Family Campout 2019 Fun

Hey everyone, it's that time again, family campout with my camping friends. It's always fun seeing the camping friends considering we only see each other a few times a year (not because we're anti-social, but because we all live so far away now and it's like the only time we can see all get together). I packed everything on Thursday and went over to my parents house for the night. When we were planning things on Wednesday my mom asked me what time I would get there on Friday, and I said "well I was planning on coming over on Thursday night," and that made things a little easier because we were able to practice pack. Then at night I watched SpongeBob using my parents slingTV subscription. I have playstation vue and don't get Nickelodeon, so it's great watching Nickelodeon at my parents house. I watched SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout, and I need to do a review of this, because it's the 20th anniversary special and it's basically an apology for Truth or Square, one of my first reviews. [Editor's note, I did do a review, here it is]. We went out for pizza on Thursday for family fun. That was basically Thursday night.

Now for Friday. We packed-up the perishable things (cooler food) and that was it since we packed all the other things the night before. We drove a while and stopped at the outlet mall. Normally we stop at the pepridge farm store because I like goldfish crackers and millano cookies (and it's always fun to see what kind of other things they might have), but since I still have a bunch of stuff from last year we didn't stop there. We did stop at the Colman store and I got a cooler and my parents got my aunt a cot. After that I just kind of played my switch and slept while I waited for us to get to camp.

Now we get to camp. We were squatting on my godfather's site this weekend. We arrived before them, so we spent the time waiting for them to show-up visiting with the others that were already there. We gave my aunt the cot and not too much longer my godfather and his family showed up. I helped them set-up their tent, and being the tent expert I am, it went up quite easily. While I was working on the tent, my godbrother was on top of the car helping to unload the cartop carrier. Watching him do that, I was quite jealous, because my parents never let me climb on top of the car for any reason. After helping them set-up camp, we had lunch. I had a hamburger and spam sandwich, with cheese. Yum. This year I didn't have to share my burger with my cousin's dog Louie, because he was far more comfortable this year. Here's a picture I took with him.

After lunch we went to check into our motel. It was pretty uneventful, just unload our night bags, sleeping stuff (my cot and sleeping bag), and electronic stuff for at night. After check-in we went back to camp. Since it was so hot and I brought my gold rush nugget buck, and I read there was trace gold in the area, and that it's recreational gold panning is legal in my state, I put on my swimsuit and went swimming for the first time in years. My goal was to go into the lake some, dig down to what I thought was black sand (I remember from as a kid if you dug deep enough you'd get to black colored sand) and hopefully find some gold. If nothing else, just have fun playing on the beach. I didn't find anything. A lot of my camp friends asked me what I was doing and wanted to watch, and I have experience panning the dirt I buy online so I kind of know what I'm doing, but there wasn't any gold in the lake. Doing a little more research on where to pan for gold, I figure a lake is a pretty bad spot since you want basically "1 way water flow to wash away lite sediments" instead of "2 way waves layering the lite stuff on top of each other." Oh well, it was all for fun anyways.

[time skip in writing]

Woops, I must have said "I'll come back to this after a break" and then 3 months go by. I'll do my best to recall what happened, but it's going to be a little more fractured.

After swimming we had dinner and a camp fire. It was a fun time hanging out. When it came time for the squatters to leave we went back to our motel. The rooms didn't have air conditioning, so we were hot. I remember waking up like 4 times throughout the night and drinking 4 cups of water because I was losing so much water. Breakfast was pretty typical. I had a muffin and bacon at the motel before we went to the campground.

Saturday was pretty eventful. The morning started out pretty tame, just hanging out, catching up. One of the gen 2 girls teaches Zumba and brought her music with her, so she led a Zumba class for anyone that would join in. My mom was one of them, as were some of the other moms. I also did some dog sitting for Louie while his owners went swimming. He had some separation anxiety (because he was rescued off the street), but when I took him for a walk he got really happy and enjoyed the exploring. I brought some manga with me (Splatoon volume 2 and Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest) and decided to read it after lunch. Well then it started raining, and I was REALLY glad I brought my manga because otherwise I would have been really bored. Everyone huddled under various dining flies, and some people brought out cards for different card games. I had a few people look over my shoulder to see the manga, and I had a little fun explaining why it read backwards. I think around 3PM my parents said "lets go back to our motel," and we did. I did some web surfing and watched TV, and we waited until it was time for mass.

Mass was a little different this year. Normally we go to this church that's kind of out in the woods on Sunday, but this year we went to a church that's in the city on Saturday. That meant I wasn't able to watch the sign language interpreter, because the woods church has ASL. Afterwards my mom ran into someone she knows, apparently an old friend of the camping group. She introduced me as "remember my eldest son? This is him now." That tends to happen quite frequently with me; not as much as when I was in middle school and such, but still happens occasionally. After church we went to the pizza place for dinner. We've been going to this place for about 10 years now, and this year we decided to eat in the restaurant. While we were planning to eat in the restaurant, it was really good since it was still raining. While I was there I found this little sign.

I thought it reminded me of Sarcastic SpongeBob. wE wAnT yOuR cOmEnTs

By now it had stopped raining. We had a camp fire with the wood we kept dry and the chairs we kept dry. We also burned some card board boxes. One thing I did was I brewed decaf sun tea all day, because that night I was going to make my special cocktail "backwoods arnie." I made up some shots for everyone that was old enough to drink and interested, and a lot of people were and thought it tasted really good. My godbrothers also wanted some to drink, so I let them have the decaf sun tea. I made sure to tell their dad it was just decaf sun tea, because I didn't want him thinking I was giving his 11 and 6 year old alcohol, or caffeine before bed. When we went back to the hotel we realized we should probably open the window, and that made things much better.

Sunday was pretty low key. Normally Sunday is church day, but since we already went we didn't go. We had a communal breakfast where we had pancakes, bacon, French toast, and whatever was left over that people didn't want to take home. After breakfast we said our goodbyes, packed-up our camp chairs and other things, and went back to check-out of the motel. After that we started our drive back home, and after unpacking all their stuff I made my way back home. It was great to see everyone again. This has been pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

My Cousins Wedding Adventure

Hey everyone, it feels like it's been a while since I had a good old adventure with my family, probably because it's been a while since I had a good old adventure with my family. Well my cousin turtlegirl got married over the weekend and that means it's time for an adventure. The first of gen 3 to get married, and it's all the way down in Evansville. Those familiar with my adventures will know that we've been going down there for many years.

Everything started Friday morning. My dad and brother showed up at about 6:30AM and we transferred their stuff from their car to my car. It was a very fast process. I already had my stuff packed, and they didn't have a ton of stuff either. Since we were picking up mskate about halfway through the drive, I agreed to drive to her place and they would drive the other half. Aside from dad spilling his coffee within 1 mile of leaving my house, things were pretty uneventful that way, it was just like all the regular trips I make to see her except it went a little faster since I had company.

Now we pick-up mskate and things get fun. I brought my laptop and headphone splitter so we could watch movies on the way down, just like when my brother and I were kids watching VHS tapes on the car TV on road trips when we were little. Same splitter actually, which I spent probably 10 minutes looking for. Together we watched Christopher Robin and Wonder, and on my own I watched the first 2 episodes of Pokémon Orange Islands. Mskate isn't into Pokémon, and when she saw I brought it she was wondering why I brought it, but she didn't want to watch movies all the time so I took that as my opportunity to watch it, and I'm glad I did. We stopped for McDonalds for lunch, and I learned they're doing a Pokémon promotion. Mskate and I split a happy meal, and I got an additional McRib, because that's apparently in season. McDonalds doesn't advertise like they used to, which is annoying because then I don't know what the promotion is. This took us to Evansville.

We get to our hotel, and they don't have our room ready, so we're sitting in the lobby with all our stuff on the cart. My grandparents were already there, and other relatives started arriving as well. It was fun seeing everyone again as they show up. We were able to get my grandparents set-up, and then my grandpa was able to get in the pool. He used to love to swim, but isn't really able to anymore because of stiff joints and such. Well this pool had a handicap entry chair that loads people into the water. This was quite a scene, because this was apparently the first time the hotel ever used it and none of the staff knew what was needed. My aunt, brother, and I were all gathered around the chair trying to figure out how it worked, and we realized we needed some kind of pendant to control it. Well, we knew there was some kind of controls, but we couldn't figure them out. We went to the front desk and they brought out the controller, and I was able to figure out which port it plugged into. However, when I turned it on and set it to lower it wasn't moving very fast, so we figured the battery was dying. The hotel staff went to the back room to get the other battery pack, but that one was completely dead. My aunt thought that maybe it was missing the contacts or they were dirty, but after putting my hand on it I could feel it was trying but just didn't have a charge. The staff then went and got the other battery and we put it back on figuring it just moved slow for safety reasons. My grandpa was already in the water by now after my mom and brother helped him down the stairs. However, this was good for getting him out. Unfortunately the pool wasn't very friendly to him, having a very steep drop-off and a rather small shallow end. He was able to have some fun, but not nearly as much as he wanted to, and he was really looking forward to it.

Once we were able to check-in I set-up my bitcoin miner and enjoyed free hotel electricity; the returns on mining doesn't compensate for the cost of electricity, but when I don't pay for the electricity it's all profit. Mskate and I went grocery shopping because we weren't going to like the wedding dinner, so I brought my crock pot to make us something on Saturday. She also wanted to get an Indiana Starbucks Cup, and I wanted to go thrifting, so we went to the goodwill that was right by Starbucks, and then went to Walmart to get food. I unfortunately wasn't able to find any rare or mystery VHS tapes, and I already had the videogames or they weren't worth the price tag, but she was able to find her Indiana Starbucks cup. At Walmart I let her chose between meatballs and pot roast. She chose meat balls, and I was able to find a ground beef and pork blend which was really good. I also picked-up BBQ sauce, and she also found some snack food she can't get elsewhere. I checked the electronics to see if there were any amiibo or PS2 games I wanted, but they didn't have either so it was only groceries. After that my brother, dad, and I went to the liquor store to get some drinks. I didn't really have anything I was looking for, having brought stuff from home, but then I saw moonshine pickles and I said "I can't get that at home, I need to see what that's like."

Now it's time for the rehearsal dinner. It was at a fire house banquet hall thing. Apparently this is where turtlegirl and hubby (I'll need to find a screenname for him) went on some dates, so it's important to them. However, it was way out of the way and kind of in nowhere, so it was kind of hard for us. Anyway, mskate, dad, bro, and I head over and we were the first there. Now long time readers may remember I had pink hair at my aunt's wedding (link if you don't remember). It was a college fundraiser for breast cancer, and my family wasn't super thrilled. I wanted to do something similar for turtlegirl (that was the first thing I thought of when I heard about the engagement), but as a professional adult I can't dye my hair crazy colors anymore. So I did the next best thing, pink wig.

I walk into the hall with this on my head and the grooms aunt, or whoever was setting up, called the grooms mom saying there was a suspicious man here, thinking maybe a vagrant wandered in. Once my family started showing up she could tell I belonged, and most of my family got the joke. My uncle who married my aunt when I really died my hair pink didn't get it, and neither did turtlegirl's father, but all my aunts and cousins got it. Mskate kept trying to get me to take it off, because she doesn't like it when I get eccentric, but turtlegirl had to see it. When she saw it she just shook her head with "of course Pokematic would do that." After she saw I took it off. Dinner was alright, catered fast food Italian food, nothing super special. Near the end of the party the grooms mom said "I got a call about a suspicious man that wondered in." That was my first time meeting his family, so yeah, here's "crazy cousin Pokematic." Nothing really happened after that.

Now for the big day.  I started up the meatballs and let them cook for 4 hours in our hotel room. Since the ceremony was at 2PM, we gave a tour to dad and mskate. First we picked up pepperBC from her grandma/my great aunt, and her mom gave us a tour of the house. Because great aunt got her hair done but it wasn't sticking, some of my other aunts had to find hairspray. The tour was fun, hearing all the crazy stories they had from "trips to the darkness" and "the murder that took place before great aunt bought it." The hairspray was called "big sexy hair," so we joked about how she now had "big sexy hair." After great aunt's house we went to this hill that is like the highest point in Evansville where you can see the whole city. It was cool. After that we went to see great uncle's house, the same house that grandma, great aunt, and great uncle grew up in. He has a very interesting house, like a street light in his driveway and a fire hydrant next to his garage. I lead the tour on that, because I really like his house. There was a split where the men played in the garage and women toured the house. It was just a quick little stop.

After that little stop, I placed a take out order for an Evansville delicacy, brain sandwich. I also ordered chicken livers for my grandparents, because they like chicken livers and the Hilltop Inn has some of the best according to my grandparents, and Hilltop is one of the few places you can still get them. We dropped everyone off except for msake and dad, because they wanted to see the place. When mskate stepped out of the car she said it smelled bad/funny, I said "it smells like fry oil." She didn't want to see me eat the brain, but I took some video back at the hotel if you want to watch a mini food review.

Now for the big ceremony. We got dressed and my grandparents in the car. It's always a bit of an ordeal getting them anywhere. It was Mskate, bro, and I in the car, and I was driving. I missed our turn, and that was kind of crazy. We got in and found our seats after saying hello to the family. It was a good ceremony, and my mom was a Eucharistic minister. That's important because she distributed the wine, and it's the Eucharistic minister's job to drink the leftovers in their cup, and there were a lot of leftovers. After the ceremony my mom said she was feeling tipsy and needed some carbs, and was glad she wasn't driving. We had about an hour before the reception, so mskate and I had our meatballs at the hotel and we just hung out for a little while.

Now for the reception. We had some fun trying to find the place, and find a parking spot. It would be another hour or so before the festivities started, but that just meant time to visit with the family and get mskate a new lock screen photo (because the last one was from the last wedding we went to). Now it was time for the wedding party to enter. The ushers were first, and they tried to do a group act that ended with one guy face planting. I ran into them in the dinner line (because I wanted some salad and rolls) and his friends were trying to fix his bleeding nose. However, they were all drunk/buzzed and were struggling. I offered to help since I was pretty sober (half a glass of wine, I wasn't feeling anything), but they didn't want it. Oh well, later in the night I saw he had a nice X of bandages on his nose, so someone helped him. I had green beans and corn, as did mskate.

Now that dinner is over it was time for dancing. The bride and groom had their dances with their respective dad and mom, and then there was the dollar dance. I remember great aunt wanted a dance with her new nephew. I didn't participate because I knew I'd have my dances with them later in the nigh. In addition to the dancing they rented a photo booth, which is something mskate and I enjoy doing when we find them. We did it twice by ourselves, and once with grandma. Grandma was fun, because we didn't really know what we were going to do, and the last picture involved mskate sitting on my leg while I kissed her cheek, which was a lot harder than anticipated because I didn't realize how much taller she would be when sitting on my leg, and while this is happening grandma is trying to get out of the way while mskate is trying to pull her back into frame, and we only had 5 seconds to figure out what we wanted.

Dancing for the most part was pretty standard. We did some line dancing, and the ones I knew were really fun (like cupid shuffle and cha cha slide). I was trying to do the line dancing for cotton eye Joe, but it was a little to fast for me and I kept tripping on myself because I kept trying to catch up. Then there was the macarena; when that happened, I started yelling with excitement and ran onto the dance floor. I love the macarena, it was the first dance I learned as a little kid back in the late 90s. The slow dances were pretty fun too, mainly because I had a partner. Even when mskate was sitting them out I still had fun joining in on the group hug slow dancers (because for reasons I'll get to shortly, there were many guests that got creative with some of the dances). The fast dances were also great; I'm not very good, but I have fun. About halfway through the night I was able to have a dance with turtlegirl when she was on the dance floor and didn't have a lot of people around. I was right, I didn't need the dollar dance. All the families were allowed to request 1 song, and my grandparents requested a slow dance. The DJ made a note it was a special request by "great aunt and uncle," and we got them up and out on the dance floor. Unfortunately because they move so slow the song was about a third of the way done, so I had the DJ restart it. It was really sweet to see them hold each other and dance after 60 years together without their walkers; surrounded by their kids, grandkids, and other family making sure they don't fall and no one runs into them. After their dance they took their walkers back, and grandpa stayed on the dance floor for one more, dancing to a fast song with people. It was all really sweet.

Now for some shenanigans. My mom and I were basically the DD for "our immediate family." Since neither of us really drink a lot, that wasn't a big battle. However, the same can't be said for the rest of my family, and apparently the same for the rest of the wedding guests. The dance floor had a nice layer of dry beer on the floor, which felt really weird since this was in a school gym. When we did RockyTop (a dance where it's like "make a bridge, go under the bridge"), mskate got a little upset since someone spilled beer on her dress (she's not a drinker either so this was extra upsetting, but she didn't want to drive at night so she wouldn't DD even if I was a drinker). After my brother had a few and a slow dance came on he wanted to dance with me, which I said yes to because I wanted to have fun, but we basically spent the entire time trying to figure out who would lead. Some of the groomsmen and other male guests started up a chorus line with one of the songs, which I joined in on. There was a guy that was double fisting them on the dance floor that always seemed like he was lost. Later into the night I saw my brother slow dancing with one of the groomsman, and they were both pretty smashed. I also did a fair amount of bad and excited dancing, but I do just because I like dancing. Since I'm just weird I don't need alcohol to do the silly things, so I basically had "drunk fun while sober," which mskate made a joke about. I was wearing my Pokémon tie, because I have a Pokémon tie, and everyone was complementing it (except for mskate, she doesn't really like it). I told her "I'm getting a lot of complements on my tie," and she like, "yeah, from DRUNK PEOPLE!" (I do get a lot of complements on it regularly though).

Now comes the end of the night, the reception is coming to a close and we need to get the grandparents back to the hotel, along with the rest of the family. By now mom just kind of "doesn't want to deal with drunk people anymore," so when drunk guests were hanging out in the hall on the way to the car, she just pushed them out of the way. "Out of the way, my mom and dad need to leave." She also told me I was in charge of my brother, and he needed charge. He took his boots off because they made it hard to dance or something, and I had to tell him to get his shoes. As we were driving back I was channeling my safe ride home skills from community service back in college. I got really good at driving nice and easy for the drunk passengers so they don't get sick, and he said I did really well. He also kept wanting to go to Denny's, and I kept telling him "no, mom said to get you back to the hotel;" "but Denny's." I told him I have meatballs at the hotel if he wants them, "but Denny's." "If you want to stumble down the block to it I won't stop you, but I'm getting you to the hotel." Ultimately he didn't need Denny's. I was supposed to sleep in the bed that night, but he laid down in it not long after getting into the room, and I realized "that ain't moving," so I slept on the floor again.

Sunday wasn't super spectacular, just a drive home. Dad was the first one up and woke us up at around 7AM. We ate breakfast, packed up our stuff, said our goodbyes, and started our drive home. Mskate and I watched some movies again, finishing up Christopher Robin first and then watched Storks and Bandslam (which is a great film). For lunch we stopped at a McDonalds and shared 2 happy meals (I ate the burgers and 1 of the fries, mskate ate the apple slices and other fries), and we each got our own toy; Pokémon for me and Hello Kitty for her (because she likes Hello Kitty). That took us to her apartment. We unpacked her stuff and said our goodbyes. We then began the drive home. Because I took care of him after the wedding, bro drove about halfway, leaving me time to watch more Pokémon and take a nap. We stopped at a rest stop and switched drivers, so now I was driving. Dad and bro commented on how boring the drive is and how "there was nothing around." Yeah welcome to my drive every 2 or so weeks. We got to my place, swapped vehicles, and that was it, rather uneventful.

All in all it was a great trip. I really enjoyed seeing my family again, seeing mskate again, and with turtlegirl and her new husband the best. I'm glad my grandparents were able to make another trip, because it's getting harder and harder for them. Soon we may have a gen 4, and then trips may be a little more regular again. Time will tell, but until then, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

I go to the Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Roadshow

Hey everyone. When I saw Jay and Silent Bob Reboot with fathom events I learned about the reboot roadshow, a live show where Jason Mewes and Keven Smith introduce the Jay and Silent Bob Reboot live on stage and do a Q&A afterwards. I'm not going to talk about the movie itself because I already did that with the fathom reviews. Watch here. Instead I'm going to talk about my experience of going to the theater and the live aspect.


I looked up where the tour was stopping and saw they were making a stop in Detroit at the Fillmore, which was possible for me to make it to. I hadn't made my decision to see it yet, but I said "yeah it could happen." Well then I forgot about it, and if it wasn't for one of my facebook friends saying they were interested in it the day before I wouldn't have remembered. I bought my ticket online and was ready to see it. I was really glad I had a $20 bill in my wallet, because I forgot that parking costs money in downtown Detroit, and since there was a big show happening parking was $20, a quarter mile away in a sketchy area. Oh well, it was that or somehow turn around on a 1 way street to get to the $10 parking half a mile away, $30 for a somewhat closer lot that was only a little less sketchy.

Since I got there after the doors opened I didn't have to wait in line, which I kind of planned on because while there was quite a large police presence (because it was a big event), I still wouldn't want to wait around outside in Detroit. I had my ticket on "willcall," which meant they would give me my ticket at the box office after showing them my credit card and photo ID. I glad about that, because that meant I got a physical ticket, because the alternative was a digital ticket on my phone, which required the app, and I have windows phone. I got my ticket, and then got in line to get my drink wristband. I wasn't planning on drinking, but I said the same about The Mike and Micky show, and then I decided to get a drink. This time however, I decided not to drink. After getting through security I had a look at the merch table to see if they had a poster or something I wanted, but all they had were t-shirts and 1) I already have more than enough t-shirts, and 2) I'm not the kind of person that would wear a Jay and Silent Bob t-shirt; while I enjoy the occasional Kevin Smith film, the only one I would care to watch more than once (outside of a special event show like this one) is Clerks. Anyways, since The Fillmore is like a "serious historic venue" there was a lot of really cool architecture and posters, and since I was 30 minutes early I decided to explore the 4 levels. Here are some pictures of things I took.

After exploring I went to find my seat. Because I'm not a big Kevin Smith fan, and I'd already seen the movie with fathom events, and I need to save money, I got the cheapest available ticket. It ended up being in the lower balcony off to the side, 2 rows away from upper balcony. The seat also didn't have a lot of leg room, barely any at all, and it was pretty far from the screen.

Before I left for the show I charged my 3DS and brought it with me. I was really glad I did, because I had time to kill and they started 10 minutes late. Why did they start 10 minutes late? I'm going to guess it's because Kevin was smoking up back stage, and that's not me passing judgement, when Kevin came on stage he said he was getting high before the show and was "really happy to be in a weed legal state." Well the lights went down and out walks Kevin in his jorts and purple blazer. He gave a fun little intro and then brought Jason Mewes out. Jason brought out his phone and said he was live streaming on twitch. You can watch the rebroadcast here.


Watch detroit live just a quickie intro from jay and @thatkevinsmith Reboot Roadshow! from jaymewes on www.twitch.tv

After they gave their intro the show was apparently sponsored by audible. They made these commercials for audible as Jay and Silent Bob, and were pretty funny. Kevin also joked about how "like every podcast ever, we're sponsored by audible for some reason." Well, not ALL podcasts considering audible rejected me. OK, now the movie is starting, and I'm starting to get a hunger headache. While Kevin said I shouldn't miss any part of the show because it never stops, I'd already seen it before so I knew I wouldn't miss anything. I went to the snack bar and got some nachos. At first the clerk said "we're out of nachos" (the line was very long before the show, so it made sense stuff was running out), but knowing I had to eat something I asked what they had, and after asking the guys with the food he said "hotdogs and nachos, I guess we do have them." I got my nachos and had them on one of the standing tables on the first floor. I watched the movie from behind the bar glass, because I didn't want to take them back up to my seat and potentially drop them. After the nachos I went back to my seat and watched the movie.

Now the movie is over and Kevin and Jason come back out on stage for the Q&A. Since they only had like 30 minutes left on their rented time they only allowed 12 people to line up to ask questions on first come first serve, meaning the people with the really good seats were able to ask their questions. Here's what I would have asked if I had the option "hi, you can call me Pokematic [and yes, I would have used my screen name, hoping someone would hear that, do a google search, and find my stuff], a piece of trivia for Clerks is you sold half of your comic book collection to finance the film, I was wondering if when Clerks made a ton of money you bought back your collection." The questions that were asked were pretty good, including a little look into what older drafts of Reboot would have been like.

SPOILERS!!!!!!

Since Kevin and Jason were close friends with Stan Lee, Kevin was going to have him be in the movie, specifically, he would have been the director of bluntman v chronic that Shan Yu wants to kill, but because Stan died IRL Kevin Smith as himself had to fill that position. Also Ben Affleck was originally not going to be part of this, and Jay was going to get his dad inspiration from seeing a girl (his IRL daughter Logan) dressed up as Jay with her dad dressed up as Silent Bob at Chronicon, but because Ben wanted to be a part of it last minute (Kevin did launch his career), he wrote the Holden and Chasing Amy scene we see in the final product.

END SPOILERS!!!

I really wish I recorded this, but I didn't think to. I saw a lot of people with their phones out, so hopefully this shows up on the internet at some point, because I want sources to back this up so I can make a LMW article on it. Anyway, with the last question there was a loud noise and I think it was the stage manager cutting them off, to which Kevin joked about being shot and "scare the guy that had a heart attack." I left the theater, and I felt REALLY uncomfortable walking alone in downtown Detroit at 11PM at night down a dimly lit street to get to my car in a sketchy parking lot. I also had trouble finding my way out of the lot, because there wasn't really a place to turn around, so I just drove over the curb (it was kind of low down). I made it home safe though, but I'm thinking I won't do something like that again for a while. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Grandma's 85th birthday and 60th anniversary part with the family

Hey everyone, oh man do I have a story for you guys. So my grandparents have been married for 60 years and my grandma has been alive for 85 years, and because those are some serious milestones my mom threw a MAJOR party for them, inviting all the extended family for a weekend long celebration that for me basically lasted all week, and for my mom, a year of preparation. I'll start out with the little bit of prep that I had. For me I made a video slideshow of my grandparents throughout the years from marriage until about now. These were the songs we used, in the order of use.

Mom scanned a bunch of their old pictures and that was a bit of a challenge, because pretty much all the pictures they marked as wanting them were from the last 20 years (grandkids). There were some wedding album pictures, and some with my mom and her siblings as kids, but most were grandkids. I'm like "uhhh mom, one of the songs is 'when your old wedding ring was new,' it doesn't match well if all I have is when the old wedding ring is old." She then found more pictures from the wedding and when they were newly weds, with bringing their kids home from the hospital and babies. I also found all the vacation slides of theirs I digitized for a Christmas present 12 or so years ago, from all the vacations they took with their kids (my mom and aunt and uncle) as kids. It worked out great.

Now for the start of everything. My girlfriend mskate came in for the party and she arrived Wednesday to stay in town with her parents (about an hour away from where I live). I also had a doctors appointment out that way, so we were going to have a little date night after the appointment. Well, I got caught in really bad traffic, and had to reschedule. I happened to be stuck about where we were going to meet up afterwards, so that just meant that we were able to spend a little more time together. We went out to dinner, and then walked around our little down town area for some fun. We went to the salvation army, and a jewelry store that was downsizing and had stuff that was 80% off, and a gamestop. We went to the jewelry store just for fun, and maybe I would find something deeply discounted that I could either flip in some years or make for a really nice gift, but it was all still out of our price ranges. The gamestop was mainly for me because she knows I like videogames, but she doesn't really care for them. We did find something we would both enjoy, a Wreck it Ralph 2 mystery figure. We decided to get one and depending on which character it was would determine who got it. She wanted a Vanellope, and I would have been happy with Ralph, Felix, or anyone else. It ended up being YES! and she decided she liked it for the in-joke and would rename her "yep." (I say "yep" when I want to acknowledge that I heard you but don't have anything to add to the current topic). As we were walking around, some kids decided to play the penis game as they drove by while we waited to cross the street. For those of you who don't know, the penis game is when you yell "PENIS" in a public area and/or at a complete stranger, commonly played by middle schoolers and immature high schoolers. We were just standing there minding our own business when this car drives by and this kid sticks his head out the window and yells "penis" at us. My girlfriend didn't know what the penis game was, and so I had to explain it to her, and how I didn't know those kids, and how it's kind of like a dare, and how he's probably not going to get in trouble with his mom because the driver was probably his friend, and how it was a game that some kids used to play back when we were in middle school and it's still around 13 years later. After our little date we went to my parents house so mom could fill us in on what we needed to do for the party. I'll save those details for when they come.

Now for Thursday night. All my family came in that Thursday, and so my grandparents hosted a dinner at their house. It was basically just at their house, because my aunt made the food and my mom organized the rest. With all the traffic and construction, it took me 2 hours to get to their house (it normally would take about an hour). When I got there PepperBC was already there, which was really fun catching up with her. My brother Vikingpolak was also there, but I see him far more often then all my cousins. My aunts and uncles were there, but I enjoy generation 3 (my generation). Not much longer before turtlegirl and her friend show up, which was more fun. An hour or so later MMT and R showed up, and we had fun catching up and making fun of each other. I might as well say this now so some of the events make sense; with this side of the family we make fun of each other to show we love each other. Light teasing and comebacks that are all based on personality traits and past stories is how we let each other know we remember things about each other and that we are close enough to have a little fun at each other's expense. It's not just limited to gen 3; gen 2 (my parent's generation) does that amongst themselves, and all the generations will engage in some light teasing across the generational gaps (gen 3 will poke fun at gen 2 and vice versa sort of thing). It's all healthy, we know when it's appropriate and when it's not, and is just something my family does.

Anyways, not long after MMT and R showed up we had dinner. Because it's my grandparents party, generation 1 ate first. After gen 1 got their food, gen 3 got their food. Someone in gen 2 asked "why is generation 3 eating after generation 1?" and I said "because gen 1 likes the grandkids more than the kids." That got a "savage" from my brother and my mom overheard the reaction but not what I said. Then in her own little teasing but could be scolding manner she asked if I was using "kind words." I repeated what I said and she thought it was funny and true. After dinner gen 3 decided to walk down to the liquor store and get some drinks. I remember back when it was a video rental store, back when I was like 4. We visited some more, and then I went home at like 8 PM, because I live an hour away from their house.

Now for Friday. This was our "fun day" where the different generations do what they want. Gen 1 and 2 went to visit with Aunt K, and gen 3 hung out around my parents area (except for turtlegirl and her friend, they went to a museum I think). Mskate joined us and got to get a little acclimated to my crazy family. Trying to find something to do was REALLY challenging. Here's how it went down, mskate, brother, and pepperBC said "I'll go with whatever everyone else wants to do," I'm suggesting all sorts of things (laser tag, zoo, barcade down town, my condo, bowling, minigolf, museums, other sight seeing, thrifting, etc.), and then R was being poopy all "I don't want to do that, I just want to check in at my hotel and get a good shower, and play fortnight while I wait" (he and MMT were staying in a hotel Friday and Saturday, but stayed with my parents Thursday night, and check-in wasn't until 3PM), and MMT was like "I'll do whatever R says, though I do want to do something." Looking back at past times, I guess it's normally Turtlegirl and I that break the tie of everyone else not having strong opinions on what we do. Eventually we decided to go bowling. I think I managed to convince my brother to vote hard yes on "lets go bowling" to break the tie, or maybe I convinced R to stop saying hard no, but regardless I got a single vote to break the deadlock. Mskate and I were both wearing sockless footwear, so we had to borrow socks from my family members; her from my mom and myself from brother.

This is where things get a little silly. Soooo, there are like 4 different bowling alleys in a 5 mile radius of my parents house, buuuuuutttt, only 1 was open. We first tried the one that is just down main street, but they apparently open at 6PM on Fridays. Bro, MMT, R, and pepperBC were driving together and Mskate and I were driving separately. We pull into the parking lot, I get out and start talking to them while they're in the car. Next we wanted to go to an alley that's close to their grocery store, but they've been out of business for over a decade (you wouldn't know it though, the place still has the sign and no notice of "for lease"). So then we called the combination bowling alley-movie theater 1 town over, and they thankfully were open. I haven't been there in a while, so I didn't know that they renovated and removed the lanes on the 1st floor, and neither did bro. So we get there, walk over to where the bowling alley was, and are all "where's the bowling, we want to bowl?" We were ready to give up, but then an employee overheard us and told us they're upstairs and we needed to pay at customer service. It was a great deal, $6 for an hour each. Mskate, pepperBC, and I played on 1 lane, and MMT, R, and Bro played on another. Apparently R was on his high school bowling team, and he wanted to show his skill to everyone. Well, this was the 2nd time I've been bowling in like 10 years, and I was never really good, but I found I'm pretty good when I go marathon. R was getting really competitive, and I'm like "oh whatever, I'm just here for fun." Well...I ended up winning. I scored something like 400 points over 3 games, and R only got like 380 or something. After our hour, he was lying down on the chairs saying "I can't believe I lost to [pokematic]."

After bowling we went to the Mexican restaurant that's close to the theater-alley. This was another one of those "indecisive things." I wanted to go to the noodles restaurant that was down the road, bro wanted to go to the Mexican restaurant, R was saying "I don't want to go there," and everyone else was "I don't care." Because I didn't want another hour of deadlock, I changed my vote to the Mexican place just to make it 2 against 1 against 3 no opinion, because my hunger was greater than "I don't really care for Mexican food." I had a burrito, without much of the fixings that they include; "you can have 2 different proteins" just beef, "what 2 sauces do you want?" none, "what kind of beans do you want?" none, "you get up to 3 different vegie things" just lettuce, "you sure, I mean it's all included in the price?" yes. I basically had a $5 burrito for the price of $8, but that was worth the price of not having deadlock. We all got a table and visited while eating. After lunch MMT and R left us to go check into their hotel, so then bro, pepperBC, Mskate, and I hung out at my parents house for a while. We watched the 1980 Popeye movie on plutotv. Well, I watched Popeye, PepperBC and Mskate and bro took naps, though PepperBC and Mskate at least started watching the movie with me and then fell asleep where they were sitting. After the movie we walked down to the ice cream parlor, and then we walked down to the card and game shop my brother frequents. Bro was really in his element, and since pepperBC and I are both geeks we didn't feel too out of place (even though table top isn't our thing), but mskate felt very out of place since she isn't really into any of this stuff (though I'm slowly introducing her to things, and she enjoys some of it). We were there for a little bit, but thankfully bro realized we weren't that into it and so we left. After that we went to the minigolf place by my parents. MMT and R caught up with us, and I think turtlegirl and her friend joined us. I don't quite remember, but it was a fun time. Nothing really exciting happened, except that I did pretty well and I think beat R again, and he's really into minigolf. I guess because I spent so much time at that course I know the holes really well, even though I can't remember the last time I played that course. After the mini-golf I took mskate home and went home myself.

OK, now for the main event. And ho boy, this was something else. I picked up mskate and we headed over to the hall. We got there an hour early, so we drove around a little to find something to do, and we decided to go to Meijer. I found a smash bros Daisy amiibo, which was great. We went back to the hall, and mom exclaimed "please tell me you brought a change of clothes!" I was wearing my cargo shorts and a polo shirt, because it was a hot summer's day and the weekend (I have to wear long pants for work), so I figured I'd wear my cargo shorts. Apparently that went against mom's dress code of looking nice (even though all the pictures would be from the waist up). So mskate and I went back to Meijer and I bought a pair of kaki long pants. A lot of other men at the party wore shorts, and I was a little pouty about it, but not to the point that I was causing problems (because I'm better than that).

OK, so now for the 2nd crazy situation. Remember how I said I made a video presentation to project against the wall? So there was some miscommunication with that. I was under the impression that the hall had a projector we could borrow. I asked mom if they had a projector, and I guess she asked "would we be able to project a video," and the hall took that to mean "is there an open space to project an image on." I go to the office and ask for a projector, and they said they will give us a projection cart. 10 or so minutes later and I'm like "uhhhh, where's the projector? You were giving me the projection cart." Then they were like "yes, here is your cart, you can put a projector on it and project on the wall." And I'm like "no, I need a projector." "Oh we don't have that." I go over to mom and, let me just write out the script.
Pokematic: Mom, they don't have a projector. You said they had a projector.
Mom: What? Wait, you said you were bringing a projector.
Pokematic: No, I didn't; I said I'm bringing both of my computers so I'm covered no matter what inputs the projector has. I don't have a projector.
I know my mom thinks of me as a tech guy, and for the most part I am, but I wouldn't have asked "do they have a projector" if I had a projector. So now we have basically all my aunts trying to figure out where we can get a projector. Thankfully someone remembered mom works for a library and maybe we could borrow one of theirs. She called up her people at the library and she had z-man pick it up on his way over. Crisis averted.

So now the party is going. All the guests are showing up, and it was fun. MMT enjoyed hanging out with AG again. So fun story time. When I was a senior in high school and she was a sophomore, she came up for some event, and she said "hey [pokematic], invite all your friends over and we'll have a party," with the plan being "I'm going to meet some cute senior boys." Well, when zeldamaster93 and mbinski showed up, she quickly realized "oh yeah, Pokematic's a geek, of course his friends are also going to be geeks," and she was definitely one of the more popular girls at her school. Well, AG showed up and since he's a hockey player he was able to fill the "cute boy" desire, even if it was just for 10 minutes. So it was a fun little reunion for them, though he kind of stopped being a "cute older boy" in the 8 or so years since then. There were also a lot of picture taking, and my grandparents were so happy to finally be able to spend some time with mskate. The lunch was good, and I piled on the food. I played the video and everyone loved it; they told me how much they loved it and that I did a really good job on it. Some people shared some stories, and my grandpa said some that were a little inappropriate (because he doesn't understand the concept of "appropriate for mixed company" anymore).

OK, now for my little "I told you so" story. Because it has been a while since my grandpa last wore his suit and gained a lot of weight since then, his pants and belt didn't fit well anymore, and he really needed suspenders. Meijer didn't have suspenders in his size. AG had a pair of drinking suspenders in his truck (it holds shots), but those were too small on him. Mom is freaking out "how can we make it so his pants don't fall down at church?" Let me once again write out the exchange.
Pokematic: I have the necessary stuff to make a makeshift pair of suspenders.
Mom: Really, you have suspenders that will fit grandpa?
Pokematic: I have 2 straps that are 3 feet in length, and about 15 feet of elastic cord, I can make a pair of suspenders out of that.
Mom: Really? Where do you have that?
Pokematic: In my shorts. ARE YOU GLAD I BROUGHT MY SHORTS!? Be prepared. That's why I wear cargo shorts with all sorts of random things in it.
Mom: OK MacGyver, you and bro take grandpa to the bathroom and make him some suspenders.
After that, I rubbed it in a little. "See mom, it's a good thing I brought my shorts. We would be in trouble if I didn't wear shorts." Nothing too serious, but enough to let her know "I was right." I was, at church when they were renewing their vows his pants didn't fall down.

After church we had the after party at my parents house. It was pretty simple, but still kind of crazy. We had birthday decorations, a birthday tiara, and birthday brownies. Since my mom is into brownies, she frosted some brownies and stuck candles in it. We all just continued to visit, and enjoy just the family, and remembered the old days. There was some "musical chairs" because everyone kept taking "the good seats," and I remember one time there was just enough room on the couch for me to sit down, and so I did. It was a pretty chill night. After some time I took mskate home and went back to my place.

Now for Sunday. Sunday was basically "whoever's left, hang out at my grandparent's house." Well, first I stopped at my parents house. It was like the aftermath of a college party, with so many people sleeping in chairs, on couches, and the air mattress in the middle of the living room. In "my family likes to tease each other" fashion, my mom and aunt planned to make today the "surprise birthday party for my uncle even though it's in 5 months." The plan was to reuse the birthday girl banner and balloons from Saturday night, and put the birthday tiara on him. As they were plotting, saying things like "oh man, he's either going to laugh at this or hate it, either way it's going to be great," I told them "yeahhhh, I warned [mskate] that we like to tease each other kind of hard, and we do it to show we love each other," and they were like "yeah, it can come off as kind of harsh, but we all know it's in good fun." We packed up everything and went over to my grandparents house.

Everyone had what I call a sleep hangover (didn't sleep much the night before after tiring themselves out), all except me. I went to bed at around 11 or so, whereas everyone else was out until like 2. They went to some bars and did karaoke or something. Oh well. I wanted to do some things, but they didn't feel like it, so we basically just lounged around all day. My uncle thought the princess birthday was funny, so that was good. One thing I did manage to do was pick up the CRTs from pepperBC's parents. I took my uncle back up to his place and drove back with 2 CRTs for my future video wall (that way my aunt and pepperBC still had the car and could drive back). My great uncle didn't realize what I was doing with them and thought I was going to scrap them.
Great Uncle: I find people throwing them out all the time, I'll save them for you.
Pokematic: no, please don't, when people throw them out that normally means they don't work.
Great Uncle: well of course they don't work. Why do you want them working? Ain't you just going to take them apart and scrap them?
Pokematic: No, I'm going to use them to make a video wall.
Everyone was asking where mskate was, but she had to drive back home. I was telling everyone "she had enough of our family for a while," and they understood perfectly well.

So that was basically the weekend. It was great being able to see everyone again, and even if things didn't go completely according to plan, it all worked out. I also enjoyed introducing mskate to everyone. Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Easter 2019 Adventures and Fun

(A little backstory to help things make more sense, I have a girlfriend now, and a lot of the events involve her).

Hey everyone, Jesus Christ is risen, and here are my fun stories of the season. First we'll start out with Palm Sunday. Of all the masses in the year, Palm Sunday has to be my favorite, mainly because we're given palm branches. Actually, just because we're given palm branches. I know there are more meaningful holy days, but the "here's a palm branch, wave it for Jesus" thing really appeals to me; always has, always will. This was also when I went to my parents to make pretzels and dye eggs. I texted my mom earlier in the week asking if we were going to dye eggs and make pretzels, and she forgot (so it's a good thing I reminded her). Why pretzels? There's quite a lot of catholic symbolism behind them, so I'll give you the run down. First, they resemble one way to pray (hands across the chest touching the opposite shoulders). Next, they are simple bread of flour, water, and yeast (though we use store bought dough, for convenience), and simple bread is brought up many times in the bible. Then there's the baking soda bath to give them the color and texture, which can be analogous to baptism. There's also the salt, which sometimes is used to represent the tears shed when Jesus was crucified. There's also the Easter Eggs, which everyone is familiar with. I bought an egg dying kit last year after Easter to use this year, and it was still good (yay). There was a little trouble though, my parent's vinegar was old and took the tablets a long time to dissolve. Since I'm into pickling, I said "next time I'm bringing my own vinegar." We rolled and baked many pretzels while we let the eggs sit in the dye to get that bright color. It was a fun time and I'm glad I was able to keep the tradition alive.

Fast forward to Holy Thursday. This was a very special Holy Thursday, because I got to spend the evening with my girlfriend. She lives out of state but was coming in for Easter, and since I was on her way to her parents house, we had a date night. We said our hellos and I had things set-up to listen to some of my records (one of our things is listening to music together), but she surprised me with "lets watch 3 Identical Strangers" (the documentary about 3 triplets separated at birth that were reunited in their late teens/early 20s). She rented it on amazon and wanted to connect her laptop to my TV, but my TV is weird about connecting laptops to it, so instead we watched it through hulu plus (I have hulu, she doesn't, soooooo, plus I already wanted to watch this at some point since I already had it in my watch list). We got comfortable and enjoyed our little movie night. About 2/3 of the way through we stopped to eat. I made a roast in my crock pot that had been cooking all day, and it was good. I lit some candles in the pinch pots I made in elementary school (my mom held on to them all these years and now that I've moved out she said "take them, decide what you want to do with them," so I turned them into candle holders). We each had about 1 bowl, leaving me some left overs. I might have put in too much potato and pineapple, but whatever, good for later. After dinner we finished up the movie. It was a good movie. After the movie we went to church. We were going to get ice cream afterwards, but because mass went late and she had to get to her parents, we just said our goodbyes and called it a night.

Good Friday was a pretty good day. Since my mom worked for the Easter Bunny at our mall, my girlfriend and I decided to pay her a visit and get our picture taken (and "be the cute couple holding hands as they walk around the mall"). Since I knew I wasn't going to eat much for dinner (I was going to have the bread part of the Chick-Fill-E sandwich), I had my large meal at lunch. I had a pickle and lettuce sandwich with some shredded cheese, and mozzarella sticks. Yum. I went to Good Friday mass out by our parent's way (scheduling reasons) and made it to my parents home parish. I ran into mom at mass, so we went to mass together. Yay. After mass I did some thrifting and found some mystery VHS tapes (record TV tapes that didn't really say what was on them, perfect breading ground for lost media). I also found some other interesting tapes, some that I think I'll make videos about; stay tuned.

The Easter Bunny and mall time was an interesting experience. She was doing some shopping with her mom beforehand and met me in line. When we got kind of close we waved to Mom, who was running the cash register at the time. She saw us and waved back. Now for the funny thing, the credit card reader lost it's phone connection, so Mom called me over to try to fix it, because I am the technology boy wonder. Her manager came over and managed to fix it, by unplugging the phone line and plugging it back in. Ahhh the age old "turn it off and on again." After another 20 minutes of waiting in line, we made it to the front. We took a selfie with Mom and then got our picture with The Bunny. Mom told the photographer "this is my son." We placed the Chick-Fil-E order while we were in line with the mobile app, and that made it come faster when we went to the food court. She had the grilled chicken patty and tomato, I had the bun with lettuce and pickles. We split the waffle fries, and the lemonade with 2 straws. It was cute. After that we went to the ice cream vendor and each got a small ice cream. Once we were done with ice cream we walked around the mall, stopping at the Microsoft store (for me) and a clothes stores (for her). Neither of us bought anything, nor spent a lot of time in our respective stores, but it was fun getting to share some of our interests with each other. After fun at the mall we went to her Lutheran Good Friday mass. That was a fun experience for me since I haven't been to a Lutheran Good Friday mass. There were a lot of similarities to my Catholic mass, but also differences. The thing that made us both laugh was when their pastor said "peace be with you," and apparently the Lutherans still say "and also with you" instead of "and with your spirit" (which was a change the Catholic Church made 6 or so years ago), and both of us had a good laugh at "and with your - also with you." We didn't do anything after mass, and so I went home.

Now for Saturday. The fun thing today was I had dinner with my girlfriend's family, first time since we started dating. Now for most couples this would be intimidating; first time spending the evening with her parents and siblings, trying to make a good impression and her dad to not want to kill you. However, that wasn't my case. You see, I've known them for quite a while, because we were friends before we started dating. I remember at her highschool graduation party I really hit it off with her dad, basically spending the entire party talking with him and that was the first time we met. Then all the subsequent times I went over to her house I'd normally spend at least 10 minutes talking with him about our shared interests. I also know her brother well, having gone on a small road trip with him and spending an afternoon at my condo admiring all my cool nerd stuff. I also get along pretty well with her mom, but nothing really to talk about. I will say it was pretty interesting being there and spending time with them in a different capacity, because while everything was pretty much the same, there were some things of "now I'm seeing if this is something I may one day want to marry into" instead of before which was "ahhh different family dynamics, how fun" (and while we both agree marriage is a far off thing neither of us is ready for, we can't completely ignore it since that's the point of dating). It was nice not having any "soooo, what do you do at your day job" kind of grilling, and instead just talked about each other and the home made pickles I brought. It was a lot of fun. I made sure I left by 7 so I could make it to the Easter Vigil at my church. We said our goodbyes and "see you in 3 weeks" (because this was the last in person fun we'll have until next event). The Easter Vigil was your standard Catholic Easter Vigil; start from creation with the lights out and lighting candles, read passages leading up to Jesus's crucifixion and sing Alleluia for the first time when we get to his rising, and bless the holy water and candle for the coming year. We didn't have anyone baptized this year though. Oh well. Still a good mass, even if it was late.

Now it's time for Easter Sunday. I woke up early and went to my parents house, so then we could pile into my car and drive up to my aunt's house to see Grandpa. We brought our blessed Easter food (because we do the blessing of the Easter baskets) and said our hellos. We went to church at their church and this was some crazy planning on their part; they have a 7AM, 9:30AM, and 11AM mass, that pretty much go right up against each other. My brother and I got there early to save the seats, but that didn't make much of a difference because they went in on the side door and we went in the main door, resulting in a constant flow of people coming out and them able to get in before us. Good mass all in all. After mass we went back and had brunch. I brought bacon and home made pickles. Grandpa really liked the pickles, yay. We also had kielbasa and ham, and the pretzels and eggs from before (and some other things not really worth mentioning). Since my brother recently bought a DSLR, he showed it to Grandpa and Grandpa showed him his DSLR. They had a lot of fun talking photography. I told Grandpa about my current events at work, and he likes hearing about them. I also showed mom the pictures I took at the Mike and Mickey Show, and how they still managed to put on a good show. It was a good visit. Near the end I showed Grandpa the picture with the Easter Bunny and my girlfriend, and he had a rather calm reaction (unlike my other granparents, who got really excited and had us married next week, but then again they already knew her and "had us dating" pretty much our entire friendship). That was pretty much my Easter. I also digitized one of the mystery tapes, and it was this 6 hour basketball special without many commercial breaks. It was quite boring XP

The Monday following was a good day off. I recorded a new episode of the Peanut Butter Podcast and did some editing on a Tennessee Vlog installment (because I'm finally getting around to those after close to a year). I also got my allergy shot, because I had the time and was close enough to when I was due. I converted the remaining non-mystery tapes (one of which I have the perfect idea for a video). I watched Lars and the Real Girl, and made a podcast about it. I also realized I have about 2 months before my 10 year anniversary of opening up my youtube channel. I need to figure out what I'm doing for that. That was my Easter. It was really fun. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and if you'll excuse me, I'm going to do some after Easter sale shopping.

The Mike and Micky Show, I see The Monkees Live

Hey everyone. When I was a kid The Monkees were my favorite music group. I liked their music, and so did my parents, I enjoyed the TV show, and one of my pine wood derby cars was the monkee mobile. However, I hadn't listened to them in a really long time, like at least 5 years. But when the opportunity presented itself to see them live, I had to. I remember losing Davey, and recently losing Peter, and this being their farewell tour, and Mike being sour on The Monkees, and this being not too far away, this was a once in a lifetime chance, and I wasn't about to miss it. And so on a whim, drove a couple hours away on a Tuesday night to see The Mike and Micky Show.

So here's where the story starts. I found out about it the day of the event, and I wasn't sure if I could get tickets. I went to the box office 2 hours before the doors opened and they had tickets (yes, I drove out there without knowing if I would get a ticket; if I couldn't get a ticket there were other things I could do in the area). The ticket lady asked if I wanted a $65 ticket or $120 ticket. Well that wasn't the $45 I saw on the site, but I figured those must have been the obstructed view that went fast. I got the $65 ticket. After that I went out to dinner because I hadn't eaten yet. After dinner I got in line. Just like with Tommy Wiseau, the line was crazy long. It stretched all the way around the block.

One thing I noticed while walking to the back of the line, and with people walking to the back of the line, is that I was one of the youngest people there. Pretty much everyone else either had grays or wrinkles. While I was waiting in line, one of the security guys came around giving out drinking wrist bands (letting everyone know you are allowed to drink if you want to drink). Now, I'm not one to say "I need a drink to have fun," but I am one to say "after 2 long and stressful days, I need a drink." Also, I wasn't sure if I wanted a drink or not, so I decided "better safe than sorry." And now I have 2 paper wrist bands to test how long they will last, and if I can make Guinness World Record. Well after waiting in line for like 1 hour, I got up to the door, and I got this picture.

I had to step through metal detectors, and empty my pockets into a little TSA bowl. Well, in the interest of time, I started emptying my pockets into my fedora. I was ready to put the stuff in the little bowl, but the guy said "oh that's fine, but where's your phone?" Since I have a windows phone, the guy didn't recognize it. I pointed it out and he thought it was my wallet. Whatever. After getting in I see the merch table. I had some decisions to make. Now, I already have a years supply of t-shirts, so I don't really need another t-shirt; I don't really drink "mug beverages" like coffee or tea, so I don't need another mug; I'm not someone who wears pins, so I don't need a pin set, so on and so forth. I eventually decided on a tour poster, because I like posters and need some more for my nerd cave. It's on some really high quality poster stock, and probably silk screened. Check it out.

After getting my poster, I decided to use my drink band to buy a drink. Now, when I go to a bar I like getting a mixed drink. Why? Because I don't really like beer and I can just get wine at home, but a good house cocktail or long island is not something I can get at home very easily. Unfortunately they didn't have liquor, so I got a spiked seltzer. It was...extra expensive, but after some long days and driving, I needed something, plus I don't have spiked seltzer at home (mainly because I don't look for it). Now, seeing that I bought my ticket late and being the "cheap ticket," (and the fact that the chairs weren't permanent and didn't have signs saying where everything was), I figured I was in the nose bleed seats. I went up to the balcony and asked the usher to help me find my seat. He told me "oh section A, you're up front." Oh, OK, that's awesome and unexpected. I go back downstairs, and start walking up towards the stage. D...C...hey I'm getting pretty close...B...wow, I'm really close...A. I was in the 6th row, right there with the action where the performers can see me. Check out what my view was.

I don't think I've ever sat this close at a concert or entertainment event. The only thing that comes close was when I was front row at some comedy shows, but that's because I wanted to be called on by the comedians and be the butt of their jokes (because that's what front row at a comedy show is), and thus those seats aren't exactly coveted by the general viewing public. Apparently I wasn't the only person that bought tickets last minute that got the great seats; the people next to me had the same story of "I bought these 2 hours ago, and here I am so close." They told me about that after I started glowing under the black light, because it's a 70s band and of course they're going to say "5 minutes until showtime" with a black light.

OK, now it's show time. There's a slide show of past events of The Monkees in their 70s youth, and some clips of the TV show, and that was pretty cool. The audience really enjoyed seeing everything. Then the band comes out, and we're getting pumped, and then Mike and Micky walk out. Mike looked pretty rough, but Micky with his cowboy hat and overcoat looked like he was holding his age pretty well. I won't go into every detail of the show, but man was it something. Mike had to sit out like every 4th song, probably just because he's old and hasn't performed much in years (he basically quit being a Monkee after they broke up, and only recently started back at it once Davey died), but Micky kept at it and really put on a show, only sitting like 2 songs out. He was also "dancing" for us to some of the songs (he just kind of walked around, but again, old). As I heard one comedian say "they don't move like they used to, but they're still trying." Here are some pictures I got.

What was really fun is the songs. They played their hits, and some of the lesser songs. When they played the hits, the entire audience sang along, either just the chorus/back-up, or the whole song; but it wasn't overpowering above the musicians on stage. It was like a low bass line that you didn't hear but felt. Here are some of the major highlights. With Stepping Stones, Micky got really into it and when it came to the drum solo he walked over to the drummer and pointed to them. With Daydream Believer, at near the end Micky walked to the end of the stage and said "now it's your turn" and it was the entire venue singing "cheer up sleepy Gene, oh what can it mean, to aaaa daydream believer and a home coming queen." That was REALLY cool. With Going Down, Micky pulled someone from the audience and she sang one of the verses, which was cool. Micky introduced Randy Scouse Git and gave the background as to why it's called "Alternate Title" in the UK. Pleasant Valley Sunday was really fun with everyone singing along, and I think this was when Micky introduced the band which was pretty cool (and Mike had to sit out, so Micky joked about that). And I think this was the big finale, they ended on I'm a Believer and everyone got up and danced. So SOOO much fun. They also played some songs that didn't get a lot of air time, and there was one or two that were never released that had Davey and Peter, so they just played along with those. Though I will say, it was kind of weird hearing Davey or Peter songs sung by Mike or Micky.

Now it wasn't just music. They also had some banter back and forth, because The Monkees were originally just a comedy show. Mike was usually the strait man to Micky, but Mike also had some funny man moments. They said some things about the show, and Micky played up how Mike had to take breaks, and there was one time where Mike's ipad stopped showing his music and one of the stage hands had to come reset it and all the while Mike is joking about "my music is gone, I still have MSN and google, and I think I have an Instagram notification..." because "the show must go on," and I think it was after intermission there was a rowdy group of audience members that were yelling songs and Mike came out and said "raaaahabla, tigbula, megrible, I can't hear you" which was a great way to deal with the "hecklers," and a lot of other fun things. The band was also pretty impressive. Yes, they were good, but Mike's son was one of the guitarists, which was cool, and the back-up singers looked like they were from the 70s, especially the woman with the waist long hair.

Now they didn't do a standard encore, because they're old, but they did do one of sorts. Mike was out on stage talking while everyone else got up and left. He was like "hey, where'd everyone go? Don't worry we still have a couple more songs." But eventually it did end. Now for some funny stuff at the end. Since I was right at the front, I decided to get a little closer to the stage as the roadies were packing everything up. I just wanted to get as close as I could.

Then there was this. Micky had his set list taped to the floor, and one woman snuck on stage and grabbed half of it. The guy she was with wanted the other half and tried to get it, but then a roadie saw him and chased him off stage. Not much longer after that the head of security came over and shewed everyone out to the lobby. Not wanting to cause a scene, and because it was getting late, I decided it was time to go. I got in my car and drove home, got home at around midnight, went to bed, and woke up 6 hours later to go to work. Oh man, was it worth it. So so SO much fun. So glad I got to see my favorite band from my childhood live in person, and so close to the stage. Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.