Why am I in a potato field with kids?

In case you didn’t know…True Blood is the best show on television right now. At the end here, I’ll show you why.

A little background between the last entry and this day:

Gnarly Dodge Neon was sold to Josh Dore (It’s probably still sitting behind Dore Enterprises right now)

Done with Autozone on Center Ave., moved on to Advance Auto in Saginaw.

Flemmer took his bitch ass out to near Seattle, and wouldn’t come back for 2 years. Grrrrrrrr

After a slew of 3 random cars, I had an odd looking pickup truck. (I’ve got some stories about those too sometime for a funny time)

A lot more stuff.

So, on or near the last day of high school in Bay City 2003, my brother said that a party was happening out in Munger somewhere, and that his friends were gonna be there with a bunch of other people and for me to stop out. He also mentioned that The Natalie Fight was going to perform their first (?) show there. Apparently it was acoustic, and for that reason I could be wrong as it “technically” wasn’t the first show. Now, for someone who was 21 years old, a high school grad party was not the place to pick up girls, but then again, they were now out of high school…Anywho, this party was alright and I ran into Rachel and Amanda. Now, I knew Rachel because I met her through Tara like about a year before, but I hadn’t seen her but maybe once in that time. Amanda I had never met, even though she lived about one block from my Mom’s house her whole life and I probably walked by the place 2500 times. Who knew I would become such good friends with them because of a chance meeting? I’m sure that how everything works actually. You can never plan to become great friends with someone(s), it just happens. Either way, we met up there and started talking and somehow they, Nigel, and a number of others convinced me to have a party at the apartment that night once this placed closed up. (It woulda be early, remember, high school party…) I never really knew any of those guys (the crew which is included in the rest of my life), at that time, but this night started what would be the craziest, most ridiculous, coolest summer ever.

So Bill and I headed out from the party to go pickup some booze and then said we’d meet everyone at my apartment. This was cool because I was all pumped that I would have some new friends, and new girls coming by the apartment finally. Bill and I were close to moving out anyway. Our lease was up like June 15^th or something, and we were moving into the infamous 5^th street house with Brad Jeske and Seth Montana (More on this place later, a lot more). Now, because of this move Tara said she was going to break up with me. Now, hooray right? Nope, nothing is that easy. Tara said that by moving into a place like that (what kind of place? Hmmm) I would forget about her, blah, blah, blah. Well, I said the usual boyfriend stuff to ease that situation down hoping it would just go away. I was definitely not calling up Tara and telling her about this party, let alone telling her anyone of who was going to be there, but somehow she found out and came by with a bunch of her friends. This pissed me off for three reasons...

1. 1.) I hated all of her friends

2. 2.) All of them were just booze fiends and never had any money.

3. 3.) When they did drink, they got pissed off.

Well of course Tara and her Sabrina crew show up with all these other folks in the middle of everyone else having a good time. They ended up pissing a bunch of people off, and many of them weren’t going to spend the night a place they just found 3 hours before, so most of them had left. In the middle of all this, the apartment was pretty trashed anyway because of getting ready to move. My room looked like shit, as did the living room. I couldn’t keep track of where anything was, including my cell phone. I left to go to Kroger to get some more booze, when at that moment Stacie had to call. You can find anything when it’s ringing right? That’s how Tara found my cell phone for me, and started screaming at Stacie and all that crap. I came back home to a wonderful situation. One girl and her cracker friends in my face screaming, and one on the phone wondering what the hell was going on. Stacie was wayyyyy more easy going than anyone in my life, and she blew it off to some crazy trick, she was actually dating Seth at this time anyway, and we still were good friends.

So this blew up in my face as usual, and the night was all downhill from there. The oddest part though was whatever happened in my room before I got home. Bill was home the whole time I was gone, and so were a number of other people, but when I went to my room it smelled like a dog shit on the walls!

I still to this day don’t get what the fuck happened in there, but with all of the furniture moved away from the walls, there wasn’t any room to move around in there. Honestly, I think some dipshit had that skunk smelling hunting crap in there, but it was bad. I mean like someone shit between the mattresses, you know. Anyway, disgusting as it was, thank god we were moving like 4 days later.

Tara, of course, broke up with me that night, but it wouldn’t stick. It didn’t officially end until July 3^rd, sweet day to be explained later…after the other good stuff about the apartment and moving.

This night doesn’t really seem too eventful compared to most days that mean a lot to me, but sometimes the most important days are the simplest. This day started off as nothing to me, and ended up being a turning point in my life. This was the first day I met the group of friends that would be with me everyday for the next 4+ years until I moved to Grand Rapids (and I’m still friends with all of them). This day honestly showed me that there was cooler and nicer people around Bay City, and we all could get along.

And the reason True Blood is the best show on TV, not the only reason, but a high one.

Catherine Wheel...I'm burning for you

Wow, first one in over a year. No more of that waiting trash. I have time and this stuff needs to get put up for everyone to read and have a good time reading because most of it is funny as hell on a Sunday.

Well, what has happened in the last year? Moved out of Grand Rapids, almost to New York, then I found out my work has a bunch of clowns working in HR, and came back home to near Ann Arbor. A lot of other stuff too, but I’m leaving that til later so I can get back to the tale first.

A Catherine Wheel (disambiguation), seems to describe Tara and I’s relationship btw. Google that shit.

So yeah, starting back to Tara. We started dating of course (see the last article) and usually hung out around Gabe and Shawn Moore’s apartment. Again, we were all good friends, but really we hung out there to drink and have a good time. It was typical of me to have a case of WARM Busch Light in the trunk of my gnarly 96 Dodge Neon in case they weren’t home or whatever. ---side note: Have you ever had warm Busch Light? Like it’s been in the trunk, so it’s nearly hot? The first one tastes like garbage, but after that they taste like warm grape Faygo soda. Still disgusting as hell, but manageable--- Anywho, around June (must be 2k2) I get the sweet idea to move out of my Mom’s house into an apartment. This came about because I felt I was old enough to move out and I had the decent job of controlling the auto parts trade of Essexville. I figured moving into Huntington Place apartments would be ideal. It’d be across the street from my work, and since you haven’t lived Bay City style til you’ve lived in the Huntington Place apartments, I’d just start there.

Gabe was the one who initiated this because he and Moore were having issues living together and figured I was one of the few friends who were good for rent money each month. Well, turns out Gabe backed out of the deal, then one afternoon Bill pulled up in my Mom’s driveway and literally asks, “So when are you gonna move out of this place?” How’s that for timing? I tell him I’ve already been approved for an apartment and it’s on.

Tara was more pumped about this then I was. She figured that now she can hang out somewhere else besides her crazy house or my Mom’s. So of course I had to break the news to my Mom somehow that I was moving out. How did I do this? Moving out ghetto style!

In case you don’t understand “ghetto style”, it’s the way people move that typically live in the hoods, and have to move to a new place every 3.5 weeks. Get your crew together, get a pickup truck , grab everything from the old house in about an hour, load the bed up until it’s literally overflowing, throw your crew of 7 in the front of a single cab manual tranny pickup, head to the new joint, and empty it in one hour.

She was gone for the weekend we were planning this, so I can only imagine wondering were my stuff was Sunday or Monday. No big deal really, once we talked about it, but my named was all signed already, so there was no going back.

This entire year of living there was relatively cool. Living away from home, doing whatever you wanted really, throwing couches off of the 3^rd floor balcony into the parking lot (3 of them) and not getting in trouble. Sounds like a good time to me. The best part was though that you could have people over all night and no one could tell you they had to leave. Tara would usually have to be home to her house by like 10 every night, damn young women, but that left it open for my friend Stacie (or anyone else really [NOT former girlfriend Stacy]) to come over after that. (hehehe) There’s nothing like being at work from 7am until 4pm, then hanging out with your girlfriend from 4pm til 10pm (doing nothing), then hanging out with someone else from 10pm til like 5 or 6am, sleeping one hour and going back to work at 7am. Thank god I only worked across the street. Man, if I would’ve been caught back then doin what I did, I’d probably be dead right now. Tara was nuts already at this point (you’ll see in future parts), but hey, at 20 years old you really don’t care about much.

A stupid funny story about one time in the year Bill and I lived there – I was hanging out over at James Knappman and Brandon’s apartment, hanging out with Stacie and Flemmer and all the other every weekend friends drinking. Now James made this drink called a reverse jackhammer. Some orange creamsicle tasting vodka drink. Back then I really didn’t drink much, but those things were so good, I couldn’t stop having them. Next thing you know its 3am, and you’ve finished off a bottle of Mohawk vodka while drinking beers in between. Well, deciding to head home then, this dope named Mark somehow finds out I live at Huntington just like him. He wants a ride home too. Now drunk driving is wrong mmmkay, but home was only a straight road and a mile away and I didn’t feel drunk (pfff) so We set out home. I felt perfect getting home, got out of the shitty van (that’s next time) I had, made it to the very first step upstairs and it hit me. Time to puke all over the stairs. I crawled up those damn stairs, made it to the front door,and heard banging on the door. I open it to find Bill on the floor arguing with his girlfriend (at the time) on the phone and throwing shoes at the door. WTF? Who the hell throws shoes at the damn door anymore? I made it into bed with a stove pot next me while the room was spinning. That didn’t last long as I ended up on the bathroom floor. Bill was nice enough though to stay up all night arguing on the phone, and still managed to pick my head up off the floor and put a towel underneath it. Thanks Bill.

Next entry: Meeting Rachel (again) and Amanda …and the last day of high school 2003.

Thanks for reading!

You've graduated from grade school and you don't have to take shit from anybody

Werd up! My head has not been in a good place the last few weeks. I am not where I want to be, and the situation i'm in feels like a damn prision. Hopefully, with all willing, this will be over by next week and i'll actually have some gnatly news to share. On top of that, I have to move by like August 10th (which screws me out of going to Florida). Move to where you ask? Well, not sure yet, but I have to be out of this hellhole by then. Maybe to Pinckney, maybe Harlem, maybe Compton, shit maybe another part of Grand Rapids (lol), who knows. It better be figured out by next weekend though or I am going to be moving to jail instead of a house.

So my brother and Teri are going to be graduating in a couple weeks, which (see above) I will not be able to head down to see, which sucks. I will be seeing them for awhile at my Dad's though which will be cool since they are off to La La land soon thereafter. At least now when I head to Vegas i'll have family less than 3 hours away. Congrats to them.

Ahhhh, well back to my tails after a month break. So Tara and I somehow meet and start dating, if you call it that. Well, whatever it was it was really cool for awhile. We hung out a lot and really got along well (in the beginning, i cant go too fast with this crap because these things because this relationship is too funny) and everything seemed to be working out on a good basis. I worked for Autozone at the time and still did live at my Mom's until around July. We had always hung out over at Shawn Moore's apt. and Gabe's apt. This usually was the case because I was only 20 at the time and we could actually drink between those places.

The first time we ever really did anything "as a couple" was try to head off to Tawas for a night. Now, me being me, I figured that it would be a good chance to "get away" and really see if I could stand longer than 3 hours with her and not get pissed. Good testing grounds also. So, that day I had Paul from work go buy some beer, Tara told her Mom (who I hadn't met yet) she was staying at a friends house and off we went. This seemed like the perfect plan, you know, hotel room, booze, and innocent little couple headed secretly to nowhere...hahaha. Well, it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Nothing exciting happened unfortunately, but i did realize I could stand her more than a few hours.

See all the exciting, punishing, crazy, arguing, insane bullshit happens later into the relationship, which I will cover over the next little while. It probably will actually cheer me up a bit because how anyone survived those times is still beyond me.

Okay, so i'll be jumping ahead, but I have to cover meeting her parents and all. at first I was always the "dude who pulled up in his car and left" guy. I never went into the house or even got out of the car for the first couple of months. So finally one day I decide to go meet them. I get greeted by her mom with the, "So you're the one who's been dating my daughter." Bitch please, seriously, get over yourself. This "mom" didn't honestly give two shits about who or where her daughter was running off with/to each night, now all of a sudden, she cares. That started off great, then I meet her dad, who actually was a really laid back nice guy. He is about 10 years older than her mom, and I soon found out why he was so chill...he had a damn pot farm in the basement of the house. (Now some may wonder why I'm putting this here in virtual ink. I am because it's a damn truth. Whoever doesn't like it can get ahold of me and file complaint, and maybe for secrets sake, i'll do something, or maybe i'll just turn them around, slap their ass, and say "off you go.") Anywho, that is why, and I still can't figure how he could be so laid back, yet her mom, who smoked just as much was always on the warpath. Weird. I do remember that Christmas buying her a 24 pack of Milwaukee's Best and wrapping it up with a card that said, "If I had your kids, i'd be drinking too!" haha, funny cause I chose to date one of them.

This is actually making me feel a bit better...can't wait to pick it up with the good stuff tomorrow. Starting with moving out of my Mom's. That is honestly when it all started to go DOWN HILL. Like plllllllooooooop (splash).

Headed to see the Tigers on Friday. Woot Woot!!

Living well is the best revenge

Wow, has it been like two weeks since I wrote. Jeez, I haven't gone two weeks without something in a long time. What a crazy two weeks though. Polish festival, 4th of July, Michael Jackson dying, work being fucktards, a spiked nail through my foot, and other goddamned nonsense that is pretty dumb. Let's roll with it.

Michael Jackson's funeral today looked pretty normal compared to what the news was saying. I imagined a full blown Watts Riot or Rodney King style beating about to happen and be live on tv, but really it looked like a normal memorial. Thank goodness my brother and Teri got out of L.A. before that airport exorcism took place. My brother needs about 5 years of smooth sailing at airport after what happened the day before my Grandpa's funeral.

The polish festival was pretty sweet and I had a good time considering we split around 1030ish. Seeing a few people and catching up was cool, but I definitely need more time with these folks. Maybe next year i'll stay all night and get crazy trashed like the old days. Well, seeing as next year it'll be a much further journey than just 2 hours to get to Bay City for the festival, i'll probably need it pretty bad.

the 4thof July fireworks were pretty tight. I really took them for granted when I lived there and watched them every year, but when you see others and then come back to see those ones, you are blown away. They really are the best around, and the festival was pretty cool too...minus the (how do you say it) donkey riff-raff hoodrat hillrod's walking around. I mean, come on people. The carnival looked like every wanker from every sewer in the tri-state area emptied out and said, let Bay City take care of you today. Now, i'm all for everyone living life how anyone wants, it is your life after all, but when you've got a row of six, hood rat homegirls, each 8 months pregnant with there newest way to get another $9,000 from the government, and they've each got 2 other kids (all under 5 years old) already tagging behind, and no one is sight who even remotely looks like a father-figure...and multiply that by 89...well, you've got the carnival.

I am sooooooo glad that my friends and the people I care about have not gone down that path. Now, by no means am I saying everyone I/we know is making 100 grand a year and rolling with perfect kids and lives, but I do say everyone is doing good! Not pumping out kids because they are too lazy to get a job and just want free money.

I've got experience in this. I single-handedly heard over 100 times while working in Saginaw for 4 years how the "system" works, and still wonder why I didn't just start having kids at 17. Call me naive, but doesn't knocking up a bunch of girls, getting free money, buying rims for my car, chillin on the corner all night, sleeping in til 3pm everyday, getting high and drinking all day, and then not having any responsibility for those action sound good?!?!? Fuck yeah it does, but I guess my and our parents just taught us better than that.

I don't know, I really couldn't have done that shit and acted that way if I wanted to. Honestly, my brain wouldn't have allowed me to do it. It would literally be hard work for me to "fuck off". I guess my best advice to everyone who has passed that age and now notices every little nuance of these festivals is that remember how you are doing now, and how bad it could be or could've been. Everyday no matter how shitty getting up and going to work is, regardless of what youre doing, at least you are doing something and trying to get somewhere. Even if you don't no where that place is, you're headed somewhere, and eventually it'll all work out. Not one of those forementioned dipshits has any clue of the future, or of how when all those little neglected kids turn 18 and split, and all your checks stop coming cause the government runs out of money, well, they'll all be sitting around with nothing, when you'll be around living pretty damn well because of all those days you didn't feel like getting out of bed, but you did anyway. It might seem shitty now (believe me, i know) but in 5-10 years, when that shit sneaks up on you, you'll be doing fine, laughing at how you though you'd never get through those hellhole jobs, but you did, and you'll be talking how I am now.

Ahhhhhhh, i'm sorry about rants, but i've got too much on my plate that pisses me off, and no release. I miss too many people and am too far away to do anything about it. I need like a month's vacation to see everyone and talk about stuff. I will always help anyone with anything, all they have to do is ask!!! Silence doesn't help anyone, that's why I talk so damned much.

Well, back to Eddie & the Cruisers...i wish I lived in the 50's (i wish everyday of my fn life)

Polish festivus redux

It is so hot out today, but I will gladly deal with heat far, far, far more than I will the cold. Basically because of the conditions (driving, etc.) The heat doesn't cause you to slide all over the road, get stranded in your house with no food, or give you pneumonia. Again, welcome heat!!

So my lovely day of the best Polish Festlival begins with work until like 3pm. (BTW, we all lived at the house on 5th Street this summer) Then as Bill, Brad, Ryan Casteneda, Tom Slavens, and myself get ready to go, the night was beginning to have a weird but good feeling. Much like you knew it was going to be a good night. Ryan and I start drinking about 5pm and who knows why, playing chess while everyone else is getting ready. We show up at the festival and notice Shawn (haha) working security in the St. Stans parking lot. WTF? I was like, "Dude, get that crap uniform off and come drink!" Of course he didnt, but hey, I'm a good friend and think that if you're working for parking lot security, you need to just stop right then and take a damn good look at yourself.

Anyway, you all know how St. Stans is. Get booze, do a lap, get booze, do a lap, get booze, do a lap...all while talking to people you haven't seen in awhile and catching up. It really is a good time, which I enjoy very much. Well, around 1030 each of us except Bill is well beyond plastered. I'm talking to god knows who about god knows what, and it's one of the few time each year my family can see me out of my mind, and not be mad about the whole deal. So we start to leave to head to Midland St. On the way out we had about 4 girls tagging along to our "group" the entire night. We had no idea who they were, but hey, who am I to tell girls not to hang around us??? We are heading through the parking lot and I proceed to give it to Shawn about how if I dont see him at our house later that night, im gonna kick his ass. As we load into Bill's car, I get in back, as usual, and one of the random girls climb in with me. SCORE! haha, just kidding. I need to get some composure back before getting to Midland St. So, I decide to lay down and/or take a nap on the way over. I just put my head in this random girls lap and start talking about who knows what, but I do remember everyone laughing about whatever I was saying. Now instantly this girl thinks I have interest in her because of my head in her lap. (Tip for pickup moves all, just lay on whoever you like and it'll work itself out, well, probably)

We show up to The Pharmacy bar on Midland St. (This is when that bar was "THE PLACE") and Bill is about ready to kill me because of my drunken ramblings. We all show up and this place looks like the festival moved here. Wall to wall traffic, which I love by the way.We all order more beer, and these girls are unstoppable. Why a few of the dudes didn't like them hangin around, I still dont know, but whatever. I decide it would be a good idea to go dancing with everyone and do a flip off the little mini-window stage the have. So, yeah, I do a flip of the stage right onto Brad, knocking him back into some girl. This leads to her dumping her beer all over her friend, which leads to her friend dumping her beer purposely all over Brad (like it was his fault), yet he is so sweaty from this place, he seems to enjoy it, and then keeps dancing. Now, this place is bumping until about 2am. Once we leave, I start talking to people and forget about leaving with the dudes. All of a sudden another girls comes up to me outside and starts grabbing at me and "hugging" and stuff. Now, I havent seen this girl all night long, but hey, nothing wrong with some 2am affection right?

She decided to somehow figure out that Taco Bell was my weakness, probably because it was the only place open at the time, and asks if I want to get some food. Of course I say, off to her car. Now, I didnt know this but Bill saw me getting into her car, so he figured I was getting a ride home. So they all split for the house. In the 5 minutes it takes to get to Taco Bell, she is driving and trying to "rub my leg" the entire way. If you know me, you know I dont just let people, who's name I dont even know, start getting their way with me. (Maybe in retrospect, i shouldve not had this policy, haha) I just keep playing this like no big deal until I get my food. I did not want this girl knowing where I lived, so when she asked where to go, I said back to the bar, hoping my friends would still be outside there. We get back and I have her drive around the block a few times to see their car, which of course is not there. I say keep circling, because I had to build up the nerve of when to jump out of her moving car.

So yeah, we hit some stop sign and i book it! Heading for the hills! I just started running down Midland St towards the Liberty Bridge. She goes to pull up, to "trap" me and I bolt down to the base of the bridge, frantically calling Bill to come get me. As i'm running explaining where I am, he's laughing his ass off thinking I'm scared of some girl. Regardless, im under the Liberty Bridge, drunk, waiting for a car to come get me. They pull up and cannot believe what the hell i'm talking about, but say that they called a bunch of people and we're now partying at our house. We all pull up to the house, still locked like when we left. No one has arrived yet and all the lights are off, except the bathroom light...

We open the front door and look to see the light on, which no one left on. Now, all being drunk we're thinking some Pulp Fiction bathroom machine gun scene is gonna go down. We start talking quietly getting a bat from behind the couch and lining up to knock a home run with whomever head is coming out of there. The door open and out pops...Jenny. I swear she doesnt know how close she was to a concussion that second. I think it was Ryan that grabbed the end of the bat to make sure it wasn't swung. Evey one is yelling like, "How'd you get in?" and all that, and she answers, "Through the window." What??? hahaha, Jenny, you climbed through the damn window. Now everyone remembers we had a big porch, you couldve just waited 5 minutes.

So over the next 3 hours we keep drinking and talking to everyone over, and lighting more fireworks off of the lawn pissing the neighbors off, and then I went outside to talk to our friend Dana who was sitting on the lawn. Now I did like Dana for awhile, so I thought , Perfect! Outside talking Bill decides to start "working out" on the lawn at 4am doing push-ups and jumping off of random tree stumps or something, trying to look cool. As the night turned to morning, I remember laying back to look at the stars, then the next sound I hear is at 10am, and it's a damn lawn mower.

I asked Dana the next day why the hell she let me fall asleep 5 inches from the sidewalk. Her reply was, I went inside to go to your room, and you said you'll be upstairs in 5 minutes. Now, how is that for what I remember? Everything except what would've led to an excellent time. I swear, it's like my brain has selective guidance, and it is set for things that dont make normal sense. You should remember saying to a girl, i'll be in my room in 5 minutes, but you don't. Pfffff, anyway. I wake up 5 inches from the lawn, sunburn face and all and the damn neighbor with the mower is staring at me laughing.

It was a very good night. haha

This is Side 1, flip me over...

(Insert the rest of the Fallout Boy lyrics here)

So what's new? Not much here, just sitting alone listening to The Ramones as usual. School is done for at least the next 8 weeks, which is awesome btw. This means much more poker playing, thank god, and hopefully by next week some very good news will be coming my way. (Well, hopefully anyway. I think positive people.) Oh, and Halloween 5 is on AMC right now. Now, honestly, why would they be showing Halloween 5 at 6pm on June 23rd? This in itself is the question of the day, and since I know just about every little factoid about the Halloween series, I figure it will bother me until I realize that someone weirdo fan is sitting at a control board right now and said, "I wanna watch Halloween 5." Hard to believe, but you know this dude is like 42 years old and lives in a basement.

I'm gonna be at my mom's Friday from like 930am til 2ish beating a garage to death, so if you have nothing else goin on, come visit me.

So back to the tales...maybe Ducktails actually.

So, the next day (after the Jessica/boyfriend night, read other posts, etc.) I gave her a call around 4pm. My ploy was to get her before her boyfriend got out of work, so when he called up, she wouldn't be home, and therefore, well, I win. Remember this is before every person on earth had a cell phone. Of course somehow she answered on the first ring, now I do believe in an odd form of telepathy, but sometimes when you want things to happen they just do. The first words out of her mouth were, "I need to talk to you." Awesome right? Well, sparing all the "I can't hang out with you anymore detail" running through my head, that was not what happened. Instead, she came to my mom's and began to explain that she broke up with her boyfriend the last evening! How cool is that? For me? Well, not directly. She went into explaining why and such and I did have a big part to do with it, but really it was seeing everyone that brought her back to who she "really" was.

We decide to just hang out for awhile and see what happens. The political approach right? No problem, I was happy, i had my crew and friends back, and everything was good. About 3 weeks into the approach she springs on me, "I know you like me and want a relationship..." (Well, no shit, duh, where have you been for 3 weeks?), "So here, I do too, but since you basically run at your own pace, which is always on FAST, I think we need to read this book together." Jessica pulls out "Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars" or whatever. SERIOUSLY people, this is no joke. I give her this look like WTF, but of course, with her mom laughing in the background, I agree and now i am into my first bit of marriage counseling, before even the dating starts.

How's that for progression?

Now, as this is transpiring over the next 6 weeks, a girl named Tara starts hanging out periodically around my work. Myself working at Autozone on Center Ave. noticed that some of the girls working next door at Ponderosa would continuously come into the store, wander, and then leave. Now I thought they were just blowing time on there breaks or whatever, but then realised that I knew one of them, Tara.

I need some help here now--- The first time Tara ever ever ever met me, she came to my mom's with the triplets (Burley's) that lived by B&C Pizza. I remember that because I was making my own "chicken tenders" and had no shirt on. (spraying grease with no shirt on, smart ole me) and she thought I looked "hot". BUT, this was like 6 months before I even have a legit memory of her, so her is where the help is needed. I have no idea what, where, when, or how we began dating. No friggin clue, and I know someone out there knows. I know it was near the beginning of summer, the year Weezer's Green album came out (whatever that was). I was still living at my mom's (until that fall), I was 20 years old. I really need to know because I really do not remember, so please get at me if you have a clue.

So, lets just put it this way...I (we) never finished the marriage help book. Way too many things started to pop up. Like another dude in her life, another bunch of things in mine and so forth, but I need a subject for tomorrow. So werd up.

Check out here tomorrow because as in POLISH FESTIVAL fashion, you will read the funniest polish festival story/night/day whatever you will ever read which involves St. Stan's, Midland St., Jenny almost getting her head knocked off, some chick taking me to taco Bell trying to sleep with me, and me sleeping nearly in the road all night long. Trust me, this is a story of all stories, and somehow I remember it all. Also, Taco Bell is the way into my pants everyone (big secret). Maybe that is what the "girlfriend" girls did, and the others didn't. I think I just gave out my secret.

Oh, and go listen to this:

I'm Just Lion Around

Wow, it's been awhile, and too much has gone on in the last week to even explain. I'm sick of work, i'm sick of driving, i'm sick of school (even though tomorrow is the last day til fall), and most of all i'm sick of this shithole town known as Grand Rapids. I start out like this, at my Grandpa's brunch (more on this later) a cousin of mine says she lives in Grand Rapids and loves it, and starts going on and on about how much she likes everywhere, and the artsy area, and all that crap. Look everyone, Grand Rapids is NOT a place you should move to. It's cool for about 10 minutes when you first get here, then you start to notice the difference between the "westsiders" and us...the "eastsiders". (i'm talkin about the east and west side of the state) You would think there cannot be much differences right? Wrong. Grand Rapids is divided into about 5 or 6 sections and you can definently tell when you cross each ones boundries. They are not known as Downtown, Alpine, Heritage Hill, Eastown.

No, No, No

They are known as ghetto, worse ghetto, mexican town, mexican town south, wealthy(rich)land, shitbird retard convention area, and "when you stop your car at a traffic light you get 6 bums coming to the window asking for money brick street." There. Grand Rapids to everyone in a nutshell. Soon, I will be gone forever, and trust me, i'm not coming back.

Other news, my brother and his fiancee are moving to La La land after graduation. You can inquire where La La land is if you cannot pickup on the initials. (word games people, fun fun)

And most importantly, my Grandpa Guzdzial died last Monday. Pretty sad all around, and thank you to all my friends that were supportive and such, it really helps knowing people are out there as I always will be for you. My brother had one hell of a time getting to MBS Airport through Chicago. Note to everyone---NEVER get a connecting flight out of Chicago---EVER. Regardless he made it up fine, and the funeral services were as good as a funeral can get. My brother and I, with 4 of our cousins were paul bearers and i'm sure my Grandpa would be proud. I never had any clue how many people he knew (south end Bay City should've clued me in about 25 years ago) or organizations he was aligned with. The whole service (funeral home and church) went great, and at the cemetary they had the whole Honor Guard there to the flag folding and gun salute. It was really really meaningful and I am 100% positive that he was looking down going, "Why all this for me?" It was all for you Grandpa because you deserve it, no need to be modest. You were a great infuence on a lot of people and they all wanted to show you the respect you deserved. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you, and I am glad that I am. I will miss you forever.

So, i'm gonna be up for the Polish festival next weekend. Prob will be at my mom's from about 930am Friday til about 5pm, so if you wanna swing by a watch me beat the hell out of a garage...feel free to stop by so we can catch up. I'm probably only going to the Festival Saturday night...so yeah, plan accordingly! haha

Oh, and Jenny, if your birthday is Sunday, you have the same birthday as Jim (Flemmer). Too funny.

I really need to move on...

So tonight there are the Tigers playing, basketball, and the Wings championship. Lots of channel surfing to do, yet somehow I will find myself playing PunchOut during all of this. Oh, and my teacher forgot to post the homework for tomorrow online, so no one will have done it, then he'll wonder why and it'll take 10 people to explain how it wasn't up. And the powers that be at my work decided to fire 2 people, the 2 people above me in the food chain. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I definently will let you know in a few weeks though. By the way...Grand Rapids sucks worse the The River Rock bar on a Tuesday morning. Honestly, I could go into a 12 page blog about how much the people in this place suck, along with other things, and maybe someday I will, but seriously right now...this place can kiss my ass.

I get my wisdom teeth out on Friday too! Hooray!

James, Higgins, and I split from the arcade and head back to James house to hook up with his sister. I was still in shock on how Jessica could actually be so excited to see me. Maybe it was just the excitement of the situation or something, but who cares. The sun was setting and we all decided to just go for a walk instead of sitting around for a bit. By now the entire "crew" had shown up. The group had not totally hung out in so long that when nigga Shawn drove by and saw us all out he almost crashed his car. Now this was a longgggggg walk. We took off from Elm St. (Bay City know exactly where this is) over 2 bridges, down by Midland St., and back. It took up about 2 hours of our time, and I didn't mind a bit. The whole time (with the crew trailing behind us talking too) Jessica and I just caught up about our lives, and how stupid everything was. Our lives weren't that different now, just older. I don't remember exact things from the conversation, which I normally do. I have an excellent memory of conversations and events, but when I don't remember them, it's usually because I'm talking too fast or too much. (well, I probably shouldn't remember anything then)

Now, call it the "rebound" effect or whatever, but since I had just broken up with Stacy about 4 hours before, Jessica was looking pretty damn good at the time. Now she always had, but you know...rebound! So i'm trying really hard to foocus on how I can just stay in the moment forever. This day was already such a big deal to me, and I didn't want it to end. Once we all got back to their house, we all sat outside and just chilled for awhile. Certainly something was going to come up about Stacy or anyone elses girlfriend/boyfriend soon, we all just kept avoiding the issue. Everyone did. No mention of Shawn's random women, Gabe's 7 day old bride (he got married while I was in St. Louis), Stacy, nothing. And then it came, "Oh, Justin, you have got to meet my boyfriend. His name is Justin too and he lives at Huntington Place Apartment's." Goddammit! Seriously, I almost needed a fucking respirator. (now, the next summer I moved into Huntington Place ironically) Great, huh? Well of course he shows up about 20 minutes later. It's about 12:30 am now and it;s just me, shawn, and her until "justin" shows up. Once he got there, well lets reword that, he was one of those dudes now known as "hollister bro's". Get it? (You know the type, i won't get into it) So , once he got there it was instantly weird. Like Jessica knew that he wasn't her type, and we knew it, but he didn't know it, and the only thing that was keeping them good at that moment was that this was all new again.

Well, the other thing is that since it was cold, they had a blanket, and I swear to this day she was playing with his balls underneath it out there, Anywho, I sure wasn't shacking up with Shawn that night, so we called it cool and tok off. Jessica said to call her tomorrow so we could hang out, and she knew I would. Wait until you hear what comes out of her mouth that next day. Next time people, other tasks to tend too.

New Year's Eve, Y2K1 i believe, Bill and I got stuck working at the pizza joint til 2 fucking AM that night. Shitty yes, but we made it worth it. All of my friends knew we were working, and since we couldn't be at any party, they brought it to us. That night it was shitty out. Like ice all over the streets, snow everywhere, and horribily cold. What better than to have myself go "shoeskating" holding onto the outside of a car door?!? What a New Year's. At midnight I decided to grasp the car door (with the window down) and have Shawn truck me around the side streets. the oads were like glass, an since my shoes are always worn down, I slid around like I was on skates. I probably could've let go, hit a pole, busted my head through a car's grill, whatever. But at the time, it was just too cool to pass up. Of course no one else did, they weren't that stupid, but hey I gotta do what I gotta do. Much like everytime I did flips into the bushes outside of my homes. I still have the marks on my back from those fucking things, but no one else was gonna flip into them, so of course, I wiil always be the exception.

So listen to Green Day's new album. It's just okay on the first and second spins, but once you listen to it a few times, it really is pretty damn good.

And i'm gonna leave you with this gnarly pic of Shawn to help you through hump day tomorrow. Enjoy! hahaha