The Funtasian

Here it is, the very first episode of The JP Pop n' Stuff Podcast! 

I am joined by my co-host Comedian Melanie Englert who  is absolutely obsessed with looking at my beautiful pictures everyday, I have no idea why I dont like things & don't think I need a reason, Melanie humps a stove while tripping out and gives birth to a turkey, how many times do you have to stab a pig and more...

Listen in for all the hilarity. We hope you enjoy episode one & as always thank you for your support! 

We will have a seperate website soon. Just workin out the kinks. 

Follow Melanie on twitter: @melanie_englert & on facebook: Melanie Englert

Follow Me on twitter: @funtasian & like my fan page www.facebook.com/thefuntasian

For suggestions on future topics or comments about our latest show email Melanie & Jeannie at jppopnstuf@gmail.com 

Enjoy this little video of me waking the Kracken on her birthday. Yes, I am cruel & enjoy this a little too much, but I love her so. 

Yep...another year has gone by and my Ginger Kracken is 14. I lost a bet to her today because she knew Arthur was an aardvark. I thought he was a fancy mouse in sneakers. She said he was half human and half aardvark. The visual still disturbs me if you know what I mean. 

Let's get back to the birthday girl...

From the moment of conception Sydney was trouble. She was the epitome of a pregnancy from HELL. Ever heard of P.U.P.P.S? No, right? Let me give you a little summary. I am allergic to the paternal cells the baby sheds while in utero. In other words. I am allergic to her father...

PUPPS is a rash you can get from your neck to your ankles. How lucky for me it doesn't affect your face, hands or feet because with Sydney that was the only place on my body I DIDN'T get this rash. 

Now when I was pregnant with Madzilla, I did not get PUPPS until right when I was having her on ONE leg and if you notice Madzilla is more me than she is her father. Sydney is well...more him. Twins...

At just a few weeks into my pregancy the rash had started right by my crotch. Seriously?? Then it spread. EVERYWHERE. Every nook and cranny of my body. Anytime I even got the itching (pun intended) for another child after Sydney, all one had to say was...RASH and it snapped me right back into reality. It was bad. It was crying, freezing cold oatmeal baths, steroids, sarna cream, benedryl every single day. This kid was going to kill me from the inside out. Other than the normal pregnancy issues like peeing your pants, being as big as a whale and I was, heartburn that made me eat tums & prevacid like a crackhead, & rapid tachycardia just to name a few...OK RT is not normal but from my whale size, it could not be avoided. The Dr. even told me to drink wine because she was giving me contractions very early on. Imagine me huge at 7 months having dinner at the Carmins River Inn and ordering myself a big ass glass of wine. Just the look on the wait staff was fun for me. Between the constant Benedryl and glasses of wine I am surprised Sydney wasn't immediately put into a 12 step program at birth. 

On June 30th...The Kracken was born...with a highlighted mohawk, a love for pop tarts, horses & naps. 

So what was the first thing Madzilla did when she saw her new baby sister? Wacked her right on the head. From that day, I knew their relationship would be forged with immense love...yea right. 

So here we are 14 years later and I am still itchy. I break out in hives at the thought of waking her for the next four years of High School. She just doesn't like waking up in the morning and doing so is a fate worse than waving a chocolate bar in my face then walking away with it. 

As a mother you pray for good things to happen for your children. I pray she starts using an alarm clock come September. The Kracken Kronicles do not end here. This year was just the beginning of my morning madness with her. I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I enjoy writing it. Happy Birthday Sydney. I love you more than food. I swear. 

Enjoy these photos of the Kracken I have added...

As always thank you for stopping by! See you on the Flip Side with spotlights on some of my favorite comedians like Mike Keegan and Mel Englert coming soon. 

Follow me on twitter @funtasian and like my facebook page http://facebook.com/thefuntasian

Meanwhile in the Philippines...

I was days away from returning to the states. No more walking the turkey or watching the chickens run around with no head. Yes that really happens.  I wondered if the Caribou would remember me and my conversations with them. If water buffalo could talk...My daily avoidance of the buffalo shit oven was ending. Coming to a theater near you, "The Dunger Games".  I would miss the toothless candy lady in the woods with that certain glaze over her eyes. I now know that look...it's called crackhead. What would become of my new piglet friends & their fat mama? Bacon & Chicharone

I would not miss the snakes falling out of the trees into my lap or walking under the hot blazing sun to school. Impromtu wakes disguised as parties would never happen to me again. If they do I will be prepared with Loves Baby Soft in my purse and Vicks Vapor Rub under my nose.

How bittersweet that I will not be chased down by a broom ever again. At least not by my Lola. Unfortunately, this also meant I would never see her again in person. Would I miss being dragged to church with my Lola and Aunts everyday? Nope. One day a week was hard enough with my own mother. I would miss the popcorn she bought to shut me up before church and telling me not to chew so loud during. She raised 13 children from a very young age. I dont know what amazes me more. The fact that she gave birth 13 times or that she was quicker than a ninja witch with a broom on Halloween. 

I couldn't wait to never sleep in a mosquito net ever again. I would definitely NOT miss the bugs the size of my palms or the alleged bug bite on my inner thigh. When I say alleged its because I had a spot on my leg and it hurt. It was the tiniest of cuts that turned into a bump. My mother said it was a bug bite. Yea my big fat filipino ass it was a bug bite. Of course at age 5 I believed what she said and went on my merry way back to the piggery where I introduced more germs to my bug bite. This "bug" bite continued to grow & grow & grow. Techinically speaking if we are to get down to the nitty gritty of it all. Yes it was a bug bite. The microscopic bacteria kind of bug. You know the kind. It grows a giant boil and eats your flesh kinda bug. If you would like a visual, it was on my upper inner thigh. By the time it was full grown, it looked like a scrotum sack hanging right next to my crotch and it fuckin hurt. I swore it had a pulse and was my long lost twin. I was taken to the doctor who told me it was a bad infection/boil. Ok thats great. Um get rid of it! "Noooo", said the doctor. The body will take care of it. You, Dr. Crackerjack are an asshole. 

I had no idea what to expect from the boil disguised as a throbbing nut sack on my leg. It was in the crease so I was quite uncomfortable. Try to imagine having a newly grown sexual organ hanging off your inner thigh that you liked holding onto and playing with. Now imagine it EXPLODES. Literally. Every where. I heard it pop. I screamed for my daddy. He came running of course only to open the door & see me covered in blood from my crotch to my feet.  To him, I was a five year old version of Carrie or going through the youngest menstrual cycle known to man because within 2 seconds he screamed for my mother. While the wait for them was only seconds, I was able to shove cotton balls where the buckets of blood and puss were seeping out. The blood was never ending. That's because it was the black hole of boils.  The alleged bug bite turned boil ate a hole deep into my leg. And that my friends is where my fourth hole originated. 

I was so young when the boil exploded so I have always had the hole and scar on my leg. This led to many question from people who got a look at it. Of course my answers ranged from. Oh its just a dimple, to thats where my twin was removed, to bloody stump, to impaled on a coconut tree, to of course...my mini vagina. 

When I look back at my five year old self, I wonder where the hell did she get her tenacity from. I had to embrace it or run like hell to the nearest rice patty. Let the Dunger Games begin. (thanks Brad)

See you soon on Inside Flip Side... "Coming Home"

Hmmm, but the turkeys & chickens had names, how strange. Are the turkey & chickens their pets? After all the turkeys did have leashes.  I kind of already knew the answer. My mother told me the stories about all the four legged animals she had eaten. All the chickens she beheaded. She called them her "toys".  Good lord, my mommy was a SAVAGE. She will do well in Yaphank, but I wondered if this is why we didnt have a dog back home. She might eat it.

I dont remember the first time I went to the Philippines. I have only heard the stories of my disgust for this home away from home. I have seen the pictures and I am not smiling in any of them. Actually, I am crying and this doesn't shock me because there's an Uncle in all of them.

My grandparents shanty by the river was a lap of luxury. Have you ever been chased with a broom while you tried to get away by crawling across a bamboo floor? Not the smooth bamboo floors of today either. REAL bamboo. The kind if you crawl across you swear that your knees had shattered. Why was I being chased by my grandmother and her broom across a bamboo floor? It was because I wouldnt eat the shrimp off her stick. My face is cringing right now remembering how it still had beady black eyes and all its little legs. She tried to stick it in my mouth and I refused. How disgusting. Who eats things with the eyes still attached? Get me the hell out of here and it was only day 1.

I counted every day til I could go back to Yaphank where my grandfather made me coffee and watch tv. There was no TV and no coffee here, but there was 7-up. It came delivered in a milk crate, a weeks worth and I drank it all in one day. I denied this of course. Oh fuck, here comes the broom again

I slept tangled in mosquito nets by night and played in the pig sty by day. More like hid in the sty until an Uncle ratted me out. Damn full breeds. I felt at home with the little piglets. Must've been the Yaphank in me. One of the Uncles who will remain nameless kept telling me not to touch the piglets because its mother would not love it anymore or feed it. He also told me I killed all the chicken eggs too.  I asked him if this is what he told himself when he ate them. And out came that damn broom...

I felt like I was running for my life from Grandmothers to the toothless candy lady in the woods. Yes, even half way around the world, if there was candy I was going to find it. Even in the jungle. I was five, barefoot and running around a stange land all by myself. How did I ever make it out alive & who the fuck was watching me?

I dont remember at what point my parents enrolled me in Catholic School. What I do remember is the ugly uniform, the extreme folding of the knee socks, the fact that nobody ever smiled (a requirement) and in the class picture, we were told NOT to smile(What the fuck is this god awful place?). I got yelled at daily for doing what I did best. Scream at the teacher in english. I was the token half white kid. She hated me and she told on me to the nuns.  I was in BIG trouble.  So I did the only thing I could do to protect myself. I hid my Grandmothers broom... 

Next time on Inside the FLIP Side..."Mom, is that a dead person?" "How far is the fall to those crocodiles?" & "Why are we using umbrellas if its not raining?" See you on the FLIP side!!

It was going to be my second trip back "home" as my mother referred to it. I deemed my her crazy because my home was in Yaphank.  I was not going anywhere especially that shit hole (yea yea, I know. There's plenty of beautiful places there, but I have never seen them so they can't possibly exist) and if i was, I was going to make it very very difficult. Never underestimate a five year old half breed who doesn't want to leave her kindergarten crush at Christmas to live in a shanty on the side of a river with a pig farm AND go to catholic school. Oh and even worse, I was forced to go to church every damn day. They sold colorful popcorn at church. I refused to step inside without the popcorn. This pissed off the natives. I received a lot of slanty side eyes. Whatever, I chew loudly.

First attempt at sabotaging the trip back home...the PASSPORT PHOTO. I wiggled and fidgeted. I kicked my feet around. I wouldn't look at the camera. I played with my pig tails. Then the good news came. The pictures couldnt be used!! With good news comes bad news. They used my baby picture from the first trip back "home". FUCKERS

Hmmm I must try again..."They will never get the small pox vaccine in me".  No vaccine, no Phillippines. I keep forgetting I'm only five and little. Little with ninja like skills. Two parents, a nurse's assistant, Nurse Ratchet and the Filipino Pediatrician(Well played Mom, getting one of your own) held me down on a chair while I screamed til my eyes swelled shut and they put the horrible burning blue poison small pox vaccination on my back so I couldn't reach it. When they were done, I hopped up and said with a smirk, "That didnt hurt at all".   I think the broken blood vessels all over my face was enough to stave off a beating when I got home. Someone should have warned me that the vaccination area would swell, itch & scab so badly I would take my shirt off constantly and show everyone my big nasty scab. Well, not much has changed in 35 years except I dont need a vaccination to remove my top at any given time.

I was five and fresh out of ideas. Guess I was headed to Shanty Town. My brother Ben was just a baby when we went to see the Fama-ly again. Ben was named after my mothers father so we needed to bring the second Half Breed Fama back "home". So its Prince Benjamins fault...he will pay for this.

The plane ride was long and I was not happy to be in a giant tin can 30,000 feet in the sky built by the lowest bidder. What's a girl to do? SCREAM...LOUDLY til we landed in Japan. My dad bought me markers & origami paper to shut me up. Stupid, Stupid man. Now I can pass my "HELP! I have been kidnapped from Yaphank" note onto a Round Eye. OK one little problem. I was 5 and couldn't spell words like kidnapped or Yaphank and the only Round Eye on the plane was my dad. SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!

After what seemed like 17 days on a plane we landed. There were no terminals, you are just dumped out onto the hot tarmac. This didnt surprise me at all. It was 5000 degrees, I was in HELL and I was never getting back to Yaphank (the lesser of two evils).

Tomorrows Installment of Inside the FLIP side..."Daddy why dont they name their dogs here?" , I didn't kill the chickens, I am NOT going back to that school. See you on the Flip Side ;)