Mike quits and tells Dee after

Mike quit his job and wrote a post 2 tell abt it:

April,

Little sis. I know it may astonish you to hear this, but even a Patterson can be afflicted with self-doubt. When I was typing up my resignation letter and when I handed it in, I had a song running through my head which went like this:

I need a hero
I’m holding out for a hero ‘til the end of the night
He’s gotta be strong
And he’s gotta be fast
And he’s gotta be fresh just like Mike
I need a hero
I’m holding out for a hero ‘til the morning light
He’s gotta be sure
And it’s gotta be soon
And he’s gotta be large just like Mike.

But as I was leaving the Portrait Magazine parking lot, a different song popped in my head, which went like this:

Soy un perdedor
I'm a loser baby so why don't you kill me?

With this song in my head, I exited the parking lot thinking to myself, “I can’t believe what just happened…” Little sis, this is because it was as if I had not actually typed up the resignation letter and handed it in. It was like one moment I was talking to Francine and the next I was in my car leaving and I realized that in between those moments all these interesting things had happened to me, which would make a great story if only someone was there to write it down and tell it. In any case, as if to remind myself what I had just done, in case I had forgotten it, I thought, “I typed up my resignation as chief editor of Portrait Magazine…and I handed it in.”

I know what you’re thinking, little sis. “My brother was not the chief editor of Portrait Magazine. He was the senior editor.” This is true, little sis. But sometimes when you write resignation letters and you put the wrong job on the form, the person who accepts the resignation thinks that person in the position is leaving, but doesn’t check the actual signature very carefully. If I go to work tomorrow, and find Barry, the real editor-in-chief is gone, then I will know my plan was a success. The other possibility is that I could claim it was all a joke, since I didn’t put down the right position. I think deep down inside, I knew that idea would never work.

I thought, “I’m giving up my full-time job---at a time when we need it the most!!” And then as I pulled into the driveway of mom’s house, I thought of the reasons why we needed it the most. It took the whole 2 hours of driving from Portrait Magazine to Milborough to think of it, but Michael Patterson is not a man who gives up, except when it comes to firing other people. The reasons I thought were: We don’t have a place of our own to live in, we don’t have a pile of savings,---what is Deanna going to say when she finds out?!! Those are pretty good reasons. I know some people may say, “Just go move into a new apartment, Patterson.” And there are those persons to whom my wife Deanna has explained our finances , who may be wondering why we don’t have pile of savings, if our cost of living was completely covered by Deanna’s pharmacist job and my freelance work. To those persons, all I can say is that my lovely wife is not a mathematician and even her pharmacist skills are questionable.

My wife is, however, an excellent interrogator. I was barely in the door, before she said, “Michael, what happened? I can see on your face something happened. You better just confess what it is right now. You can’t keep any secrets from me. Let me guess. You got another job, didn’t you? Just admit it. You are now working 3 jobs!” I broke down and said, “I can’t believe what just happened…” and told her all the rest of the story. Instead of being mad at me, Deanna was ecstatically happy. She said, “Great!! You finally did it!!”

Then I realized something about my wife I don’t think I had realized before. The fact I had given up my full time job didn’t bother her, not living in our place didn’t bother her, and not having any money didn’t bother her. What made my wife the happiest, was the idea that I had quit work at Portrait Magazine because she had told me to. She quickly pulled out a notebook and wrote on it, “Mike quit Portrait like I told him to back on October 15, 2005.” I said to her, “What’s the notebook for?” Deanna said, “It’s to write down all the times when you did something I said.” Deanna seemed so pleased; I didn’t have the heart to tell her, “I can’t believe what just happened.” It’s better to let her think I was obeying her.

Love,
Michael Patterson

I'm surprised Dee wasn't @ least a bit upset that U did all this without talking 2 her 1st, Mike. Tho I guess U do what she sez so seldom, she was only C-ing that angle. I've seen that sad little notebook she carriez around, Mike, and it hardly has NE writing in it.

Also, I thot from our last batch of monthly letters that U 2 had a bunch of $ piled up, partly from a small inheritance Dee recently got. What's the dealio?

Apes