Rain, Rain, and........ More rain.

I'm thinking of building an Arc soon, water levels at the lake are past flood stage... these photos are from my friend Noel:






Yeah, it's been wet. During the winter I don't mind because that wet translates to snow, and snow is good to go snowboarding. During the summertime I skateboard, and skateboarding in the rain usually means your wheels slipping out from under you and you eating shit pretty hard, which I did last week on this guy:

I can honestly say that I am looking forward to the summer and long skate days and nights, working until 8pm throws a wrench into the night sessions, but if it's warm and there is a spot to skate I don't mind skating at night. There is something about being on a board whether it's in the middle of the woods in some fresh pow, or in a parking lot under some street lights that feels so liberating. I can never get bored with either one of them because there is always something you can do, endless fun and freedom. That endless fun and freedom however has been hampered by non stop rain. Water is not good for your skateboard, it dulls your griptape, seizes your bearings and overall sucks to skateboard in. After trying to dodge puddles pretty unsucessfully last weekend, and slamming hard a few times due to the wet concrete and ramps I headed out to go skate this past Saturday only to find to my dismay that my bearings had gotten enough water in them to not want to spin at all. What's a fella to do?

You head over to this place :



Five dollars later I left with some bearing lube, to which a smartass behind the counter said "That will make you skate faster" with a sly little grin on his face, to which I just laughed because I was once that little smartass. I went home popped my bearings out, cleaned and lubed them, and they were just like new. Bones swiss bearings are the way to go. What a great skate sesh, the Essex park gets crowded on sunny days but it's not bad if you pick one area and just skate that until it thins out. For me it was that bastard spine again, trying to teach myself a few tricks that I could do in my sleep back when I was a skate rat. It's fun starting over again, but frustrating not being able to do something that used to come so easily to you, but overall I'm enjoying learning again. The cool thing about being an older guy at the park is getting hyped up by the young guys, the kids at the park are nothing but balls of energy unleashed on an awesome playground. As I'm hunched over sucking wind these guys are flying past me doing every trick I want to try, on their fist try. Pretty humbling. It was at that time that I noticed a kid who had been trying to kickflip off a low ledge for what seemed like hours finally land his trick, only to snap the nose off his board. You could tell he was a mixed bag of emotions, nothing can relate to how good it feels to finally land a trick you've been trying over and over again, but if you snap your deck that's when you ask yourself, was it really worth it? This is also where being an older guy at the park comes in pretty handy,I have a job, it pays pretty well, when my board starts losing it's pop, I go out and buy a new one. I don't thrash my board so most of the time when I buy a new one my old one is better condition than what 90% of these kids are riding at the park. This kid, about 12 or 13 was pretty bummed, and I over heard him telling his buddy he had three more hours at the park until his mom came and got him and how he only had 20 bucks saved up to buy a new deck (skate decks usually sell for around 50). It was at that time I remembered I had a board in the trunk of my car specifically for an occasion like this one. I didn't say anything to him, I just walked over to my car, grabbed the deck and my skate tool and walked back in. I handed him the deck and the tool and his eyes lit up, he honestly couldn't believe that someone would just give him a skate deck. After about 15 minutes of putting his new set up together he tried his kickflip again, and nailed it first try, he skated over to me, gave me a high five and thanked me again. Funny how something little like an old skate deck can make someone's day. Speaking of which, my deck is losing some pop, more than likely time to pick one up at Maven this weekend.


What else.... hmmm.

Kate and I cut my hair and because I wasn't paying attention, it's really short. It's awesome though!



Kate found an abandoned sneaker rack on the side of the road with a "free" sign and brought it home. The plan is to strip it down and paint it an awesome color, the funny thing is that it only fits about three to four pairs of sneaker per shelf, and it's got I believe four shelves. I already have more sneakers than it can hold, but Kate says "Only the dopest ones get put on the shelf" to which I just smiled, it's nice to have someone in your life who supports you in your weird little endeavors and thinks that they are awesome.







I am really convinced that she is the right girl for me, and that my move to Vermont was meant for me to meet her, fall in love with her and marry her. She also bought me a pair of shoes that I have been pining over, these guys:



They are known as the "Hartford Whalers" which being from Connecticut I can confirm that they are indeed a match of the colors. I cannot wait for them to come in. Also a while back I posted on how much I really wanted the Cheech and Chong Nike dunks, much to everyone's dismay they were actually canceled due to "copyright infringement" or something like that. They were supposed to be released on 4/20 this past month only fitting for a shoe titled the Cheech and Chongs. Well I got good news apparently they were not canceled just pushed back a month. While no official word went out about why most people(including myself) came to the conclusion that Nike didn't want the bad PR of releasing a stoner orientated shoe on a stoner holiday. Maven confirmed that they are indeed getting them into the shop and will let me know when they do! Now it's just a waiting game, some of my buddies have already picked up a pair, and I am now like one of those kids eagerly counting down the days until Christmas morning.....



There they are in all their glory. The concept behind them? There is green suede underneath front, the white is supposed to symbolize a joint, and the green suede, which you will wear down to after skating them is supposed to be the weed inside of your joint. Each shoe has a different print, One red bandanna for the one Tommy Chong wore, and one is a red ribbed material for the red hat that Cheech wore. Pretty freaking awesome. I cannot wait to grab my pair.

I want to leave you now with a video I just came across, this is a video a guy made about how shops try to really price gouge you on shoes. These shoes box price I believe are 112 dollars. The fact that they were canceled and now brought back and being released has increased the "hype" around these shoes. Many shops will jack up their prices so they can make double the money off the product, most of the buyers are resellers on ebay. They will then drive the price up to double or triple that. It's a shame that mostly these resellers are the ones who get their hands on the shoes first, only to make some quick money and the people who are actually into shoes (what you would call a "sneaker head" if you will) more than likely won't be able to get their hands on a pair for a fair price. I can understand shops marking up the shoes a little bit, I mean I want them to make some money but charging almost double is just terrible. Throw in the fact that most of these shoes are limited editions often times only 1,000 being made and you will find shady shop owners looking to exploit their daily customers. Here's this dudes video, it's not that high quality but it shows the shittier side of being a sneakerhunter.

Fuck you taxes!

Every year, every single fucking year I think to myself, man I'm gonna get some good money back this year. Somehow, some way I end up having to pay. I think it's been at least four years since I've been in the + for the tax season. Last year I ended up owing the state of Connecticut $180 bucks, this year I owe the government $300 bucks. WTF? It's annoying, and I hate it. I feel even worse for the friends and family in my life that have to pay more than me, a good buddy of mine a little younger than me, $600 bucks, another good buddy of mine, a bit older than me, $7,000 bucks. I don't even want to know how that happens.

Today was a good day, another trip to the sneaker store (www.mavenvt.com to be exact), another pair of Statue of Liberties. These things are rare, and often selling for a shit ton of money, to walk in and find a pair on the shelf is like scratching a lotto ticket and winning 100 bucks. An awesome feeling. I was going to send these pair to a buddy, but I'm going to keep them, one pair to stay fresh, one pair to skate in. There is some sad news however, apparently the Cheech and Chongs are canceled/pushed back. A post came out yesterday on one of the sneaker forums I follow stating they were canceled by Nike due to copyright infringement and some negative press. Then about 12 hours later another release came out stating these would be pushed out, but more than likely a month late. So the 4/20 celebration, the marijuana lover's holiday, the entire reason the designer made these shoes are now pushed back to May. Lame. As long as they do make their way out, and I can snatch up a pair or two I won't be mad. Good things come to those who wait. Here's a picture of both my Statue of Liberties



Very exciting!


Yesterday marked one year of Kate in my life. It's been amazing, I couldn't ask for anyone better, she is everything that I have ever dreamed of in a woman and more. Today we marked the "day after" our first "not date" by doing what we did on this day last year. Headed downtown and grabbed a burrito from Boloco. Kate being the dipshit that she is got us off to a wonderful start by losing her wallet. (Seriously one second after I fucking type this, she walks into the door from bringing the garbage out and finds her wallet in her jacket pocket, oh my fucking god)This girl would lose her head if it wasn't attached to her body by her neck. I seriously am in shock and need to take a break from writing this after her walking in with her wallet in hand.... After an emotional start, things picked up.




It was an eventful trip to Boloco, highlighted by a legit crazy lady molesting a poor little pug that was chained to a tree outside of Boloco. Kate knows this lady and was like, yeah she's for real crazy. She was being a bit rough with the dog and you could tell the poor thing wanted nothing to do with her, so me being the animal lover I am walked outside and told crazy to beat it. She mumbled something incoherent, blew a snot bubble and was on her way. I walked back inside and was forced to stare at this poor little dog shivering because it's small and stupid and rage slowly boiled inside of me. I got up and decided it was time to find out who the asshole was that left their poor stupid dog outside to freeze while they enjoyed the nice climate controlled burrito spot. Lo and behold it was the group of four teenagers who were singing that god awful song "Friday" by Rebecca Black while I was trying to order my burrito. As I shouted inside the burrito store, "what asshole left their tiny dog outside to freeze to death?", one girl turned bright red and ran toward the door to go save her poor freezing dog. Don't get me wrong, I hate 90% of the dogs on this planet, including small ugly dogs like pugs, but I hate stupid asshole owners of these dogs even more. If you are going to own an animal at least have the brains to treat it humanely, since they cannot think and do for themselves. It's not like this poor little asshole dog could be like, fuck this I'm not freezing my ass off out here and just stroll into the burrito joint, no it sat there shivering looking all pathetic and boring a hole into my heart with it's stupid sad puppy dog eyes. The only thing I hate more than stupid animals, is the stupid owners who don't treat them right.

So after a good burrito we headed over to the sneaker shop. If you've been keeping up, I had for a time conquered my sneaker addiction. I was content on owning one or two pairs of shoes, but after grabbing an exclusive 1 of 1,000 pair the addiction raged back into my life. Today I strolled into Maven, and like I told you guys before, if you don't know about Maven, you better ask somebody, because they are the only place in Vermont that is going to put the latest greatest product in your hands and not destroy your wallet like the rest of the places around here. Their staff is awesome especially the two owners who are always in the shop. Not many times you get to say you can interact with the owners of a place, let alone an great place like this. It's awesome to support your local shop, the more you buy, the more they can supply, the way I'm treated when I walk through their door will keep me coming back for a long time. Kate and I walked in, I took a look at the selection, and I must admit, it's a pretty damn good selection check it:




I didn't bite at first. I came in, looked around and left. If you look on the wall you'll see a pair of the Statue of Liberties. We walked out and all I could think of is how hard those shoes are to find, and how how I would like a second pair, one to skate in and one to keep fresh. I was going to hook a buddy up with the second pair, but sorry dude, I am not parting with them. There are a few other shoes on the rack up there that you don't find at your run of the mill sneaker store, but they will have to wait. Kate and I headed back into the store one more time on the way back to the car and I managed to hold off on them again. We walked to the car and I just could not stop thinking about them. So I had to ask Kate:

Jordan - "Am I wrong for wanting a second pair, is it stupid for spending money on a second pair of these?"

Kate - "You love shoes, you don't spend waste your money on dumb purchases, if you really like these then do it"


I love my girlfriend, she's very supportive of the things I'm passionate about, I honestly couldn't ask for anyone better. That being said...

Kate you are an enabler.

So after I illegally park in front of Maven, and come running out with a big ol' shit eating grin on my face, Kate informs me it's time to go get fitted for a tux for a wedding were going to. Ugh. Fuck. I do NOT want to do this shit, but instead of the last minute rush which is usually the story of my life, we headed out to men's warehouse to get fitted. The whole process was actually not that painful, Kate made a lot of the style decisions, I chimed in when appropriate, and an hour later and 150 bucks poorer I am all set for my tux. We then decided we'd stay in tonight and make a few drinks, we have juicy juice and pineapple juice, so naturally Kate suggested we get some vodka to mix with. Fine by me, sounds like a good idea. Do you know what happens when you send an asshole with no idea about hard liquor store for vodka? He walks out with rum. The whole time I'm like, absolut, just get some absolut and you'll be fine. And as I am staring at the absolut I decided that for the same price I'd rather get more bang for my buck and grab the "dragon fruit" flavor of Bacardi. Little did I realize that the Bacardi was fucking rum. So after the entire day of me giving Kate shit for losing her wallet and being a dipshit, karma decided to kick me in the ass with a bottle of rum. So here we are sitting on the couch, Kate watching dancing with the stars, and me typing this out, happy as can be to be drinking our shitty rum and juices.




Who could ask for anything more. I love my life and the amazing people who make it what it is.

BOOM!

When I moved up to Vermont, there were two things that I noticed that made me think twice about the move

1. A good sneaker spot / skate shop
2. Good pizza

I think I'll forever be searching for a good pizza spot, guess being from Connecticut I'm spoiled with good pizza, but I have found my sneaker spot.

So yesterday, I posted that I was on the hunt, and today, I got an email from one of the owners of the best skate shops in Burly Burls, a little shop by the name of Maven. If you don't know, you need to get familiar my VT friends, www.mavenvt.com. Go there, support the local movement, you won't be disappointed. Anyways, before I do the unveil I'll give you a little background.



Kate, my lovely girlfriend was out of town for the weekend, leaving me to my own devices. This would normally include a morning shred followed by a marathon of Call of Duty, maybe sprinkle in some RJ's wings and there's a Saturday afternoon. So I woke up early, headed to Stowe for some shred, 60 degrees and bluebird made for longsleeve shred which was my first time experiencing the freedom of just a longsleeve, but it was also my first experience of dodging slush puddles. I took a few laps, the snow conditions while they were fun, were shitty. I don't give a shit what anyone says, slush is fun to ride, but the variable surface makes it a pain in the ass. I decided that on my last run I was just going to haul ass down and call it a day, I hit lower standard and was flying, pretty sure I heard a someone shout slow down asshole, but I was too busy slaying to pay them any mind. I'm moving along at a good clip and that's when it happened, I saw it well ahead of where I was, I even tried to check my speed, and that's when the god damn variable condition of the slush decided it was time to make me pay. I tried to dig in hard heel edge, and there was nothing to dig into, so as I wash out on my back into a slush puddle. Not just any slush puddle, but the fucking biggest slush puddle on the mountain. I'm come to rest about 3/4 of the way through this 50 monster and have to unstrap to get out. Now I'm soaked, literally entire back of everything, gloves boots, fucking soaked. I walked out of the puddle, rode down to the car and drove home, drenched. (my seat was still wet on sunday afternoon when I drove to the Essex park) When I got home I decided I'd do something with myself, it was time to go downtown on a sneaker hunt.


I get downtown and it's the same old shit, different stink on Church Street. It's the weekend, it's warm so you know what that means, swarms. Swarms of people everywhere. From fucking ironic hipster to fat troll in spandex, they were all out in full force. This was almost enough to deter me, but I decided to press on in my adventure. That's when I found myself staring at the front of Maven. I walked in, checked the selection and was pleasantly surprised. Dunks! Lo's, Highs, different colorways! I got excited, this place was legit. I didn't see what I was in search of, so I asked a dude behind the counter, turns out it was the right dude to ask. He was getting a few pairs of the shoes I have been searching for, took my email and said he'd let me know when they came in. I drove over to one more skate shop, where I actually found the shoes I was searching for, but at a price point that made me want to shank a fool. I held off, with the hope that there would actually be an email from the dude at Maven. Too many times I have had wind blown up my ass by sneaker shops, empty promises and broken dreams, but today, right around 2:30 I got the good news. The Statue of Liberty Dunks were in, and at a very very agreeable price point. Needless to say, I will be picking up all my new shoes from this shop, I guess in VT when people say something, they actually do it. FUCK YEAH!