class=”” style=”white-space:pre-wrap;”>Sure, the freedom and flexibility of the life I built were great, but I was uninspired, unamused and generally over the world of politics. It was a good sixteen-year run but if I didn’t exit soon I would stab myself with a yard sign.
As I cooked dinner that night I talked to my best friend from college. Her positive peppy voice blared through the ear bud that hung from ear to iPhone like a ball and chain.
“You have to get out of politics,” she said.
“I’m so bored I could cry and my partner is grumpy AF for God knows why.” The nasty email he sent earlier in the day ran through my head over and over as I reached for a beautiful glass bowl packed with a yummy Sativa.
“The next thing has to be something you love.” She was an eternal optimist.
“I love writing but who even knows if I’m good at it?” It was a hobby. I put the bowl to my lips and took a deep inhalation.
“Think about it, what do you love?” She asked.
“Todd,” I said through a cloud of smoke as I exhaled.
We laughed.
“Todd” was our marijuana code name for twenty years. It stemmed from Todd Bridges and a story from our past but the name stuck. It was easier to get around society with a code name.
Have you talked to Todd lately? Give Todd a kiss for me. Do you have Todd? Is Todd here? Is Todd coming? Where is Todd? I gotta get Todd. These were all common phrases in our world.
It became a problem when my four year-old son asked one day if I had Todd. He didn’t know what it meant but Todd’s alias soon changed to “a conference call”. We had a lot of conference calls in our line of work.
“You and Todd need to find a business together.” She giggled. “From conservative politics to drug dealer. It’s so you.”
I knew something had to change. “Everyone else is doing it, why not me?” hung in the air.
The reasons were obvious; money, reputation, my firm, opinions, laws…
I did it anyway.
I gave up my partnership at our very established firm and threw caution to the wind for the first time in my life.
I ran a medical marijuana delivery service while we applied to the city to get a brick and mortar approved. After eight months we were denied. I also, thankfully, learned during that process that I was in the wrong partnership. I was back at square one.
Enter, Pink Haze. Because, I like to see life through rose colored glasses or smoke…