Thank You All For Making My Dreams Come True

No more wasting time, life is finally moving in the direction I had been planning for years.  No longer am I bound by chains from my past.  Remember that old saying "you spend your 30's cleaning up what you did in your 20's?"  That's me!

Thanks to worker's comp for making my life a living hell for the last 8 something years.  Their plan is to keep you on long enough until you're dragged down to the very direst of straits that you want to kill yourself.  Been there and it was a place that was very hard to get out of.....they (workers comp) like to string you along for as long as they possibly can.  Utter bullshit the government needs to intervene with.  

I've been to court several times in my life, its a nice change of pace when you start winning all of the good fights.  And anyone that threatens me, my daughters, or my ex will be dealt with swiftly in court.  Homie don't play when it comes to family.

What I really want to say is:

Thank you to all who have stood by me in the darkest of hours of my life and continue to still believe in what I am trying to accomplish in life.  I am finally living my dreams!

Packing My Bowl of Pipe Dreams

Today I hosted a dinner party for nine people including me.  Some friends and some family.  In case you don't follow along, I entered a cook off on August 28th.  Since then I've been putting together a team: one or two more chefs (me included) and I have to have two women serve my food to patrons.  

Today's dinner went well.  We've got some positive feedback and some constructive criticism....just what we needed.  I found a good partner chef and two gorgeous women to serve my food.  

Like I've said, I've made some great connections and met some new people who share passions for the same things I do.   It's been my "pipe dream" to open my own restaurant for the last seven years now.  I love to cook: I love peoples' criticism because 9 out of 10 times it's good.


For the last few months I've been living my dreams: baby step from one to the next, seems to be working for me.  Right now I am loving life and even more the people who believe in the pipe dreams I have.  I bring it, I don't sing it when it comes to living the ultimate dream.  

 I set my psychical abilities (hips/back) aside when it comes to being in a kitchen: that's what the pills and smoke-able medicine is for.  


One thing that's been on my mind all day is that I haven't talked to my little women.  I know don't need to talk to me everyday to know that their dad loves them;  I miss them when they're not here and I don't have to make a phone call everyday for them to know that.  

Nonetheless, first dinner practice went well.  I've got an awesome team that loves to cook and two beautiful women to help serve food.  My team will place in this competition and I'm sure of that.

The End of an 8-1/2 Year Chapter

For 8-1/2 years my life has been a living hell for the most part: dealing with a fucking insurance company over petty bullshit.

Okay?  How do you fake 13 surgeries?  And every other ailment under the sun as a result of being burnt 40% to death in the last 8-1/2 years?


I settled for the amount of money a Boilermaker (former career) can make in a little over two years.  That was my compensation for the last 8-1/2.

But hey, no better time to take the money and run than now.  The economy sucketh the big one and I've had 8-1/2 years to plan for the future and what I want to do with my life when I had the means to become an integral part of society.

Where did the motivation come from?  A number of events in the past few years but mainly in the last seven months.  I had gotten out of  a relationship which produced two beautiful girls.  I had no other choice but to stay with my parents.


So there I was with no car, license, and no money.  I struggled with addiction to prescription muscle relaxers for the last 8 years and it has ruined my life, love, and friendships.  But no more.


Last month my dad said I should find a place to live so I started searching.  Renting a home within walking distance from my daughters' school was astronomical, that didn't even include all the utilities.  A 4 bedroom home with a boiler system scared the fuck out of me with the heating cost.


That's when I called a friend to ask about an apartment she lived right near the school, she gave the number to the leasing agent.  That was a better deal but the view sucked!


I figured it was just time to get my fucking money from comp and enough of the bullshit of scraping by.  I called my lawyer and started the process.  That was on January 20th and it's taken until this week to get the case closed.

The first loft apartment I checked out before I decided to get off comp had a second location right down the street. Once the process of closing my case started rolling I decided to look at a two bed, two bath loft at the other place.  That was February 8th, and I put the security on it the next day (which I had to borrow of course).


So one week from today my life will be the total opposite of what it has been for the last 8-1/2 years.  Me and my girls will have a place to call home, and I'll be able to have a little privacy.  Living with your parents at 34 is a fucking nightmare.


I'll will finally be able to have a place to write without anyone to distract me (while kids are in school).  Since you cant have a barbecue grill in an apartment, even with a balcony, I guess I'll have to hone my other cooking skills in the kitchen.


So I'd like to thank the ex for kicking me out and to my parents who nit-pick everything: you were the motivation I needed to get the fuck on with life.


Remember those three things I told you I was passionate about: family, cooking, and writing?  And you said it was all "great ideas, you're full of them but never go through with them."  


That's where I've closed that chapter in my life, the last 8-1/2 years.  That's where my pipe dream ends and living the dream with my daughters begins.


You'll see.

The TDRR Daily 01/27/2010

I've blogged about this before and I've been warned several times about this: beware of what you post on Facebook or Myspace. The social networks can be used against you in a court of law or when it comes to keeping a job.


Quite a few of my friends had to clean up their Facebook page because of their jobs or had to delete coworkers off friend's lists. My lawyer has warned me several times to be careful of what I post: two words - fuck him!


I can see the justification for cleaning up your page if your a manager for a large corporation or even not having friends from work on your page just to keep the whole work/play things separate but how does this precaution pertain to me?


How does what you do on a social networking site dictate the person you are while you're at work? I can see how some people would nail their own coffin shut by befriending a coworker, posting statuses about getting "Crunk" then not making it to work the following day. That's the jackass' own fault.


If worker's comp or the people from my third party lawsuit wanted to dig up some dirt on me, what is the worst they could find? Do they look at the people on these friends lists also? What could those insurance companies possibly dig up that would help them win a case against me, the plaintiff? I've been off 7-1/2 years, don't have any money to have any real hobbies, I'm more less the house bitch because the wife works, and developed a case of anxiety/agoraphobia so I like to "socially network" with other like minded peeps. I get some good laughs, I get angered at the religious fanatics who think their belief is the only way, and I've been sick of politics. (I think I've said this before) But on another note, I've got this really awesome fake farm. Would farming be consider a future income earning potential in the insurance company's eyes? I told a friend last night that if the insurance companies wanted to take away my benefits or use anything I do on a social networking site to hinder my case, I'd get them in front of a judge and drop my drawers and have my benefits reinstated - pronto.

In my opinion, what you do on your own time is your own business. I could see social networking becoming a problem if you're doing it while "on the clock." The same goes for drug testing. You need to take a drug test to work at flipping McDonald's these days....are you fucking serious?!?


Speaking of jobs and drug testing, now that marijuana is legal for medical purposes how is this going to work out when you give a urine sample for a job? Even if you have the medical Mary Jane card I can almost guarantee that they'll hire somebody who doesn't give a dirty sample. The laws with regards to medical marijuana are still in that gray area when it comes to getting it legally and trying to get a job.

Someone asked me the other day about how much I donated to Haiti. Not a dime. I'm on the brink of destitution and have no "extra" money to give but if I did I'd make a nice contribution. It's shocking really. The same people who'd dig deep to help the people in Haiti wouldn't bat an eye at helping the people who are in dire straits here on the home front. Just turn your blind eye and they go away eventually. I am glad to see so many Americans stepping forward to help Haiti in their time of need, but if Americans were only this empathetic to the poor and starving right in their own yard.


Enough of that bullshit....


Last night I decided to try something different in the kitchen. I got these fresh, unsplit, bonless, skinless chicken breasts from the farm market by my house. I decided to make a homemade cornbread stuffing, butterfly the chickens, and bake in the oven over a bed of Uncle Ben's chicken flavored rice. Although it looked good when it came out of the oven, my kids didn't give it the "wow" rating (as in WOW daddy this is good!). The chicken and rice was good but the stuffing was kind of soggy. Next time I'll buy the box of "cornbread stuffing" and go that route.


That's all for today. Beware of the company you keep!! HAHAHAHA