[Tifoso]

At the risk of throwing gas on this fire, I will jump in here as I have also been affected by by Nick's poor luck of late.

First, Nick, I am very sorry that you seem to have fallen on some hard times. It seems that we all go through difficulties like this in life, whether it be financial or health-related or otherwise. The best advice that I can offer you is to simply keep your chin up and, "keep on keepin' on". If there's one thing that you learn in life it's that, as quickly as things can go wrong, they can just as quickly go right. I have no doubt that things will turn around for you.

Now for the "tough love" part. While you can't always predict financial hard times, you can certainly be prepared for them. You were buying kicks with great abandon for a pretty good stretch, there. Not just GR stuff, either - some limited edition joints and some spectacular looking customs. I have to believe that at some point you took a look at the checkbook and saw that there was more going out than is coming in. When that happens, your problems become our problems as our checkbooks are now less the money that you owe us yet you are still enjoying the thing that we sent you long ago. Do you see how that can be incredibly frustrating for us? In my case it was money going to a charity. In the case of Ani, it also has the quality of being something that he spent time designing and creating. I can only imagine how that can take the frustration to some next level shit.

I am sure that he regrets saying many of the things that he said to you. At the same time, this is a civil society and we all have to play by the same rules. One of those rules is that you have to live within your means and pay for all of the things that you NEED. If there is money left, you can then get the things that you WANT.

I want you to keep the money that you owe me. Please use it to take care of your family and to put some food on the table. I hope that things get better for you, soon.