So given my current state of life I am taking a much needed excursion out of WNY. So I'm going to NYC for my college buddy's bachlor party. I booked my flight last night and am going to be there Fri, Sat and Sun. It is strange since my one friend D* that is moving away is going to be there at the same time. I also though a couiple of (e:peeps) are heading there as well. I never thought I would go down there since it has been about 10+ years, other than just being @ the airport.

It should be interesting to see how much trouble I can get myself into with a local connection.

So I am in my current lathargic state of being due to a couple of reasons, I am posting somepics of some better times I have had this week:

Messing Around on the Hybrid Metro Bus


















My Blue Ribbon





Those Fried Dough Nuggets!!! UUMMM GOOD!!!!





So you don't have to spend $1 to see "THE WORLD"S SMALLEST HORSE" Yea I'm a "mark" as the carnies call suckers like me...

Well at least when it comes to "America's Fair" or whatever they call the event down in Hamburg. I just need to take in my Americana. I just need to have fun today. Lately I have just been so numb and it is scaring me a bit.

Take for instance work last night. It was weird in the sense that we had an abundance of really NICE people in the room last night. I mean really positive, polite and nice people. To be honest I really didn't know how to take it. Actually it totally threw me off my usual drone frame of mind when I am in that place in the evening. Usually it is the guys that put in more hours in the room that I do, the usual "Rounders." Just last night it was really nice women, a really cool college kid wearing an anime shirt, and a short stocky happy most likely a RE salesman wearing a Keller Williams Hat. Strange indeed, since I really had no clue on how to take people being warm to me at work.

I'm just pumped to go to the Fairgrounds! Being the horse player when I hear the Eric County Agricultural Society advertise their slot machine/harness track where this event is located in Hamburg all I can think in my head is the racetrack in New Orleans of the same name.

All I know is I just have to snap out of this lull that I find myself in. Having a great time today @ the Fair will be an easy feat. The featured events we are going to hit are the Jousting and the Wine Tasting expo. There is always the rides if I am feeling up to it. Even those shady freak shows get a buck out of me once in a while. I just feel that I need to support a part of Americana that originated in Conie Island type of thing. Then if I have any money leftover when the midway closes we will stick around and try our luck at the Slots/OTB side of things.

I'm talking to this girl that I know at work and she asks, "Do you want to meet up at the Lewiston Art Fest today." I'm thinking sure you are a cool girl from Youngstown, I feel like an older cousin to you being 19 and all, and I won't be able to make it tomorrow since I have to work at 11.

So I meet her there. It basically turns out that we are playing some kind of "Game" as people do around here. Now she's basically a year or two out of high school and just got out of a 4 year relationship with some guy. So basically I walk around this art fest while she constantly runs into people that she knows. The highlight is the Aunt and Cousins of her Ex boyfriend of 4 years. I should have known by the glares I got when I passed these people. Then there was the random other person that she knew, YAH!

What did Mike get in return? A 19 year old escorting his 30 year old self. Yea, she's a drama queen but it was fun to show off to a couple of women I went to High School with that I ran into myself. So yea it was a bit of a ego trip, I admit it.

I just wanted to have a good reason to check out the "local" artists that really are a bit subpar to the real one's that frequent Allentown. There were a few of the guys that are in the big leagues that were there but for the most part it was just a good way to get locals on a stage and pack the local establishments.

Mind you I never really intended to go along with this "Game." It is scary for me to think that after all these years removed from High School that I could get sucked into being a participant.

There must be something in the Water down here in Lew-Port!!!

Yikes!!!

So I am just burning time away here online. Had the thought to head over to Canada since I Still have my tip money this week, but the thought of going to "The Fair" is stronger than blowing my money over in Canada even though I am getting paid sometime electronically in the next few hours.

Hey, Why we don't get a (e:strip) thing going to the Fair while it is on?

The square does not look too exciting. I think I'm going to pass on it this week. Most likely later on I will be stopping at some point to The Blue Martini Bar on Main St. across the street from St. Louis church with my friend Deb.

Styx yesterday was insane. They had 27,000 people at Artpark.

I hope this concert series stays around. I can just hear the people in Lewiston complaining about the People, Noise, Trash ect...

It was just a killer time.

Stopped by the brickyard for a time after the show with my friends. They had a 90's cover band and the place was just wall to wall people.

My butt was dragging today at work, but most likely it was due to severe bordem. The place was dead, it was a nice day. There are some people out there (thank god) that are not total degenerates and do NOT spend every spare moment inside a casino blowing their money.

Ok, now back to reading livejournals from people living in Arlington Virginia...

Don't Ask...

[About 2 months or so ago we had about 5 dealers leave here for Las Vegas. Their plan was to go out there and deal in the WSOP and after find jobs. Well If you do search on Google for (GOOGLE - WSOP Dealers Upset) you will see that Nevada was not the Promise Land as it was cracked out to be. So not only did the WSOP suck for them but with the whole Poker Boom and Dealer Schools opening up all over the market was saturated with Dealers walking up and down the strip looking for work.

The reaction here was pretty much been that of my co-workers
"Gloating" over the fact that they went out there, tried and failed. There are some issues in regards to how they quit if they wanted to come back here, but that's another story.

So what is the lesson here? Is it that Poker has peaked, or the grass is not always greener on the other side?

I do find the fact that the people that I work with smiling with the news. I can't fault someone for trying. It is pretty petty to say the least. The way they quit was a bit to be desired as one of the group was pretty bad and burned their bridge back here for sure.

In all the years I have been here I have seen people leave town with the attitude that the rest of the USA is paved with Gold and are pretty shitt about things right befoer they leave. Then a couple of years later they move back with their tails tucked between their legs, "Oh, I just couldn't afford to live out there..Cost of living...." Type of line or something line.

The attitudes of my co-workers leaves a bit to be desired in my book. They took a chance most of them would never do in their life ever.

I have this song stuck in my head today




She's has always been smokin hot!


But it is these lyrics:
I miss my sister, whyd she go ?
Shes the one who would have taken me
To my first all-ages show.
It was the violent femmes and the del fuegos,
Before they had a record out. before they went gold,
And started to grow.


I'm on my way now out there now!

So MTV turned 25 yesterday. I actually DVRd the first 6 hours from 12-6am. The only thing that really annoyed me was the 30 minutes of the "Space Shuttle Mission Control" countdown stuff. It seemed interesting for about 8 minutes but then it just kept going on and on and on. At least I understand the Space/Moonwalker guy that was a mainstay in their earlier banners.

But all I can say in comparison to today is...well the obvious they actually played videos. The one aspect that I realized is Damn, everyone is white except for J.J. Jackson and an occasional dancer in a video. This is all pre-Thriller mind you. It was just a shock and I would just get a kick out of flipping from VH1 Classic to either the original MTV or MTV2. So instead of watching an old Blondie, The Cars or Rod Stewart video my choices were the Tiara Girls or Final Fu!

I just wish the MTV2 experiment would have actually been successful. Thank God that at least I have FUSE if I want to catch a good video once in a while that does not feature the Pussycat Dolls.

So MTV Season 1. A bit of a disappointment since my family did not have cable back then and this was the first time I actually saw the video's that were played. Sort of like an Atari revival; it's fun for about a day then you get bored really quickly as you realize that all you are doing is the same boards until it gets to ludicrous speed.

The really scary part is after watching videos for a few hours today I actually did feel parts of my brain seep through my eyes. It reminds me of the scary bums across the street from my grandma's house in Canada that used get their beer delivered from the beer store. They would just sit and watch some kind endless blocks of rock videos on MuchMucic. You just can't do it for any length of time without feeling like a waste.

So I guess we do have to deal with Laguna Beach, The Hills, 8th and Ocean and The Real World after all....

I just get that the old Army Intelligence guy that runs the MTV networks really knows what he is doing. If you want video's just go on line to our MTV Overdrive site.

And Oh, let's keep this quiet as we do not want to waken our core Laguna Beach viewers that the network is much older than they are...

I have to keep this free time thing going. Yea, I have been laying around the house today recovering from this weekend. SO after about 3 phone calls my "thug" buddy has convinced me to take him over to Casino Niagara.

Ok I'm going over there with a Benjamin and a dream :-/

I must think positive right? I could have made some $ today if I was awake and not in a state of mostly undress betting Del Mar. There is something about that track that I just can't get away from. It could be that I wish I was out there in San Deigo on where the "Turf meets the Surf" looking at those 7 figure condo's on the backstretch Hill or those perfect 10 women. The closest I ever gotten to that place is a Vegas Sports and Racebook on opening week. It's just fun just to listen to the horseplayers from SoCal in that environment.

I can pull this off, I don't have to be at work until 2:45 in the afternoon.

EDIT:

Yea I lost, I have 20 on me. Although I did loan C* a guy I work with 25 since he was getting slaughtered @ No Limit. I'll get it back Tom. when he comes in to deal at 8. So not too bad except for the realization that I just have no joy today.

What I need more than a few bucks in a greater sense of adventure. A chance taken more than throwing down 100 bucks in a Casino.

Being stupid this weekend was a fun event.

I just think I need something more...maybe a new woman would spice things up. Possibly time to grow some balls.

So, yea I took this weekend off to celebrate the Level Regatta in Y-Town. Needless to say I'm pretty "Happy" right now. I hung with friends and relatives. The highlight or "lowpoint" of the night way me getting bounced out of the Youngstown Yacht Club. My buddy had a wristband in which he blew 25 bucks on and never got the value back in drinks that he paid for. So he gave me his SBA badge to show at the securit checkpoint saying I was "on the job" the State liquor authority was on premisis making sure that the YYC closed down alochol sales at 11:30. By the time I showed up they had already cut off sales and me as a dumbass had a bottle of blue sticking out of my shorts. So 10 minutes later as I am standing like an idiot by the YYC bar the same security guy comes up to me asking what ID or wristband I had to get in the place. I gave back my buddy's ID and I just stood there like a fumbling idot, DUHH! Yea it was a little bit of a embarassed rush but I was a bit buzzed where I just laughed at the thing.

The real highlight was running into my late best friend's younger brother with his new girlfriend just outside of the Yacht club. He was telling my Mom that she should get the Cadillac "Heritage" emblems on the grill of her SRX showing what a Pimp she is for owning x # of Caddy's through the years. My late best friend was such a car nut it made me simle inside. Yea, I was a bit embarassed that he saw me a bit "tipsy" and he was giddy that he recgonized me in the dark. Especially when he bragged to his S.O that "I know that GUY!!!" Yea i was best friend with his late brother, It's Regatta weekend it is time to get "stupid."

The highlight was I was hanging with the friend of my friend Peter. I guess this guy Tim or "Hoss" is a X Navy guy. He made sure everyone was safe and such tonight. It was funny althogh I did my best to try to make the plan come together. The best part was this guy who is 30 confessed that he was married 3! times and now that his is on his 3rd wife the fear is worse than GOD that he doesn't do anything stupid. He didn't drink all night and this is after his wife drove back to PA where he lives. Y-Town boys have to get something on during Regatta weekend no matter how small the big picture it is.

So I'm home and safe after everthing. Just watched FOX News channel and the Mid East is more F'ed up that I left it on Friday. WTF!!!

Anyway there is a pimped out Scion on my front Lawn that belongs to some party across the street. They're good neighbors so I don't mind. Yea, GOODTIMES BY ALL....