A birthday compromise...

Hello Stephen,

Well, despite Lora's email stating that she cannot forward anything to you...I would like to make this request OF you....please give Lora a call, and give her an address, so that you actually GET your birthday card from me.  Would you just PLEASE do that little thing??  I really want you to have it.

Yes, I have to get this card in the mail TODAY so that it makes it to Lora by your birthday...so be sure to get into that car of yours and drive to San Francisco to pick it up!!  (Yeah, yeah, I know, that's a very long ride).  So have her overnight it to ya by Fed Ex or something, if you're not in the mood to drive that far.  I just wanna make sure it gets to YOU, somehow.

Don't be a snobbish SCHLUB who sits in that ivory white tower, looking down at us peasants, acting like you're all high and mighty and don't have the TIME or the INTEREST in anything we send to you.  Get real.  You're a human being, just like everybody else.  People like to give people they love, actual PRESENTS for their birthdays.  Just be a MENSCH and deal with that, will ya??

Look, you have given the fans over 25 years of your LIFE....your energy, your sacrifices, your hard work.  And we love you for it.

In return, I have spent 3.5 MONTHS working on this Journeyopoly game for you---oh I know it's not a fair trade, sure, but it's my labor of LOVE to you, for your birthday, as a unique gift that nobody else has ever given to you before.  It's not gonna blow up, it's not going to cause you a disease, it's just a simple but sincere birthday card.

ACCEPT IT, OBTAIN IT, and READ IT.  That's all.

So, I kindly ask you to PLEASE make a lonely girl in Pittsburgh happy, and just READ THE DAMNED THING, will ya??  You come to this blog and read it every day because you love it, so I imagine that you can probably also read a card.  Right??

(Ahhhhh, I am a dreamer...you don't read this shit. I know that).  Just humor me and let's pretend you do.

For the official record:  I will sign ANY piece of paper you give me that states the following legalities:  I want nothing in return.  I want no credit for this game.  I want no money for the idea, either.  I want NOTHING AT ALL FROM YOU, but for you to just CONSIDER the idea, look it over, and crunch some merchandising numbers of the huge PROFIT you'll make for yourself, before you reject it and toss it all into the garbage.

No, I am NOT sending the whole game to Lora.  I am compromising.  I am only sending a CARD, with some PHOTOS of the game in it.  I have to, in my own head, feel a sense of closure somehow, that I at least TRIED to get it to you, even if it never reaches your hands in reality.  Once I put the card in that mailbox, my feeling is, "I love ya, Stephen, happy birthday, it's done and in your hands."

Take the idea and run with it.  See just how much money you can make from it.  If 5 out of 10 Journey fans buy this Journeyopoly game for, say, $40 each....well, I will let you do the math.  You know the demographics more than I do....but I would GUESS that at least a MILLION PEOPLE will buy it.

What do you give a filthy rich guy who can buy anything he wants for himself, for his birthday??!

More money, that's what.

So think of it this way:  I am trying to hand you FORTY MILLION DOLLARS (or more).  A winning lottery ticket, if you will.  It is yours.  Take it, run with it, do it, and forever know that you are loved by millions of people just like me, who want to give something BACK to you for all that you've given to US.

Get Lora to send you the card, make me happy, read the whole thing, and just GO FOR IT.

Okay?!  PROMISE ME!!  (don'tcha be crossin' those fingers behind yer back either, dammit).  I mean it.

I promise YOU that if you DO get the card, and you DO read it, and if you DO approve of the idea, and if it really DOES get made for real, I will be the happiest, most thrilled, most ecstatic girl on the east coast!!!!

Happy Birthday Stephen.  I really do love ya.  Just lemme give you something back.  That's all I ask.

Bye for now.

Love, Rebecca