Superstar!

Today I won the dubious award of Company "Superstar"! This is given twice a year or so to carpenters or painters who for one reason or other gain the notice of the small office committee who's job it is to decide on a winner.

I have heard certain crew members threaten bodily harm to those known to propose them for this distinction.

As the director of field operations hung a plaque listing in gilded letters all past Superstars, mine now included, he appropriately said, "welcome to the hall of shame...I mean fame." And so it began after getting up from my fold out chair to shake the hands of the director and the owner of the company, that I received an award, a fifty dollar gift certificate, and a day of congratulations and ridicule.

"Hey! How did he get that after he pushed me off that ladder!"; "Can I get the door for you, 'Superstar'!"; "Can't you use a drill?! I thought you were the new Superstar!"

So I am humbled. So I am grateful.

Katie was glad for me, but said it's not what my head needs. And maybe she's right. But God knows the appreciation of my little company and the acceptance and jibing of this gritty crew of carpenters means a good deal to me.

I snuck the award into the bathroom and positioned it prominently for Katie to discover. From the front room I heard her eventually find it in her lilting congratulatory declaration, "Somebody is a Superstar!"