This morning I woke up at 5am as I always do…Ready to get my items all set to leave for the Fort Lee Farmers Market. But…without even realizing it until I had gotten the coffee going, it dawned on me that the market ended last week for the season. And then the reality sunk in that my season (except for my final yearly sendoff the PBA Christmas week toy drive on Dec. 17) has also pretty much ended. This time of year is always bittersweet, of course I am excited for the holidays but not excited for the long winter until I am back in consistent action. I guess it’s fitting that I am posting this blog today…A day after “Small Business Saturday,” three days after Thanksgiving… on a day where I have nothing going on and can truly reflect and give thanks for what I did this year and what I learned—including lessons from even those out there who apparently are officially now known as my rivals—I learned through some tense situations who and what to avoid and my belief in karma is stronger than ever.

2014, particularly the past six months can be summed up in one word and that’s busy. I’ll add some adjectives: super, crazy insanely busy. Both my wife Megin and I have been working non-stop, me with my meatball biz and side business of personalized specialty soda—which has expanded so much that I had to add another day to my workload to manage all the new accounts—and Megin who runs a plastic surgery practice. She is basically “on-call” much like a doctor. While we both have earned more combined than we ever have since getting together in late 2008, we have had more expenses than ever. There’s been a lot of ups and downs. Our old Cadillac died but we got a much newer Ford Explorer. But over the last month it’s been in and out of the shop with starter problems. I upgraded from my wagon to the Ball Bus. That too has had its share of mechanical difficulties. Combined, we put at least $5000+ into repairs for both vehicles. So was the year a “success”? Does one base that on what’s earned or what’s left after expenses?

If you base it on what we earned yes it was a big success. And if we just duplicate what we did this year in 2015 and don’t have any unforeseen bumps in the road, we will finally have some extra money to treat ourselves to something. Don’t get me wrong, we did take a little four day getaway to PA and we do go out to dinner every now and then. But we are generous people, we give a lot whether it’s a good month or a bad month, and they say the people who do this are perpetually broke. What does that make us? I really don’t know. But what I do know is that we work very hard and whatever bumps in the road arise, we face them as a family and we know that if we keep on doing what we are doing, everything will eventually pan out and we will be able to slow down a bit and reap some of the rewards a bit more. As long as our kids are happy, we are happy. Like I said, everything we do it’s with family in mind and I will keep on hustling everyday as long as I am physically able to advance our life in every way possible.

I won’t lie everything has taken a bit of a toll on me and Megin’s relationship not to mention a recent health scare with her mom who is in the process of treating an aneurism. Meg is also a bit unsettled about her pending 30^th birthday in March. But we got through many other things in the past so I am confident we will work as a team and move forward. Life is a rollercoaster ride of good and bad—you gotta enjoy the good moments and always find a silver lining in things and take one day at a time. At least that philosophy has worked with me thus far. (Beer and wine helps too.)

Now summer 2013 I was stationary for the most part with my sidekick Frankie Antipasto—at the Hasbrouck Heights Swim Club every day until Labor Day. While it gave me a consistent place to be each day (and gave Megin and the kids a place to go), overall, it was not the ideal venue. Now ‘14 was my sixth year in biz—I was far more mobile, traveling all over the area. One thing that was kind of weird about this season is that Frankie and I have not worked together really at all except for one reunion last week in Fort Lee when he showed up with his salami and cheese and we instantly rekindled that side-by-side sideshow people are drawn to. He has been busy for the most part doing his thing in Jersey City and although we have not been together as much as we were in past seasons, I know we are still friends and will work together again someday.

The year brought much activity in the multiple branches of the Johnny Meatballs tree and now my business has an overall higher value with now yet another piece of equipment. I was back on TV and involved in more media / social media film projects than I have been in years since I was at the height of such appearances during the VH1 run…And I worked more gigs than ever, being out in the streets over 40 times in 9 months. For the first time I had to hire help, my cugine Bobby came through at at least 10 of those 40 times, he is a great worker and we made a fantastic team out there.

On a personal standpoint, although I did not have the swim club gig, we still had Mondays to take jaunts down the shore, and we also had a really fantastic trip to the Poconos before fall rolled in. We had a lot of fun in all we did but I would say my kids favorite day was probably when we met WWF Superstar Jimmy Snuka—who came over our house and demonstrated wrestling moves over a meatball and macaroni meal. Wow we did a lot of cool stuff now that I am looking back.

Professionally for me, the three highlights were definitely first back in February when I had my most successful event in my meatballin’ career which was on Super Bowl Sunday—that journey all being captured by my personal cameraman Rye who filmed that day and so much of my other adventures this past year for “The Johnny Meatballs Experience”—our self-produced documentary which we apologize was not yet released due to some post-production holdups but we promise it will be coming soon because we want it to be perfect for your enjoyment.

That was followed by of course the rolling out of BB the Ball Bus my first meatball food truck in June, which has served exactly what I had hoped, and that’s extending my season and allowing me to travel later and farther into new areas this year—such as Queens, NY for the first time among other spots…

Last but not least was my big return to national primetime in the cooking reality show “Frankenfood” on SPIKE TV, which I did not win but is yet another thing to add to the ever growing resume of all my food and entertainment branches. So let’s take a quick look back at all of those experiences via a meaty highlight recap timeline…

January: There was no action in this month as far as events as I was feverishly gearing up for “Tailgate Sunday” in East Rutherford, the largest and closest thing to the big game than the game itself…

February: Worth all the hype, this was the Super Bowl Sunday event of a lifetime (you will see all the highs and lows in our movie.) Also filmed “Chasing New Jersey” TV show on MY9, filmed FOX5 TV interview, filmed “Short Italian Tales” TV show on I-Italy NYTV and filmed PIX11TV interview

March & April: A 2-month hiatus which was dedicated to preparing the Ball Bus for the upcoming 9 months. We did film our video with WWF Superstar Jimmy Snuka who visited the DeCarlo family home for a meatball and macaroni dinner party (video to be released in 2015)

May: Haworth Street Fair, Hasbrouck Heights Street Fair, filmed youtube cooking show “Osara Recipes” with “Worcestershire” man Chef Pasquale (7000+ views to date, one of his highest viewed since the million plus “bloopers” skit went viral)

June: BB rolls out for the Fort Lee Arts & Music Festival (the second most successful event of the year next to the Super Bowl), followed by the Secaucus Street Fair, Rubix Cube rock concert at Ramapo College, two days at Van Saun Park with Cupcake Cutie

July: Mount Carmel Feast in Queens (first time ever in NY), also this month was the airing of the “Frankenfood” cooking reality show on SPIKE—putting me on my second national series on 2 networks in a 5 year span

August: Now this was a VERY busy month which brought 3 driveway catering parties with BB, one in Westwood, one in Clifton, one at the private pool complex in an Englewood apartment building, plus a day at the Newark Farmers Market, the Berkeley Heights Fest, River Vale Block Party, my debut at the Fort Lee Farmers Market (going 14 Sundays until Thanksgiving), and yet another TV spot (this time filmed the popular “Food Truck Friday” series on NEWS12NJ)

September: The Baron Beer Fest in River Edge, Rutherford Street Fair

October: Second busiest month of the year which featured the Overpeck Park Festival, Bergen Tech High School’s Homecoming Dance, Bogota Fall Festival, River Vale Day, and the 2 day East Coast Toyota Promotional Event where I was reunited with Cupcake Cutie

November: Cedar Grove Holiday Fair, conclusion of the Fort Lee Farmers Market, many Thanksgiving catering deliveries

December: Tomorrow is Dec. 1 and I am sure I will have Christmas catering deliveries but I will officially end the year with the Ball Bus the same way I have ended each year since I started. That will be on the 17^th at the Closter Fire Dept. PBA Toy Drive, a wonderful day of charity where myself and all my fellow vendor friends give away all our food to those in need including military families

In 2014, I also saw my social media reach grow to a total of 5000 friends plus 5000 combined fans/followers on all my various fan pages, twitter and Instagram plus 3000 members in my Italian-American chat group led by a newly appointed group manager we call our Fair Godmother. Of course all of that is hardly Kardashian status but the fact is, it’s pretty clear that I am still drawing some bit of interest out there in cyberspace. And the online stuff has definitely translated into lines at the Ball Bus. Yes with that came more haters out of the woodwork, but that’s ok. I have accepted the fact that the bigger I get the more loony toons will appear. It’s all good in my hood because I will continue to move forward and hopefully I will achieve one of my two ultimate goals next year which is either to open up my very own meatball storefront and/or get my very own weekly television program.

If that does not happen and if I just keep on ball bussin’, like I said, I will at least now be in a position to where my company is finally turning a decent profit and all my hard work finally culminated into a true business not just a hobby. Once those statistics come true, I can seriously think about franchising and expanding big time.

So what will 2015 bring? Well, there’s no Super Bowl this year to kick things off but I suppose Megin’s birthday will be the big wintertime event—though no, I will not be catering her party but will be planning something special. Stay tuned, there is so much on the horizon including big planned collaborations, possible TV projects and who knows what else as I continue to climb the meatball mountain…….