Return of the BLOG (Where I’ve been, what I’m up to, & what to expect here)

I know, I know, I’m horrible. My last post on here was April 7, 2010, which is now over three years ago. So many things have happened since my last post that I almost do not know where to begin, for anyone who happens across this blog and is not an immediate acquaintance of mine. Which I also know is highly unlikely. Why the hell would anyone who does not know me or at least know of me be reading this blog? Well, I suppose, just in case, I should just do a quick catching up, a la Depeche Mode in 1985.

The first significant thing was that I left the hospital I had worked at in August of 2010. The second significant event was that on August 21, 2010 at the 2nd Annual Team Serra BBQ, I was promoted to the level of Blue Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by Senseis Matt & Nick Serra. It was an amazing experience and one of the proudest moments of my life. I am so glad that both my wife & daughter were there to experience it with me.

Soon after, I decided that I was going to pursue one of my great passions in life, baking. I enrolled in the Institute of Culinary Education’s Pastry & Baking Arts program. I learned from some incredibly amazing chefs that I will forever be indebted to: Jeff Yoskowitz, Sim Cass, Scott McMillen, and Chad Pagano. I worked very hard, studied a lot and graduated with high honors.

I interned at a cupcake shop and then worked there for a while and the amount of pay and the number of hours I was getting were just not where I needed them to be to help my wife support our family. We decided to start Put It In Your Face (https://www.facebook.com/PutItInYourFace) an internet based bakery. Things were going well during the holidays and dropped off pretty hard in the summer and we just weren’t pulling in enough consistent clientele and didn’t have the start up for a store front or food truck. Either of which would have greatly benefited our product.

In the summer of 2012 I realized that the business was, unfortunately, going to have to become a side project and that I would have to find full time employment elsewhere. I worked as a merchandiser for Kellogg’s for about five months, stocking supermarket shelves with cookies, crackers, and granola bars. Setting up and breaking down displays and my back (figuratively) in the process.

Then in December of this year, with the help of a good friend’s wife, I was able to land a job as an office manager in Chelsea. And here I am, five months later, writing this blog. I know, not exactly in the culinary or entertainment field. Well, about that, here’s the thing; I have a wife, a daughter, two dogs, a mortgage, and two cars. I think it’s safe to assume you can see where I am getting at with this.

However, I am still training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (not as often as I would like but I still average twice a week,) I still have Put It In Your Face, I’m still dragging my wife all over to check out places to eat, and here I am, writing. And I am going to endeavor to do a lot more writing from now on. As well as what you will find here, I am an occasional contributor over at www.burgerweekly.com (you can find past pieces from here: http://www.burgerweekly.com/tag/christopher ) and whenever they post me there I will link to it on here.

I’m going to have to backtrack a bit here because another thing that I definitely need to mention is that back in the late 80s I was really into comic books, mostly Batman. Once I started High School, I got away from collecting and all my comics and graphic novels sat in a box in the crawl space of my parent house and then my attic. Well, DC Comics decided that on August 31, 2011 they would restart all their series over to issue #1 with many titles having a completely revamped continuity. My good friend Chris Brady decided that it would be an excellent time to jump back into comics. At first I laughed, asked him if he was kidding and then was gently persuaded to pick up Justice League #1. And that’s all it took, I read more titles now than I ever did as a kid. I follow quite a few titles on a monthly basis and through trade paper backs have caught up on quite a few awesome tales that I missed while I was away.

I love comics and I really need to thank Chris for getting me back into them and I also really need to thank Zach and Tommy of the most awesome local comic shop there is, Best Comics International in New Hyde Park, NY. They have been nothing but cool to me since I first walked through their door, welcoming me with open arms, making suggestions, but not pushing anything on me, and answering any questions I might have. What an awesome crew over there! I definitely urge you to check out their web site: http://www.bestcomics.com/index.html , and if you’re in the area, you need to hit their store!

OK, so I think I covered the where I’ve been and what I’m up to. I think all that’s left is to tell you what to expect here. To state the obvious, this is my blog and I’m going to write about the things that I dig: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, baking, cooking, eating out, MMA, music, film, books, comics, stand-up comedy, television, and whatever else I happen to feel like running my mouth about. You will occasionally find short stories, poetry, memoirs, and lyrics by yours truly here.

Feel free to comment on here and you can also follow me over on twitter @huntingforjoy where I will drop a link whenever the blog is updated. I promise that I am going to do my best to blog as often as possible, about as much as possible. Thanks for reading.