Shitty Week

Ok, I'll start off by stating that I've been drinking again.  I'm gonna spell check this shit, though, so you people don't have to try to figure out what the fuck I'm talking about.

My wife got laid off today- that sucks.  They laid off 400+ people from the hospital she works at.  I'm pretty sure that I can blame Obama for that, and even if I can't, I want too, so fuck you Obama, you commie piece of shit- your days are numbered motherfucker.

Last weekend was probably the hardest weekend of my life.  I had to say my last goodbyes to my brother and one of my best friends- James McNish.

Guillermo flew up from Uruguay, and then we made the 15+ hour drive to Syracuse NY to bury our best friend Jamie.  The drive sucked.  It was long, but we got to catch up on the last 6 months since Guillermo moved to Uruguay, talk some shit, and just bullshit in general.  On the way up, we passed an exit for Frackville, It was either in PA or NY (it get's a little fuzzy after the first 12 hours or so).  Don't ever get off here, I'm pretty sure that the entire population is frakkin' cylons.

While we were in Syracuse, we did get to get some NY pizza.  OK, it's not the Island or the City, but it's still the best pizza I've had in 12+ years.  We went to Paladinos- Jamies favorite Syracuse Pizza place 2 days in a row, and I even got to have a couple slices of Sicilian:

OK, so I got too drunk to finish this last night, so I'm gonna do it now.

The wake was pretty rough, but I did get to leave a couple of things in the casket with Jamie- a machine that I built for him for Christmas a few years ago and a chip from Fogo De Chao- on green of course.

The Funeral was rough too.  I got up and said a few words, but can't really remember what all I even said.

After the burial, we headed over to Halo Tattoo, where Jamie worked for the last 2+ years.  There was a 2 day benefit at the shop to help raise money to pay for the funeral expenses.  We tattooed from a couple of sheets of flash done for the benefit and sold a good amount of donated artwork from various artists.  Here's some pics of the flash:

The benefit went really well, and we were able to raise enough money for Jamie's Mom to pay ALL the funeral expenses.  Jamie's Mom is not in good health and Jamie had moved back to NY to help her out, so we have a couple of other things planned for the near future to raise some more money to help his mom out with her bills.

Here's a bunch of pics from the benefit in no particular order:

Maryanne and Jamie's Mom

Guillermo tattooing Tammy

Ray tattooing Kevin, and the Gnome

Ron cookin' up some grub

Me tattooing

Cheryl and the Gnome

Emma and the Gnome

Jamie's Mom with Kevin and the Gnome

Dominique and the Gnome

Ron, Ray, Guillermo and Myself

Ron tattooing Chris and the Gnome

Sherman, Me and Kevin

Ron signing the Gnome.  We all signed the bottom of the Gnome.

Sherman showing us the first tattoo Jamie ever did, 20+ years ago.

Cheryl, Sherman and Kevin

David, the counter guy at the shop.  Many thanks to David for keeping things in order and running smoothly.

Kevin planting a flag.

The Gnome stayed with Jamie.

RIP James Mcnish.  

Big thanks to everyone that worked at, helped at, and donated artwork to the benefit.  There are too many great people that helped for me to list them all.  Another big thanks to all the people from here that sent donations and flowers.

Extra big thanks to Ray and Kristy for putting Guillermo and Me up in their home.  They kept us fed and well caffeinated.