How is it almost May!?

Hello my friends and welcome new readers!  I cannot flipping believe it's going to be May, in 4 days!  I really, really hope kids still do May 1st Baskets, if not, let's bring it back!  #Bringthemaybasketback....little bursts of happiness left on your porch.  That'll get a smile from the neighbor who won't let you park in their driveway!  Trust me, you want little nuggets like that, Mr. Rogers would not tell a lie.  I always got along with my neighbors.  Well..maybe I take that back...I used to live at Raintree apartments, when I was about 21, and in hair school, and doing a lot of extracurricular activities.  I also worked at Chili's (yes, Baby Back Rib Chili's) in fact I remember getting cut off on my 21st birthday at Baby Back Rib Chili's; jeez, I was obnoxious sometimes.  But....back to being a bad neighbor!  I've hung out with lots of different groups of people, some constant and some temporary in my life, but back then I was hanging out with my hair school friends or my Chili's friends.  My Chili's friends were mostly from Wichita and we all got along great.  Two of us were very close friends and he introduced me to about 5 or 6 of his close friends.  We all used to go out and party and then we would go back to my place because I lived alone.  We would have ecstasy or coke (not to be confused with pepsi....pepsi didn't have cocaine in it!;) delivered from our drug dealer buddy at like 2am.  If you've never done ecstasy, mushrooms, acid....those don't kick in right away....those kind of sneak up on you, so you might not peek, which is when you start tripping essentially, for like an hour, and then it's like ohhhhh sh*t, we in it now, everybody get a buddy and a glow stick!  I was a terrible neighbor back then!  You should never do hallucinogenics in an apartment complex, too confining.  Come to think of it, or a McDonald's drive-thru, or in your friends basement, alone for the first time, or in any small room you might get stuck in because you're literally too scared to come out....I mean what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, am I right!? 

So here we are, almost May of 2022.  May 15th, 2020 I moved into my little Riverside duplex with my girl Zobi, where I am at currently.  May of 2021 I relapsed after being told I had stage 4 cirrhosis.  I had stopped drinking from February to May, then I thought, maybe I could have 1, while working out of town...that did not work.  Shocker.  Last summer I barely went outside, I would peak out of the door to grab my groceries and back to the couch I went.  I watched a lot of Netflix, and tried to figure out how I was not going to end up a total failure, I could barley take care of my dog.  But first, I needed to be able to walk up my stairs without my legs giving out and me falling over like humpty dumpty.  Now that we're back from that, this summer I am making it my goal to not end up in the hospital for an alcohol related illness.  The only way I see that happening is if someone ties me up and lights me on fire with Bacardi 151; like a human flaming Dr. Pepper.  Please no one do that, thank you in advance!

I started out this summer with Mr. Snoop Dogg himself, Warren G, and Ice Cube in KC at the Azura Outdoor Theatre last Friday night.  I went with my cousin, her BF (aka. the neighbors) and my favorite red-headed manfriend.  We actually were able to drive instead of taking Uber because I could be the DD.  Actually I didn't drive to or from the show, but I could have, and that's what's important.  You know how much money I have spent in Ubers over the years?  I could have paid off my car, "isn't it ironic" Alanis!  So we're driving to the show, which is about 20 mins from our AirB&B in Westport.  We decide to stop at Legends on the way to the concert for dinner.  Everywhere we went was like a 30 to 90 min wait.  So we end up putting our name in at Jazz (it's such a good Cajun spot) and we walked to this place called the Dancing Crab.  We walk in and it's about a 10 minute wait, perfect.  But it's kind of different, it's supposed to be like a NOLA Cajun seafood place but it also had a very Asian vibe.  Like Asian Cajun.  That's what we coined it.  But what was so funny was our waiter, super nice guy, very friendly, but he also had a thick accent, not a bad thing, just a part of the story:).  So every time we ordered, he was simultaneously putting in the order on a handheld Ipad device, and after each order he would say, SURE!  But it sounded like SHO!  So I just kept thinking Lil John was at our table yelling Shot, shot, shot shot, shot, shot shot, shot shot, everyyyyboooody.  Sidebar- phone rings and my friend answers, this is RA, then I hear, okay thank you and hangs up...who was that?  To which he replies, that was Jazz...our table is ready!  LOL.  

All of the sudden we're eating Crab legs and a shrimp boil out of gigantic steam bags on a paper'd table with bibs and plastic gloves!  Literally the most random, spontaneous, hilarious dinner I have ever been apart of.  Now it's 7:26pm and we're heading to the concert...that starts in 4 minutes....but we're super close, so it shouldn't take long.  I even went to Target for a tiny purse and was out in 2 minutes...that's a record.  We get to this stoplight around a curve, a mile or two away, and see the line.  We have no idea where this line goes and how long it is.  But there are other people at a stand still and there are some random signs that say Lawn Parking straight ahead.  This looks promising....we walked into the concert at almost 9:50pm, give or take, but Oh My Gosh it was worth it.  We were hearing music from the car and kept telling ourselves we'll get there.  We park, barely, it's a shit show for parking.  It's windy, it's dusty, it's post apocalyptic at the top, where your vendors and porta potties are.  We finally get to a good standing spot, on an elevated hill, that's also concrete; so glad I wore sneakers instead of "my all blue chucks"!  We get to see about 1/2 of Ice Cube's set, awesome, but then about an hour later Snoop comes on.  Man he brought such a vibe to KC, fully equipped with the All Star pole dancing team, OMG, that was impressive.  He slowed down "Lodi Dodi" in a way I had never heard before.  My manfriend was standing with his arms around me and whispered in my ear, this is amazing...and it was.  I felt so free at that concert, we were outside, there was NO DRAMA around us, there were no masks, there was just people, all ages and lots of diversity, and everybody was having a good time!  Which I don't know about you, but that kind of energy is what I want in my life right now.  For his closer Snoop played "Young, Wild and Free".  I knew that song, but I loved how he sang it.  He said, this is my anthem to Kansas City, it was beautiful.  I cried, at Snoop, lol!  I cried happy tears, instead of sad ones.  I am actually looking forward to May of 2022.  Hopefully this is the beginning to getting back on track, setting actual and attainable goals for myself, and giving back to the people who gave me so much love, support and forgiveness over the last year.  Cheers to Shirley Temple's, I owe you guys a beer, or root beer, if you wanna try BAC free! ❤

P.S - This is a recording I found via You Tube so the sound quality isn't great but you get it, enjoy my friends and remember.....#bringthemaybasketback! ✌