Pattrick A. Lewis
I was born in Vidor, moved to Orangefield, then moved back to Vidor again just in time to graduate high school. I sang in the choir, played in the band, dated some girls, drank some beer and then later joined the Mormon church. After high school, I left Texas, moved to Las Vegas and played in a rock band before I joined the army. Once in the army I made some friends, drank some more beer, had some fun and met my future wife. I stopped drinking beer, became a good Mormon, got out of the army and became a Mormon missionary. I quickly returned home, got married, moved to Las Vegas, started college, started a family and worked as a house painter. After my son was born, we moved back to Texas, tried to stay employed and joined the Coast Guard when money got too tight. In the Coast Guard – we moved to Baltimore, had a daughter, made a few friends and got transferred to Alabama. Working in the Coast Guard in Alabama we made some friends, enjoyed our small children, moved into a nice house and felt secure. In 1995 I left the Coast Guard, moved back to Vidor, worked for a law firm and served in the Mormon church while going to college and raising my family. In 1998 my third child was born. In 1999 I left Vidor, went to work in Houston for another firm and eventually came back to work for a beauty pageant until the end of 2001. Moved back to Houston to work for the same big firm, bought a house in Pearland, built a pool, made some friends and left the Mormon church. I drank some more beer, made some cool non-Mormon friends, had some eye-opening experiences, made some money, and traveled a lot. My two oldest kids moved out, I got divorced, then later married Heather. These days, I am the Marketing Manager for Abbott & Associates in Houston, Texas. I don’t drink as much beer now, and I don’t get as crazy as I used to. Life is not always easy, but it’s almost always good.
2021 Food and Wine Festival
DFB 2021 Food and Wine Festival Guide With the DFB Guide to the 2021 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival, you’ll be able to determine what events, demonstrations, and menu items are most important to you and your family, and create a strategy to make sure you...
LDS girls don’t grow up thinking to themselves, “I wonder what I’ll be when I grow up”
LDS girls don't grow up thinking to themselves, "I wonder what I'll be when I grow up" the same way LDS boys do. The result? Mid-life anger, resentment, depression, and self-loathing. IMO, The LDS church robs girls of dreams, creativity, and their ability to...
Things That Blow My Mind: Rain and Weather
I’ve always been fascinated by weather. And sometimes, when I visualize the process of precipitation, it literally bakes my noodle. I realize that precipitation is something we’ve all grown up with, and by and large, we don’t really give it any thought, aside from simply acknowledging whether or not it’s a rainy day, or a sunny day. But there’s so much more to it than that, and it freaks me out! 🙂
Bought My Disney-Junkie Wife 1st Edition Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
I came across this gem and snagged it for her birthday. I had it shipped from New Zealand. Her favorite movie is Mary Poppins and (no kidding) she watches it probably 3 times a week. I cannot tell you how many positive hubby points this earned me!
IS FAITH A GOOD THING?
Is faith really a virtue? Is faith something we should present to our children as something good to have? So many books and movies are devoted to the idea that if someone doesn't believe in something because there's no evidence, then somehow that's a bad thing... and...
QUESTION: Where do you stand on Morality after Mormonism?
QUESTION: Where do you stand on “morality”? After Mormonism… what became the basis for your ideas of morality? It took me a while to flesh it all out. But I finally think I found the basis for my moral compass since I no longer look to religion, scriptures or group pressure to determine what constitutes moral behavior. To me: “Moral” is synonymous with “Wise”. If a decision is “wise” then, chances are, it’s “moral”.
The Beatles & Halestorm – I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
My daughter, Natty, loves the Beatles. She always has, at least ever since she discovered YouTube, Napster, iTunes, and could manage her own music playlist.
There’s a song that I love by the Beatles called “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” that features intense, dark chord progressions that support a very repetitive theme. And at first glance you may consider the song as being redundant overkill (after all, how many times can someone sing, say or scream “I want you!! I want you so bad it’s driving me mad!!”?). To say that the lyrics are redundant is an incredible overstatement.
My Earliest Memory
I think my earliest memory is early 1970, believe it or not. I was probably 2 years old. The reason I think this is my earliest memory is because I once described the memory to my mother, who instantly recognized the place and description of what happened was...
Do You Have A Profile on Hatebook?
I miss the days before Facebook, when people’s opinions weren’t so openly (an often aggressively) shouted as fact, and men didn’t judge one another based on their religious beliefs or who they voted for. Living as a liberal in Southeast Texas is not easy.
All day, every day, I see hateful propaganda (most of which are half-truths and many of which are outright lies) posted by people who I believe are otherwise trustworthy and intelligent. And now… I’m seeing posts by some of my conservative Facebook friends insisting that I (or anyone who supports the president) unfriend them.
Gee Whiz. If I insisted that my conservative Facebook friends remove me from their list, I’d be left with about 20 Facebook friends.
Clueless Americans Need to Get A Clue
WHAT I HATE: I hate it that the Internet, talk radio, and cable news have turned the majority of Americans into political armchair quarterbacks. America was a nicer place before politics became a polarizing, spectator sport. Now... anyone who made it past 5th grade...