Saturday, March 24, 2012

Wedding day

My friends Liz and Justin are getting married today. It's been a great journey for them so far and it's been an honor to have been witness to it.

Few years ago, I remember driving home with Jenn and we were talking about Liz and how we wish she would find someone because she deserved it. I would like to say, it was few days later but truthfully I have no idea how much longer is was until we heard that she was introduced to someone.

It was a few weeks before we met him and once we did he just seemed to click with our group. We all are different but we get a long great and none would disagree that Justin has brought our tailgating to a whole other level.

Today we celebrate their relationship, and their love but this time is also a time to celebrate family and friends. It's a time to forget about our problems and daily troubles and celebrate our lives as we witness the beginning of Liz and Justin's life together as a married couple.

I wish them all the luck in the world and want them to know its not always easy but it is worth it.

Looking forward to our group all growing old together and hopefully we will all be joking and cutting up at their kids wedding someday.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

My Town

Now for something completely different.

I have lived in Greenville North Carolina since 1997 (damn I've been here for 15 years).  That's a long time and defiantly wouldn't have expected that when I first drove down highway 264 with my car packed on my way to Aycock dorm which would be my home for many years.

Having lived in one place for a long time you tend to take things for granted and twice this week I have had Greenville surprise me.

First one was when Jenn and I were going into the mall and both of us noticed what a pretty scene it was.  While walking through the mall I kept thinking how I need to take a picture of it and figure out a way to blog about it.  Don't think I took the best picture here but it is.


On Monday while driving down a road I hardly ever go down I start passing these crazy iron structures.  They were so cool I took Jenn down the road later that night and on Tuesday instead of going home I went and walked up and down the street and took pictures of these amazing works of art.  If you live in Greenville these are on Dickinson close to downtown.










I hope I did these justice.  Really are something to see in person to see close up the random objects used to create these works of art.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Stacks

So I have a question, what is your stack?  How high is it and how long has it been sitting there?  I have multiple stacks and I feel they will never be cleared because I keep adding to them.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, stack is your stack of books, movies, chores, project cars, pinterest stuff, whatever.  
Mine is daunting.  It stresses me out and if I didn't love it so much I would just get rid of it.  I have multiple stacks, all which are pretty high at the moment and they all are glaring at me jumping up and down screaming pick me like I'm the doorman to some New York nightclub.  Just the other day Jenn and I were looking at our dvd stack and she says

"uhm Patrick you got Inception two Christmas's ago and before you got it kept saying how you couldn't wait to see it again and how amazing it was yet here it sits unwatched"

I'm sure everyone has these dvds but we probably at least ten.  I have no explanation why this is just like I don't know why I have the same three movies sitting on the bluray player from blockbuster (yes I still use blockbuster, it's stockholm syndrome) that I couldn't wait to get and now that they are here, I haven't been in the mood to watch them.


Above is my stack of books to be read, give or that a few that I have read but somehow made it back to the to be read file.  They do not include the other two Hunger Games books I still need to read or the Nick Hornsby book I'm currently reading.  Below it my stack of last 2 weeks of comics I still need to read and Wednesday is coming quick and I think it's going to be a big week. (Side bar few will understand: Byran K Vaughn is back this week!!!  This book will not make it to the stack and will be read on Wednesday.)

To sum it up our dvrs are always full and games are not being played.  That's just the fun stuff.  I have a stack of things that need to be done to my car, stack of things to write about and one closet that is stacked so high I'm worried it's going to kill me every time I open the door.

I know I'm not the only one, I'm sure all of you have stacks surrounding you.  My question is why do we do this to ourselves.  Why do I keep buying books when I have enough to probably last me year?  I haven't finished Sons of Anarchy season 3 yet I really wanted to buy Game of Thrones dvds this weekend. Why?  Does your stack stress you out like it does me?  Do you feel guilty for having a life because your stacks are sitting at home missing you?  Have you ever wanted to quit your job just so you have time to get through your stacks?  No? That would be crazy talk right?  Seriously how can I add to my stacks if I don't have a job to paid for it.

Enough of my sharing what are your stacks and how to you cope with them?

Monday, March 12, 2012

Futureself

Lets start with an update.  While I have not posted anything lately, I have been writing daily.  Well almost daily, I'm a few days behind but should be able to catch up this week.  I have written two things that when they started were meant for this blog but one went to a place I wasn't ready to share and the other was about Walking Dead show and just didn't like how it turned out.  Sounded good in my head but by the time I got to writing it, those thoughts and ideas were gone.  To sum it up I get why people are hating on the show but I am loving it.

Very ironically, this post has been planned for awhile.  I would like to talk about our greatest enemy.  It is the same for everybody.  It is a person you trust and place your life in their hands even though they continually let you down.

This person is your "futureself".  I first heard the term futureself by Kevin Smith on a podcast probably a few years ago now.  It affected me so much that not many days has pasted since then that I haven't thought about it.  Futureself is the notion that you put stuff on futureself that present you can't do, doesn't want to do, isn't smart enough to do, etc, etc, etc.  We do it with simple stuff like

"I will do laundry tomorrow."

Where it has gotten me the most is things like:

"I'll do theater when I get to college"

"I'll start running and working out in the spring when it's not so cold outside" followed by "It's way too hot to go running today, maybe tomorrow will be cooler."

"This year is the year I write something"

We do this because we are scared to fail, because we don't think we have the time or knowledge, or money.  We think some magical spell it going to happen and instantly know how to do whatever is it you put off on futureself.

Futureself is built up to be this amazing person that travels the world, has the perfect job, is healthy and plays on the local softball team when he isn't feeding the homeless.  The fact is that futureself is YOU.  At one time you said the futureself was going to get this done and that time has arrived and pastself is disappointed. If there is a futureself there has to be a pastself and pastself was lazy and didn't want to learn anything.

Didn't mean this to be a downer.  It should help me defeat futureself.  I want present self to be doing those things.


On Friday, my best friend posted a picture of a car and said

"In 5 years, I will be buying one!! Watch!!"

I followed it with "what have you written today"  I said that because futureself is looking at him laughing.  He said he's going to print that picture with what I wrote as daily reminder.  That's what we have to do can't just wait for futureself to magically do it, we have to meet him there.

I'll end with another thing I said to Tony that I swear I must have stole from someone because it's too good for me to have come up with it.

"You have to work today to celebrate tomorrow."