the view from pineapple hq: vol 1

This story has beginning middle and end like most. If you know me in the real world and you've ever heard me tell a story.. well uh I would but.. well you will lose a few minutes but you get a glimpse into my stoner brain.

The story of njlegalize.me began someday in November 2017it was the 16th day in fact according to the whois records. As I've said many times before I'm just a stoner Dad from New Jersey with a moderately popular website and twitter handle. Around that time I'd been working to close the deal on a new project but it fell through at the last minute. I run my own business and I needed a new project murph dawg had just been elected and promised to legalize weed in his first 100 days.. and now 1030ish days past then here we are today.

It was all in a flash.. the time where does it goooo..  *poof* now it's around 1AM 6/29/2019 and then there I was in the back of this Uber. I'd just been over my buddy's house all day brewing beer. It was more than a hobby for us. At that time we had dreams to open our own brewery and they may still come true someday. It was a double batch the party was coming up and we had to be ready. I had more weed on me than normal but it was nothing crazy 1/12thish of what today you can carry. I didn't think anything of it really. That was until the driver blew that STOP sign. It wasn't more than 15 secs later when I saw the flashing lights. The details about that moment in time are not important but the events later that nite and the next few days and weeks are.

As I was released from custody it was about 2:30 am the officer asked me "do you want me to call you an Uber?" I walked home. That was a low point for me. Walking 2.8 miles home the emotions I felt ranged from anger to sadness to shame to questioning everything I'd done in my life to that point and all at the same time. I really remember the weight of at all. I'd unfortunately been arrested for weed before but this was different I was Dad now. I didn't want my "mistakes" to burden my family. How was I going to deal with this? 

When I woke the next day I was still a mess with *all the feelings* it was Saturday the Phish from Vermont had been playing Camden. I had plans to go with my brahs that we brewed with Friday. I wasn't sure about going really until my wife asked me what time I was leaving on Sunday. That picked me up a bit. I had bought the infamous pineapple suit weeks earlier. At the time I really wasn't sure what I was going to do with it but there it was on Sunday staring at me. Still not really sure what I was doing but I started making PB&J's and grabbed a bunch of waters. Got my wife's longboard skateboard out. Two bungie cords and two coolers. One hard and one soft. A small peice of cardboard and Sharpie. It was out there in that Camden lot when everything got real. 

END WEED ARRESTS TODAY 

I shouted it towards anyone and everyone. It was that day everything really changed to me. I met and talked to many phishy folks that day. I told my story they shared theirs. I offered Free PB&J and water and lent my ear as they did theirs. I cried a few times. The hardest during that Reba.  By the end of that show I felt better it was clear to me that the stoopid weed site I had started had meaning. Something I surely knew but hadn't really registred yet. My story was unique cause Uber but I was hardly alone in this club. That day the stories I shared and the stories others shared with me told me no it's not a stoopid weed website.  

This is my story..

I'll tell it the way I always do in short bursts and out of order..

the story of that pineapple guy