Calling into work tomorrow. Not to do anything fun, just for the purpose of going on a few interviews. I need to do something else. The same players and the lifestyle is just mentally exhausting. It was really fun in the beginning, but as everything else what you see on TV is nothing compared to the things they leave on the cutting room floor.

On top of that I just have been very tired lately. I really have not done much except avoid my "dark" friends. What the future holds for me in that regard is a bit sketchy. I have been friends for decade + with some of them, but their Goth lifestyle is a real drain. It has gotten to the point where I do not even want to go that place on Washington St given the choice of staying home on a Friday night or going there.

My social life has become dull and complicated at the same time. Staying at home has become more of an option since I have returned from my mini vacation. At the same time old friends have been attempting to get my attention. If someone blows me off for months at a time I just get to a point where I basically write them off. Then all of a sudden a surprise text message appears and I act as if I saw Lazarus. Weird.

Well I going to make the call to work now. I am a devious boy or just basically acting out in self preservation.

So I basically spent my day over in Canada playing Poker @ Casino Niagara. Started out playing 1-2 No Limit but the guy next to me smelled really bad so I ended up going to 3-6 Limit. A nice friendly game but there was this one rock that just could not do anything wrong. By the time I left he was up about 400. I was down for most of the 6+ hours I was there. All I was doing was playing good quality hands. By the end around 9:30 ish or so my Italian buddy engineer guy that I had a good time playing with had to run to his wife or else she was going to kill him. A good time to leave. The only thing I am afraid of is this guy was coughing quite a bit and I'm a bit paranoid of such things.

So on the way out I became a bit hungry. Harvey's was something I was craving but by the time I arrived at the location on Montrose & Thorld Stone it was closed. The next stop was Quizno's on Lundy's Lane. Fortunantly I found a good substitute for my Canadian Cravings. A Montreal Smoked Meat Sub!!1 Good times, plus the music they had playing was descent and I was glad that they stayed open for me. So I tipped them $1

I have a pretty crazy week lined up for me. I just hope I can get through it in one piece without too much stress, well bad stress anyway. The lesson I have to lean is not to get too frazled and worried. Today's session was a nice small exercise.

So I basically spent my day over in Canada playing Poker @ Casino Niagara. Started out playing 1-2 No Limit but the guy next to me smelled really bad so I ended up going to 3-6 Limit. A nice friendly game but there was this one rock that just could not do anything wrong. By the time I left he was up about 400. I was down for most of the 6+ hours I was there. All I was doing was playing good quality hands. By the end around 9:30 ish or so my Italian buddy engineer guy that I had a good time playing with had to run to his wife or else she was going to kill him. A good time to leave. The only thing I am afraid of is this guy was coughing quite a bit and I'm a bit paranoid of such things.

So on the way out I became a bit hungry. Harvey's was something I was craving but by the time I arrived at the location on Montrose & Thorld Stone it was closed. The next stop was Quizno's on Lundy's Lane. Fortunantly I found a good substitute for my Canadian Cravings. A Montreal Smoked Meat Sub!!1 Good times, plus the music they had playing was descent and I was glad that they stayed open for me. So I tipped them $1

I have a pretty crazy week lined up for me. I just hope I can get through it in one piece without too much stress, well bad stress anyway. The lesson I have to lean is not to get too frazled and worried. Today's session was a nice small exercise.

Friday's always kick my butt. After working late on Thursday and coming in early the next morning I am exhausted. So when you wake up at 10 at night your options are a bit limited. After getting a bit nostalgic for some Maple Road chain restaurant cuisine after hearing about the demise of Bennigan's and Tony Roma's I went to T.G.I. Friday's with my Ex. It is so strange as we get along better after we broke up.

When we finished our late night dinner, I didn't want the evening to end. So as I always did when we were dating I challenged her a bit. I suggested that we hit Allen St, for some reason she was always afraid to go down there. Hardware actually made a great impression for her as she immediately enjoyed the atmosphere.

The highlight of the night: Hardware now served MICKEYs Fine Malt Liquor. I have been waiting to drink that stuff for 8 years now ever since the movie SLC Punk!

Yes I am weird. That place has a good selection of liquor and wines and when I go there all I drink is Pabst Blue Ribbon and now Mickey's.

What is it with Western New York? I swear things get more screwed up as time goes on.

As I heard read on LJ, Bennigan's and Tony Roma's are closed!!!!

This totally sucks >-/

Benigan's was killer for those pints and caloric bar food.

Tony Roma's was a nice upper middle nice place to take a date and enjoy your carnavour side.

At least that new place Smoke 'n Bones opened up on Maple, oh and that Red Robin. Just I loved those two places. So many great memories.

Now I am going to have to visit my Mom down in Florida.

Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains the Same is on Fuse. I remember when I was a kid and they played it on the forerunner to Fuse, MuchMusic. When we first got the dish and discovered MuchMucic USA, the letdown was bad. Here when I would go up to my Grandma's house in Hamilton and check out all the cool kick butt video's and features on Much it was almost cfny 102.1 on TV. Then years later I get MMUSA, and it just left me scratching my head.

At least the Labbat Blue Spotlight survives through Loaded on FUSE. That always has been a good time watching a block of old and new videos from an artist.

Ok it's late and I have a Dr's appmt tom. morn.

Went out to see The Cult at the Town Ballroom. This band has been party of my psyche and heritage for years. Although Ian is English he did spend quite a bit of time in Hamilton ONT the city where I was born.

What took my by surprise was I was one of the youngest people there. Most of the people in the audience were in their late 30's and 40's. Which makes sense I first heard the Electric album when I was in middle school in the late 80's.

My friend Pat and I meet up front at the bar section which was pretty nice although it did take forever to grab a drink. In never being to the place even when it was Sphere I didn't know what to expect. The staggered levels of view was nice and one did feel a bit close to the action on stage, but there was just something a bit out of touch about the place. It could be the French Renaissance ceiling supports painted red and white that set me a bit off I suppose.

In the end I saw the band that influenced me in childhood and felt a bit old at the same time in seeing them perform the songs I dearly remembered live. In all a good time and money well spent.

The only downside was my friend Deb and her mini drama with your BF Dan. I have finally just taken the detached perspective on the whole situation.

Well here are a couple pics I snapped.

Well I can't say I am too surprised given how they have been playing lately. It is just a bit of a bummer when it finally did happen. The Sabres tickets that I had for Saturday have been called back from the season ticket holder that my family has always received tickets from for years. So no Ottawa Senators for me on Saturday. The bright side is now I get to go to a Leafs game and watch them get blown out by Buffalo as they always do. Plus I am guaranteed a prime playoff game, so it really is a descent trade off. Sandy has always taken care of us in the Buffalo pro sports department so I am not too worried.


What I am excited about is The Cult are coming to a sold out Town Ballroom and I have tickets! Yea they are late 80's metal/wussie goth but they have been a big time influence on me. I remember jamming out to the Love album when I was a kid. Plus Ian Astbury is a semi Hamiltonian, but I doubt they will play anything off of Ceremony the one album that was influenced by his time as a teenager hanging out on the Res. It was one of those albums that was critically acclaimed but never sold anything substantial. For those that do not know of the cult their sound has been described as, "If I had to classify The Cult's sound, it would have to be a hybrid of Black Sabbath, Big Country (remember them???) and AC/DC."

Songs I would like to hear: She Sells Sanctuary, Firewoman, Eddie, Love Removal Machine.

Other than that my life has just been sleepwalking ever since I have returned from Las Vegas.

On the bright side I will be able to hit up this show on Saturday without being late.

Yea I love a Radiohead cover band.

The Karma Police @ Brickyard Pub
Date/Time: Saturday March 25, 2006
Time: 10:00pm - 2:00am
Entry Type: Club Event
Location: The Brickyard Pub
Street Adr: 427 Center St.
City: Lewiston
Zip: 14092
Notes: Once again The Karma Police bring their Tribute to Alt Rockers Radiohead to the Brickyard Pub in Lewiston , NY.
Sharing: Share w/ Everyone

www.myspace.com/tkpmusic

I am halfway through my Grave shift week. I barely remember how I once worked 60 hours a week from 7-PM to 7AM. Doing this now is not fun at all. When I was 20 and did this shift I did get enough sleep, somehow. Well I take that back that year of my life I only remember about 3 events. My brain was just pure mush. The way I feel now. Too alert to sleep, too tired to do anything else. The temptation is just too great. March Madness is here in about 3 hours. When will I sleep? My Leafs are playing the Sabres at 7 too as well.

Having those trivial distractions is about what I need right now. Mike wants to believe the hype, cheer on the team, believe in God. Life can be fun when you are caught up in a fantasy world. The made up world pulls you in, lets you ride the wave. It takes you for a ride and sometimes you have no idea on where it is going to take you.

Reality was not too pretty when I returned from Vegas. Too many surprises when I came back.

Is that how I have survived Western New York all these years? Having the instinct to "Get out of Dodge" when S&*t hits the fan. There have been so many bad things that I have missed by being conveniently out of town. Having my work environment turned on it's head is one of them. Yes, I am having to deal with the aftermath at the present moment. All I can tell myself that it is temporary, my knack for leaving will time my departure from my current job soon. Hopefully :-)


Yeah, I do need to try to catch some ZZZ's

So I am back in town. If you asked me last night about 23 hours ago I would not have been able to give you an honest answer. When we landed in Pittsburgh we surprisingly found out that our flight was cancelled. SO I WAS PISSED. I could have stayed another night out in Las Vegas since I am not going into work until Tuesday. Things surprisingly worked out for the greater good. While we standing in line a nice couple from Amherst offered the back seat of their rental car. My Dad jumped on the offer.

Their story is that they have moved around the country and are now back here in WNY. Apparently he owned a bunch of companies through the years. The most notable being the one source for microscope slides. Sixty Million he mad a year selling those things for $.03 a piece a profit of a penny on each one. The secret was a unique and secret process in which the glass was tempered to obviously allow for water to be placed on it, negatively charge the slides so things will be able to cling to it easily and creating an area to write on it. Very interesting to hear him talk about his business ventures and other aspects of his life. The creepy part of the experience was his wife did an internship down here in Youngstown at the First Presbyterian Church. She is into early childcare and from what she told me this was the only place in the area with a private toddler school. So she drove down here for a year to fulfill her requirements for an internship. Just yea, I had to sit and listen to 3 hours of this kind of stuff. In the end we only arrived home only 2.5 hours late. Better than the day if we would have been shipped around the US Air grid for a day. I would have been getting home now after being shipped to Philly for 6 hours, plus no hotel reimbursement. I can see why people dread traveling for their job.

I did a LJ voice post when I came home and hit my bed. It captures the moment pretty well and I did get a kick out of it when I listened to it today.


So Vegas was a great time. The highlight was my Spa visit in which I received a deep tissue massage. In a weird way I did feel semi-violated. I had a middle-aged woman of about 50 years old. She barked at me, Ok, Get on the table and take off everything? Now I have had massages before and usually they have bed sheets, all I had in this instance was a thin medium sized towel. Another thing that was a bit odd was I started out face down. Usually I have had started off on my back and turned face down in the horseshoe at the end. When the time came for Mike to flip over on his back and turn face up I rolled with my back towards her thinking that it would cover certain things. Well after I did that I noticed that she did not lay the towel on me for a good 10 seconds. So I was just laying there exposed, but I did have my eyes closed. So after this she asks what I do to keep in good form and how she likes my body. I'll take the ego boost as it is always good to hear from someone that you look great naked. It was just a little weird for me to be in that position, but not to be conceited but I did feel as if I made her day of so

On Saturday we went to the Busch race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was defiantly an interesting time. Yea it was the diehard NASCAR fans there, as you would imagine but there were about 125,000 fans at this place all spending great amounts of Cash. I am a casual face fan, mostly into open wheel (F1, Indy car) but it was a good experience. The one ironic thing was it was much colder than any Bills game I have been to. The temp was about 35 and windy. When the race was over we ran to the casino bus as fast as we could.

So Saturday was the best day of the trip. After getting back I texted an old friend Holly. It just so happened that she was in town. So I ended up meeting her and her family at O'Shea's. Apparently it was her father's birthday and the entire family came out to celebrate. It was good to hang with someone form back home, even it was for 2 hours.

I then went next door to Flamingo and messed around on their machines for a bit with no results. The main focus on what I wanted to do was head over to Caesarâ??s Palace. I went won some $ playing slots, messed around in the beautiful poker room playing some 3-6, walked around the forum bar and checked out the line for Pure. It is just so much different in that place that it was when I first started going to Vegas. Caesar's isn't for the Old Italian grandfather. It is a place for the skinny beautiful people to masquerade around in their pointy shoes and such. I just really like how it took a turn for the Palms as opposed to being Salvatore's Italian Garden's in the past.

So yea back home. Trying to readjust to life back here and trying to figure out my next move of which I need to do soon.


So here is a pic of me taking the walk from Caesar's Palace back to the Rio. I posted on my LJ during this walk and dodged a bunch of hooker's trying to pick me up.