Releasing the Stars

4 appointments and 20 total hours my back tattoo finally became complete on June 27th.

The design was inspired by a Rufus Wainwright album. His newest cd is called “Release the Stars” Rufus said this in regards to the meaning of the album’s name:

“…to let everything go and to love as much as possible and really be the best that you can be as a person. Now that we’re in our prime, having scaled the wall of adolescence, it’s about action at this point; you have to fulfill your destiny or muddle into uselessness. That’s the essential message of the song and it is the message of the record: Now is the time to act on your desires and your dreams, to use your good side. Let’s get on with it”

That really struck a chord with me because I had been feeling the same way with my FM. I mean, I’m only 24, I have a lot of living left to do! It may take me longer to do that now but I can still laugh and love and enjoy life. It’s when you let the pain take over you let it win. Rufus and his music have helped me get over a lot of things since my diagnosis.

Inked by Anabela at Tora Tattoo, the middle piece in black was taken directly from the Release the Stars album cover artwork. The rest of the design was a colaberation of ideas between Anabela and myself.  The end result came out better than I could  have ever dreamed!

The sparrow in this design I had done in 2003 while living in Windsor. A sparrow as a tattoo has many different meanings. For me it is a symbol of luck. Sparrows are wise birds that symbolize peace and safety. In the old days, before GPS, sailors would follow birds to land. There was an old sailor’s legend about one particular captain who would recognize the sparrow as native to his home. The sparrow would signify his coming home. The tattoo is supposed to help lead you home. It is also a symbol of freedom and loyalty (being true to yourself) My sparrow tattoo has gained more meaning for me over the last few years. It helps me to remember to be true to myself and no matter what happens, how crazy things get with my condition that I just need to stay true to me. As Rufus said “to let everything go and love as much as possible and really be the best that you can be as a person.”

Still lots of space to add on to this design in the future!

Rue Morgue Festival of Fear

Finally I managed to plan vacations around the festival this summer so I can actually go. 
Already booked my hotel room at the Royal York and the guest list for the festival is looking fantastic!
CAN’T WAIT!!!!

http://www.rue-morgue.com/festival.php

Love banana bread? Try this recipe!

I had a ton of bananas that needed to be baked into something. I only eat bananas when they are still a little green so they tend to pile up in the freezer! I just made 4 loaves of this bread and it is fantastic!!!

Raspberry Banana Bread

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup mashed ripe bananas

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup water

1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries

1/2 cup walnuts (optional)

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a second bowl combine the eggs, bananas, oil and water.  Stir the dry ingredients into the wet.  Fold in raspberries and walnuts.  Pour batter into two greased 8-in.x4-in.x2-in. baking pans.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes in pan before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

I also added in 2 tsp of vanilla extract and 1 tsp of cinnamon to this recipe for extra kick.  You can also subsitute some of the white sugar for brown sugar and use olive oil as an alternative to vegetable. I also drop the raspberries into the batter AFTER it is in the baking pan to avoid having the berries slip all into the middle.

ENJOY!!

Rob Zombie 01/18/2008

Last night my town was rockin’ with Rob Zombie. It was a rare treat, we don’t get musicians that famous in our little night clubs here, usually we have to travel to Toronto or a much larger city to see them. It definitely was a great treat, the club Zombie performed at is very small and intimate so it made for one hell of a great show!

Due to my Fibromyalgia I don’t venture down to floor/mosh pit anymore but we had great seats along the side at the bar about 10 feet or so from the stage. Unfortunately cameras were not allowed inside the club which I found a bit surprising because this place used to be the easiest club to take concert pics. I wonder what changed? So many people had their cameras too. I always stash mine in the small zipepr pocket inside the main pouch of my purse and I stash tampons around and over it.  That pocket is always over looked, never noticed or on the rare occasion that it is checked the tampons tend to steer people away. LOL. Not last night though! That security lady was the first one in my concert going history (which is over 100 shows) to ever dig deeper! Thankfully though I managed to talk her down to me giving her the battery pack so I could keep my lovely new $500 camera with me. No way was I going to risk leaving it at the coat check and possibly never seeing it again.

Zombie rocked the joint with songs from his old White Zombie days and hits from the start of his solo career to the present. His wife, Sheri Moon Zombie, danced on stage to many of the songs as well. It was awesome to see her in person, I love the character she plays in Rob’s horror movies, she has the best evil laugh EVER. She’s incredibly gorgeous too (as is Mr. Zombie….hot hot hot!)

We stopped and took a few pics of Rob’s tour bus which is decorated to promote his Halloween movie. So cool!!

There were a few people waiting by the back door to see if Rob would come out. We waited for a little while but it was just too damn cold and Kathy had to be in Toronto for 10am this morning (she was my ride home too) so we headed home. I found out later today from my cousin that his friend stayed around afterwards and Rob didn’t make an appearance outside after the show. He said a guy came out in a hoodie and scarf and jumped right on the bus. After the band’s guitarist came out the bus left. Oh well! Atleast we didn’t stay out there freezing our butts off for nothing.
All in all it was an awesome night! I’m off to Toronto on Monday to see Rob again, he will be the opening band for Ozzy. ROCK ON!

Autographs from an Angel

So this blog is a little late but better late than never!

My lovely friend Blanca from Criss Angel’s fan club was in Las Vegas last month for Lovely Fest, a fan organized gathering for Criss Angel’s birthday.

Blanca set up a memmorial donation site online with the American Cancer Society in memmory of John Sarantakos, Criss’ father who passed away from cancer. A guestbook was also made for Criss’ fans (The Loyals) to leave a message with their donation. This was to be Criss’ birthday gift from the Loyal.

Blanca raised over $1000 for the cancer society and presented the donation and guestbook to Criss during her trip and was filmed for an upcoming episode of Mindfreak! So cool!! She told Criss that I made the single highest donation ($200) and a bit about myself….about my Fibromyalgia and how much he has helped me to deal with my life with chronic pain and he signed two pictures for me.

I still cannot thank Blanca enough for getting these for me, I wish I could have been there in person with the rest of the Loyal but this should hold me over until next year when I get to go back to Las Vegas to see Criss’ new show at the Luxor. 

Here are pics of the autographs….I was going to scan them but apprently my scanner is broken? Who knew!?

Yeah, that’s right, Criss thinks I’m awesome

Tattoo pic

Please note that my shoulder is VERY swollen right now and a little bit bruised.
I will share a new pic once I am all healed up as well.

11th Tattoo Complete

I had my appointment today with Anabela for my newest tattoo.  Originally I was supposed to get my phoenix & Criss Angel logo done on November 20th and then start working on my back tattoo today. My appointment in November was changed to December 21st (my birthday!)  however due to the client in before me passing out during their tattoo! So when I went into the tattoo studio today Anabela had both designs drawn and ready to go so I decided to go with my Criss/phoenix design on my shoulder. Tomorrow I’m going to Niagara Falls over night and over to Buffalo on Sunday for a football game so I figured it would be much easier to have a sore shoulder rather than an entire upper back!

The tattoo took 3 hours to complete but was definitely worth the long sitting time. Anabela did a gorgeous job, it turned out better than I ever imagined! It’s always a good time to spend an afternoon with Anabela too. She has been my artist since I was 17.

My arm is pretty sore and really swollen right now but I am so happy with the over all outcome of the design. I’m looking forward to going back very soon to get my back done. We’re going to do it all in one appointment instead of two like we previously thought. I am slowly working my way to getting a set of full sleeves. I’m thinking of starting on that around this time next year….gotta save up first, these suckers aren’t cheap!  I have my left arm pretty much decided on and I still need to work on ideas for the right. Anabela thinks my new tattoo will look even better with a background around it when I get the sleeve done. :) 

I have to keep the bandage on my tattoo over night so pictures will come tomorrow before I head off for Niagara.

The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Saturday Joe and I went to Toronto to see Sweeney Todd on stage. It was my early birthday gift from Joe as I have been waiting a looooong time for this play to come to town.

The whole show was fantastic and the actors were amazing! There were 10 actors in all and they were also the orchestra providing the music the whole time as well. Can you imagine the casting call for this show? “Ok, we need you to sing, act AND play an instrument” LOL! It was really neat to see that all happening at the same time though.

So Sweeney Todd is the story of a man who was framed for murder. The play picks up after his release from prison.  He returns to his town to get his vengence. When he returns he finds out that his wife is dead and his daughter was adopted by the town judge who previously had his way with Sweeney’s wife. Sweeney starts up his barber shop again and teams up with Mrs. Lovett, the baker who sold the worst meat pies in town…..until Sweeney starts to murder his clients and Mrs. Lovett bakes them into her pies thus turning her into the most successful pie baker in town. They are also assisted by a young servant (Tobias) who eventually discovers the secret to the meat pies. By the end of the play Sweeney finds out that the old beggar woman he murdered actually was his wife. Mrs. Lovett told him that his wife had died because she felt it would be better for him to think of her as dead rather than old, crazy and living in the street. By this point Sweeney is so lost in dark evil  that he kills anyone that gets in his way, including Mrs. Lovett. Sweeney meets his fate by the hands of Tobias and it is Tobias that is locked up for all the murders so even though that Sweeney is dead, nobody ever knows that he was indeed the real murderer.

The play used one set for the entire show and the cast would move chairs around, etc. to set the feel when the story would change to a new place. When a character was killed the stage lights would all turn red and one actor would pour blood from one bucket to another. The now dead character would put on a white barber’s jacket covered in blood to symbolize their death but would remain on stage as part of back up vocals and to play their instrument. The entire play relies heavily on symbolisim and it works out very well. The actors keep you glued to their story and put on a fantastic performance.

Tattoo Rescheduled

Crap!

I got a call from my tattoo studio a little while ago saying that Anabela needs to reschedule my appointment which was for 5pm today. The person she was working on at the moment started to feel ill and was taking longer to work on than planned. She needs 2 full hours to do my tattoo so there is not enough time for me today. So I have been re-booked for December 21st….my birthday!

It’s not a big deal really. I’m going in on December 7th to start the ink on my back (it will take 2 appointments to do that one) so I can manage two more weeks until that appointment and then two more weeks for my shoulder tat. The rest of the work on my back should be around that time as well. Ah December, the month of the tattoo! haha

Long time, no blog

I feel bad for neglecting this blog for so long. Did you miss me!? Does anyone actually read this? Haha

Where should I start? Hmmm….well, I have a new job! I still work my other job though too. My new job is at Raise Home Support. I work one night a week after hours cleaning the office. My aunt is the manager there so she offered the job to me. Anyone who knows me well is aware of how much of an obsessive cleaner I am so this job is right up my alley.

The office consists of 15 cubicles, 6 private offices, a large meeting room, lunch room, kitchen and two small washrooms. I empty garbage/recycling, clean all the desks, vacuum & dust, do dishes, clean the kitchen, washrooms, etc. Wash windows, organize shelves….you get the idea. This Friday will be my 6th week there. It’s nice that I work after all the employees are gone home so I’m not in the way of anyone and I can take my Ipod. It’s definitely nice being the only one there. It’s not a glamorous job but I enjoy it. The pay is great too! $20 per hour and it takes 5 to 6 hours to fully clean the whole place. Nothing wrong with a little extra cash. Right now everything I make is going towards my savings for a trip back to Las Vegas next winter. By then I should have more than enough. Criss Angel here I come!

Speaking of Criss, he will be in Toronto on November 12th. Normally I would be out of my mind excited about this however I had to weigh my options about it this time. Criss will be performing for a charity event being held by Sir Richard Branson, the man behind Virgin Records. He is hosting the fundraiser for the launch of his new charity Virgin Unite. The charity trains health care workers on motorcycles in poor areas of sub-Saharan Africa to deliver badly needed supplies for those suffering from HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Single tickets are going for $1000 a piece! Corporate tables are $15,000. Don’t get me wrong, this is a fantastic charity but the price is, well, steep. I do hope they raise a lot however.

As for me though, I had to look at it this way (to keep myself from going mental) I could A. charge two grand to my credit card and pay it off in a few months for ONE night and who knows how long Criss will be performing or B. save now and by December I should have a good $4000 that I can spend to fly to Vegas, stay at the Luxor where Criss will be performing his new show with Cirque de Soleil and stay there for a good 4 to 5 days. Personally, I’ll go for option B.  More Vegas and Criss to top it all off. Still, it kills me that he will be SO CLOSE to me next week and yet so far. Ah! I was hoping that they would  have Criss come on The Hour while he is in town. Well, it looks like they’re going to have Richard Branson but not Criss. Grrr. Get your priorities straight people!

Ok…I’ll stop ranting about that…for now.

What the hell is with the SNOW? It was just Halloween, I’m not ready for winter! Winter = snow. Snow = cold. Snow & cold + Fibromyalgia = PAIN.  This winter I choose to hibernate.

Halloween was fantastic! We got all dressed up with fake wounds & compound fractures and blood gel. A lot of the kids got a pretty good scare. Especially when Kathy would point to the cut on her forehead and tell them that the cut is there because people took her brain. LOL. The look on the kids faces was classic.

My dad’s yearly display was a huge hit as always. His months of hard work on the tomb stones really paid off. He had so many visitors and neighbours coming over to take photos. He is already working on more props for next year. This is why Halloween is so much better than Christmas. You get to dress up, be surrounded by horror and not have to put up with snow and visit people you never see any other time of the year (or even like?) BAH HUMBUG!

I’m off to get my new tattoo on the 20th of this month and then will be starting the new ink work on my back December 7th so I’m really looking forward to that! I have been itching for some new tats for a long time. I’m working on ideas for my full sleeves too. I’m really anxious to get those done.

Rufus Wainwright has a new cd and dvd coming out in December. It is a live performance of his Judy Garland tribute. I’m super excited about this, his interpretations of Judy’s music is FANTASTIC.

Our pug Monty had eye surgery again this morning. Our vet found that his eyelids have excess tissue that started to cause pigment to grow on his eyes and over time that would cause him to go blind. Our vet thinks that he is already partially blind on the bottom half of his eyes but with the surgery that will go away in a few months. I spoke with the vet a few hours ago and he told me that the surgery went fine and Monty is recovering. He gets to come home later this afternoon. Hopefully this will be the last of his surgeries. He’s only a year old and has had 4 operations already! A neuter, his nose and eyes twice now.

Is anyone out there watching Phenomenon? I started watching just because Criss Angel is a judge but I am really starting to like the performers. Right now Guy and Eran are my favourite. Last week Guy actually stopped his heart! I have seen Criss do this before too but it still freaks me out every time. Eran the first week played a deadly game of Russian roulette with nail guns. This week it was a similar stunt only with four containers, three of which held snakes. One non venomous (although it had 60 pin like teeth) and two deadly poisonous. He ended up getting bit by the non venomous snake his first attempt…although it was unclear if he did that on purpose to create drama or if it really was a mistake. Either way, the guy is a crazy f***er! If it was on purpose, it boggles my mind why someone would willing be bitten by a snake. But then again snakes FREAK ME OUT! All in all, Phenomenon is a pretty entertaining show. All of the stunts I have seen so far Criss has also performed but it is interesting to see another persons take on the stunt. Really at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what your stunt was. It really is all about how well you present yourself and if your audience finds you believable.

Well, I better be on my way to the vet. Monty is ready to come home!