overall, Home Improvement is not one of my favorite shows at all because I enjoyed it for a time as a kid, but don’t ever have a desire to watch any reruns. And would I use We Got You Covered Home Improvement based on this business card? I can’t say I would, especially since I don’t see any online reviews about the company.

Business Card Count: 40,405

I previously blogged about my experience with road trips, but I’ve never taken one as the only driver for 24+ hours. That is until recently when I drove down to get the kids from the Savannah GA area and back.

I started my journey with some snacks in hand including:

• Cape Cod salt & vinegar potato chips
• Organic pumpkin seeds
• Lenny & Larry’s snickerdoodle Complete Cookies
• S’mores Quest protein bars
• Sugar snap peas
• Water

In my stupidity/lack of appetite, I forgot to eat dinner beforehand. So I wound up not getting off the road to eat until after several good places were closed.

I stopped in after crawling through Maryland for the first half hour I got to the state and had to get Wendy’s. I decided on getting 2 spicy chicken sandwiches with nothing on it except for ketchup since I loved those back when I frequently ate fast food.

However, I came to regret that decision as I stopped several times with violent diarrhea. One of those stops was at the TA in Ashland VA, where I got myself some Gatorade to maybe settle my stomach.

It was a full-on truck stop and finding out that TA stands for Travel Centers of America, which seemed a lot bigger than normal gas stations. I also saw a couple of women dolled up and I suspect they were lot lizards, essentially prostitutes who go from truck to truck trading sexual favors for money or drugs.

But I had to move on in a tired/almost delirious and butt-hurt state (in the literal sense, not the figurative one). I tried my best to listen to wrestling & true crime podcasts, but I eventually had to stop at around 4 in the morning. I wound up staying at the Super 8 in Garysburg NC where I napped for a couple of hours and had a continental breakfast: 2 buttered biscuits, an apple & a clementine.

Once the sun rose and I napped, I was raring and ready to go. Mind you, I worked the day before with my eyes locked on my laptop for like 8 hours straight, but it was smooth sailing to Georgia outside of some more Wendy’s spicy chicken diarrhea and my credit card getting rejected at a gas station, making me confirm that it’s in fact me trying to buy gas in South Carolina.

I also got a few more snacks including:

• Pretzels
• Organic popcorn
• Nutter Butters
• Grapes (thanks to the kids’ grandma)

I mentally prepared myself to drive 13 hours straight, taking into account needing to stop for food and bathroom breaks. I was anticipating the kids asking for the phone, but they didn’t one time to my amazement.

I recently updated the apps on the DVD player/tablet combo I bought for the backseat of the car. So they were entertained between the apps & the movies I had provided. And stopping for food wasn’t as bad as I thought since the kids’ grandma served up lunch prior to the trip, which I took full advantage of. I bought them candy at the Flying J in Latta SC and dinner at the McDonalds right across the way.

A couple of bathroom and gas stops later, I got my dinner at the KFC in Petersburg VA: an 8-piece bucket of crispy chicken. It helped fuel me through the last few hours of the road trip & made me less in delirium on the way back than I did on the way down. Perhaps it’s because there’s more to see (including lights) above the Mason-Dixon line, perhaps it’s because I saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

I finally arrived home at 3:45 am, making my road trip 32 hours in total. Levi was so excited to see me and the kids, as was my significant other. It felt so freeing to be able to hit the open road and just have my podcasts & thoughts to keep me company.

Next time, I’ll stop somewhere better for dinner than Wendy’s to avoid diarrhea that probably added another hour to my road trip.

Business Card Count: 40,379

It’s been a while since I got a haircut. I let my hair grow out long for the first time in my life because I’ve always had a short hair style & gotten it cut at any old place.

But I decided to lop a good chunk of it off. The reasoning was threefold, the first being that my significant other really missed me with shorter hair. The second was me thinking it was time for a change and the third was that the longer hair was harder to wash & maintain.

Well, my significant other started the cutting process with some scissors at home and I was told by the first place I went to, the Second Glance Salon in Edison NJ, that it was cut very unevenly. Shocking considering she’s not a professional hairstylist in the least.

I didn’t want my hair to be cut too short and requested the lady at Second Glance Salon to just even it out. That process took a while since the hair had intricate layers that needed to be cut. I think the first cut (or should I say lop) took a few inches off of my hair and I enjoyed her since she was patient with me & my needs.

The total amount of time I spent in the chair to get it evened out was about 30-40 minutes. I looked at my hair and still felt like it was too long (and so did my significant other), so I decided to go to 18 Shades Hair Salon in Colonia NJ to get it cut a bit more.

I still didn’t want it too short and I made sure the guy didn’t do so, so I requested him to take off a little at a time to ensure it was a satisfying length. This took a little time, but 18 Shades Hair Salon got it right by taking off like another inch or so off and the guy was awfully nice about it ensuring I was satisfied.

It was my goal to not have it so short that it didn’t have any sort of volume (i.e. the haircut I had for myself from being 14 through being 30 or 31) but not too long either. I have the right amount of length now.

I also wanted to experiment with shaving off my beard to see how it would look, though the beard could make a comeback or at least some scruff. We’ll see how it plays out.

Business Card Count: 40,318