(Future note: It always seems weird to start a Thoughts paper with a future note, but this requires it because it’s not actually a Thoughts paper. This is an email I wrote to a friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in years. It was the last known email address I had for him, so I thought the chances were good he would get it. There are a couple things that only we would understand. I will explain some of them if I think you deserve to understand them. I’m including it in the Thoughts papers because it very much reads like one.)
I hope this is still your e-mail address. More importantly, I hope you’re still alive. If not, stop reading now because you’re not the “&” for which I’m looking (or you’re dead). Don’t get me wrong. You seem nice, but I’m not talking to you right now. By the way, your work on the 6 Million Dollar Man was excellent. Thank you for stopping with the reading now … no … now … not now, but … now … no … now. (Future note: The ampersand (&) was a reference to his email and his love of the symbol. If you don’t know about the 6 Million Dollar Man, just know it was a TV show in the 70s. The stopping the “reading now … no … now …” is a reference to something Steve Vai said in a 200 Motels documentary that I still have on VHS tape.)
Now that I know it’s you, I will admit that I’m at work right now. Yes, “work” is still the Jobs and Employment Services Department. I’m going to the Animation Academy in Burbank on Mondays from 7:30-10:30pm. I’m taking Character Design I. It’s pretty damn cool. It doesn’t have the prestige of Cal Arts, etc., but it is teaching me a lot of things and improving my drawing and animating skills. There’s also a guy in the class who wrote some segments for Toy Story 2. He said Pixar likes their writers to have a background in animation. I get home at about midnight from the Animation Academy, so I call Tuesdays my Zombie day.
Patti and I went to three TV tapings recently. We went to The King of Queens (featuring the comic stylings of Jerry Stiller, Chris Elliot, and Kevin James), Just Shoot Me (featuring the enormous talents of David Spade and George Segal), and That 70s Show (featuring, among the hotties on the show, the prodigy known as Tommy Chong). They had tapings on our days off. The first one we saw was The King of Queens. They seemed very freaked out by the happenings of September 11th. The security office gave us slips of paper saying they have had bomb threats, etc., at the studio and we were putting our lives in danger by being there. We had the stars of the show sign the back of our notices not because we really wanted their signatures, but because we liked the irony of them signing, “All our love to you, Brian and Patti,” on the back of a security notice. We also got Chipwich ice cream.
The next paragraph was written a couple of weeks after the last few (in case you wondered, you nosy son-of-a-bitch).
It’s December 3rd and I still haven’t had any time for regular things. I expect to go home and find our house flooded because I haven’t had time to fix our kitchen sink that now has a constant stream of hot water coming out of it. The character design class is ending tonight. I had to do the final homework this weekend. The next classes start up on January 7th. If we ever meet again, I can show you all of what I’ve done in the class. I haven’t done any music in recent history so I’d be interested to hear any new music you have done lately (or even within the last year since it’s been that long since we’ve seen each other – you know, in that special way). I’d also be interested in the rest of your life (as long as it’s not boring or involves the phrase “bloody pantyhose”).
I’m planning on calling you now that my class is done. I’m not making any promises, though (actually, I am making a promise, but I’m taking it back now.) If you read this and you know your number has changed, let me know. I always feel like an idiot calling the wrong house. Okay, it hasn’t happened in about 8 years, but the memories cut deep. I will call you if you haven’t called me first.
Hugs and kisses all ‘round.
Brian “The Loaf” Kirwan
Thoughts from Life 
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