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!