It's the last day of 2013

The last hour, actually. I'm ending 2013 with this face:

THIS FACE.

I probably shouldn't even be blogging right now... but if I don't, I'll probably end up going nuts.

Christmas. I never got to post about Christmas. I hope everyone had a great Christmas/holiday season, whatever floats your boat. If you didn't, keep your chin up, there's always next year!

I had a good Christmas. My main Christmas present was given to me back in November... the Pearl Jam concert. That was seriously the only thing I needed. Like, that was IT. The golden present! The golden present was absolutely epic. Yep. EPIC. Pearl Jam... I looooooove youuuuuuuu!!!!!!! ♥

I guess you could say that I had a very Merry Stonemas. Aside from the Pearl Jam concert, I got a few Mother Love Bone items and a few BRAD cds. Stone Gossard for the absolute friggin' WIN!!!! 

I got a Steel Panther cd for a gag gift... or at least to me, it was a gag gift. I got a few pairs of much-needed fuzzy socks, 2 pairs of corduroy pants, and a little bit of $$.

ALSO, the Christmas cards (and book) that I received from my Island family, pretty much made my entire year. I've never received that many Christmas cards in my entire life. Every day for weeks they would arrive... 3 would come... 5 would come... 2 would come, etc. When the book came... I couldn't. The feels, man... the feels. I am blessed. ♥

My Mother and I took a brief trip to Morro Bay a few days ago... it lasted for a day and a half... if even. My Grandfather passed away sometime around 6-ish - 7:20-ish on Sunday evening. I got a text from my brother. We knew we had to head back to Fresno ASAP. So we packed our stuff, cleaned up the 5th wheel a bit... left at about 10:45PM and didn't get home until about 1:45AM. Didn't even think twice about staying. We HAD to go back home. We had to. 

We weren't even sure if we should've gone to Morro Bay in the first place, but everyone told us to go and that we shouldn't let my Grandfather dying stop us from living our lives. We all knew he probably wasn't going to make it past Monday... but we still had hope.

Shitty. The entire thing was just shitty. There wasn't anything we could do. We all just had to sit and watch him slowly die. Cancer. FUCK cancer. 

He was the only Grandfather my brother and I had. Now he's gone.

I have some of the most awesome friends, by the way. I love them dearly. Their kind words and outpouring means more to me than anyone will ever know. Forever grateful. ♥

Tonight blessed us with another shit storm. My Mother's biological mother is a waste of human life. I have absolutely ZERO respect for that woman. And after tonight, I am done with her. For good. DONE. I am too old for this shit... she is too old to be acting like this. She is a fake, a phony, and a massive fucking idiot. DONE. 

I didn't watch the ball drop last year, and I will not watch the ball drop this year. Instead, once again, I am ending the year/beginning the new year with Pearl Jam. I'm watching Pearl Jam Twenty. I've watched it a zillion times this past year... and I've watched it every night since Sunday. It's keeping me sane. 

Pearl Jam, Def Leppard, Suede and Hanson are keeping me sane right now. Thank god for those bands. Seriously.

I hope everyone has a safe, blessed and Happy New Year. May 2014 be a great year for everyone.

Good times, with good people

Mom and I got to visit with our cousins today! Her cousins, my 2nd cousins. We always have a blast with those guys! We went to the usual "hanging" place, (okay, so we've only hung out there twice... but that's still our "hanging" place.) El Quetzal. It's a nice, little, inexpensive Mexican restaurant, in Clovis. 

The cousins live in Carson City, Nevada, but they came down here for a few days to attend a funeral (their Grandmother *on their father's side* passed away). So the lunch/dinner consisted of myself, mom, 3 cousins, their dad,  aunt Barbara, and a few more people from the cousins' dad's side of the family. I am so bad with names, nowadays. Shame on me. They were all very nice people. Very nice people. Lots of hugs and handshakes. Hey guys, would you care to adopt me? I need more nice extended family members in my life. Real talk.

They were already there when we arrived. Like I stated above, immediate hugs and handshakes. (ADOPT ME, PLEASE! I'll give you $5) I didn't even get a "hello" in, when cousin Mike came up to me and said "I love your blog! It's hilarious as hell!" I try... I try. Actually, I don't try, it just happens. But I'm glad I can make people laugh :) Yee haw!

We took our seats, and dove almost immediately into conversations and laughs. We do a lot of laughing when we're with these guys. They are absolutely hysterical. Especially when they drink beer. Yes, folks, it's true... I DO have a few relatives outside of my immediate family that I actually like. Mmhmm... it's true! Rock & roll.

Rock & roll... we talked a lot about rock & roll... as we always do. Mike, "funny apron" (for the sake of what's to come later in this blog, I have almost no choice but to give him another name. Unless they tell me I can edit his real name in here), and Craig are very music oriented... much like myself and my mother. We have similar (very similar) tastes in music. I've actually bowed down to them a few times for their concert going achievements. Yep. Does anyone remember the infamous food fight at the "Monsters of Rock" show in San Francisco in the late 80s? Yeah, well, cousin Mike and cousin Craig started that. Yep. That was brought up again, today. The topic of seeing Pearl Jam in Oakland was discussed... they're big fans of Pearl Jam/Eddie Vedder... and that makes me an even bigger fan of them. Metallica is almost always discussed. As is the Scorpions (we all had a great time in Reno, last year). 

Mike and I talked about hockey. He wanted to know what my connection was, so I told him. Then he told me a great story of how he went to a San Jose Sharks opening game one year, and compared it to being at a rock concert. Yep, pretty much! He said he felt left out because he wasn't wearing any teal and said he needed a jersey... I'm still saying Marleau, man. Marleau is a beast. A friggin' Beeeeaaaaassssstttttt.

Pismo/Morro Bay was discussed. We told them how exciting our jobs were (only when we work concerts)... haha!

"Family" discussions are the best, though. Where should I even begin? I'm not even sure where it began but I will briefly brush on some topics. Get ready, folks. 

* "Funny apron" is a total metrosexual. He is very proud of that fact. He likes his hair product. Always has to have product. His nails are all nice. And loves his body lotion. He has to lotion every day.

* "Funny apron" (had a couple of beers, by the way. So I'm sure most of it was a joke. We were all laughing hysterically, regardless) confessed his attraction to his aunt and was being all silly. He said he's had a thing for her since he was a kid. He used to like a few of his family members when he was a kid... "have you ever heard about kissing cousins???" Now THAT was a joke. It was a hilarious joke, but we were all still laughing. They tried to pair Craig up with Michelle... and THAT was funny as hell. "Me and Michelle? When? I must have forgotten that. I must have forgotten that year." Others suggested that  our family needs a reality tv show. I haven't laughed that hard or that much in a long time. I needed that. More than anyone will ever know.

*The topic of my Mother's P.O.S. dirtbag of a father biological father. Yep, folks. "You mean the sperm donor." YEP, FOLKS. I don't think anyone in the family has any respect for him anymore. He might as well fall off a cliff. No loss there.

*My Mother's idiot brothers. "Blue Star" is no longer "Blue Star"... apparently, he now thinks he's a "Maverick"... oooookay, dude. Ooookay.
 

*Possible incest within our family a few generations back. This is what happens when you drink a lot of beers, kids. Funny, random, shit just comes out. Mike then asked us if we've seen "The Goonies" and said that we probably had some relatives that look like that running around somewhere (in reference to "Sloth")

My Mother then said, "We do, my brother." Mr. "Maverick" was given that crown. Heh.

Gawd, what else? There was so much stuff that I can't even remember it all. It was all just a hilarious mess. And I loved every second of it. I wish we saw these people more often.

Good times, with good people.

Mom and the cousins! :)

I am now out of my funk. I will now go play on my other blog. Things will get done tomorrow. Which reminds me, I have to "inbasket" Mike the link to my blogs :P