Tao of Pauly

Sleepy Pauly, Phishy Karma, and Other Kind Notes...

I got tickets to Phish in Las Vegas. And I'm pumped. I got shut out of lottery, but I have cool friends (Senor & Bruce C.) who hooked me up. I have one for Thursday's show and two for Saturday night (I can trade for a Friday ticket). Senor has one extra if he decides not to go (Molly has first dibs on his ticket). So now all I need to do is trade for a Friday ticket and find tickets for Molly! Tickets go onsale via ticketbastard this weekend. If you have any extras, please contact me ASAP.

The last week or so has been pressure packed and filled with plenty of emotional peaks and valleys. Career, family, life, fun... and all the aspects of fast living have taken a toll. My body is drained of the abundant energy that makes me tick. Creatively, I had to rush to get out the latest issue of Truckin' which many have been saying is one of the best issues to date! I also threw myself into the screenplay for The Baby and Winky Movie. The script was a pain in the ass because I had to adapt a novel (my novel), which if any of you have ever done, is one of the most challenging projects that a screenwriter can undertake. The other point that I failed to discuss was that the subject material in the novel and the screenplay is very harsh. I wrote Sweet Nothing under a heavy cloud of depression and the brutalness of the subject matter was a mirror for me and drained a lot of my energy. I read the words and I re-live my past. Although I am one thousand times mentally healthier today (and last week, when I wrote the screenplay) than I was this previous summer during the week or so I penned my second novel, it was still not fun at times to re-expose myself to several painful memories. But you have to gut through all the harshnes and the darkness if you expect to seek any semblence of light.

And yes, when I work hard, I party even harder. Something I have learned is that when I'm having a good time... I really enjoy myself these days. I understand that time is precious and the little moments of joy and happiness mean more than the grand times. This past weekend I let loose for the first time since Miami. And we all know what kind of hell I raised down there. It felt good to rage in my city once again especially because I dunno if I will be departing NYC in the near future.

Then of course I had to deal with an unexpected family issue... in the middle of a serious Dyonisian binge of pleasure... and the abrasive reality of dealing with family stuff is a definite buzzkill. These instances pop up whenever I'm not looking and there's no proper way to handle that aspect of my life.

Yes, and in the middle of all this, I found myself in a terrible run of cold cards and playing horrible poker. It's as if your favorite baseball player is in a slump and you want him to snap out of it. I realized my mistakes and I tried to plug the holes in my game, but that takes concentration something I had been lacking. I managed to kick ass at Signor Ferrari's homegame and I held my own in Foxwoods this week.

OK, I tried to get some sleep for the first time in a week last night. But I have too much to do with work, writing, and living the life of Pauly. I woke up early because I negelcted my two hours-a-day writing time and had to catch up. Since 5am, I cranked out 4 straight hours to make up for Tuesday & Wednesday's missed writing sessions. I still need to write for today, but I'll find time later tonight. The highlights of my intense session included listening to Miles Davis' Kind of Blue and to several Grateful Dead bootlegs circa 1978.

Now it's time to catch up on all my reading and answering emails. Then it's off to the post office to mail out scripts and resumes. I'll be spending the rest of my day in the hospital visitng my grandmother and will return to the studio later tonight to finally watch last night's episodes of The OC and the new season of the World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel.

I also have to write up another trip report about my excursion to Foxwoods the other night with my brother... and Senor! Derek graduated to a higher limit and fared well. And yes, I got to spend almost a whole day with Senor and I'll be sure to recant how we were seated at the same poker table (he got there before me and I had to wait one hour to get on a table) and eventually went on to bust Senor and took all of his money on one hand! It's a classic story worthy of a spot on the Tao of Pauly. Stay tuned.