PBA Cards

So i was reading someone Else's blog (Phil) about getting pulled over by a cop for speeding. He of course had "his ace in the deck", AKA a PBA card.

I've always heard of people using a PBA to help them get out of a ticket, and such...

But My question is this:

How do you present it to the cop that has pulled you over?

Do you just hand it to him/her with you License and Registration?

Do you "nonchalantly" let him see it and hope that he in fact does see it and ask you for it?

Just how does one go about using a PBA card?

I have had one in my wallet for the past 5 years, and have never known how to use it when the time comes... In fact, mine is a PCA card (Police Chief's Association) so that should be a bigger ace in the deck, right?

I Suck At This. Period!!!

So, holy shit, I suck at doing a blog... When was the last time i posted anything? I don't even know...

I'm gonna give it another go... probably on a weekly basis... I don't want to make any promises but I will try this again...

I have had a few things to say say so I'll start in the next day or so...

Lazy sack of shit!

Boy, am I a lazy sack of shit or what?!?

Noticed my last post was on February 3. That's like 2 and half weeks...

So here's the lowdown...

Nothing! Nothing has been going on...

Ever since I got sick the day of the Gig at the club house, I have not been good on the diet... I haven't gained any weight, but I notice that I feel bloated and full all the time... I still am not drinking any soda, but I've switched back to sugar in my coffee, and I ran out of lean cuisines so I am eating bigger lunches and dinners because of it... I need to grab some...

The only other thing is that Mathew is really not liking his new school situation... I don't know what the hell to do... he is really unhappy and says the teacher is mean. The next time he comes off the bus crying I'm going to explode... I don't know what I'll do but I need to do something... I think I need to do some more research on what we are entitled to. Thing is, he feels like he is being punished for something he did and he gets upset. but the truth is he is doing better academically in the new class.. but the teacher has that mean teacher look about her... and I think she has a lot less tolerance... and she has to be because all the other kids in the class are more "behaviorally challenged"... Mat isn't, he just has trouble in social situations, so a smaller class is better for him but not necessarily a class full of little fuckers that really just need a kick in the ass from their parents...

More research... that's what I need to do... and find out what we are legally entitled to... He HAS a diagnosis, it's not like he does the things he does because he's trying to be bad .....


frustrating...


anyway... I guess there is more on my mind than I thought.

Holy Shit!

Something Fucked up my whole post and I'm not about to re-type it... sorry but I'm either too busy or too lazy to fix it!

All I can say is "Holy Shit!" From Friday to today has been a blink in time! Friday night was the Pinewood Derby for Mat.. He was totally not into it, Just like the past years so I built the car and entered it as his... It didn't do that well... also as expected... after that, we went home and I went to bed fairly early for a Friday night. I was asleep by 11:30... I woke up when Tanya had to get up for work at 7:30.. she asked me to make coffee, like I normally do for her, but I just didn't feel right.... Uh oh! I run to the bathroom and make it there in the nick of time... I almost shit myself! and while I was sitting there, i felt puke building up..... this was not good!!!! I had a gig that night! So now what? I spent the next 8 hours running back and forth between the bathroom and my bed. I thought "How the hell am I going to play for 4 hours in this condition?" I got Tanya to pick me up some Nauzene, Pepto, and more Imodium. I started loading up on all 3 of them until about 4:00 then got in the shower ... at about 5:30 I was there set up, tuned up and ready to play... feeling like shit but I made it... all the drugs I took kept the puke down and the squirts in... all I had there was some rice and 4 bottles of vitamin water... Here are the set lists:

Set 1
1. Oasis – Wonderwall
2. Deep Blue Something – Breakfast at Tiffany’s
3. WC – Baby Hold Me Tight
4. CCR – Bad Moon Rising
5. SMB – The Joker
6. The Romantics – What I Like About You
7. Jack Johnson – If I Had Eyes
8. The Drifters – Save the Last Dance
9. Coldplay – Beautiful World
10. Grateful Dead – Touch of Grey
11. Neil Young – Down By the River
12. Semisonic – Closing Time

Set 2
13. Pornosonic – Laying Pipe
14. Radiohead – Creep
15. Mamas and the Papas – California Dreaming
16. Stone Temple Pilots – Plush
17. Maroon 5 – I Won’t Go Home Without You
18. CCR – Down on the Corner
19. Young Rascals – Good Loving
20. WC – Let Your Love Shine
21. The Foundations – Build Me Up
22. Oasis – Champagne Supernova
23. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Under the Bridge
24. Neil Young – Rocking in the Free World

Set 3
25. Pink Floyd – Is There Anybody Out There?
26. Bob Dylan – All Along the Watchtower
27. Bob Seger – Turn the Page
28. CCR – Have You Ever Seen the Rain?
29. Van Morrison – Brown Eyed Girl
30. WC – Run Along
31. 4 Non Blondes – What’s Up
32. Bob Dylan - Tangled up in Blue
33. Tom Petty – Mary Jane’s Last Dance
34. Lynrd Skynrd – Simple Man



WC is Willy, and the songs are his originals. We ended up cutting Plush out because we never really got it together enough that I felt comfortable about playing it... and it's a bit too heavy for the crowd that we played for... all in all the gig went went... the other 3 guys got paid, and i had fun despite the sickness!!! anyway, I got home at about midnight and went straight to bed... never even unloaded the car besides my guitars....

So I slept until about 10:00 Sunday morning... I was feeling much better but was still a little light headed.... I went and got the kids from the In-Laws and did some food shopping and then just laid around... then at about 8:00 I made a couple burgers for the kids and Mat said he didn't want to eat cuz he had a stomach ache....

...... hour later........

Mat sprinting past me to hurl into the toilet!!!! I sent him to my room with a huge bowl... he puked once an hour for the 6 hours... poor kid... I slept on the couch so I could hear him... every time he puked, I got up with him and then emptied his bowl out and got him cleaned up... I got almost no sleep .... I took off on Monday for a few reasons.. one I was still a little sick, two I was up all night and three I had meetings with the kids' school....


Meeting #1:

Katie needs help... she is falling behind in areas that she cant.... language arts, spelling etc. She will now go to the resource room for extra help. This is good. She has an appointment at a neurologist next month to find out what is going on... the school is saying it's an ADD thing... I won;t accept anything they say because they told me Mathew had ADD and wanted us to put him on Ritalin and after his appointment at the neurologist he was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. Fuck them!... If the Neurologist tell us us it ADD then I will accept it....

Meeting #2:

Mathew has taken a step back.. he has now become defiant at school. He'll sit UNDER his desk and refuse to come out.... crazy stuff like that.... Weird thing is that he doesn't do this shit at home...... we figure its because he knows we won't put up with that shit. so he is now going to be place in a class with a really tough teacher that won't tolerate that crap.... In a way I feel like I'm throwing him into the lions den but after he pushes his luck just once, he will get it... and then Soar!

Today:

This morning, Bonnaroo.com announce the initial line up for the festival!!!! Headliners are Bruce Springsteen, Phish, Beastie Boys, Nine Inch Nails!!! Go to Bonnaroo.com and look at some of the other acts!!! I can't fuckin' wait!!!! So far they have 75 acts on the bill... last year there were 168 so they are going to add lots! Here is the initial line up:

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Phish (2 shows)
Beastie Boys
Nine Inch Nails
David Byrne
Wilco
Al Green
Snoop Dogg
Elvis Costello Solo
Erykah Badu
Paul Oakenfold
Ben Harper and Relentless7
The Mars Volta
TV on the Radio
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Gov't Mule
Andrew Bird
Band of Horses
Merle Haggard
MGMT
moe.
The Decemberists
Girl Talk
Bon IverBéla Fleck & Toumani Diabate
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Galactic
The Del McCoury band of Montreal
Allen Toussaint
Coheed & Cambria
Booker T & the DBTs
David Grisman Quintet
Lucinda Williams
Animal Collective
Gomez
Neko Case
Down
Jenny Lewis
Santogold
Robert Earl Keen
Citizen Cope
Femi Kuti and the Positive Force
The Ting Tings
Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Kaki King
Grizzly Bear
King Sunny Adé
Okkervil River
St. Vincent
Zac Brown Band
Raphael Saadiq
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Crystal Castles
Tift Merritt
Brett Dennen
Mike Farris and the Roseland Rhythm Revue
Toubab Krewe
People Under The Stairs
Alejandro Escovedo
Vieux Farka Touré
Elvis Perkins in Dearland
Cherryholmes
Yeasayer
Todd Snider
Chairlift
Portugal. The Man.
The SteelDrivers
Midnite
The Knux
The Low Anthem
Delta Spirit
A.A. Bondy
The Lovell Sisters
Alberta Cross

I don't ever really say too much on the subject but I am friends with one the people in one of the headliners...I can't really say who except that I will be calling on this person to see if I can get hooked up!!! Maybe get backstage or even into to the VIP section... we'll see what happens he may not be able to do anything because it's such a huge festival.

Gonna be awesome!!!!!

A year already....

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of my Mother's death. She had stomach cancer for 2 years before it finally metastasized and spread to ... well every where.... Either way, yesterday my 2 sisters and i went to the cemetery and decorated her headstone for Valentine's day and just hung around and talked... it was good. It's kind of weird how close we've gotten since Mom passed... I like it. Not that we hated each other or anything, but we've just gotten closer.

Saturday night was Willy's gig at The Valley View Pub. This was his 3rd or 4th Gig there and was by far his best performance. That being said, there is always room for improvement. One of the things he needs to remember is that he is playing at a local bar filled with his family and friends. Because of that he gets a lot of applause and cheers. What will happen if he were to play for a bar of random people in NYC. Not saying he doesn't play well, just saying .... Anyway, I jumped in and played a couple songs with him. If I remember right, It was 3 songs. Was good for me, it will help with the butterflies for this Saturday.

Which brings me to this Saturday. The gig I have this Saturday, is 4 guys that haven't really played together, playing 3 hours worth of cover songs. So we need to practice together. we've had 2 weeks to get this done but it seems that one of us always has something else to do... Not me... only day I can't practice is Monday nights between 7:45 and 9:00. that's it...so I have been available the whole time. the gig is 3 days away and there are still songs that we have not played together. Seems crazy... but we are going to have to wing it at this point. I suggested that we get together on Saturday before the gig and run through all the songs that we think need practice but the drummer has band practice with another band. Now don't get me wrong, I am all for playing in several bands and stuff, but come on... this is a PAYING gig, and it is paying them well. These guys need to set some priorities. If I look like an ass because of these guys, I'm gonna be pissed. Either way, I'm pretty excited to play... I will have a good time regardless....

Week in review...

Looks like this blog stuff may end up being a weekly event, at least that seems to be the trend at the moment. I don't mean it to be, just seems to be happening that way...

So stuff has been going on! So lets see... Diet! Diet is there ... I continue to eat just the way I said last time... and I lost another 2 pounds... scale read 241 this morning.... not losing weight as fast as I hoped for or even expected but it IS working... seems that I do really goo during the week and then comes the weekend and I do something stupid... like this past Saturday... I was out jamming with some friends and none of us had eaten yet so we went to the diner.... instead of getting something like a salad with grilled chicken, I got a Cheeseburger. Now under the weight watchers rules, there was nothing (really) wrong with what I did but I felt guilty after..

Still not smoking... 112 days so far... and that's 112 days of absolutely NO smoking! Not even a single drag! I think i have this licked once and for all!!! Yee Haw!!!

Music: So I am friends with the head of the Activities Committee in our community... they are throwing a volunteer appreciation party for the community volunteers on January 31 and wanted to hire a band. He asked my friend Willy to do it, but Willy was like "A whole band would be better" so he got a couple guys together and created a cover band, but was lacking a second guitar. I stepped up and said I would do it for nothing! They don't evev have to pay me, I'll do it for free... (at least this time)... anyway ... been practicing with these guys A LOT! I love to play, so I don't really care about the money... it's not like I am any kind of pro rock star or ever will be! I hope to be able to get some pics, audio or even video of the Gig... The plan is to do 3, 45 minute sets with 15-20 minutes breaks... I'm pretty psyched, I haven't played for a crowd in a LONG time!!! Last time I was on a stage or even played for people was in January of 1993 at Escapades in Jersey City. That was last show I ever played..... I would go see my Bro-In-Law play a lot and secretly hope that he would invite me up to play with him but he never did...




Anyway... Willy has a gig this Saturday and his guitar broke, or at least the electronics in it did and he needs a guitar for the night. By chance, I want a new acoustic so I went and bought one!!!

See:



So for his Gig this Saturday he will borrow mine and get himself a new in the near future

I usually do this blogging stuff from work in between stuff but this week my boss has been gone all week and left me in charge and so it's really keeping me from doing this and Flickr.com stuff and facebook. I'm doing the best I can...

Progress!!!

I started a diet on January 5th. It's essentially weight watchers, but I am only using the point system to determine how healthy the food is. I'm not going to walk around and count the points for every thing that I decide to eat or drink. I did for the first week as a baseline but this week I'm not counting. That's not to say that I am not watching what I eat. My eating habits have taken a sudden change and I think I'm liking it.

Before:

I would make a big cup of coffee before I left the house with LOTS of sugar and LOTS of half and half and drank it on the way to work. Then when I got to work, I would have another, and at 9:15 break I would get one more. For lunch, I would eat the hot lunch that she made, which is like eating a huge dinner. the kind that when you are done all you want to do is take a nap. If i didn't like what she cooked, I would get a THICK Chicken Salad Sandwich and a large (16 oz.) soup. And wash it all down with a can of Mtn Dew and of course I would buy a second can to have at my desk for the afternoon. Sometimes I would also get some junk food like hostess apple pie or ring dings too. Dinner would be standard dinner. Only difference would be a lot more than normal!

Now:

I wake up and have a bowl of cereal, per the serving size (3/4 cup). Right now it's Total Whole Grain Wheat with 1/2 cup of skim milk. Then before I leave I make a cup cup coffee with equal and Skim Plus milk. Then at 9:15 I have a lowfat yogurt. At lunch eat a Lean Cuisine frozen entree. and a banana and a bottle of water. at 2:15 I eat an apple. After I get home at about 5:00 I have another snack like an apple, banana or yogurt. Then I eat dinner. I'll still eat the same stuff except I'll make sure to take less than I did in the past. Sometimes Between dinner and bed I have another bowl of cereal.

So there it is. This is working for me. When I started this diet the scale yelled at me to get the fuck off! 248!!!! After a week of this the scale read 243. So that's 5 pounds this week. I'll continue doing this and see what happens next week.

Now if I could get my lazy ass up and work out on the BowFlex thing might move along even quicker. We finally got it set up, so really i just need to work it into my schedule. But one thing at a time and the one thing right now is to get used to the change in diet.

Mike Farris

Mike Farris, originally uploaded by chrismek.

Last night we drove through a snow storm to go to BB King's on 42nd St NYC to see Mike Farris. Mike is a great singer. He used to sing in the Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies. He quit that band because he was on a road of self destruction with all the drugs he was on and stuff. So he took some time off and came back singing Gospel/Christian kind of stuff. His music is amazing! Very inspiring to me.

My Bro-In-Law was friends with back in the SCW days but they lost touch for a while. I brought his business Card to give to Mike but never got a chance to talk to him so had to give it to the session guitarist... I hope Mike gets it and they get back in touch.

Go check him out here:

http://www.mikefarrismusic.net/

And here:

http://www.myspace.com/mikefarrismusic

Game On!!!

It's Game On! Sunday I got on the scale, knowing that I've gained a lot of weight between quitting smoking and the Holiday gluttony. But I was totally NOT ready for what I saw!!! Holy shit!!! OK so, some stats on me ... I'm 6'2" tall, 39 years old. I weigh a whopping 248 lbs!!! HOLY FUCK!!! I never thought I would see the day! I know when I went to college I gained some weight but that was mostly from sitting around the dorm eating cheeseburgers and cheese fries and washing it down with a pitchers Killian's or mountain Dew. Plus the only exercise I was getting was lifting the burger and beer so I was bound to gain some weight... I looked online and the website I looked at (I can't remember which one it was) said I am obese!! I thought I just had a bit of a belly and that was it, but OBESE?

Last year, we went to Bonnaroo. If you are into music and live on the East Coast, you MUST go to Bonnaroo! Check it out: www.bonnaroo.com. It is a 4 day music festival in Manchester Tennessee that changed my life. I will return every year if I can afford it. Music starts each day at 12:00 and goes until about 4:00am... spread over 5 big stages, 2 or 3 small stages and a big comedy tent. over the 4 days there were 168 acts to see. Of course you just go and see the ones you want. Anyway, I will be going again this year. Pre-sale tickets are sold out already so I have to wait for them to go on sale again.

Anyway, I've set a goal for my self... there are no numbers as in weights or anything... My goal is to walk around at Bonnaroo shirtless. That doesn't mean I want 6-pack abs or anything. I just mean that it gets fucking hot in Tennessee and I want to be able to take off my shirt with out shame. You wouldn't catch me dead without a shirt now... I figure that Bonnaroo starts on June 11. That gives me like almost 5 months...

So there we go, there's the frustration and the incentive. So what's the plan, you ask? I decided to do Chris's form of Weight Watcher's. What that means is I'm too fucking cheap to pay for Weight Watcher's and I was hanging out over someones house that had a weight watcher's book. So I flipped through it figured out My "Points" and away I go. I am keeping track of how many points I take in and as long as it is under 35, I should lose weight. Wife is helping me stay in check too. I went to Shop-Rite and bought a shit load of frozen meals with the points all figured out for me. I've switched from lots of sugar and lots of cream in my coffee to equal and skim milk. I think because it tastes so bad I drink less of it. The only other liquid I drink is water. I will have to see what happens when I am schedules for beers with the boys though. Now add to that, that I will be working out with the Bowflex starting this week. I have to do some re-arranging of furniture before I can start Bowflex. I figure by Bonnaroo, I won't be embarrassed to take off my shirt if I'm hot.

I think I may even document my progress photographically. We'll see about that...

Anyway... Wish me luck!!!