The Night Starts Here

HELLO HELLO!

Man, I am REALLY getting better at updating this thing quasi-regularly! Not sure why it matters, since I'm sure maybe one, sometimes two people read this thing, but I'm proud of myself anyways.

The problem with updating pretty regularly is that my life isn't really interesting enough to merit regular blog posts.

But I felt inspired today because I spent the most lovely weekend yet in San Francisco (AKA home #4) with thee Dennis Tat and Vicki Hupf! It's always great to see pieces of home (AKA Seattle/Renton) in a place you are starting to call home. I know I made a big deal about New York and everything, but Seattle and Renton will always hold the biggest pieces of my heart because that is where my family and where some of my bestest friends are.

Needless to say, I was incredibly excited to get a text from Dennis saying he was flying down for the weekend. Off to a rough start of Vicki and I waiting for forever to eat dinner at an Italian restaurant that allowed you to order off of iPads while killing time for Vicki to pick Dennis up from SFO, the weekend shaped up to be awesome! Vicki and Dennis ended up missing the last BART to Pleasanton so they crashed at my place and the night after, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We spent both nights staying up late, having great conversation, exploring San Fran, eating great food, walking more than we could handle, riding a quadricycle, having disappointing times at the gay clubs (super disappointing! we all agreed...aren't gay clubs supposed to be fun?), and just plain having fun.

After they left, I felt relieved. FINALLY. They're gone!

HA. Jk. No, it felt really weird. I somehow got into the groove of having my best friends around and then poof, gone.

This is really the first time I've had to move somewhere and truly be without a safety net and fend for myself in the friend-making field. There's no school or classes to even the playing field or push us into friendship and there's no residence hall to make us become live-in friends. It's a weird thing for me. I've already tried work and friends ain't gonna happen there, but since work is basically my whole life right now, what's a guy to do? I said before, I don't feel lonely, and I still don't, but having my friends here made me feel like I could be enjoying this city so much more.

So I guess I've kinda made an internal decision to try harder and make friends and not be content being so much of a loner. I've also come to an internal realization that I don't know if I'm the traveler that I thought I was before. Moving to New York and applying for jobs all over the country, I thought I could be happy living anywhere. But I think I have really overlooked what makes a place feel like home: your family and your friends. Of course, I've known this my entire life, but I think it took me living here to really get it. I've had the chance to live in four amazing cities so far and I don't know if I want to limit myself and stop seeing and experiencing these things, but I don't want to lose track of home. So I guess it's a little bit of a conundrum. I don't want to be far from my friends and family anymore, but I also want to experience beyond what I know and away from what I'm comfortable with. You only live once, and I want to make sure I really do live it up! I suppose it'll take a little more thinking and reflection on my part, but as I have said before, things do happen for a reason and you never know what tomorrow brings.

Sorry this posting wasn't very funny, and I actually do have some pretty funny stories about life in the Bay Area, but I am way too tired to keep writing. Vicki and Dennis kept me up ALL night these past couple days. Them having loud and obvious sex right next to me in my bedroom and all.

Boom,

Patrick

Stars - The Night Starts Here

Don't Give Up

Howdy all. I hope none of you have been anxiously awaiting this blog post, because as you all should know by now...I'm horrible at updating. So if you don't like it, you can suck it.

Anywho, work has gotten a bit better. I still won't say I'm in love with my job but it's a lot more tolerable. I actually get work to do and I don't sit at my desk for nine hours waiting for my shift to be over. I've been getting a crash course in producing which is great--I'm setting up stories, going out with photogs to shoot interviews and writing scripts. Granted, my scripts always get changed by the reporter before it actually airs and I make screw ups a journalism major shouldn't, but I'm keeping a positive attitude and using it as a learning experience.

Today was a doozy, though. I went with a photog out to Palo Alto to cover a school supplies swap with little direction as to what the angle or the upshot was. Apparently it was supposed to be less about the event itself, but how this event ties into the economy. This wasn't apparent to me, so I covered the story like a features event. Cut to me and the photog feeding the footage via satellite to the station an hour before air time (where we stationed ourselves next to a big stinky lake with cranes...seriously, the lake was beautiful but it smelled like one gigantic sour fart) and my executive producer grilling me about not asking the right questions, getting the right info, and plain ol' failing at producing the piece. So I feel like crap and my photog is like "I'm glad I'm not you!" Thanks...

Luckily, when I come back to the station with my tail between my legs, my boss tells me it's all good and the footage was actually okay--not the best it could've been, but air-able nonetheless. She ultimately apologizes for telling me off on the phone and said that she's only tough on me because she wants me to learn and that even though I went to a good school, the real world is going to teach me a lot more and in a lot more different way. So...in the end, I guess it worked out. She said I still did a decent job despite her complaints and I realized that as much as I dislike my boss for how condescending, curt, and abrasive she can be, I appreciate that she isn't babying me. It's tough love, I suppose. She runs our newsroom like my dad would. Hella Chinese and hella strict (she could definitely be my dad...if she just lost the feathered haircut and vagina) But she has her heart and our well-being at hand. I'm not going to say I'll like it, but I think I'll end up better for it.

As I said before, this isn't my dream job, but I am trying to make the most of it. It's been humbling and it's been rough, but things will get better I'm sure. I haven't had a lunch break yet this week, so let's hope that's my first improvement.

On another note, I need to stop eating apples in the company bathroom. My after work snack is a fuji apple. I time it. Every day at 5:56, I go to the kitchen, peel off the sticker, wash my apple, grab a paper towel and dry it off, return to my desk, log off my computer pack up, say goodbye, and go to the bathroom for a quick pee pee. But when I'm at the urinal, I like to have both hands free. I KNOW I only technically need one, but I like two...just for safety purposes. So I always put my apple in my mouth and chomp down and hold it there. This is a bad idea, though. On two occasions my apple has fallen out of my mouth and splashed me on the crotch with my own urine and dirty urinal water. One another few occasions, I tilt my head back to avoid situation one, but I end up drooling so much I choke a little. The news director has walked in on me once doing this. Needless to say, my apple eating and pee break combo needs a little rewiring.

So that's life so far. Nothing too exciting. Eating apples and peeing, getting yelled at. The glamorous life of a local news worker.

I saw Vicki today! Yay!

Also, please look out for cheap flights for me, please. Tickets are effa expensive for no reason and I wanna go home to Seattle to see everyone!

Can't wait for Friday-ly yours,

Patrick

The Cary Brothers - Don't Give Up

Remember all those times I was hoping for something, and shaking my head from all I have done? But you never left me.

I'm a little late early with my one-month anniversary in San Francisco, but I was reading through my old posts about New York and thought I should write a little. I think it's a great way to retain memories instead of cramming them all up in my noggin'.

So I've been living in San Francisco for about 28 days now and it's definitely not New York. I still miss NYC a lot, but San Francisco has been treating me well and I forgot how much I missed living on the west coast. NY is great, but it doesn't have the west coast culture--people are laid-back, generally more pleasant, and don't look like they are always dressed to impressed hence the laid-back-ness. The weather is nice and I suppose for now, I am happy I'm not in the sauna that is NYC.

Anyways, my job has been a rollercoaster (and you know how much I hate rollercoasters). I've gone through many emotional rides with it. The first week was great; everyone was incredibly welcoming and nice and were taking the time to train me and get me up to speed. Then the second week rolled around, and I must've become invisible because no one acknowledged me. I was barely getting work and was told to go around to producers to ask for work to do. I know I'm the biatch of the newsroom, but why do I need to beg for work to do? Third week rolled around and I called my sister on my lunch break and had an emotional breakdown about how miserable and trapped I was. But being the good big sister she is, she told me to buck up and go through with it and she told me something that really has stuck with me.

She told me that I have passion. She told me that my passion has led me to one coast and back and that I have devoted much of my life to journalism and the desire to tell the story of the people--of the downtrodden, of the inspirational, and the quirky. What she said got my heart racing. Yes, I do have passion and I know I should be grateful for the job I have and that of course it's going to take a while for me to get where I want to be...but this is just a stepping stone to get there. I won't be stuck in this job for forever. I think what really got to me is that I left New York for a job I'm not really crazy about. I don't know if it was the wrong choice--well, I know it wasn't the wrong choice, because as I've said, I believe everything happens for a reason. The nugget of goodness that has come out of this is that I've realized this line of work--production and writing for a local news program--is not for me. I want to be out in the field, interacting with people, hearing their stories, and bringing it live through the visual medium. It's not my passion, but hopefully this job will put me a step closer to getting to it.

Besides work really dominating my life, I've explored much of SF this almost-month. Every weekend I make it a point to not use public transportation and take two to six hour walks around the city, people watching, exploring, and getting lost. The only missing piece is having friends to do it with. My worst fears are confirmed: I have no friends here haha I consider myself a pretty sociable guy. I don't smell bad, I'm not particularly shy, and have you seen my face? I'm gorgeous (kidding!...sorta). But as I've told people, I don't know if I really miss not having friends here. It's weird. My days have broken up into me waking up around 7AM, working from 9AM to 6PM, going to the gym from 8ish to 9 or 9:30, a quick dinner and shower, some catching up on news and emails and then bed! By the weekend, I'm tired as balls I just sleep and roam around the city like a hoodlum. Plus, everyone at my work is either way older than me or we just don't have chemistry. So what's a hot guy like me to do? I don't know...but it's kind of refreshing trekking this journey solo.

Anyways, it's getting late, and I just wanted to give a quick update. I have some funny stories I'll post up soon. But I'm tired as your testicles and wanna pass the eff out.

I miss you all very much (I'm assuming everyone reading this is a friend/family member of mine...if you're not...that's weird) and you will hear from me soon!

Holla!

P-boy

Foster the People - I Would Do Anything For You