The Breakfast Buzz is a thoughtful bunch aren’t they…

Warning: It’s super mushy and may make you hurl before breakfast.

Men take notes, women…be jealous.

The note reads: “My Love, You mean everything to me! I hate the misery I  will feel when we are apart, but I know the week will end and I will see and feel you soon! Love you sooo much!”

I finally did it: I got my first Tattoo!!!!!

This Tattoo is of a Siberian Blue Robin and a black crow. So what’s the meaning? The robin is in honor of my mother, whose name was Robin (and thus the good in my life). The black crow symbolizes the opposite of what is good in my life, and thus shows balance. Duality is one of my core beliefs, and as you may have been able to tell, the birds are in the shape of a Yin Yang to further symbolize duality. To take the point even further, water and fire are both present.

I want to thank JET from LOVE/HATE Tattoo. Not only was he extremely professional, amazingly fast, and very tolerant of my weak ass (I almost passed out 5 minutes in), he is simply an amazing artist. My wife, Jessi, also got herself a really nice tat (her second) which is also shown to the left.

CHECK OUT LOVE/HATE TATTOO: CLICK HERE!!!

PS… Nice hair right?

In 5 days I will be MARRIED!!! Let me answer some of the most common and overly asked questions I get…

1. Are you excited?

- No. Not at all. Why would I be excited about the biggest day of my young life? That’s sarcasm, of course I’m excited!!!

2. Are you nervous?

- If you’re nervous about getting married then why are you getting married? I’m a little nervous about the day going well, but really there’s little I can do about that… it will be great I’m sure.

3. Are you ready?

-This question drives me nuts! No, I’m not ready. Are we supposed to have a venue for this? We didn’t really invite anyone either… LOL yes we are ready… or at least as ready as we’re going to be.

4. How many days until the big day?

- I don’t have a problem with this question, unless you’re my boss who has asked me literally every day for the last 2 weeks.

I’m just having fun… I love that people care enough to ask me about the wedding, even if the questions are repetitive. Thanks to everyone for caring!

I feel better about my guest list now. I want to thank all of you who responded to my previous blog where I was having a slight meltdown on who was going to be on my guest list. My main concern, now that I really sit down and think about it, isn’t inviting family over friends. To be honest, I’m way too appreciative of my family to not invite them, even if I have barely had contact with them. The fact is I wouldn’t be here without family, and I at least owe them all a night of food and spirits.

My real concern is money. I have a number that I can spend, period. There are two other parties contributing to this as well, and it’s supposed to be equal. My concern is that when everything averages out I’m going to have to spend more money on the whole thing, which could destroy any aspirations for a real honeymoon. THAT bugs me more then anything.

My Dad reassured me, however, that this won’t be a problem. In fact, my whole family has reassured me. I guess I’m just cracking a bit to the pressure of putting on a great day for everyone ya know? Is this normal for the groom to freak out like I’ve been and feel a lot of preassure?

I’m freaking out. My wedding is June 27th at the Lockport Locks (CLICK HERE). It’s going to be a beautiful day and I’m sure everyone will have a great time. I should be excited, but I’m not… I’m freaking out.

I’m NOT freaking out about marrying Jessi, let me make that clear first and foremost. That is actually the easy part. The guest list ,however, is killing me. How do you prioritize your guests? Jessi has a great rule: ask yourself if you care about this person now and if you’re going to care about them in the future. This is a great rule unless we’re talking about family and family friends, in which case it goes right out the window. I don’t know Aunt Mary Anne Joe Sue Bob, but you better believe she’s coming. It’s not fair because I have to filter out friends as a result of said Aunt to keep our number in the proper ball park. It sucks, but then again I get it. The wedding is for the families ultimately, not for us. Thankfully we’ve gotten a lot of say in how we are getting married and where, which is more than some people get.

My main problem is I hate myself for taking a long time friend off the invite list, even if I never talk to them. Actually, I just am scared to death of upsetting anyone by not inviting them to my wedding. I have it stuck in my head that if I leave someone off the invite list that they will hate me forever. It’s ridiculous, I know, and I shouldn’t worry about it but I do.  I hate making anyone unhappy, and it’s a massive flaw of mine. Because of this, I’m losing my mind about my wedding. UGHHHH!!!!

Have you ever stopped and asked what the hell is in Diet Pop (or soda for those of you who were raised poorly… that’s a joke)? I admit, I am not a big label reader. It used to be that I could care less about what is in my food so long as it is tasty.

In fact it wasn’t until I met Jessi, my fiancee, that I started to question what is in my food. Jessi is a vegetarian who believes in eating organic foods. She has never forced this lifestyle on me, but over time I have tried some of the organic stuff. I actually really like it. I am not a vegetarian, for the record, but I’ve come to understand and appreciate the lifestyle.

Something I used to drink a lot of of was Diet Pop. I mean why not really? It’s pop with zero calories! Jessi hated this because she said that a chemical called aspartame was in all Diet Pop. She claims it is  a bad chemical that causes health problems.

I dismissed this idea until just after the passinf of mother. She probably had roughly 5 cans of diet pop a day. She was also a smoker, which is never good. She died from Pancreatic Cancer at the age of 56. There is no history of this disease in my family, so the reason for her getting the deadliest of cancers can’t be linked to DNA. When I talked to the doctors about how she could have gotten this, they mentioned smoking, but said in all likelihood that it wasn’t the primary reason. They claim it was just “bad luck.”

The Pancreas produces insulin and enzymes that break down carbohydrates in your digestive system. In other words, it works with sugar. So many people seem to fear sugar, because too much of it makes you fat and can lead to diabetes and heart problems. As a result people use sweeteners, which are almost always aspartame.

My mother was like a lot of people; she cut the carbs out, ate and drank diet foods, and was able lose a few pounds or at least maintain her weight. What I think is she ate too much food containing aspartame. I believe aspartame confused her pancreas, which was no longer dealing with sugar. Instead of processing the natural sugar your body needs, she instead was getting synthetic chemicals that have been proven to cause serious health problems in every lab rat it has been tested on, including death. I think diet foods are on the way to causing an epidemic in this country. Pancreatic cancer rates are on the rise. So are Colon and stomach cancers. With that, aspartame consumption is going up because so many foods contain it now. Did you know you can’t walk into Wegmans and find a single type of chewing gum that doesn’t contain it? This isn’t Wegman’s fault of course.

I don’t blame people for wanting to be skinny. I don’t blame grocers for carrying so many products containing aspartame. I do blame for the food producers for using it and FDA for not banning it, but that’s for another blog. My point is that maybe you should cut back on your aspartame filled diet foods. Nothing is bad for you in moderation, but everything is bad for you in abundance. If you want to control your weight, then do what you’re supposed to do and cut back your portions. Eat more veggies and LEAN meats. Or simply learn to love yourself!

I might be wrong in assuming aspartame killed my mother, but I don’t think I am. Just some food for though, pun intended.

I just want to take a moment to give props to my home town of East Aurora, NY.  They purchased the rink used for the Winter Classic at Ralph Wilson Stadium and set it up right in the middle of town, permanently. Now they rent it out for anyone to skate on!!! I was going to have the privilege of playing on it this past Thanksgiving, but I caught the damn flu. FAIL!

East Aurora is one of the USA’s last true towns. Some of the original stores still stand and operate, such as the world famous Vidler’s (CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT).

President Millard Filmore grew up in East Aurora and you can visit his house to this day. Also, it is the home of Fisher Price, which displays giant toys on their front lawn all year. They used to do a massive Toy Fest every year, but for some reason they haven’t been doing it lately… For more info about the town, check out EastAurora.org (CLICK HERE)

In any event, I’m proud to say that East Aurora is now the home of the Winter Classic Ice Rink!!! Check it out by CLICKING HERE!!!

If you have any pictures of your visit to the Winter Classic, be it the game itself or the rink in East Aurora, send them to me!!!  PatTheProducer at rochesterbuzz.com

Picture from the Buffalo News, http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/531876.html

My wedding is this June and I am really excited about the whole thing!!! Some guys may dread it, but I just can’t wait to officially marry Jessi. She gets beat up on the show a lot by Kimberly and Beck, who think that getting married is a joke to begin with because of their failures… I mean their misfortunes But really she is an AMAZING woman who truly gets me and puts up with more crap then you could imagine.

Jessi wants more input from me on what kinds of gifts we should ask for from our guests at the wedding and shower. My default answer is money, because we have enough crap to fill a 3 bedroom house. Plus, we live in a single bedroom apartment right now and have no room for a bunch of stuff. However, we could always upgrade what we have right?

As a man I’m just not sure what to ask for aside from a huge TV, which probably isn’t happening.  So if you have any suggestions please leave them in the comments section or e-mail me,  pattheproducer at rochesterbuzz.com.