one whole year?

yesterday was my one year anniversary at "Organization Automobile," the company I work at. I was a temp for two-and-a-half years before they hired me on, and now it's been a year and a day as a full-on employee.

i remembered today.

i am SOOOO ready to move to Chicago.

wow...

this morning i was driving to work in the Chili Pepper, and i was on washington road, and as i looked to my right, several things hit me at once. (no, a car was not one of them) there was a woman, fairly attractive, late 40's, in a red convertible BMW, tweezing her nose hairs.

let that sink in...

here's a lady, at least upper-middle class, if not completely upper, driving in a nice car, cleanly dressed, TWEEZING HER NOSE HAIRS. while doing about 45 down a very busy four-lane street at 7:45 in the morning.

as it turns out, she was actually using one of those eyelash clamps. i couldn't tell because it was on the other side of her nose, but still...

the cuteness

spider-man takes a break to talk to mary-jane.
starring my nephew mitchell.

dangit

how do you get over something that's been bothering you for four years?

just a random question.

don't play scuba with a barracuda

If you aren't listening to People in Planes, you should be. they rock my face.

other bands i'm currently rocking:
The Weepies
Feist
DeVotchKa
Goldfrapp
Synthar

I've thrown things into a bit of an uproar lately. I've decided to go ahead and get this acting thing on the road, so I'm moving to Chicago. Most likely in January. It's the biggest decision I've ever made and I'm telling myself not to do it about 20 times a day. But here goes! Things have been up and down lately. Work has been not nearly as psychotic, but it IS starting to get a crazy look in its eye again, so that probably won't last. My new car is awesome! I bought a Firepepper Red 2001 Honda Accord back in april, and it pretty much is 'Teh Awesome.' Football season is upon us, so I'm now indulging in that ridiculous tradition of letting my blood pressure get up every weekend. I'm starting to realize though that a lot of my friends are going to actually be sad when I go to Chicago. I have some pretty awesome friends here, and I won't know anybody when I get there. Luckily, I am a people magnet.

Just kidding.

Oh. Why Chicago? I want to get into The Second City. It is fantastic, and the list of alumni is a veritable who's who of comedy. I'll will also try to do some theater (theatre?) there, and of course I will have to work, so things will be pretty busy for a while. Also, my brother Robert lives there, so I might have a place to live for a while, and I also have some friends-of-friends and whatnot. But mostly, because Chicago is awesome, and I want to start there before I go to LA or New York.

so...

Top 5 Things You Would Drop Everything For
1. Become an actor
2. Travel the world (free of charge, of course)
3. Travel the world (with a band)
4. My friends and family
5. A good steak

that one is fake. this one is real...

Top 5 American Cities You Want to Visit (that you haven't already)
1. Seattle
2. San Francisco
3. Portland
4. Honolulu
5. Philadelphia

ok GO

omg lol! wtf?

so, one of the many interesting things i learned about my new family last week, was this: my 14-year-old neice, nicole, who lives outside seattle (awesome), had TWELVE. THOUSAND. TEXT. MESSAGES. LAST. MONTH. fortunately for my brother, she has unlimited texts in her plan.

so, i've always known that my dad had three kids from his first marriage, but i only ever met my two brothers, jeff and robert, once, when i was in third grade. until this past february, i had never met my sister Christine. i grew up with my mom and my brother John, who is 7.5 years older than me (we have the same mom, different dads, but we are super close). well, i just spent a week in virginia beach with my extended family. here is how my it plays out now:
~my mom, Linda, lives outside Athens, GA.
~my brother John lives near Athens. his wife is Karen, and they have my niece, Lilly Grace, who is 5, and my nephew, Mitchell, who is 2.
~my brother Jeff lives in Puyallup, WA, outside seattle. his wife is Denise, and they have my nephew, Mitch, who is 16, and my niece, Nicole, who is 14.
~my brother Robert lives in Chicago. he has my nephew, Zachary, who is 7, my niece Margot, who is 5, and my niece Meredith, who is 2ish.
~my sister Chris lives in Forrest Grove, OR. her husband is Brian, and she has my niece, Jamie who is, i think, in her early 20's, my nephew, Nick, who is 21, and my nephew Anthony, who is 19. and JAMIE has amara, who is 2. that's right, i'm a great-uncle. i'm a gruncle.
~my aunt and uncle, donna and paul, live in virginia beach. donna is my dad's sister.
~tanna is their daughter, and she lives in va beach with her husband, matt, and they have taylor (girl) and derek.
~ryan is their son, and he lives in honolulu. his wife is kelly, and they have jordan (girl) and wyatt.

so there's my huge family. they are a mess. i love them.

Vacation-land

I am currently in Virginia Beach, VA, with my brothers and sister and cousins and aunt and uncle from my dad's side of the family. We are having what will end up being the first annual reunion of this family, and hopefully it will be in other locations in the coming years (oregon, idaho, chicago, and seattle are where all of these people live). Most people know that death brings about newness in a lot of ways, and in my case it has brought a whole new family. I'm still getting to know them, and I probably haven't let my guard down yet, but I'm getting there.

In the meantime, a handful of us are going to see The Dark Knight on IMAX tonight. This will be my third overall viewing and my second on IMAX, so I'm pretty excited. And if you are looking for some fun, check this out. It's dumb and hilarious, because people are stupid.

Later!

should you or should you not buy a chinese baby*

so, today at lunch, me and about eight other guys went to eat at mot's barbeque. a fine dining establishment. anyway, the tv in the corner was on, and i just so happened to look up and there was a commercial for a 4-disc praise and worship collection.

flashback: two years ago, my buddy eric comes up to me and says, "PETE! what the hell is up with christian music?" and i'm like, "yeahbuhwha?" come to find out he had been channel surfing that morning on the way to work, and went by WAFJ 88.3, the local christian station. "why do they repeat the chorus to the song 8000 times?" after i laughed for about five minutes, i explained to him that praise music is an expression, and you repeat it a bunch because you feel strongly about it, and you get in to it. and he says, "i see."

flash forward: i point the commercial out to eric at lunch, and we have a chuckle, and then he says, "i've been to one of those." upon my curious look, he lifts two hands up in the air and starts swaying back and forth. after that, the following conversation takes place.

me: you? when?
big e: about six months ago.
me: six flags?
big e: no, dumbass. here. in augusta. something called Winterjam.
me: ah.
big e: yeah. nikki (his fiance) wanted to go. she said she had been wanting to get into some christian music, so she got tickets and we went. she wants to go again next year. i'm on the fence.
me: did you like it?
big e: it was wierd. they would have some hard core rock band, like Skillet. and that was pretty rocking. way heavier than i imagined christian music. but then the next band would be a praise band. and they would go back and forth. it didn't make sense.
me: they were probably trying to get something for everybody.
big e: well, i found out why we were there. i thought it was just because they wanted to have a music festival. but it wasn't.
me: what was it?
big e: they wanted us to buy a chinese baby.

at this point, i spewed a mixture of barbecue pork and mac & cheese out and started laughing. "they wanted us to buy a chinese baby" was eric's description of the festival's pitch for compassion international. after that, we had a hilarious discussion about leasing babies, renting to own, paying alimony for a baby you never met, and going straight to hell for skipping out on payments for a chinese baby. all very tongue-in-cheek, but i haven't laughed that hard in a while.

and now it's after lunch, i'm full, i got four hours of sleep last night, and it feels like i may have to take a nap on my desk.

cheers.




*disclaimer: i love compassion international.
also, "pete" is my nickname at work. long story.

Don't open that file folder!

Reading letters from dear friends is an amazing thing. It's like seeing a side of that person that you never get to see. Your writing/typing dialogue is not the same as your conversational dialogue (except mine. mine totally is. very schizo and kinda dumb.), and in writing, you get to say things exactly the way you want. Add to that the letter being from a friend from your past, and what you get is a flood of emotions. Add to THAT that the letter itself is old, and you have good, old-fashioned nostalgia.

I have a file cabinet in my bedroom, the contents being every important document I've ever wanted to keep. One file contains every phone list I've ever had (from camps, churches, school, what-have-you), and another has every card and letter and note that has been given to me by friends and family that have been important enough to keep. Now, I'm not a packrat. I toss things after a while, and a lot of times cards get thrown out. Not that I don't love them, but in 20 years, I'm not going to remember half of the random people that gave me valentines in 1999.

But the good ones, I keep, and last night, they came out. Understand, I am a very nostalgic person, and have often struggled with feeling guilty about not keeping up with people, even though I know they didn't keep up with me either. Even my very closest friends don't hear from me that much. Ask Jo. (I love you, though.) So opening this folder last night was...wierd. There were quite a few birthday cards and Christmas cards, tossable except for the fact that they were funny or from a dear friend. There were definitely some that I tossed immediately (need to check this thing more often). And there were a couple of long letters from various people. An amazing letter from my brother to me while I was in Colorado in 2000, telling me how proud he was of me. A letter from my friend Tysen apologizing for being an ass to me for an entire year and asking for forgiveness (I did). A letter from Jo wrote in college to our entire circle of friends telling us each how special we were to her (I think she may have been drunk). (Just kidding. It was an amazing letter, and I re-read it three times.)

And then I ran across some cards from a couple of friends that I made in Colorado named Kate and Chris. These two were the most amazing people, and despite my meager efforts, I lost touch not long after I got back to Georgia. I think more than any other people, I regret losing these guys the most. So what do I do? I dig through my phone lists and (finally) find an old number of hers. I grab my crappy cell phone and dial, totally expecting that in eight years, she's probably left her parents house. So when the lady answers and I tell her I'm looking for Kate, she of course says that Kate doesn't live here anymore because she's married, etc. So I tell her, "well, we were friends in Colorado, so if she feels like calling me back, tell her it's Video Pat." "VIDEO PAT!! I REMEMBER YOU!!" Very good feeling. (oh, right. video pat because i was the camp video tech for the summer. i basically made a 30-minute movie every week.) We talked for a few minutes, and she tells me how to find them on the interweb (facebook of course), and says that she'd give her the message tomorrow (today). So, I'm waiting for the phone to ring.

The moral of the story is, well, a) don't start reading a bunch of letters when you are trying to clean your room because it takes too long and then you don't finish. And 2)...well, i guess, keep up with people that are important. It's easier to call after one month than it is to call after eight years.

FINALLY!

GOSH. you guys are lazy comment-ers. i've been waiting for five comments forever. thanks dottie.

lots and lots to catch up on, but, as my last post stated, i've been working my ass off. that hasn't changed. plus i don't have the interweb at home, so posting has been a low priority. but there is a silver lining at work, a ripple starting to take place on the horizon. soon, i will be the quick-witted prodigal poster you all know and love, back from the city with no money and begging for forgiveness for not indulging you with my wierdness.

haha. i make myself laugh. oh, but ok. now it's over.

soon.