Brick and Mortar Friends...Meet Virtual Friends. You Both Are Awesome!!

Cheers Chuckleheads and Happy Friday to you all.

The past couple of days both on the IWS website and Wednesday’s IWS Radio show, Jayman and I covered the topic of Human Trafficking.  It is an important topic to cover, to expose, and we are glad that we did, but, well?

It’s not the most joy inducing topic to cover, so today?  I’m going to write about something that is just plain syrupy sweet, and smile bearing.

Many of you know that my BFF/OSP got very sick in late October, had major surgery in mid-December which was quite successful by the way, but we had an incredibly difficult time getting unemployment for her due her to her dickhead of a boss and thus she had and has, yet to receive any type of paycheck or unemployment compensation since November 9th.

Prior to her illness, Schmoop and I had it going on financially.  We had just paid off the car, and while not rich or even well off, we were, “we can occasionally order a pizza on a weekday without the worry if we have the money” comfortable.

And then…

Like many Americans, our financial comfort zone, which relies on two people working to make ends meet and occasionally having the aforementioned pizza, took a nosedive due to an illness.

With this knowledge in hand, my dear friend and radio partner Jayman, along with the wonderful, yet never get drunk with her on your couch, Dana, set up the WeLoveSchmoop fund on PayPal, in hopes of getting Schmoop and I through the time until she would get some type of compensation.

Well, you lovable incorrigibles, it worked!!

Schmoop is going back to work for 25 hours a week for awhile starting Monday.  Yes, we could fight the appeal to her unemployment leveled by her inconsiderate, and selfish boss, and win, but that could take another six weeks, and we can’t afford that, but…

Thanks to Jayman and Dana starting the WeLoveSchmoop fund, we can somewhat relax, thank them, and thank all of you for your generous response to it.

Because of your kindness, we made our December rent, our bills, and we should squeak by this month as well. And for that, and to all of you, we are eternally grateful.

In addition to Jay and Dana who began the fund, I want to thank those of you who contributed, but in order to avoid awkwardness, I will thank you by first name only.

Jamie, Katherine, Mike, Dana, Jon, Jay, Katherine, Russel, Sherri, Angie, Rene, LMT, Linda, Kelley, (a different) Katherine, and Sarah.

We would not have made it if it weren't for the generosity of you fine folks, so may your God bless you, and thank you.

In addition to all of you, Schmoop’s brother David and my brothers were incalculably helpful and thoughtful throughout this situation. So to them, as I would say to any good Irish Catholic man…L’chaim, and Praise Blitzkrieg Benny!!

I also want to thank all of the neighborhood Beer Mine patrons for bringing me food (yes, even the deer meat, D-Law), and affording me rides home from work as David drove Schmoop to C-Bus and stayed in Columbus with Schmoop the entire time, leaving me transportationless.

I thank all of my friends on Facebook for the kind words and especially the words from Stephen and Emily, who knowing me from nowhere else other than Facebook, offered to let me stay with them while Schmoop was in the hospital and the hospital was close to their home.  That…is…kindness.

Lastly, I would like to thank a former IWS guest and one of IWS’ best friends, Missalicious.

Throughout this entire ordeal, especially during the days prior to the surgery when no one knew if it was cancerous or not; be it on Facebook or over the phone, Miss would talk to me everyday, and she made sure we had Thanksgiving dinner.

So to all of you wonderful people, Schmoop and I say thanks, and you better make damn sure, that if you ever need help in a situation like this, let us know, because we will pay it forward.

Cheers and Thank You,

Matt-Man (and Schmoop...by Proxy)

mattmaniws@ymail.com
MattMan_IWS

The WeLoveSchmoop Fund is Now Open!

Hola caring and decent folks! Jayman here. So, as you probably know, our friend and Matt-Man’s BFF/OSP Schmoop has been going through quite the medical ordeal over the last six weeks or more. I won’t go through all of it, but you probably remember that she turned yellow back in October. Needless to say Matt-Man and others found this to be a bit disconcerting.

Schmoop ended up going to the hospital there in Bagwine and after a couple of days of tests and poking and prodding (Ed. Note: That’s Hot!) they said “Welp. You have a blocked bile duct, but we don’t know what to do about it. Better send you over to tOSU Med Center.”

After eight days there and tons more tests they finally drilled a hole through the blocked bile duct and put a tube in Schmoop (which is still in her) to drain the bile that was building up. Now that she is back to a normal color and back up to her playing weight, they are ready to go in and remove the mass that was blocking the bile duct.

This surgery will last anywhere from 3 to 7 hours and might include cutting out parts of her pancreas, liver and stomach depending on whether or not they can get the mass easily and whether or not it’s cancer.

Wait, I said I wasn’t going to go into all the details, didn’t I?

Okay, here’s the deal. Schmoop’s boss created a situation where she was unable to draw the unemployment benefits that HE TOLD HER TO APPLY FOR! So, because of that, she has missed out on at least six weeks of UE benefits. Needless to say this lost income has left Schmoop and Matt in pretty dire economic circumstances.

On Monday I got an email from Dana Lu with an idea of what we could do. She said we should set up a PayPal Acct for people to donate to so that Matt and Schmoop won’t end up homeless. I had been thinking of the same idea so we agreed to see what Matt-Man thought of it tell Matt-Man that we were going to do it. At first he didn’t like the idea, but eventually gave into my reasonable reasoning with him.

The idea is to try to help Schmoop recover the income she lost during this time that she has been denied UE benefits. So, with the help of Dana, here is a handy dandy little button that you can click on and make a donation to the WeLoveSchmoop Fund!

You don’t even need to have a PayPal acct. You can donate using your debit and credit cards. Just click the button and then put in the amount you want to donate (it’s up to you, no fixed amounts or minimums are set) and then over on the left side it tells how to use your debit or credit card. Or, if you do have PayPal you can donate by sending the money to the official email of the WeLoveSchmoop Fund which is ….

WeLoveSchmoop@yahoo.com

It’s so simple even I can do it!!!

So there you go folks, a chance to help a great human being whom we all love so very much. The donate button will also be on the right sidebar here for the next few weeks. This isn’t an open-ended thing and we won’t badger you (much) to donate. But, GIVE TIL IT HURTS PEOPLE!