Mike Jurewicz’s Blog

It’s been a little longer than I would have liked since my last blog.  I was absolutely intending on researching a topic I was given by someone to write about but then life got in the way.

Due to all the brush fires here in Florida and the smoke that travels with it my allergies have been bothering me lately, a lot last week.  This caused me to break off plans with a friend of mine and then get called a “flake” because of it.  Always lovely to not be believed when are you aren’t feeling good.  Oh but I only wish that was the end of my horrible day that day.  A mere hour or so later I was called and told that my last remaining grandparent, my grandma, had passed away.  While yes she had taken a turn for the worse in the days previous to that and we kind of expected it it was still upsetting.  A call to a person that normally makes me feel better when I’m down was futile as she was busy and didn’t call me back.

The next day didn’t go much better as I was just still beat up about the whole situation.  I took offense to somethings said about my friend and stuck up for him.  It only made things worse as people became pissed off at me for just sticking up for a friend.  I apologized for how childish I was because I was just in a horrid mood but it seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

The entire trip to PA I felt like I was in a daze, yes I did drink a lot and that may account for some of it.  My mind and heart were racing a mile a minute every moment of the day.  I stood at the funeral just wishing that she was there to hold my hand and tell me that everything is going to be alright.  I laid in bed or on a couch each night just wishing she would call me or text me.  I walked around Peddler’s Village seeing Marilyn Monroe memorabilia and little Irish trinkets that I wanted to buy and give to her.  I felt emptier than I have ever felt in my life.  I was so sad and depressed that I couldn’t even cry.  I tried believe me.

I’ve come back to Florida and it just continues still.  I have to work this weekend and it doesn’t even bother me like it normally would.  I had no desires that I wanted to move back up there but then don’t even feel at home here.  I wish I had something to show me a way.  Maybe just a hint.

I have made mistakes in my life and it’s like she punishes me so much for making a mistake.  Like I’m suppose to be perfect.  I’ll be the first to admit I’m not.  I make my apologies but I don’t know if anyone believes me.  Yet when people make mistakes towards me I’m always willing to forgive but no one even seems they need to apologize.  What has happened to mankind?  What has happened to kindness?  Am I a dying breed?

Well I figured I’d go ahead and make a posting about the first request I got. Mariah would like to know a good recipe for baby. She seems to be having a hard time finding one.

I agree, good baby recipes are hard to come by now and days. So here is a delectable dish of Baby Braised in Wine but first the appetizer of Baby Stew.

Baby Stew
Ingredients
- three pounds of baby (chop it up we know that no baby is that small, refrigerate the rest for later)
- 6 small onions, chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ cup chopped celery
- 2 tsp. salt
- 2 cups diced carrots
- 3 raw potatoes, cut up
- 3 tbs. flour
- 1 tbs. chopped parsley

Directions
Clean baby and soak in salted water. Drain, disjoint it in pieces for serving and place in a large kettle with onions, bay leaf, celery and salt. Cover with cold water and cook slowly until tender, about two hours. Add chopped carrots and potatoes and continue cooking until these vegetables are done. Smooth flour with a little cold water and add slowly. When thickened, add chopped parsley and serve.

Baby Braised in Wine
Ingredients
- 2 babies, cut into serving pieces (go with 6 month olds if you can, I know they may be harder to get a hold of but they are much more tender)
- Salt and pepper
- Flour
- 2 tbs. olive oil
- 2 onions, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 6 carrots, peeled and sliced
- 1 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced
- 2 tbs. fresh parsley, minced
- ¼ tsp. thyme
- ½ tsp. oregano, rubbed
- 4 bay leaves
- 2 cups dry white wine

Directions
- Preheat oven to 350º. Salt and pepper baby and coat with flour.
- Place oil, onions, garlic, carrots and mushrooms in large casserole dish.
- Place baby on top of vegetables. Sprinkle with parsley, thyme and oregano.
- Add bay leaves and wine. Cover and bake 1 hour or until baby is tender. (more tender than it naturally already is)
- Remove bay leaves before serving. Servings: 6-8

I’ve been trying to think of stuff to write about lately but I guess I’m drawing a blank. I want to do some rants or reviews. I know some of my friends like it when I go off on rants about things that bug me. So here is where you come in.

- Send me an email at mike@mikejurewicz.com
- Give me an idea of what you want me to rant about or review or just in general talk about. (Movies, music, TV, politics, food, celebrities, blah blah blah, etc.)
- If it is music or something you want me to read please include a link to where I can find it.
- I will include your name in the post. If you don’t want it please just say so.

And hey go ahead and sign up for an account. You know you can comment on things here. Go here to signup.

Well as you probably know by now I have decided not to leave and move to Philadelphia.  I decided Thursday not to leave after a very emotional week that made me realize that despite that I hate Florida in general there are people here that I love so much that I couldn’t possibly leave them.  While yes I have family up north and friends up there as well these people down here help make me who I am.  They literally keep me sane even though I am pretty insane.

I cried so much Wednesday night and Thursday morning thinking, “am I making the right decision?”  I ultimately decided that the people down here are too important to let go of.  I would go up to Philly and would end up being depressed and coming back.  So I might as well save the miles on my car and all the trouble.  I truly believe this is the right decision.

I’m sorry to all my family and friends up north that were looking forward to me coming back.  I know I picked a horrible time to make this choice but I just had to do what is going to make me happy.  I really hope you all understand that and forgive me.  I am going to try to come up and visit the same time my brother goes up so fear not.

So I am here in Florida for meantime.  Probably going to look at getting a place with Lane and Chris, that would interesting to say the least.  I really wish I would have realized all this sooner so it wasn’t so much all happening in a short period of time but my friend Mariah put it well when she said, “What a twist.”  I guess I’m just one big M. Night Shymalan film.

I must say that Judd Apatow is far and away my favorite writer/producer/director in cinema today, probably of all time as well.  This guy is a god of comedy for bringing us such greats as Superbad, Knocked Up, the 40 Year Old Virgin and Talladega Nights.  Not to say he doesn’t always have a great troop that comes with him.  Seth Rogan, who does a lot of writing and acting with Apatow, is coming into his own as well.  But anytime I hear about a project with Judd Apatow’s name on it I know that I will not be disappointed.  Case in hand with his latest project Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  While he didn’t direct or write the movie, done by Nicholas Stoller and Jason Segal respectively, he did help produce the film.  Similar in role to what he did with Superbad.

The movie contains some of the usual gang that appear in Apatow movies; Jason Segal, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd and Bill Hader.  I have always been a big fan of Segal back when he was in SLC Punk as the soft spoken yet brutally harsh Mike.  He is brilliant on the TV show How I Met Your Mother and was hilarious in his small role in Knocked Up.  This movie was a chance for him to shine and I think he achieved that in all his glory, literally.  Segal daringly showed ALL his glory a few times on screen that was pretty shocking but funny.  From watching him on TV each week you don’t really expect to see an actor show his twig and berries so openly in a movie.  A matter of fact his character in this movie, Peter, reminds me a lot of his character on HIMYM, Marshall.  They are both very loving individuals who seem that their only goal in life is to be happy with someone they love.  It is also a character that many people can relate to, my included, and that makes him even more likable.

Both the leading ladies in the film are great.  Both are extremely (I can put enough emphasis on this) beautiful and play great roles.  Kristen Bell’s character, Sarah Marshall, looks perfect playing a young aspiring actress.  She has a very lovable quality to her look but also at the same time you can look at her and know she is trouble just waiting to happen.  Part of you wants to be with her but part of you wants to hate her so much.  Mila Kunis’ character, Rachel, just exemplifies what a lot of guys would want in a girl: beautiful, sense of humor, down to earth, just chilled out yet with a wild side.  I found myself saying to myself so many times during the movie, “Damn she would be a great girl friend.”  Being that I don’t know Mila Kunis personally I was judging by the character she played.  Although I have seen some stuff about her and her personal life and she seems very much like that in person.  Lucky Macaulay Culkin.

The supporting staff, just like any Apatow film, brought the whole thing together.  Both Russell Brand and Paul Rudd have numerous memorable lines.  Add in Jonah Hill, Jack McBrayer and Bill Hader and it is just complete.

If you have ever liked any of Judd’s movies that he has had a hand in then you will love Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  I even went to movie theater which if you know me I don’t like doing at all.  I liked it so much that I may go see it again.  Yes I may go to another movie theater to see it again, it was that good.

Over the past year a lot has changed in my life.  Not so much anything about me and who I am but the people around me.  I guess I’m coming to the hard conclusion that people change, that or you never really know some people.

I try really hard to make sure people understand me and know what I’m all about.  Not necessarily know everything about me but just know where I stand on things.  But while doing that I come to expect the same from people and it just seems to be much harder for others to do it than myself.

I’ve lost friends before but really lost a good amount of them this year.  I had the success hungry degenerates of band mates betray me.  I had a good friend decide that I’m not worthy of respect and honesty from her because she didn’t “like” me anymore.  And I had the girl I love just walk out my life without even a word.  Then walk back in and walk out and in and out.  You get the point?

While all that occurred I’m lucky to say I still had some amazing friends who were there for me.  Those I could turn to in my time of pain.  They may never know just truly how much it meant to me.  It saved me from near insanity I believe at times.

But sometimes you just get fed up and you say, “I’ve had enough.”  Everyone that knows me knows I’ve never been a fan of living in Florida.  I always said I would go back to Philly someday.  I just never expected it to be under the circumstances that they are.  But I am not going to expand on that as mostly everyone knows all the different reasons why I’m leaving.  So rather I would like to take the time to thank those down here that mean something to me and always will.

I’ll start with the friend I met before we were friends, Lane.  Met him my sophomore year of high school and we had a couple classes together.  I tortured the kid, plain and simple.  And it wasn’t until about 3 or 4 years later that we met up again working at Perkins.  We talked about music which always became one of our main interests together.  He always had the desire to find a band I didn’t know and have me like them since I was so picky.  And after many years he finally did this past year, Penfold.  Good job Lane.  He’s been there for me through some very rough spots and although he can be very lazy (I can too) he usually pulls through.  He would talk about moving with me many times but just never really seems ready with the other things in his life.  I would like him to move up there sometime (Though it will be rough on him as sports fan) but only when he is ready.

Then there are the most consistent people in my life, David and Vicki.  If you call me on Saturday afternoon you know where I am at 99.8% of the time.  The .2% that I am not there is because I’m either working, out of town or they are out of town.  I’ve been hanging out with David on Saturdays for 4 plus years I believe.  Starting at his parents’ house playing video games to their house now playing video games and watching movies and me getting piss drunk and other things.  I’m honored that I got to be the best man for their wedding.  There house is like a second home to me.  Their family opens up there home and hearts to me every Saturday and any other day that I so please.  I’ve never felt so truly welcomed in a place outside of my own family.  It will be very hard to try to figure out what hell to do with myself on Saturdays in Philly.  Maybe catch a ball game.  But I’ve watched their relationship through so many things that have made them stronger and better people.  All the while helping me deal with my own shit while they have their own problems.  They didn’t have to but they did.  I love them and will miss them dearly along with their family and cats (even if some of them are dumb as dumb rocks).

Ah Chriser.  What can be said about this kid that hasn’t been said or that he doesn’t already know about himself.  You’re crazy, insane, a light weight, genuine, determined and a great all around friend.  I wouldn’t have you any other way.  I met him through Lane and thought he was cool but way to outgoing to be friends with me but he pretty much forced me to be friends with him and I’m glad he did.  He will always make me laugh when I’m around him no matter my mood and I think truly cares about my well being.  Although he is probably the most in denial about me moving.  Here I am a little more than 2 weeks away from leaving and he still doesn’t seem convinced that I am actually going.  He is the only person other than my mom that says I love you to me every time I hang up the phone with him.  Although creepy at times I know he means it (in a totally hetero way).

Ah that brings me to Mandie.  This is probably the hardest one to write and although you will read this in probably a matter of minutes it will probably have taken me quite a while to write while I sit here and try to carefully word myself.  Well here goes nothing.  I met Mandie through Lane, Mandie is cousins with Sandi who Lane was dating.  Yes Mandie and Sandi, the andi’s.  From the very start she was sweet and caring and fun to be around.  We became friends really quick and hung out on a regular basis.  She was into a guy and I was into a girl but I had feelings for Mandie.  We went a couple years or so of not really talking much after she began dating said guy but eventually found our ways back to each other and became close again.  We dated, I was dumb and I made a mistake.  No I didn’t cheat on her or anything like that.  We had another lull in our friendship/relationship but again found our ways back to each other.  Despite her refusing to get back together with me any person in the world that saw us would have thought we were.  She was one of my best friends and then out of nowhere, BOOM.  She won’t talk to me, won’t return my calls, won’t call me, nothing.  She would talk to me from time to time but things just never seemed the same.  When she use to go out of her way to talk to me it seemed like now she would only talk to me when it was convenient for her.  It broke me.  Not just my heart but a lot more of me.  A person who once seemingly cared about me just didn’t seem to anymore.  She even no showed my birthday when telling me she would be there.  And as much as it hurts to not have the girl I love anymore it hurts even more that our friendship doesn’t even seem to matter a lot of the times.  And while I will miss her when I leave I have already been missing her.  I miss the Mandie I use to know.  But no matter what I will always hold a big place in my heart for her.  I will always love her and always miss her even if she could care less.

There are lots of other people in my life as well down here but these are the ones that are very close.  I contemplated putting my brother there but that’s like really obvious.  I love my brother to death and I will miss him and hope some day he will make it up there too.

I would also like to just add a little something about someone else, a person I just recently met and wish I would have met a long time ago, Mariah.  In the times that we have hung out I’ve enjoyed them so much.  You are a great down to earth person that I can have great conversations with and feel quite comfortable around.  I really wish I would have met you sooner in my life but I intend on staying close with you and hope I get to see you if you come to PA to visit.

Well I could go on just throwing shout outs here and there but I won’t.  If I know you and I don’t think your a total toolbag or complete bitch then thank you.  Thanks for being a friend, companion, drinking buddy, etc etc.  Maybe I’ll see some of you in the future.  If not good luck in your en devours.

I might make another post before I leave but I’m not sure.  I’ll be pretty busy these coming weeks finishing packing and making the good bye rounds.  So if I don’t catch you later Florida.

I have been a fan of professional wrestling for quite some time.  I think it goes back to 1st grade.  My first memory of wrestling was flipping through the channels and coming across the Undertaker beating someone and putting them into a body bag.  Of course I didn’t know at the time what I do now and thought I was seeing this scary dude kill another dude.  But the I was instantly hooked.  And with the WWF I got into WCW and with that came ECW.  ECW being the hometown, hardcore, pure wrestling promotion that wanted to be different from the big two.  My parents wouldn’t let me and my brother watch ECW because it was too violent but I would sneak to the channel whenever I could to see what those guys were up to.

But sooner or later the competition was no more.  ECW went bankrupt and the WWF purchased their assets.  WCW was sold to WWF.  It was a wrestling monopoly.  And later the WWF would start running stupid gimmicks and become way more about theatrics than wrestling.  Why?  Because they could.  There was no viable alternative.  A few companies came around to try to make there be competition but many failed.  A select couple started doing something though that gave the fans that just wanted wrestling an alternative.  Total Nonstop Action (TNA) out of Nashville (now Orlando) and Ring of Honor (ROH) out of Philadelphia (the real home of pro wrestling).  TNA caught on quick being able to bring in some bigger names and using young up and comers that were doing amazing things.  Unfortunately booking changes at TNA made the actual product become a watered down version of WWE (formerly WWF).  But there was that little company in Philly that was staying true to their line.  They offered wrestling.  They used young, talented grapplers from all over the world.  They would even begin bringing in some of the top talents from Japan.  ROH hooked me.  I had lost a lot of interest in wrestling but they brought me back in.  They have even helped produce a lot of wrestlers that have moved on become quite big stars like Samoa Joe, CM Punk, Austin Aries, Alex Shelley and more.

Well for awhile the only way I could see ROH was by DVD.  They don’t have a TV show and they only really do shows through the northeast and midwest.  When I heard they were coming to Orlando during Wrestlemania weekend for two shows I had to go.  I convinced my brother and his girlfriend to go with me and I bought our tickets months in advance.

We arrived Friday afternoon, the day of the first show. (more…)

After talking with my friend Stasha last week I realize how much I want to travel. Go to unique places all over the world. So here is my list of places I want to visit before I die. I doubt I will be able to get to all of them in my life but here goes.

USA

• Boston, MA
• Seattle, WA
• Portland, OR
• Anchorage, AK
• San Francisco, CA
• Chicago, IL
• Portland, ME
• Denver, CO

Canada

• Vancouver, BC
• Toronto, ON
• Montreal, QB
• Edmonton, AL

Central America

• Guatemala (Thanks to Stasha)
• Costa Rica

South America

• Brazil
• Chile
• Peru

Europe

• Ireland
• United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland)
• Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark)
• Poland
• Portugal
• Germany
• Italy
• Switzerland
• Russia

Asia

• Japan
• China
• Hong Kong
• Thailand
• South Korea
• Australia (I know it’s not technically Asia but in soccer they play in the Asian Federation)

I was never a big reader. I just couldn’t get myself to sit down and just read a book for enjoyment. I think I blame schooling for that because we are always forced to read a bunch of things that do not interest us so the thought of reading just made me almost automatically think it wasn’t going to be any good.

I remember in grade school the only book I actually enjoyed reading that I was made to read was The Outsiders. At the time of reading it I didn’t even know there was a movie based on it and after seeing the movie I felt the book was better. But there were many other books I was forced to read that just had no impact on me.

When in high school I read a few books for my enjoyment including The Godfather and Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? I read The Godfather before seeing the movie and thought it was great read, mostly because of my infatuation for the Mafia. The later of the two, with one of the longest names for a book I’ve see, is about a young man growing up in a Catholic household and and going to Catholic school. These were all things that I could relate with having done it myself.

For a long time after that I really didn’t read anything other than magazines or the newspaper but a few months ago I bought myself Stephan Colbert’s book I am America (And So Can You) and really enjoyed it. This prompted me to go out and buy some more books. Now I really enjoy reading, I like being able to imagine how I think the characters would look and sound. It is just like watching a movie but one that you cast.

Here is what I am currently reading and what I intent on reading.

Currently Reading:
- Blood and Honor: Inside the Scarfo Mob, the Mafia’s Most Violent Family by George Anastatia - A story about the bloody rise and fall of “Little” Nicky Scarfo and the Philadelphia Mob. Anastaia along with former wiseguy Nick “the Crow” Caramandi, now in the witness protection program, paint a violent series of events starting with the killing of the Don Angelo Bruno to Scarfo’s rise and overall paranoia over being knocked off. I’m not done with this yet because the book is so very long and it has just taken awhile to complete.
- Valis by Philip K. Dick - I’ll admit that my interest in reading this book came from the TV show Lost where Locke provides it to Ben to read while imprisoned in his basement. I have only just begun the book and so far really like where it is going. The main character, Horselover Fat, is also the narrator but telling the story in third person to try to find a better perspective of his problems. Fat is a drug user and is trying to find something meaningful in his life. I love how sometimes he breaks into first person only to correct himself or pretend like he is a completely separate person who is a friend of Fat’s.

Going to Read:
- A Lion’s Tale: Around the World in Spandex by Chris Jericho and Peter Thomas Fornatale - If you know me then you know I am a big wrestling mark (fan) and Chris Jericho is one of the best wrestling minds in pro wrestling history.
- The Last Gangster by George Anastasia - Another book about the Philadelphia mob except post Scarfo era. It is about an informant that gets himself into the mob to help the police and federal prosecutors bring down the organization.

For the past few months my drive to create music has dwindled.  Mostly because I have been working so much that when I come home I don’t want to do much other than have dinner and lay down.  Then my weekends I try to spend time with my friends and do packing.  Plus I still have that bad taste in my mouth about the back stabbing I received from the trend following misfits of life in my last band.

But the past week or so I have wanted to start writing again.  I’ve downloaded a couple of drum machine programs to my laptop and started grabbed my guitar and started playing to the beats.  I have this vision for writing and it will probably never pan out the way I want it to but I at least will try to get as close as possible to it.

I recently came up with an idea for a song.  A song with meaning without words.  I’m glad that when I threw this idea by Lane that he was more than happy to want to be involved.  He may not be the most technically sound musician but at least he has the drive and he knows where my heart is when writing this.  I love him for that.  I hope to get together with him to compose something.  I’m not expecting anything mind blowing out of the two of us but rather just something straight forward and from the heart.  This is becoming my number one goal to accomplish before the end of April.  I want to write this song and I want to play it for my friends.

I think there are two big reasons for this renewed interest in writing.  One is the music I have been listening to lately.  I find it so inspiring and so beautiful.  I finally see that words are not necessary in order to portray beauty, pain, happines, sadness and all those other emotions.  An entire Godspeed You! Black Emperor album can put forward all those emotions without a single word being sung.  Sure there are bands and artists out there that write wonderfully constructed lyrics that not only tug at your heart but make you think and wonder but you can’t always relate to everything they say.  Without the words it is far more open to interruption.  You can always understand in your own mind.  When there is a sad part playing you definitely know what it feel like to be sad and you can apply its feeling to anytime you were sad.  I may not make sense but I love the way that instrumental music makes me feel.

The second reason for the revival in my music endeavor is just how I have felt lately.  I’m a nostalgic person and I always look back on the past.  I miss the things that brought me happiness.  I regret the things I did that hurt those I care about (Yes I have regrets and I think everyone does.  Some just can’t admit to it).  I hate the things that have always bothered me.  I’m scared of my departure.  It’s just a rush of emotion hitting me all so at the same time and how better to let it out then by playing music?  I can’t get these thoughts out of my head nor do I want to get them out of my head because they are who I am.  I’m a mess I know, a fool probably, a lover most definitely, a friend, a son, a brother, a companion, a shoulder to cry on, the one crying on a shoulder, a dreamer, a loon, a hermit, a loud mouth, a drunk, a level head, etc.  So many things that make up who I am and how I feel.  Some good, some bad but all of them what makes me…me.  Sure I have spent countless hours of my days thinking about how much I love someone that I don’t have.  I don’t care, that’s me.  And all these emotions that make up me have driven me to begin writing again.  So that I can put how I feel out in music.  Yes there will still be times that I drown my sorrows in a beer or ten but I’m glad I still have my ability to write music.

Maybe I’ll play in a band again, more than likely I won’t.  I can’t stand the idea of someone taking my emotion output from me and making a mockery of it to be popular or be rich.  I’m perfectly content with writing music with my friends just to write music.