It seems my vote last November...

...has ended up paying off. Just hear me out:

As I was examining my finances yesterday I realized I spent quite a bit of coin while on the road. But, hey, I was ON VACATION. And that's what vacations are all about, just living the dream. In actuality I would have remained well within my budget had we not ended up on a party bus Wednesday night in Nashville around 2am after spending 3 hours or so in Coyote Ugly downtown. But those nights are the kind of things you can't make up. My shirt got ruined, my wallet got thinner, but at least I got her number. Sometimes it's just about accentuating the positives. Like the fact the bus brought us to our "hotel room on wheels" afterwards. And that was a positively good night; a fitting way to leave the country music capital of the world.

One second here: Nashville is awesome, by the way. GREAT downtown area. I'm sure we hit it at a perfect time as we were there early in the Country-Fest week so there were great live acts everywhere and the bars were full, but not packed to the gills. Full in a place like that I could handle, but packed to the gills? Ya'll know me, that's just a no-go.
Everybody performing there is looking to make a name for themselves and becoming the next "thing," and while I'm pretty sure everyone we saw will just keep playing for tips it was still light years better than a juke box. I can't put my finger on why, but there's just something special about live music in a bar, particularly live country music. There is no line between metal night at the Pub in town and whoever it is playing "Wagon Wheel" that particular hour. (No joke, heard that song at least 35 times in 2 days. Again, no exaggeration: EVERY bar we were at with live music we heard that song played. Didn't matter if they were 22 or 42. Made things interesting when we saw signs and drove past JOHNSON CITY, TENNESSEE (!!!!!!!

SO live music: A+. Another A+, the members of the opposite sex populating the downtown area. Seriously, New England and the northeast needs to wake up. I'm not saying you need to sleep with every guy but just be nice once in awhile. Smile and loosen up a little. The southern belles down there wore their boots high, their skirts short, crushed Bud-D and stuffed southern BBQ straight to their faces. What more can you ask for in a future wife, really? O, ya, they were FRIENDLY.
But, yes, Nashville was great. Never made it to Asheville, NC but I've heard good things about there, too. Another young, hip city, little less country-fied but definitely up-and-coming. Knowing our little Sammy will be a couple hours away from there in Charlotte means I will certainly be checking out the sights and sounds of the middle south again before the year is out. I'm not mad about that..

But I digress. To resume, I'm a little short on cash right now. You all know what I mean, I'm not really short on cash (hell, I live with my parents for chrissakes..), but still short enough to know it's time to get kicked in the ass and get back on a roof. And as the moon and the stars seemed to align and know my headlights were pointed towards the 207 I received a call from my boss at Haggerty Contracting saying we had a bigg'un to tackle. This sucker is HUGE. And who do I have to thank for it? None other than Barack Obama.

(sidenote here: I've decided to start block quoting random anecdotes to pull them out of the main read. Sometimes they fit, other times they don't. Try it, Mikey. You'll like it.
For this detour: (Came from Johnny, the resident jokester on the crew. I don't think any of you know him, but now that I'll be touching on my life as a shingle bitch you'll probably get to know him well. Welcome to the 'Pad, Johnny.) A joke told on the jobsite today:
What's the difference between God and Barack Obama? (Wait for it....) God doesn't think he's Obama (Da-dum, ching). HAH.

But really. I have Obama and his dillion dollar stimulus package to thank. The money the town of Turner is using to re-roof Tripp Middle School is coming straight from the relief package that Maine was allotted. This has been verified by multiple sources. And so not only is it steady work for 5-6 weeks because the roof is 25,000+ square feet, but it's a (technically, some way I'm sure..)government job so I'll be making some good coin. Really, where my money comes from doesn't matter that much so long as I get a paycheck, but now I feel like my vote which indirectly is turning the nation I hold so dear into a socialist state is actually doing something to benefit me.

SO hate Obama as much as you want for bailing out the banks, GM, Ford, AIG, and plenty of other folks while using this panicked climate to push forward his leftist-ideological-agenda of a State-run...everything. At least for six weeks or so you can have the privilege of knowing some little guy who is actually benefiting from that big, imaginary pile of money the government is passing around like its going out of style for the next six weeks. I'm not mad; you shouldn't be, either.

Time for a beer at Gip's, Welcome back, me! Cheers.