NODocumentation!

A Few Safe Stories

This page includes memories from Eric and Sharon. Some are told by Eric, and some are told by Sharon. The important rule still applies: only the safe stories make it onto the page.

The Rules

Years ago, Chaliese and I served together on the FWAHU board.

Before my first conference, I remember Chaliese sitting me down and explaining the rules. The basic message was simple: we go, we have a lot of fun, but it all stays between us.

It was the association version of “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” Chaliese often referred to this collection of untold stories as “The Vault.” More specifically, her rule was:

No pictures. No stories. No permanent record.

Later, because everyone had at least a few stories about everyone else, Chaliese had another saying. It was less a phrase than a warning.

I Don’t Understand That Historical Reference

Chaliese is a few years younger than many of the FWAHULIGANS, so any time we would talk about the past, she would say:

But two decades have passed, and now she is old like the rest of us.

The FWAHU Website

Somewhere in the middle of all of this, this was the FWAHU website in 2005.

The Apprentice Binder

The first time I really worked with Chaliese, we were putting together the awards documentation for our Chapter of the Year submission for FWAHU.

We were at the Johnston and Matthews office in Fort Worth, where she worked, trying to pull everything together. It was a big project, and we had papers scattered everywhere.

At one point Chaliese said she felt like she was on The Apprentice, which was popular at the time. I knew exactly what she meant.

We submitted everything, and we won Chapter of the Year that year.

Four Years in a Row

That first win turned into a run.

We won Chapter of the Year four years in a row. I believe those were the years when Sharon was president, Audra was president, Chaliese was president, and I was president of the chapter.

A lot of people worked hard on those submissions, but Chaliese was very much a part of us winning so many years in a row.

September 2006. Chaliese Rippey served as FWAHU President from 2006 to 2007. Featured in this BCBSTX photo are, from left to right, Tom Tanguay, Brad Scheidegger, Vicki Broussard, Jack Smith, Joe Jansen, and Tansey Bridgeman. Your FWAHU President, Chaliese Rippey, is featured in the front row next to Vicki.

A workshop photo Chaliese included in one of our awards submissions.

Ten Minutes to Midnight

One year, the submission deadline came down to the mailing date. It did not matter when the package was received. It had to be mailed by midnight.

The documentation was a great big three-ring binder. We finished very late.

Chaliese grabbed the award submission, got in her car, and sped from Fort Worth to the main post office in Dallas.

She said she got it submitted at ten minutes to midnight.

Then she went outside and threw up.

She was so nervous that we had done all that work for nothing and would miss the deadline. But we made it. And we won.

The Friend Who Would Bring the Shovel

I have known and loved Chaliese for years.

As happens in this industry, sometimes we might talk every day for weeks, and sometimes we might drift apart and not speak for months.

But no matter where either of us are in life, I know Chaliese is the one friend I could call if I needed help burying a body.

No questions asked.

And she would bring the shovel.

She is a close friend and somebody I both admire and respect.

Coyote Ugly in Denver

So many stories about us and Chaliese over the years.

One of the ones I remember was when we were in Denver and we all went out to Coyote Ugly.

Me, Chaliese, and Audra ended up dancing on the bar at Coyote Ugly, doing our best to raise funds for PAC contributions.

And as I recall, we raised quite a bit of money.

New York with Alt Benefit Consultants

And then there was the time, my first trip with Alt Benefit Consultants, when we took a trip to New York City and Chaliese went with us.

We had a blast in Times Square, looking for cheap knockoff necklaces, the Tiffany store, and then the Tiffany knockoff store, with my closest, dearest friend right by my side.

It was a blast.

Girls Night In

There was this one trip, and it was me, Audra, and Chaliese. We all roomed together.

For some reason, we decided we were tired and we were going to have a girls’ night. We ordered every dessert on the menu. I think we did some facial masks, and we stayed in the room and watched a movie.

It was the best. The three of us together.

Then Chaliese decided she wanted to change her flight at about 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning.

So she was on the phone with American Airlines: “Yes, I want to change my flight.”

Me and Audra were trying to sleep. I think it was Audra who finally said, “You know, that cone of silence is not real. We can hear you, Chaliese, and you’re waking us up.”

Which started the giggle fest.

Good times.

You're Not Going to Cry, Are You?

One of the best memories is, I cannot remember where we were. As with most of our memories, I do not have the dates and times, or really the places. I just remember being there.

We had all gone out to dinner somewhere. I know it was me, Audra, Chaliese, Eric, and a few other people. We all ordered our dinner, and of course, Eric, being a vegetarian, ordered his vegetable plate.

When they brought all of our plates out, Eric's was nothing but a big meat tray. It went kind of quiet for a couple of moments, and then Chaliese piped up with:

I believe they comped all of our dinners, and Eric went hungry. They never brought his vegetable plate.

But “You're not gonna cry, are you?” resonated for the next 20 years.

Absolutely!

One of the memories that stands out in my mind: we were all on a plane going somewhere, again. No idea where we were going, but it was me, Chaliese, probably Audra, and probably Eric.

I made a comment, obviously fishing for compliments, about, “Gosh, I'm so fat. I need to lose some weight.”

And then I hear from Chaliese:

Which is a word that has carried on in our vocabulary to the present.

Absolutely, she said.

Love her.

The Benefits Pro

Chaliese has worked in benefits for more than 25 years, including time with CSG, Johnston and Matthews, and Hub International.

I once had the opportunity to go on an appointment with her for a small employer with only a handful of employees.

I watched as she sat in front of the employer and walked through the options. She flipped from one page to the next and explained each one clearly.

Then she would say, “We’re not going to do this one. We’re not going to do this one. We’re not going to do this one.”

Finally, she got to the most expensive option and said, “This is the one I would recommend.”

They went with her recommendation.

She also sold them several lines of ancillary coverage, which is uncommon for a group that size.

I knew immediately that she was both a great advisor and an even better salesperson.

Speaking of Benefits Pro

Speaking of Benefits Pro, BenefitsPro used to be Benefits Selling magazine, and Chaliese was once on the cover of Benefits Selling.

The Flying Shoe

At one Benefits Selling Expo, we were walking around the exhibit hall. I cannot remember why, but Chaliese acted like she was kicking someone and made that noise people make when they are doing a karate chop.

When she did, her shoe flew off and landed in the middle of a glass coffee table at one of the booths.

Fortunately, it did not break. We all scattered like cockroaches.

I did not think we were ever going to stop laughing.

For a while, we were pretty obnoxious.

Anytime somebody said something that sounded even remotely dirty, or could be interpreted that way if someone was trying hard enough, one of us would speak up and say it.

It was sort of our version of Michael Scott’s “That’s what she said” from The Office.

Another line that comes up whenever we start telling stories from the old days is this one.

It is the kind of thing you say when someone starts describing a story that probably should not be told, and the description could apply to more than one incident.

For example: “It was near midnight, and we were out sitting in the hot tub at the conference.”

You’ll have to be a little more specific.

That's Your Outside Voice: Who Is This and Why Is He Here?

We were at Sherlock’s in Arlington one night, another place we frequented back then.

Chris Story was there, and he had agreed to buy everybody drinks, so naturally we were taking advantage of it.

At some point he was sitting a little too close to us while we were having a conversation and tried to chime in a couple of times.

Chaliese looked at us, with Chris sitting right there, and said:

We immediately replied:

“Chaliese, you know that’s your outside voice.”

She definitely was not shy about speaking her opinion.

Habitat for Humanity

FWAHU volunteered for Habitat for Humanity one year.

The main thing I remember was when we went from one of the locations to another. Sharon, Chaliese, and I were in the car together playing “She’s Bossy” at top volume.

Health Care Consumer Day

In 2006, Sharon somehow talked us into hosting a “Health Care Consumer Day” at UT Arlington.

We had a theater-style program, a red carpet, and even branded water. The whole nine yards.

About 200 people attended, and we had four skits, including one starring Chaliese, Sharon, Ouida Peterson, and Carolyn Goodwin called Government Run Hair Care.

Here are a couple pics...

This was after her makeover at the government-run beauty salon.

Government Run Hair Care at Health Care Consumer Day, UT Arlington, 2006.

The Flight from Atlanta

Another time, Chaliese and I were flying back from Atlanta to DFW after an event. We were on the same flight, so we were driving to the airport together.

The only problem was that when it was time to leave, she was nowhere to be found. When I finally tracked her down, we were already running late and she had not even started packing. Her clothes were all over the place, so she threw everything into the suitcase, we jumped in the car, and while I was driving to the airport she was basically repacking her suitcase in the passenger seat.

When we got to the airport, the line was horrible. By the time we made it through security, our flight was already boarding and about to leave, so we took off running through the terminal and got to the gate just as they closed the doors.

Normally that would be the end of the story. But Chaliese threw such a fit that they actually reopened the doors and let us on the plane.

Speaking of Doors...

We were all in Miami for a national conference, I believe in 2005.

We were at dinner: Sharon, Audra, Peggy, Eric, and Chaliese.

As often happened at these events, somebody said something they should not have said, and Chaliese was upset.

She got up from the table and stormed off, straight through the nearest set of doors she could find.

Only those were the doors that led to the kitchen.

We all looked at each other, not knowing what to say.

Finally, Sharon spoke up and said there was no way Chaliese was coming back out. She would stay there all night before she let us see her walk back through those doors.

And she did not come back out.

We were there for a long time and never saw her again, though we always suspected she snuck out on the bottom of a waiter’s drink cart.

To this day, she still has not told us what happened.

Speaking of Storming Off...

Of course, Chaliese was not the only one to get mad and storm off.

We were in Galveston one year when Peggy got upset about something at dinner and took off.

Afterward, Chaliese was running around outside the restaurant yelling:

I was pretty confused because this was the first time I had been introduced to Peggy’s alter ego.

Saltgrass, Level 2, and Fuzzy Memories

Some of my memories are a bit fuzzy, probably because I was impaired.

But I do remember one time, or at least I partially remember one time, when we were at Saltgrass.

We used to go to Saltgrass, which was across the street from Cacharel, where we had our luncheons for a while.

After the luncheon, we would go across the street to Saltgrass for happy hour. A lot of times, we would have as many people show up for happy hour as showed up to the luncheon. Sometimes we had more.

One time at Saltgrass, I remember walking into the bathroom.

I do not know why this happened, probably because I said I could not go to Level 2 that day, but Chaliese followed me in and wrestled me to the ground.

I guess she changed my mind.

We were all very bad influences on each other.

The Safe Version

There are probably many other Chaliese stories that could be told.

But the rule was clear. No documentation.

So this page only preserves the safe parts: the work, the pressure, the awards, the last-minute sprint to Dallas, the friendship, the PAC fundraising, and the sayings that still make the memories funny years later.

The End