Hey everybody. I just got a new cell phone because my other one got wet. It's the same number, but I don't have my contacts list anymore. So I need everyone who has my number to call me so I can call you. Hopefully, you have my number because I refuse to put it on the internet. Call me in the next 2 hours if you can cuz I'll be on the road to San Antonio to move in some more. If not, call me while I'm on the road out there on Monday.
Well, I'm moving to San Antonio tomorrow, and I am excited. Law school will be a lot of work, but it will be better than living with my parents and not having any friends in town or anything to do. Plus, it means I do get about 3 weeks to have a summer break, and you know what means, Chattanooga. But before I move to the Alamo City, I thought I'd post a summer update for my friends back in Chatty who may not know what I've been doing or not doing all summer.
First off, I've been working three jobs about 35 hours a week. About 23 hours come as a busser at McCormack and Schmick's seafood restaurant in downtown Austin. I make minimum wage plus tips so during lunch I make maybe $6.50/hr and at night I make 9 or 10. Quite frankly, this is the worst job I've ever had. The bosses are awful...they seem to lack personality, and of course a busser gets the least priority anyway. Plus, I was kind of led to believe I could become a waiter after a month or so of hard work, which hasn't happened despite my hard work. The waiters and my other coworkers are pretty cool - I like them better than at other restaurants I've worked at, and there are a bunch of cute girls there too, but someone has stolen my tips a couple times, presumably one of the bussers, and that fact combined with the boss situation and the poor money during the daytime shifts has put a major damper on the situation.
My other jobs are working for two different criminal lawyers as a clerk. I pretty much do a lot of errands for them, such as copying dwi videos, serving subpoenas, etc. Those jobs have been fun, and I feel the experience will be very helpful in law school and afterward.
Other than work, I haven't done much this summer. I only have two friends in town, and one is out of town a lot and the other is a fratboy putz who can't be counted on, so I don't have a lot of options. See, you shouldn't go to a super-small high school. You have to think about how that will impact your summers off from college because you won't have any friends.
Fortunately, it hasn't been all work for me this summer. My dad has season tickets to the first-place Texas Rangers, and he's a bigger fan than anyone so we've been up there as a family a few times this summer. I've seen the Yankees, Cardinals, Angels and Astros and Mariners. I just looked at the schedule, and I've seen part of every homestand that the Rangers have had since I've been back. Amazing. The Mariners game I saw was the longest game in the majors this year as well as the longest game I've ever seen. 18 innings and I kept score the entire time. I had to use the extra player slots on the scorecard and rewrite the lineup underneath the first 11 innings. My dad also took us to the All Star game and Home Run Derby in Houston, as well as the Fanfest. That, I suppose, was the highlight of the summer. We had seats in the fourth deck, but they weren't bad. It was a blast just being there.
In like manner, I have joined a baseball team in a quest for exercise. We are awful (3-21 or something), but I don't care. I've been out of the game for five years and just want to play. I joined in midseason at the beginning of July, but since then I've moved up to the fourth spot in the order and have been playing mostly outfield (what I played in high school) and 2nd base. I'm not a power hitter by any means, but I've been getting on and scoring runs so that's why I was moved up to fourth according to our player-manager. I've also stolen home twice, which has been the highlight of my season in addition to a diving catch in left field that I made. The success I've had thus far has been surprising. I half expected to strike out every time at bat my first few games, but I hadn't struck out until two bad calls by the umpire last night...it was a consensus opinion that the ump had a whack and inconsistent strike zone.
Well that's pretty much it for my summer. Thanks for reading if you made it this far. Here is a link to my apartment complex in San Antonio where I will be living starting tomorrow. Pray for me.
I've purchased three new albums in the last week or so, and all of them are outstanding. They are the new Wilco, the new Beastie Boys, and the new Velvet Revolver. Now I know many of you don't like STP or GnR, but if you do then Velvet Revolver is really both bands combined. Some songs sound like early STP, and some songs sound like GnR, and then others sound like both. Altogether, the album rocks the whole way through, which at times is a problem because some of the songs blend together and sound the same, but it's a great album for a road trip.
The Wilco album is everything I expected it to be, and everything I didn't expect it to be. There are some really great songs on it, but at least right now I don't think it's as good as Yankee Hotel. That may be unfair since many consider Yankee Hotel to be their magnum opus, and it usually takes several listens or more to really fall in love with a Wilco album. That's not to say I was disappointed however, but I was pissed about the 12 minues of feedback on that one song. It was like, "Jeff, you're wasting my time, you're wasting your time, you're wasting everybody's time." The great thing is you can skip to the next song if you don't wanna hear it. Excluding those 12 minutes though, the album is close to spectacular.
And surprisingly, the Beastie Boys "To the 5 Boroughs" was my favorite of the trio that I bought. It's just good fun. There are more boasts about their "skills" and disses of other rappers than on the other Beasties albums that I own, Adam Yauch's/MCA's apparent cigarette habit has done wonders for his voice by turning into this low sort of growl, and the beats are phenomenal. I cannot stop listening to this album. It also has one track that gives me chills..Track 12, "An Open Letter to NYC" has an awesome beat and is a great tribute to post 9/11 New York. It might be the best new song I've heard this year.
Just when I'd given up on MTV (okay, years after I'd given up on MTV), they reel me back in with the Assistant, a new reality show where 12 MTV'ers compete for an entry level position in Hollywood by trying to the best assistant to Andy Dick. Dick, whom you may remember from the TV show Newsradio, developed and produces the show, and he is hilarious as he eliminates contestants seemingly arbitrarily. During each episode he makes the contestants do whatever he pleases, and he comically gives them hell for everything they do. He also recruited some of his "friends" to help him "clip" contestants, such as a temp agent, his Latin maid, his British butler and his midget friend, John, who is like the high school football coach from short-people's hell, and who is eerily reminiscent of a miniature Andy Vierling for those of you who know him. This show has me so riveted that I'm thinking of having an "assistant" night at my apartment in San Antonio once law school starts, kind of like Joe Schmo night at Tyler's and Sean's place last year. I'm hooked--it's the funniest reality show I've seen to date.
I was just called and informed I've won the 2004 Stick It to the Man Award, and the year's only half over! I'd just like to thank the Academy for deeming me worthy of such a prestigious award, and all of my friends and foregoers who helped me do so along the way, especially Jared Ross and Chris Marr, who probably helped me stick it to the man most often over the course of the year. I can say I'm proud to receive this award because the "man" I've been sticking it to has deserved it. I also would like to say that I think I won not just for sticking it to the man for this past year, but also for sticking it to him for an entire four (or three if you want to get technical, but it does take a while to get going) years of college. Kind of like the Lord of the Rings winning all those Oscars for three really great movies. It takes longevity to win such an award, if you get kicked out or otherwise terminated, you have had it stuck to you instead of you sticking it to him.