Health Care

Time to get political...but how do we go about it? Demonstrate? (there's not too much going on in Springfield to demonstrate...)Write letters to Congress? (already have...but never get an answer).
The reason I ask these questions is I'm so tired of seeing all the negative press that Obama's health care reform bill(s) get...can't people just take a minute, have an open mind and give it an objective POV before chastising? What is wrong with America to where no matter how hard someone tries, everything they do is met with immediate cynicism? I was reading an article yesterday on past POTUSs that got things done when they needed done. When we needed rubber, steel etc. for WWII, it didn't take a year of red tape to get the supplies, it happened overnight. When we decided to go to the moon, it only took 8 years! Sure, that's 2 terms, but to go from an idea like that, of travelling that far, and making it happen in 8 years!
We have tried health care reform before and it's been shut down. Universal health care would completely change the American landscape and culture for the better. Insurance companies would be forced to compete, which would bring prices down. Everyone would have access to health care, so lives would be saved. On the flip side, with competition, it would help distribute the wealth (part of Obama's plan) more evenly as the insurance companies wouldn't be insanely wealthy because their prices would have competition. There are more points than this, but I just wanted to point out a few that make sense and cover the big picture. And you know what, if universal health care means I have to pay an extra .05% of my income to taxes, then so be it. Right now, around 5% of my monthly income goes to insurance/copays/medicine....to shrink it down to .05%-1% would be fantastic!
Anyway, enough of my rant. I had to get it out as I didn't know where else to go. I only hope someone reads this and gleans something from it...in favor or health care reform!

What a Labor Day

You can read my last post about the plans for this past Labor Day weekend. All went as planned, except for the fact that a close friend of mine OD'd on methadone and died for a moment. The EMT's were able to resuscitate him, but he inhaled his own vomit and that didn't help things. We've all made stupid decisions in our lives, but this guy has made several and has had lots of chances to turn things around. I believe this was his final wake-up call. All of the people that truly care about him visited him in the hospital, and everyone finally said what has needed to be said to him for a while. With any luck, and hopefully power of attorney taken by him mother, he'll be in rehab for a while, get cleaned, maybe move out of the state for a bit, and come back as the person he really is: a very funny individual that loves life and is one of the best DJ's I've had the honor of playing alongside. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed.

Rookie is back in full effect!

So, one of my best friends is back in town for the weekend. His name is Rookie. Well, that's not his real name, but that's the nickname that's stuck. We're gonna party like it's 1909. That means there will be lots of typhoid fever and sloe gin. But I digress. He moved to Delaware back in May and haven't seen him since then, so I'm looking forward to it. This evening, we'll be going to dinner at 5 Spice China Grill (absolutely delicious), then going to Ming's for a little bit of house music and dancing. Also coming into town from KC is our friend LC, so it will be a homecoming event for sure! Rookie is going to try to fly here with a 6-pack of Dog Fish Head IPA, which isn't available in Missouri, so we'll see what happens & if they let him do it. The last time I saw this guy in the airport was our trip back from Vegas in May. I proposed to Monica on the last day, Sunday, and after dinner we went to club Moon and listened to the Hed Kandi DJ's until almost 4AM, then had to jet back to the hotel to catch our flight that left at 630AM IN THE MORNING! They almost didn't let my fiance and Rookie get their boarding passes, let alone through security, as they were still wicked drunk...good times!
Tomorrow, my fiance and I are supposed to be headed to Table Rock lake for a day of boating, dinner, then partying at Ahoy's, followed by breakfast at Cantina Laredo. Her boss is being very gracious and is renting a large 15-person pontoon boat and a condo for all her employees/significant others to stay in. She is such a sweet person and is always committing selfless acts. It will be nice to hang out with all of Monica's co-workers and get to know them a bit better. Many of them I'm already close to, but it's always nice to solidify current bonds and make new ones, you know?
Sunday we'll be back in time to throw a little house party/bbq for Rookie. I'm hoping to get enough people interested for a game of backyard washers, maybe some Pass the Pigs, some poker, drinking and lord knows what else. I guess we'll see.
Anyway, this was just a ramble post as I wasn't busy and had nothing else to do, so I'll leave it at this and get back on here after the weekend and post something of substance!

New tattoo

I'm beginning to really value the 'real estate' that we call skin on our bodies. My new outlook is that I would like to save the rest of my real estate for tattoos by respected artists. Not that I have any that are from idiots or bad artists, but after hanging with Ethen (Ethen Jackson, tattoo artist & owner of Hearts of Fire Tattoos in Springfield, MO) and talking with him, he's really made me understand the value of a great tattoo from a respected & talented artist.
Last week Ethen's friend Jason Stubblefield, from Trader Bob's tattoo shop in STL was in as a guest artist. He does traditional style, which I've been looking at a lot lately and I decided that I would like for him to take a stab at a piece on me (pun intended). On Saturday, I came in with my ideas and he drew up something that was great in about an hour or so. We started about 2:30 & were done by 5. I got it on the underside of my right bicep, opposite a half sleeve that Ethen did...let me tell you that this location is tender, but also, it's awkward to tattoo and the way I had to sit for those 2.5 hours made my arm feel like it would never work properly again. However, when it was done, it looked gorgeous! He did two large traditional roses and a small skull protruding from behind them. The roses signify my fiance, Monica Rose Hopper, and the skull signifies the fact that death is always near. Not that it's a bad thing, it's there to remind me to live life to the fullest every day as you never know when you'll be gone.
It's still healing, but it's really a beautiful tattoo and I think I'm going to have him fill in the rest and make it a complete half sleeve that goes all around the arm next time he's in town. When I get a decent picture of it, I'll post it back on this entry.
That's all for now. Hopefully I can get back on this blog train and keep it consistent!

New beginnings

Well, I'm not going into great detail on this because I've already told the story 5 dozen times so here goes: I left Studio 417 and have a new position at Staxx Apparel as Marketing/Creative Director. At the same time, my significant other Monica left her position at her salon and has found a new home at Vivo Salon. It's been a crazy and much-needed transition in our lives and by no means has it been easy! There has been so much rigmarole and shenanigans on the behalf of a certain unnamed party and it has caused unnecessary stress on the both of us. If only some people in this world would take a step back and look at things from a less subjective point of view, I think it would make a world of difference. Unfortunately, most people can't be bothered to step out of their comfort zone, if even for just a fleeting moment, to try and understand someone else's position...which leads me to this blog post. This certain unnamed person has been spiraling into a deep delusion of humility and modesty that is not only unfound but completely fabricated. It's completely outrageous and I truly blame myself for not being more honest with this person earlier and possibly preventing this entire mess. Alas, hindsight is always 20/20. I never quite understood that saying until the latter of my years and now, having experienced situations where it fits into the equation, I can honestly say it is completely true. Why can't foresight be as good? Oh well, no need to dwell on that. That's all for now...

This past weekend was ridiculous

Let me just preface this post by saying that when I say 'past weekend', I'm actually starting from Thursday evening. The reason for this is that in good 'ol Springfield, MO, it's a tradition to begin the weekends on Thursday. I'm not sure how this started, and it's not so much official as it is an understanding among those that like to go out to bars/clubs, events, plays, etc.

So, Thursday night was a friend's birthday. We went out to dinner at Nakato, a Japanese Hibachi steakhouse. I won't lie, it's not my favorite place to eat, and in all actuality, the only time that my girlfriend and I go there is for this particular friend's birthday...which brings me to my next point; this is the 2nd year in a row that I have made it out to Nakato for his birthday and the 3rd year in a row that my GF has made it out for his birthday...which I believe the third time makes it a tradition, so I have gone ahead and marked it in my Outlook calender for next year. I'm going to go ahead and reveal that our friend is Ethen, the owner of Hearts of Fire tattoo (which I'll blog about sometime soon...maybe when I start working on my next sleeve). So, before we even got to Nakato I told Monica not only did I not want to go out after we leave Nakato, but also that I didn't want to drink very much. So, as we go in and have a seat at the bar to wait for the entire party to show up I logically order a Gin & Tonic. At dinner, I order a second Gin & Tonic...oh, but then what? Someone has the bright idea to go and order a round of Sake bombs...then a shot of Tequila for the birthday boy...and I'm done. Literally. Stick a fork in me. I went to bed that night at 11pm as we had to be up by 6:30am to do yoga at 7:25am. Wow.
So, then we get to Friday. I've done yoga and I feel pretty good. I do a half day of work because I'm leaving with some of my best friends for a guys night out in STL. We were headed to Home nightclub at the Ameristar casino for a send-off for my roomate/best friend/whiny bitch Rookie and my friends, we did it proper. We got to out hotel, which does free drinks in the atrium area from 5:30pm-7:30pm, and immediately got buzzed. We ate, got cleaned up, then got to the club around 11pm, somewhat sobered up from earlier. The main DJ that night was Sander Kleinenberg, who is a world-renowned DJ and producer and a talent that I've been wanting to see live for quite some time...let me tell you that it was phenomenal. I love house music, and he did not disappoint with his ability to keep the dancefloor packed with club anthems that people knew the words to put to the grimiest progressive tech house you can imagine. Absolutely phenomenal. Also, we got a table and bottle service, so needless to say we were living the life for the 4 hours that we were there. We danced and drank and danced and drank some more, littering our table with cigarette butts and used matches. After we stayed up and bs'ed til about 5 in the morning. Then we got up and drove back.
Saturday night was my GF's brother's bday, and he is a very good friend of mine so of course I could not miss that! We started the night at Riad, which just did a huge renovation and let me tell you, that restaurant looks ten thousand times better. The great part is the new menu was nice and the food was excellent, and to top it all off the service from our waitress Judy was impeccable! After dinner, drinks and a few shots, we headed over to Zan. Now, let me say that I had only been to Zan once, on a Saturday, and it was an awful experience. I was overcharged for drinks, they made a Royal Flush with well liquor instead of Crown Royal, the bartender was an imcompetent and ungrateful bitch, the place was absolutely packed and the music was shitty. Not exactly a good first impression. This night was slightly better. The drinks were decent, though a bit on the small side for the price. The music was slightly better and the service was a bit better as well. The good part is it was the beginning of spring break so we had lots of room for our entire party to have a good time so that was nice. One thing I do like: it's non-smoking. And coming from someone who socially smokes when they drink, that's saying something. The night was great, I got Justin (Monica's bro) several shots and drinks and he danced like a fool and a nice time was had by all. As we were leaving we decided to grab a hot dog from the vendor out front. Two foreign students walked loudly talking about how America was 'stupid' and that American's were 'loud, obnoxious and generally worthless'. I obviously told him if he didn't like us or our country to get out, which started an arguing match which would have ended in a fist fight if I hadn't been worried about a few things:
1) Both of these jokers were half my size, so it would have been an unfair fight to them even if I was by myself
2) There were no cops in sight and I hadn't seen any all night, so I would have had carte blance with my fist and their faces
3) my GF's bro was inside and he's a 6' 4" cop
4) There were about a dozen or so other guys inside that were with our party that night and those guys wouldn't have stood a chance

So, instead of ruining their night and confirming their perception of America as 'stupid', I decided to take the high road, let them verbally berate me, and hope that they eventually change their mind before they run their mouth to some redneck with a lead pipe in the back of his pickup that doesn't quite have the forethought that I do.

All in all, a very interesting, fun-filled, adventurous...not to mention somewhat expensive but well worth it...weekend in Missouri.
Ah the Ozarks!

St. Patrick's Day

Today is St. Patty's day. It's going to be around 75 degrees today and I have to be at work. The great thing is that I have enormous plate glass windows directly in front of me that curtain the front of the salon, so I can see outside and enjoy, relatively, the sunshine and nice weather. I'm not sure why I started this blog, so we'll see how long it lasts before I get bored with it. Rookie, my roomate, is in STL today celebrating St. Patty's because apparently since he's Irish it's a given that every year he has to get belligerently drunk on March 17th. He made sure to send me a 'top o the mornin to ya' as I was getting ready for work this morning. I'm sure at that time, about 7:45am, he was on his 3rd or 4th Guinness and 2nd shot of Jameson. More to come.