I just looked at the list of posts on my site and wow it’s been over 6 weeks since I’ve blogged. I know you were waiting on baited breath, so I apologize for that.

Lots have happened in the past month and a half, mostly good things, too!

Let’s see:

I finally finished my book! Victory is mine! It’s available here if you’re interested: http://www.mjandreau.com/books/a-sour-chord/ Here’s a summary to help entice you to grab a copy:

Sal Maggione has been struggling to write the perfect song. A song that will help bring his band, So Say The King, to stardom. He’s crumpled up more pieces of paper than he’d ever admit to.

In the midst of his mundane job making coffee and fighting with himself over the song, he meets Samantha. His world is immediately turned on its side and he questions everything that he knows, wants and needs.

Join Sal on his quest to complete the perfect the song, his band’s rise to fame, and his immediate and intense infatuation with Samantha.

A Sour Chord takes you into the mind of a musician trying to live up to the potential that everyone tells him he has.

What else? I had my 5th tattoo removal treatment and that’s going quite well. Rob is confident that they’ll be completely gone after the 10th treatment. And since I’ve helped him so much with his website, anything beyond the 10th treatment will be on him. He’s a great dude. If you need tattoos removed (and really, who doesn’t have at least one embarrassing one?), go see Rob at Disappearing Inc

I had my second to last oral surgery on Friday. One more surgery in about 10 weeks and I’ll be fully on my way to having a working jaw again that won’t fall off my face, so that’s a definite plus. I won’t even add up all of the out-of-pocket expenses I’ve paid there, I’m pretty sure it’ll make me cry.

I’m actively (finally!) working on the rebranding and site rebuilding for MJJ Designs. We picked a new name almost two years ago and am just now getting around to actually doing the work. I think I’ve subconsciously put it off because it’s so daunting and such a pain in the ass. But it’ll get done. I’ll make it happen, it’s long overdue.

I think that’s it, that’s the gigundous update on what I’ve been up to over the last month and a half. Time certain does fly by as I go through the day to day of my life. I’m just glad to be happy, healthy, and able to stand on my own two feet when I need to.

I had meant to get better about blogging, but apparently I let a month go by without blogging here. I guess I have too much going on.  Let’s see what I’ve got going on:

• A Sour Chord — the book’s finally completely and 100% done.  The graphic designer sent me the contract this morning and I’ve signed it and sent it back to him.  I should have a fully designed cover in a few weeks, so I can publish the book and sell handfuls of copies!
• These Are My Stories — while waiting for the book to be finished, I set up a creative outlet for myself to keep writing.  It’s not live yet, but I’m writing short stories that are true about my life.  I realized while on a business trip recently that a lot of the stories I tell — that are completely true — sound like they’re made up.  So I figured why not put them on a site somewhere.  So I’m doing that.  I’ve written two so far, and have recorded spoken word versions of them, so you can hear me tell the story, which I thought was a nice touch.  Once I write a few more, I’ll publish that site.
• Taxes — I finally did my taxes and owe the IRS a whole bunch of money.  I need to get better about paying quarterly taxes this year.  I owe more in taxes than some people made last year. I guess I really can’t complain, I’ve been very lucky that this whole “website” ordeal’s worked out so well for me.
• Exercising — I’ve been on the bike for 45 minutes every day for the past 3 weeks.  I haven’t lost a lot of weight yet (5 pounds, give or take), but I have lost 1.5% of my body fat according to my fancy scale.  I’m happier with losing the body fat than the weight, so I’ll take it.  I’ve decided I’m taking today off, though. My knees have been bothering me lately.  I think the combination of standing at my desk all day and then doing the bike is a bit much.  So I’m sitting down today and not doing the bike.

I think that’s all that’s been going on in the life of me.  I’m a pretty boring person, as you know, so I’m sorry if you’re unexcited about this.

I weighed myself a couple of weeks ago and was very unhappy with what the scale reported back to me.  After it mocked me for a bit, it told me that I currently weigh more than I’ve ever weighed before.  And that’s not cool.

So I did what anyone would do: I went out and bought an exercise bike.  It’s in the corner of my office, conveniently aimed at the TV that sits on my desk.  Coupled with a pair of wireless headphones and my trusty TiVo remote, I’ve been pedaling like crazy while I watch some TV.  It works out pretty well.

I also bought an ab roller based on the advice of a buddy.  I’ve used it a few times, but I’m pretty convinced it’s a device thought up and constructed by the devil himself, so I haven’t been using it as much as I should.  If you’ve never used one before, it’s basically a wheel with handles.  You roll it out in front of you, causing your body to stretch out and your abs have to support your entire body weight.  The first time I did it, I could barely get out of bed the next morning.  My abs haven’t been used like that in years. Probably ever in my lifetime, actually.

But it’s a “good pain”, or so someone who isn’t me might say.

I’ve also been cutting back on my soda intake, to stop having so much caffeine in my system.  Or at least trying to.  After years of drinking mostly nothing but Coke (and Coke Zero in recent years), it’s tough to cut back.  I’ve been getting splitting headaches from the withdrawal that only more caffeine get rid of. It’s kind of terrible. I can’t even imagine weening off something stronger.  Good thing I never tried drugs.

I’m hoping the exercise and less soda will help drop a few pounds.  I figure anything’s gotta be better than nothing, so I’m taking baby steps.

Once I move out of this apartment and can setup my drums again (and actually play them), I’ll get more exercise regularly. And that’s never a bad thing.

It’s not secret that Fitbits are taking over the world.  Everywhere you look, someone’s got one on their wrist or in their pocket.  It’s a great little invention and one that’s being made by dozens of other manufacturers now.

If you don’t know, a Fitbit is essentially a glorified pedometer.  It counts your steps, calories burned and stairs climbed and syncs them (through either your computer or your smart phone) to the web.  You then get pretty graphs about how far you’ve traveled, how many flights you’ve climbed, and a bunch of other stuff that’s supposed to motivate you to be healthier.

Here’s what a random day in January looked like for me.  Yes, I blurred out my weight, ’cause I’m chubby right now. (We’ll get to that shortly.)

I’ve had one for about four years now.  I started with the original on, putting it in my pocket every day, feverishly checking my steps to see how far I’d gone.  I upgraded as new ones came out and they got smaller and smaller.  They now have bracelets that you can wear, but I’m not big into that idea, so I never got that one.

About six weeks ago, I looked at my step history.  It was clear which days were weekends and which days I was out of town for business.  On an ordinary day, since I work from my home office, I didn’t walk all that much.  Most days less than 4,000 steps.  Which, for working at home, is still a lot.

The reason I stopped wearing the Fitbit was because it didn’t do anything for me.  I wasn’t motivated to walk more or be more active in any way.  It was just this thing that sat in my pocket and I’d occasionally go to the Fitbit site and see how poorly I was doing.  Some days, when I’d go out shopping, I’d break 10,000 steps.  Health professionals say that 10,000 is the magic number to stay healthy, but it’s kind of insane if you work an office job.  For me, a mile is about 2,000 steps based on my height and my gate.  That’s 5 miles a day that you should be walking.  FIVE MILES.  That’s a lot of freaking walking every single day.

The other reason I stopped carrying it?  I keep things in my pockets. I’m a guy, that’s normal.  Left pocket is my iPhone, right pocket is my keys.  Imagine worrying that you’re going to drop this tiny little device every single time you reach into your pocket to take your keys out.  Losing it’s a bit deal, too, because it runs you about $100 for one. Here’s the one I was last using for scale (mine was black, but you get the idea)

 

It’s pretty freaking tiny.  Imagine the panic every time you reach into your pocket and it’s not there.  You feel like you’ve essentially thrown away a crisp $100 bill.  Granted, not using it is essentially like throwing it away, too.  But at least I can re-sell it and get some of my money back.

In the years that I wore the Fitbit I stayed relatively the same weight.  More than I want to weigh, hence having this little device to try to help me be healthier.  The fact that I didn’t lose any weight at all is a testament that this little guy isn’t for me.  Will it work for other people? Sure.  Could it work for you? Maybe.  Did it do anything for me? Not a thing.

I’ve fluctuated +/- 5 pounds over the last 3 years, but have stayed relatively the same.  Fitbit didn’t do much for me that I couldn’t do on my own.  Keeping track of my steps and my eating and calories I could easily do on my own, I just don’t care to.  I’m not that type of person.

Is the Fitbit a good product? Sure.  I never had any troubles with them, and the one time I broke part of it, their support sent me an entirely brand new one. (Great experience with their support team, that one time, three years ago.)  For now, Fitbit (or Fitty, as I called him) shall sit in a drawer and collect dust.

Tomorrow morning I’ll head into Disappearing Inc for my third treatment in having my tattoos removed. Note to self: take photos before going in, to photo-document the effectiveness of the second round.  I’m pretty excited about that, especially given how little discomfort there was after the last treatment.

If my math serves me correctly, by the end of the year my treatments should be completely done and all three tattoos should be removed.  It’ll be a weird thing to look in the mirror and not see them, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it in some way.

Other than that, I’ve been chugging away at life.  The two biggest things I’ve been working on are the re-brand of my business and finishing my first book so I can get it up for sale.  Both of which are taking up most of my free time (and some of my not free time, too!)

It’ll be nice to check those items off the never-ending nag of a todo list that I keep.

My standing desk effort has been going quite well.  I got my NextDesk (http://www.nextdesks.com) just over 3 months ago now and I’m still loving it.  Sometimes my knees hurt a bit from standing too still, but then my brain reminds me to shuffle my feet or move around my office a tiny bit, and I feel better.  The addition of a gel mat under my feet when I’m standing has done wonders.

I generally sit for an hour in the morning and then stand until lunch.  Most afternoons are over before I realize I stood the entire thing.  The only time I force myself to sit down is when I’m doing a labor intensive task that requires my full attention — like Excel or editing.  For some reason, my brain prefers to sit while I’m doing those tasks.

I haven’t lost much weight from standing (despite the claims that you burn more calories doing it), but I do feel a lot more healthy.  I wouldn’t say I’m more tired at the end of the day, but I definitely feel fatigued on days where I stand more than I sit. Overall, though, I’m glad I made the purchase.

Here’s a photo of my setup, in case you were curious:

I’m not quite sure why everything seems crooked. Maybe I’m drunk this morning.  Not to mention how cluttered everything is.  But this is how I spend my days working.

On the far left is my new computer (the little black cylinder), behind it is my external hard drive.  My phone sits to the right of that, then some cereal, screens, keyboard (solar powered!) my beverage, speakers and a TV on the far right (for days I want to slack off and watch trashy daytime TV.)

Just your average ordinary run of the mill desk that goes up and down at the push of a button.  One minute I’m standing, the next I’m sitting. Like magic.

 

I’ve had three tattoos on my body since I was 18 years old.  I turned 34 three weeks ago and I’m very clearly not the same person that I was 16 years ago.  I started on my 18th birthday with this little gem

I figured “Hey, I’m a drummer. I’m a badass, let’s get a skull!”  The version of this that I picked out had “Rock & Roll” around it, too, but I asked for that to be removed.  The artist said he’d have not done the tattoo with the wording.  I wish, all these years later, that he’d have talked me out of putting this on my body at all.  It’s been on my upper right arm for over 16 years now.

Around a month later, my best friend at the time turned 18. So I did what any good friend does, I took him first to a strip club and then to a tattoo parlor — the same one I went to for my 18th birthday.  I got this gem:

What’s the meaning of it? What does it symbolize?  Absolutely nothing. It symbolizes that I had $40 on me after I paid for John’s tattoo and this was the $40 tattoo I could afford.

Then it gets interesting from there.  I worked with the artist, who’s name I believe was Steven, to design a piece for my back. An epic piece of giant proportions and amazing color and design!  I loved it, so much!  I went in one day with the $1500 in hand ready to have it done, only to be told that there wasn’t enough time to get it all done that day.  18 year old me had no idea how long it’d take to do, so I left empty handed.

When I finally went back to do the piece, the artist felt bad and only charge me $100 for the entire session, which lasted close to 10 hours.  (I may be misremembering that total amount of time, but it was definitely over 8 hours because we got there at noon and left after dark.)

This beauty has been on my back since March (or April, I really can’t remember) of 1998

It’s tough to tell the scale of it from the crappy iPhone photo (I’m taking actual photos of the removal process with my camera and will post a gallery when that’s all done in about 18 months), but it’s from shoulder to shoulder and around 10″ tall.  It’s, according to the removal guy, Rob, the largest tattoo that he could do in a single sitting.

So there you have it, there’s the backstory on the tattoos and if you know me at all now, you know why I would want to have these removed.  They’re definitely not me.  The “Destination Unknown” still sort of describes me, but I have a pretty firm grasp on what I’m doing now and have a good idea of where I’ll end up in life.

I met with Rob, the owner and operator of Disappearing Inc (what an awesome name for this type of business, right?!) on September 28th, the day before my 34th birthday.  He answered all of my questions, gave me an estimate, showed me how the laser worked, and just chatted about the tattoos in general.  He was quite surprised to find out how old the two on my arms were, because they’re in such great shape.  Apparently being a shut in and hardly ever going out in the sun will keep your tattoos looking good longer, who knew!?

I scheduled my first appointment for October 19th (yesterday as of the day I’m writing this post) and went in for my first treatment.  I won’t lie, I was nervous — probably because I’d been stewing over how much it would hurt for three weeks after my consultation.  Despite what you read online about the process, pain is a subjective thing.  What hurts you may not hurt me and vise versa.

I sat down in the chair, took off my shirt and told Rob to do his work.  I will say that I didn’t go meet any other professionals in the area, I didn’t interview multiple companies or talk to a bunch of laser removal guys.  I met Rob and he was great, he knew his stuff and was an extremely nice guy. I didn’t need to look anywhere else.

Thankfully, that wasn’t just a ruse to get me to come in for a treatment during the consultation. Rob’s genuinely a really nice guy and having him talk to you during the entire process was quite helpful.  Having a conversation certainly helped keep your mind off the process.  For all three tattoos, it was around a 45 minute process, which is what he expected it to be.

During the process, he’d ask me if I was okay before moving on to the next tattoo.  He told me, before we ever started, that the back would hurt considerably more than the arms, which was what I was expecting.  I got the tattoos so long ago that I didn’t quite remember the exact amount of pain, but I knew the back was more substantial than the arms (and took a lot longer, too.)

So the all important questions that I know you’re dying to ask:

What does it feel like?

If you read anything about tattoo removal, you’ll probably read that it feels like someone snapping you with a rubber band.  A fair description, but not what I experienced.  To me, it felt more like being shocked by a 9 volt battery.  Which sounds pretty terrible, but it’s actually not.  The laser only hits you for a fraction of a second at a time and depending on what process you’re doing, it’ll either hit you once per second, twice per second of five times per second. (We did two per second on my arms and 5 per second on my back.)

The back was quite uncomfortable. Not because it hurts, but because your body’s natural reaction is to move away from something zapping you.  I had to, at times, tell my body to sit still and a few times thought “he’s gotta almost be done.”  At one point Rob said “we’re about halfway done” which was a nice surprise.  He gave me updates again when we had a third left and just about as we finished.

I wouldn’t say it’s painful, but it’s uncomfortable.  It’s not the best experience I’ve ever had in my lifetime, for sure, but I don’t imagine it’s much worse than getting the actual tattoo, either.

Once we were done, Rob hit me with the cooling hose (which is used to numb the area before the process starts) for a bit, to help soothe the skin.  My entire back and both uppers arms were swollen for most of last night.

How do you feel the day after?

Rob warned me that it’d feel like I had a sunburn, which is exactly what it feels like.  I was uncomfortable sitting on the couch most of last night, constantly squirming and trying to find a place that was less painful to press against my back.  Sleeping wasn’t great last night, either.

This morning I feel pretty okay.  Okay enough to put a shirt on today, anyway.  It’s still a little sore on my back, but less so on my arms.  It’s a dull sunburn pain right now and I’m sure if I put some aloe on or took some Advil, I’d feel considerably better. (Note to self: do that when you’re done rambling.)

Rob warned me that it’d be a couple of days before I felt back to good.

Do you notice a difference?

Rob warned me that I wouldn’t.  He said that many people that come in for their first treatment don’t come back because they don’t see a difference with the first treatment.  He said it’s quite uncommon to see a difference after a single treatment — but I do.

Little bits of color here and there are fading, some of the black lines are already fading and disappearing.

The really cool thing is that as the day went on yesterday, the tattoos seems to keep evolving.  It wasn’t an immediate “oh hey! that line is gone!” sort of thing.  Every time I looked in the mirror, I noticed a little bit of blurring on a different line and some more fading.

That’s not to say that you’d notice the difference if you just casually looked at it (that’ll take many treatments), but if I start hard enough, I can see where the ink is fading already. Which is promising.

What does it cost?

That was on my biggest question going in — and one that you’ll be hard pressed to find an answer to online.  Rob offers completely free (and extremely no pressure) consultations to look at your tattoos.  A lot of factors go into the pricing, such as your skin tone, the size of the tattoo, the depth of the ink, etc.  Having a professional look at it is the best way to find out the cost and how many sessions it’ll take.

For my three tattoos, which is around a total of 100 square inches (I think that’s the total we came up with), each session would be $450.  Which, yes, is a lot of money, I agree.

Rob, being as awesome as he is, gives you a discount if you prepay for sessions. If you pay for 5, you get 15% off. If you pay for 10, you get 25% off.  So, being me, I paid for the 10 sessions up front and saved $1125.  Worth it.

What’s next?

My next appointment is December 14th, where we’ll do the exact same thing again for the same 45 minutes.  After the second or third treatment, I should see more and more progress on the colors coming out of the skin.  I’m happy with the process after the first and can’t wait to see what happens after the next handful of treatments.

I’m taking some good photos after each process so I can document what it actually looks like each time (rather than just before and after shots) and will post a gallery when I’m all done with the entire thing.

If you’re considering going through this process and have any questions that you’re too scared to ask a professional or want an honest answer, feel free to ask in the comments.  I’m new to the process but am glad to answer anything I can.

Some plans got changed and scheduled rearranged, which freed me up to take a quick jaunt down to New Jersey with Megan this past weekend.  Her grandfather was turning 90 and she didn’t want to make the trip alone, so I ended up going with her.  I’d never actually been to New Jersey, so I figured why not.

The only previous experience I’d had with New Jersey was stopping at a rest stop a few years back, I’m guessing in Newark, and hated it.  It was smelly and slow and just an overall bad experience.

This time, however, was completely different.  I can honestly say after my short weekend there that I love New Jersey.

We stayed in a little beach town called Manasquan.  The hotel was about half a mile to the beach, which was convenient since the plan was to spend Friday there.  It was one of the nicest hotels I’ve stayed at in many years.  Normally I feel let down with a hotel because it’s so boring, but this one was quite nice.  It’s called Inn on Main (innonmainmanasquan.com) and I quite enjoyed it, including the little balcony we had and the fireplace.

Friday we headed to the beach and spent the day being lazy and enjoying ourselves.  Megan’s a big beach person, so she spent some time in the water while I laid under the gigantic umbrella/tent thing I bought, reading. The thought of salt water makes me want to vomit, but I went in for a little bit to appease her.

Friday night, once we’d showered and washed the salt water off ourselves, we went to Point Pleasant Beach, to one of the many famous boardwalks.  We played mini-golf and walked on the boardwalk, stopping to play games, have funnel cake for dinner, and eat ice cream.

Sadly, Megan somehow fractured her foot while we were there, so we had to cut things short.  The following morning we went to an urgent care facility and had some x-rays to confirm the diagnosis of OUCH.  Crutches, some pain pills, an ace bandage and 30 minutes later, we were on our way.

Her grandfather’s birthday party was later in the afternoon and since we’d decided to just head home early, we stopped by his house to say hello so it wasn’t a wasted trip.  Her mother and step-father were there, as well as some aunts and uncles and cousins, so they got to spend some time together before we left.

It was a long six hour drive home, getting stuck in traffic in almost every single state, but we made it home. Madison the cat was happy to see Megan, so that was good.

Reasons I love New Jersey:

• Efficiency: everywhere I went was efficient.  The Dunkin Donuts was one of the fastest I’ve ever been to.  The urgent care facility had us in and out in about half an hour.
• Polite people: everyone was so polite. From the waitresses where we ate, to the people on the beach, to the guy at the gas station.  Everyone was so polite.
• The beach: I’m not big on swimming, but I love people watching and I got to do lots of that while we were there.
• The little main street in Manasquan: I’ve always said I wanted to live in a little town where there’s a main street like in Pleasantville and this town had one.

There’s a bunch more reasons, but overall I loved it and you get the idea.  It was a great little vacation and I’m hopeful that I’ll get to go back at some point in the future!  Here’s some of the photos I took with my phone (the camera is still packed, but I’ll upload those eventually.)