I used to have a million dollars but I spent it.
Let me tell you a story…
This is what I looked like with a million dollars.
Last year I was notified by the state department that I had money that needed to be claimed. So I called up the state department to see how much I was owed and nearly fell on the floor. The lady on the other end of the phone informed me that 1 million dollars was left to me by an anonymous donor.
Immediately my mind rushed with ideas…I could spend all this money on…Cars? Houses? Saving the whales? Putting it into savings?
I couldn’t land on a concrete decision, although I definitely decided it was not going into savings. This very question kept me awake for days. I even asked the heaven’s to give me the right answer.
Fast forward to a few nights later when I was awoken by a bright light shining through my window. It seemed to get closer and closer with every second until it was literally hovering above me. Panicked, I shook my husband to wake him but before he could wake up, a voice whispered in my ear…
“THAT GIRL RYAN?” said the whisper.
“Um, Yes?” I trembled.
“You have been summoned by the almighty holy one. Come with me please.”
The light wrapped around my arm and began pulling me out of bed.
“Hey! Stop that, I refuse to be part of your human experiment. Go back to the planet you came from. No, means no!”
The light continued to levitate me despite my protests and out the window we flew. Up, Up and away we ascended into the air and began rapidly climbing intimidating altitudes. Once we were well beyond Earth’s atmosphere, we reached a large grouping of pure white clouds. As we got closer, the clouds seemed to morph into a small tunnel, not even big enough for a car to fit through.
As we soared through the tunnel quickly approaching the end, I could see a vast valley of hills, clouds and rainbows; it was a beautiful scene. Doves, swans and even flying flamingos trafficked around us as we sped faster to a rusty gate floating in mid-air.
This is the best representation I could find
The light placed me right in front of the rusted, broken gate and instructed me to stay put until a man came to greet me… his name would be: Cory Monteith.
“Wait, Cory Monteith…as in Finn from Glee?”
“Yes, now shut up and stay put” the light replied as he disappeared into thin air.
A few minutes later a chariot of doves descended in front of the gate and they were indeed carrying Finn from Glee. I was completely star struck.
He was adorbs
“Hi That Girl Ryan, It is great to meet you. I frequently read your stuff, always gives me a good laugh”
“Well thanks; I’m honored to hear that…sometimes I just go on and on and wonder who would read…Wait, aren’t you dead? Wait! Am I dead?”
“No, no, no you’re not dead. You are just lucky enough to pay a visit to heaven for a brief conversation and proposition.
Let me explain… I am the CFO here in heaven and I manage all of heaven’s assets and basic yearly budget. Recently, heaven has been experiencing a serious budget deficit and it has left us in quite a financial rut.
As you might have noticed, the pearly gates are not so pearly and need vast repairs.The angels are also up for new wings this year; you wouldn’t believe how much nerve China has for charging those outrageous universal shipping fees for the wing material!
Plus, Jesus has been begging me nonstop for IPads for his 12 disciplines. You just can’t say no to the son of the “Big Guy” upstairs. Long story short, we came up with a plan to give certain individuals the chance to buy their way into Heaven and help us fund Heaven’s expenses.”
I sat to ponder his explanation for a moment…
“So you are allowing people to buy their way into heaven? Pay for their sins to be on the Heaven VIP list?”
“Yes, exactly! We haven’t launched a program like this since we paired up with the Catholics, those people will pay anything to get into heaven. However since the Heaven funds are so low, we decided to open up the opportunity to all religions. This time instead of calling it, Catholic Guilt , we will call it, Invest and Be Saved! We seem to think it resonates much better with capitalists these days. “
“Ok I guess? So, why are you asking me? I already have Catholic Guilt. Do I have that much to pay for already? I have only been alive like 25 years; it couldn’t be THAT bad.”
“Well…I am not the sole judge of that but to give you a hint; you have been a total pain in the ass. Wouldn’t it be better to ensure your entry into heaven instead of wondering what actions might have disqualified you?”
“Yea, you have a point. I did just come into some money so how much investing must I do to be saved?”
In classic Finn fashion, he began to snap his fingers and sing … Madonna’s Like a Prayer.
When he got to the line, “I wanna take you there” he waited for me to jump in, but I let him know that I was never a fan of Glee duets. Ignoring my comment, he grabbed my hand and told me to close my eyes…
When I opened them, I found myself inside my old daycare’s living room. I spotted myself at 3 years old, sitting with a group of other children watching Barney, the purple dinosaur. Barney and gang were singing about personal hygiene and showing the group of children how to brush their teeth.
A little boy about the same age as me stood up in front of the TV to get everyone’s attention.
“Hey cootie lovers, I dare one of you to put a booger on the TV. I bet you won’t. I bet you are too chicken.”
All the children sat quietly looking around, staring at who would be the brave one to volunteer first. Little Girl Ryan stood up quickly and shouted, “I’ll do it”.
Even at a young age, I could never turn down a dare.
Little Girl Ryan dug deep inside her nose picking out the most glorious, most green looking booger that any of the kids had ever witnessed. She marched over the television and smeared that sucker till it clouded the screen.
The group of kids belted out in laughter, applauding the event and causing enough commotion to attract the attention of the teacher.
“What’s going on in here?” yelled the burly teacher, “Who did THAT?” She pointed to the booger covered TV screen. “I’m only going to count to 3 and if nobody tells me who did that, you all are going in time out. 1…”
“2…”
At 2 ½ that little bitch Cindy, who was 4 squeaked, “Ryan did it!”. Soon after her announcement, all the other kids chimed in agreement.
“This was the moment you learned to fend for yourself. It was this event that impacted the beginning of your sinful ways.” Finn’s words interrupted as I watched Little Girl Ryan being hauled off to the time out room…I remembered that moment but surely didn’t think it was significant enough to deny my entry into heaven.
Finn began snapping his fingers to the Glee-Madonna remake and nodded to me to close my eyes.…
This time when I opened my eyes, I found myself in my middle school gymnasium; all my friends from middle school were sitting Indian style on the floor excitedly waiting for an assembly to start. From the looks of it, I guessed it was a D.A.R.E lecture.
Thank you D.A.R.E for keeping ME Drug FREE!
I scanned the crowd to find Middle school Girl Ryan and found her sitting next to a very small, petite brunette girl. As I observed Middle school Girl Ryan, I saw that she and the brunette seemed to be very close friends. The way they chatted so animatedly was a sure sign of a close relationship.
The teachers began to shush all the students to alert them the assembly was about to begin. The crowds of chatter quickly ceased and a woman took to the stage, “Hello Central Middle School! So glad to have you all here! Today we are going to talk about D.A.R.E and how you can be an anti-drug user! Are you excited?!”
“Yes” the middle school students all chimed in unison.
“But first, since today is the one year anniversary of 9/11, I’d like to have a brief moment of silence to honor those who were impacted and lost their lives.”
The lady bowed her head and the students on the floor followed her, except for one. Middle school Girl Ryan squirmed uncomfortably, shifting from side to side, crossing her legs then uncrossing her legs. When the crowd was completely silent, a loud fart erupted, disrupting the moment of silence. I glanced over at Middle school Girl Ryan whose face was bright red.
Almost immediately, all the children turned to Middle school Girl Ryan and looked in horror. Middle school Girl Ryan clearly knew she was caught so turned her head toward her brunette friend, placing all the blame on her.
“I didn’t fart!” she announced to the entire crowd, “Ryan tell them! It wasn’t me!”
Middle school Girl Ryan stood up and said, “Gabby, own up to it, you farted!” All the kids gasped in disbelief and then into laughter.
A teacher ran over and grabbed Gabby pulling her out of the gymnasium. You could hear the teacher yelling at Gabby all the way down the hall, “You think that was funny?! How distasteful for a young lady to make such a disgusting disruption during a very important moment of silence. We will see what the principle has to say about this!”
I looked to Finn, “That was Gabby Grapeler. She was my best friend in middle school until that day. I blamed her for the fart during the 9/11 moment of silence. From that day the kids nicknamed her, Gassy Gabby. After graduation, she was so scarred by the ordeal she moved away and we never heard from her again. All that happened because of me.”
“Indeed it did. You ruined that girl’s teenage years. You should have been the better person and admitted to farting. This moment is a pretty big factor in deciding your fate into heaven.”
Once again, he grabbed my hand, sang Madonna and off we went.
Finn brought me to a variety of past events…mainly from high school and college. The worst of which included…
…Streaking naked across campus while being chased by the campus police…Throwing up in a friend’s back pack at a house party…Taking a stranger’s pea coat from a bar…And leaving a bag of dog poop on my neighbor’s doorstep after he had asked me to pick up after my dog. On the bag was a handwritten message that said, “You Are Welcome”. (Finn said the handwritten note did not help the heaven situation.)
I shook my head in disbelief… I really didn’t think my actions throughout my life were all THAT bad.
Finn interrupted my thoughts, “Well, while you haven’t murdered anyone, you have committed some acts that directly resulted in emotionally hurting others… like poor Gassy Gabby.”
“Ok, so what are you suggesting? I pay money to erase everything I have done?” I questioned.
“Yes. I have already put together an invoice for you. I figured you would be convinced after seeing all your past indiscretions.”
He handed me a piece of paper:
Invoice for That Girl Ryan’s Sins:
- $200,000 for Gassy Gabby Incident
- $200,000 for each sin committed during high school and college
- $50,000 for each alcohol over-indulgence
- $549,980 FSP
Total: $999, 980
“What is FSP?”
“Future Sins Policy. It basically covers any minor sinful acts you commit during the remainder of your life after this day. You can think of them as life-long “freebies”. Examples of minor sinful acts include; Road rage, making fun of small people, making children cry and any bad joke you put into your blog (I threw in the last part myself-wink).”
“Well that leaves me exactly $20 from my entire lump sum” I stated.
“Yes, that is left so you can commit an act of kindness for someone on earth. Give knowledge to someone whose life will forever be benefited.”
“Ok, well take me home and I will write you a check.”
With a flash, Finn and I were back at my house. I wrote him the check and thanked him for his time tonight and for the Invest and Be Saved opportunity.
“Congrats That Girl Ryan, you’re not a bad person anymore! O, and before I leave, what are you going to do with that $20?”
“Well, I am going to the liquor store to buy a REAL pack of beer for a good friend of mine, Don at DonOfAllTrades. He thinks Bud Light Lime is the best beer out there but once he has a sip of some real beer, like Samuel Adams or Harpoon, I think his life will forever be changed for the better.”
“Well done, friend, well done.”
And like that, Finn from Glee took off with my million dollar check and guaranteed my entry into Heaven.
True Story.
Part of Finish The Sentence Friday! Check out all the blogs posted today.
