Twenty years ago today I opened a store called the Chantry- a weird mishmash of gamer(rpg/ccg/larp), otaku, and pagan supply store.... It didn't work out. My business partners were either crooked or bailed on me, immediately after, a rival shop run by guys that wanted their own clique in control of things popped up, and when I did run off my crooked partner, he set up shop down the street to "steal" my clientelle. Predictably, everything went to shit...for everyone. By next April, the rival shop was on it's last legs, a splinter faction had set up an ill-fated shop several blocks over, and everyone found out how crooked my former business partner was when he ran off with all their money. I tried keeping everything going by adding new partners, renaming the place "the Haven", and the store limped on for several more years. Around 2000, I just gave up, sold my share in the business to another partner, and started on a different path.

All the pain and frustration of this comes back to me from time to time, but I realize that if this had not happened, I would have never turned to art, or met the people who put me on this incredible journey to begin with. So this April Fool's day, I raise a glass to all the fools and dreamers that I have met, or may meet someday and say NEVER GIVE UP!!