Working It Out On The Inside: June 2006

Monday, June 26, 2006

Five O'Clock Feelgood

[Fisher family and friends gathered at the dinner table]
Claire Fisher: Do you remember that one dinner when Nate was high on ecstasy?
Anthony: What's ecstasy?
Keith Charles: Medicine.
Brenda Chenowith-Fisher: Nate kept groping my breasts through the meal. I was humiliated!
Ruth Fisher: I walked in on much more mortifying situations.
Durrell: What...tell me?
Bettina: Tell me!
David Fisher: I remember when I was in seventh grade Nate was a junior and he had started this new wave band with Sam Hoviak and he had the worst hair. Like really big, bad 80s hair. And I was next to him at dinner and I saw something move. It was a spider and it had spun a web in his hair! I didn’t say anything because I knew how cool he was trying to be...and I wanted him to be. I wanted him to be the coolest brother anybody had ever had.
George Sibley: [raises glass of wine] To Nate.
Claire Fisher: To Nate.
David Fisher: To Nate.
Brenda Chenowith-Fisher: To Nate.
Ruth Fisher: To my first born.

-Six Feet Under

First off, I'd like to give a birthday shoutout to my blog! Two long years and going strong, baby! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I actually blogged on the exact birthday (June 11) but failed to acknoweldge it. My bad.

Speaking of birthdays...mine is in three days! Although I'm fairly ambivalent to the fact that I'll be turning twenty, I'll deal. Twenty is a peculiar age. Fresh out of my teens, I've got my entire future in front of my eyes. And I'm not experiencing a mid-20s crisis or making desperate attempts to find myself. In fact, I'm pretty positive that I know exactly who I am already. People my age always joke about twenty being the worst age because you still can't go out and drink. I'm not exactly sure I can see myself living to party when I turn twenty-one. I'm over that, I think. But this doesn't mean I don't enjoy a glass of wine (or five) every now and then. (everyday)

I'm flying home this Thursday for a long weekend to normalize and hopefully grasp on to whatever's left of "San Antonio Patrick". Spending over a month in Denton can do major damage to one's state of mind. Luckily I've got a class to keep me busy, however I spend most my time in my mind. I do a lot of people-watching in class and find that it passes time efficiently.

I've become fascinated with this one older woman who is a frequent hand-raiser. She's a neurotic woman; barely over five feet tall with fiery red manic hair, she wears glasses that make her eyes appear twice the normal size, has a voice like nails on a chalk board, and a face that only desperate people could love. Usually whatever she has to say is completely pointless and shallow, but I can appreciate the fact that she struggles to make herself sound intelligent. The professor has no problem stomping all over her ego either. She recently approached me in the hallway before class with a petition to sign that resembled something a twelve year old created on Microsoft Paint. Apparently it was to protect chimps that are being mistreated in labs for science. I signed the piece of shit so she'd leave me alone. I hate her, but I love her. She keeps my mind awake in class.

Enough about school! I've recently seen two movies you MUST watch. The first is the global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth. I realize Al Gore is the last person any conservative wants to see talk for two hours, but try and suspend your political persuasions and see the film. It's pretty hard to deny that the movie is VERY interesting and a bit like a slap in the face. Let's just say I basically wanted to walk home after I saw the movie. Visit this site for some awesome information: www.climatecrisis.net

The second movie is called Tarnation. It's also a documentary and is probably one of the most honest movies I've seen in a long time. It spans over twenty years and tells the true story that centers around a boy (the director) and his schizophrenic mother. He grows up dealing with a lot of tramatic events like his mother being raped in front of him, being abused in different foster homes, living with his grandparents, coping with his homosexuality, etc. It is hard to watch at times but it is a beautiful film nonetheless. The director uses a mixture of old polaroids, super-8 videos, answering machine messages, dramatic reenactments of other people, early short films, and unique editing techniques. It can be argued that the movie is narcissistic and expoits his sick mother, but I totally disagree. This is a must-see! View the trailer here (PLEASE WATCH): http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/tarnation.html

Alright, that's all I got for today. Here are some pictures from the past couple weekends. Enjoy!

Mi Cocina!

Laura, Kevin, and a Mambo Taxi.

Legacy shopping/dining...a very cool place to be

Hi! Welcome to Cold Stone!

The beautiful Angelika theater: The closest indie theater to me.

My desktop background

Laura looks like she just discovered the meaning of life.

Fireside Pies! We celebrated Kevin finishing his thesis with a couple bottles of wine. My favorite!

Cuba Libre's bar/lounge...

Coming home

Dance party at Laura and Kevin's place! (I'm rockin' the double chin in the first pic)

And Kevin is rockin' Laura's belt

Aight, I'm off to dinner at Panera Bread for a delicious Fuji Chicken Apple Salad. Muy delicioso! Laters for now!

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Star Struck!

STOP THE PRESSES!

I was doing my hourly check of my myspace just now and noticed I had "New Messages". I clicked the link and, to my surprise, Jenna Fischer (who plays Pam on The Office) had personally messaged me!! Fuckin' cool right?

Earlier today I was watching E! News and saw they did a brief piece on Jenna and The Office so I thought I'd mention it on her myspace wall. I think I wrote something like "Hey...I saw you on E! just now". Her message to me said:

"Just curious what did they say on E! News? -Jenna"

I'm not sure anybody realizes the size of the crush I have on this woman so this is a pretty big deal for me and my ego. This was my message back (I tried to make it sound like I wasn't currently shitting my pants):

" They showed a clip of you on a red carpet at some event (looked like the daytime) and you talked a little about recording the commentary for the 2nd season. The reporter also tried to see if you'd dish on what happens with the Jim and Pam in season 3, but you wouldn't spill the beans. You did say "it's good" though."

ps: I peed my pants when I saw that you messaged me.

-Patrick (a HUGE fan) "

To which she JUST responded:
"Thanks for the scoop. I was my first time on E! How exciting. I hope you didn't ruin your pants :) Jenna"

Sweet right? Yeah, I rock my fucking face off. I just got a piece of Jenna Fischer! Now I'm going to go jack off while thinking about her message. Totally kidding...........................................Kind of. Check out her myspace page if you're skeptical that it's actually her.

http://www.myspace.com/pambeesley

Laters for now!

Sunday, June 11, 2006

We Didn't

[Ted gives Claire a mix CD as a going-away gift]
Ted: You have to promise me you won't listen until you drive away in the morning.
Claire: I can’t play it tonight at my farewell dinner? That you wont come to?
Ted: Everyone will want a piece of you. I‘m sorry I don’t want to share you.
Claire: That’s sweet...and strangely possesive. I want you to promise me that if the corporate war mongers decide we have to invade Iran and they reinstate the draft, then you will move to Canada.
Ted: They won't.
Claire: But if they did, promise me. You wont get your head blown off so halliburton and Bechtel can get richer. You’re too smart…too good. Don’t waste that.
Ted: I promise.

- Six Feet Under

Having to drive back to Denton for summer school was incredibly upsetting not only because it meant I’d be alone for two months of summer, but mostly because it’s the first summer I’ve ever had to spend doing something I hate with a passion: studying. There is a freight train close to my apartment that drives by frequently that sounds its horn seemingly calling me from my room and there are many times that I feel like getting out of my bed and jumping aboard and riding off somewhere unknown to forget about the mess of academics that consumes me daily. No mid-term papers. No exams. No students. No stressful registration. No advisors. No bullshit.

Summer school is turning out to be quite a pleasant experience. In general, my past schooling has had little impression on me. I’ve signed up for a short story literature class and it continues to surprise me every day. Disregarding a handful of novels and plays I’ve read in past courses, short stories have really been the only thing I enjoyed about literature classes...so I thought it was appropriate to register for this class. Thank God I did because I'm enjoying it. Besides the fact that my professor resembles Santa Clause and Colonel Sanders' offspring, he's very interesting and knows his shit. I mean, everything this guy says sounds like it should be published. He's rad.

The only part I'm hating about class is the dreadful five minute walk from the parking lot to the building. I had no idea it was possible for my ass crack to sweat, but apparently the heat can do that to you in Denton. The heat that emanates off the pavement is unbearable. You know that feeling when you open up an oven and that wall of heats hits your face like a wet blanket? Walking to class gives that same effect...I hate summer. Scratch that. I hate summer weather.

One thing I do love about summers are the blockbusters. I'm usually turned off by overdone, expensive, Hollywood summer flicks but I've realized that it's not so damaging to see a few every once in a while. I spent last week catching up on all the movies that I assumed everybody would be talking about. X3 was great, MI:3 was fun, and The Omen was surprisingly entertaining...and creepy. I was convincd the night I saw The Omen that the evil Damien kid was going to eat me in my sleep but, alas, I'm still here and I still have to go to class tomorrow. I'll leave you here tonight with a few pictures from my weekend.

From a disturbing dream sequence in The Omen.

I ordered this off Amazon because it's discontinued in stores. A great movie to check out, and an even better score by Thomas Newman.

I think I spend most of my time on Laura and Kevins' floor to take pictures from Riley's eye level. Oh well.

West Village in Dallas...we Sushi-ed at Tom Tom.

L&K

Riley hearts ice cream

BBQ party at Ken's!

Party people

My myspace birthday message for Brittany..looks real, right?

Laters for now!

Sunday, June 04, 2006

The Commencement of a Very Rigid Search

Brad Dupree: [reading Lester's job description] "My job consists of basically masking my contempt for the assholes in charge, and, at least once a day, retiring to the men's room so I can jerk off while I fantasize about a life that doesn't so closely resemble Hell."

-American Beauty

Holy shit! I'm updating! Apologies for my extended break. I felt it impractical to write about a bunch of crap that nobody cares about, and not even have pictures to go with it. I've been home in San Antonio for the past three weeks with one computer to the house and God forbid my parents ever discover the link to my blog. So I played it safe and didn't update at all. Plus my camera was still broken.

I'm back in Denton because I start summer school tomorrow. It didn't really hit me that I had to go back until the night before I left. I was less than thrilled to return to the stale smell of my pathetic bedroom and to the city I hate the most. I've run into a few people who are totally in love with Denton and when they ask me what I think of it, I just lie and say "I like it". Sometimes it's easier to just conform. Campus is great but Denton just gives off this really sad, spiritless, dirty vibe.

Summer school is going to blow, but it will be nice to work on improving my GPA. I'm taking a short story literature class, and then a health emergencies class...whatever the hell that means. I've also promised myself to be more active this summer. I will visit the rec center that I'm paying for at least once...to check it out. The family is going to the beach in August and my fat ass better be in some sort of presentable shape for vacation. Yipee.

I've completely forgotten what the fuck I was going to write...Maybe it's because I'm watching some pathetic countdown show on E! and my mind is drifting. I think I've left my room twice today. That's not upsetting at all. Ha...more updates to come. Here are some long forgotten pictures from my trip to Austin. I also threw in some from the end part of break because I bought a new camera, motherfuckers!

Allie and Emily are "blown away" when I arrived in Austin! Okay it was just really windy. Jesus.

Getting ready for dinner at Chuys. On the way there a spider attacked me and I almost died. But not before I screamed like a little girl. I'm not kidding.

Emily, Ashley, and Allie at Chuys. Vag fest.

On Guadalupe...walking to our first party of the night.

Emily and I at some random person's apartment party. I drank most of their liquor. This is the party where Allie, Emily, and I got the dreadful song in our heads " WAAANNAAAAAAAA--NAAAH!". Only they will get this.