Mr Mike's Hippie Love Blog

wow - it took me forever to find my login info for this blog. I am happy I did, because it has my travel log from summer of 2004 on it. I have since lost that and this is the only spot, even though the words on these pages are edited because my ex-wife's mother was reading. haha. Anyway, what a year it's been. I have become single (divorced), unemployed, house in foreclosure - the whole american story these days. It's all ok, I'm doing good. I sold my Honda Accord and bought a Dodge Minivan, I traveled all over the country this summer, living in the van with a super sweet girl. We saw some moe. shows, some phish shows, primus, chali 2na, chris berry, saw some national parks, yellowstone, devil's tower, redwoods, yosemite, more i think. I went back to devil's tower in the fall and yellowstone. 20,000 miles since i bought the van middle of may, and that includes lots of months where i hunker down at the farm. Well just a quick update. I found my blog - time to gather my data...

My name is Mike and I live in Southern Minnesota (Mankato) with my wife Sarah and our cat Kikko. I have spent the last 5 years as Manager of a Telemarketing company. I resigned from Operations Manager position on Aug 1st of this year. I have come to a realization that my core personality and my value system has changed over those 5 years, and now I feel like I have entered the renaissance. My month of August has been filled with online job searching, resume posting, interviewing, and soul-searching. I have found out that I have become cold and distant; hardened. My relationships had turned into empty shells, lacking in substance because I had my work life at the top of my list. I can admidt now that the company had consumed my head and heart, and other parts of my life were suffering. It has been difficult to adapt to not going to work and I have found myself wondering who I am anymore. I'm glad to say each day is bringing more and more happiness and spiritual awakening. I am happy and proud of my decision. I am also thankful that my wife Sarah has stood by me through this huge change. We obviously are having to readjust financially and I am working on other personal adjustments.

So that is enough talk about that. My good friends in Mankato are my wife Sarah, my buddy Barke, and SarahM. I have lots of other friends, but not alot of people that I talk to often; mostly run into them when we are out at the bars, or if there are events planned. I am excited about having more time to get together with the group and be more of a part of the community. It's funny now that I have more freetime - I want to do more things - but doing more things costs more money - which I no longer have - since I have no job. Seems like you can either have time or money - not both.

Sarah and I and Barke flew down to see Ween on the 9th & 10th last month at Austin Texas. It was a great little vacation and came at the perfect time for me to be able to let loose in a foreign city and rejoice at the shows. Ween loves to play at Stubb's and the shows were evident of this. Both nights were sold out and the crowd was great - everyone was excited to see Ween. Fun to find out how many people flew to Austin like we did. The shows had distinct differences to them: the Thursday show was mellow and spaced out more than I had ever seen Ween; and Friday was completely brown - they rocked it real hard and left us energized to spill out onto 6th street. I had a good time running around 6th street and drinking beer with homeless people. All in all a great little vacation, even though it probably isn't the best idea to go spend money you don't have right after you quit your job - with no future plan.

On Aug 25, Mankato did the 2nd annual Old Town Summerfest on Riverfront Drive. This is a street festival with a bunch of bars that have music all day and all night. It only costs $5 to get in to the festival and you can go in and out of all the bars. This was a great time for me. I haven't been downtown in a long long time. I had myself very guarded as a face of the company before and that included not going out where I would run into employees. Anyway, we saw some good bands and had a blast with all of our friends. My two musical favorites of the day were Radio On, Niterail,
and a reunion of The Libido Boyz. Good times with Barke, SarahM, Kristina and her friend Cassie. Chris and Jessa also did a fire dance routine that we were able to see.

Yesterday I took a drug test for a new job that I start on Monday. This will be no problem since I haven't done any drugs in over 18 months. I am going to be starting training in customer service, working for an airline. It will be good to get back into a routine and start making a little money. Sarah is still working in a kitchen and this time is a prep cook. She has been offered more responsibilities and is weighing her options. Things are going well, this weekend we are going to Rockbend Folk Festival - Tim O'Brien is playing Saturday and there is no cost!!! We are very excited for this. I am looking forward to watching the NFL Colts v Saints tomm and the season starting Sunday. Still busy with sports wagering and hoping for some good luck to bring in the bacon!!!

Well well - long time no blog -  Big News over here...

I recently cut off all my locks and took a promotion at work...   I am now 2nd in charge and making a nice salary - and I was ready to lose my locks anyway...   I have been so busy that I hardly have had time to realize that they are gone - I sold our old van (salvage lot actually) and bought a Honda Accord??!!!   I guess I kinda went all the way - wearing a shirt and tie with a trim beard and small pony tail - so thats that.   Also, have been sober now for a month saving the green for later - too.  Just bringing it all back to the one and trying something different - I have been trying to get my ass to the gym also - but that's only going so so so far...   Missing my first show this week when Keller is at the Quest on WED - I would have taken off two days before - but now I can't do that so well..   Still going to hit one day of 10,000 Lakes this summer to say Trey - Keller is that day also.  And one crazy adventure  Ween at RedRocks in July  ?????  Who knows -

Well they are gone anyways

Sarah and I had fun taking some pictures yesterday - I am very happy that Sarah is coming out of her busy season at work - we have been able to spend more time together lately - we had nearly 2 whole days off together this week - burritos 1 night and falafel tonight -
my chiropractor had me doing core strengthening exercises on a workout ball today - made me feel kind of funny - silly I mean , we are watching Tim Burton's remake of Willy Wonka again tonight - it is an interesting account, different aspects of the story , makes me want to read the book - or maybe I can find it on audiobook for my IPOD +
Didn't do a whole lot for NYE - Sarah was off work by 11 and we were able to celebrate midnight together for the first time since the millennium NYE, when we were camping in FL and got loaded near a fire at Koreshan state park. I remember it was weird with all the y2k crap and we were in the middle of Florida nature and had no idea whether some technical nightmare happened in the real world - we had cold beers and fire wood and we were doing allllrightttt.....
Very excited that the Bucs are in the playoffs - Sat at 2:30 turns into BUCS central out here at the Farm - I think we have a great matchup against the Redskins - the BUCS are healthy and ready to go for the Trophy!! I hope the Vikes hire Mariuchi for their new head coach and feel sorry for any team who brings Tice on for anything more than an O Coordinator. GO BUCS

I have nearly everything finalized for our Florida vacation in Feb. - can't wait - it has been cold and dreery in MN the last week or two we are mostly going to Gainesville, Siesta Key and Sanibel Island... lots of time on the beach - check out our hotel at Sanibel this will be great
I gotta say Burtons wonka is filled with great imagery and the wonka intro scene with the melting dolls is the best part of the movie to me. Johnny Depp is a little too creepy - a bit too much and the oompa loompa songs were so so - I still like the songs wilder sings in the original - and the boat scene.

word

well it's hard to believe christmas has come and gone already... what a great time we had! I gotta admit it stinks being on a time line through the holidays - a time that is supposed to be relaxing. Next year we have decided to do each side of the family on different days instead of trying to cram them both into christmas eve. anyway sarah and i both got some neat stuff
check out these boots my mom gave me!
and these slippers from my sister and her husband:

i also got simpsons season 6 and entourage season 1 dvds
we watched dukes of hazzard unrated that my brother steve got for xmas - and then last night sarah and i order charlie & the chocolate factory on pay per view. it makes me wonder a bit with all these movies being redone - what is left for original hollywood ideas - now KONG is in the theater as well. both these movies were good - but i dunno - most recent movie i saw that I really liked was Ladder 49 - it made me cry - first time in a long while - my wife watches little house on the prairie when she needs a good cry - she says nearly every episode brings it out of her - my favorite Little house episode is when Johnny Cash guest stars as a con man who poses as a preacher and cons the good folk of walnut grove out of money and possessions.
well my wagering budget for the year is gone - lost it all this week on seattle -9.5 over indianapolis - i went with the colts thinking they wouldn't lose that bad - but they did. also i thought the chargers would beat the chiefs (-2). i had all my tokens wagered and had a 5 team parlay that had stayed alive, but the vikings fucked that up (+3) at baltimore - they lost by 7, i would have won 116 bucks off of $5 if it wasn't for that game. one time I hit a 7 team parlay that paid some 700 bucks off a $5 bet - that was awesome! right now i am thinking about shopping for a home gym elliptical to be able to work out at home and start burning off this pot belly. my chiropractor supports that idea - sedentary lifestyle - i have a problem in the 5th lumbar that pinches the syatic nerve and makes me leg hurt - i get to go in 3 times a week and have him adjust me - plus work on excercises to strenghten my core and do the long abs. anyway - i have a couple shifts this week than off again for the new years - but back to work on the 2nd....

Happy Holidays from Mike & Sarah

Feeling a little crusty this morning - looks like a drank a little too much last night - but I took two Midol before bed and am not doing too bad... You guys might not have known that Midol is good hangover cure - pop 2 with a big glass of water right before bed and you wake up feeling considerably better...
I didn't get much done yesterday - some mild labor around the farm - finally finished tearing down the old chicken coop that was out in the grove and pulled some dead trees out of the area we want to landscape. Will have lots of projects for next spring.
Man I had a long week at work - it is tiring and emotional draining to manage telemarketters - they all act like they are 16 and piss and moan all day - we pay our people good too - so they shouldn't have so much to cry about - argh fuck all that - i drank that week away yesterday - and tomm. it starts up again - our mortgage company just got licensed in Nebraska so watch out here we come.
It's almost football time - Bucs have a week off - lots of tough lines for wagering this week - my lock i think will be under 47 for NYG v DEN.
Taking some bumps in wagering this week.

Well, I am glad to have the laptop back - been a little while since I burnt out another DVD drive. I put it through a full system recovery last night and am rebuilding the cpu today. Had some good times since the last post. Mostly going to see Les Claypool's Fancy Band at the Quest last weekend. Sarah and I went with our other friend Sarah and an old friend Jake flew in from San Diego. Man did we turn it loose! Sarah drank a bottle of red wine and the 3 of us ran through a case of beer plus more. Sarah threw up on the side of the street in Minneapolis on our way to the show! The show was packed - it was 18+ so I got asked for drugs by a million little girls. Man that is getting old - dread locks = drug dealer. Les played a great show - but it was darker than the usual - take a look at the setlist pretty standard - but they really jammed it out and it wasn't the usual style - dark and scary. The opening band really sucked - but i can't remember what they were called. Alot of people looked like they were on hallucinogens at the show - Minneapolis was all spun out...
All in all this was a great day - me and my 2 Sarah's went up early and had lunch at Sawatdee's and then went thrift storing for a bit... got to the hotel early and were able to party for a good while before the show - than my good friend Josh showed up and went to the show with us, he had to leave early to carry the mail the next morning. We hit a couple bars on the way home and Jake threw up off the side of a bridge on the highway!! Good Times....