A Long Time Ago, in a Lifetime Far, Far Away. . .

My parents were both raised born and married in New Orleans, so no matter where I've lived, I'll always be a cajun boy. Shortly before I was born, we moved to Phoenix, where my father began his 20 year career working for Motorola. I was born there, but by the time I was just a few months old we had moved to Austin. I have always wished that we had gotten here just a little bit earlier, as I have lived here all of my life, and have absolutely no ties to Arizona at all.

By the time I was 3 years old we had moved to the country halfway between Bastrop and Austin. Every boy should have a chance to live in the woods. I learned to shoot a gun and bow, hunted rabbit, squirrels, birds, and fished every chance I had. I started out in the Cub Scouts when I was only 5, went through Boy Scouts all the way through graduating as an Eagle Scout when I was 16.

Before graduating from high school I only knew 2 things: Boy Scouts and Theatre. I attended summer camp at Lost Pines every year, and worked on staff there the last three. I was a swimming and lifeguard instructor, organized campfires, and orchestrated leadership training seminars for hundreds of boys. During the school year I was also involved with the school theatre program. I competed in U.I.L. One Act Play, taking Best Actor on several occasions all the way up to Region. I even performed at the Bastrop Opera House community theatre dozens of times as the leading boy. Then, I went to college. In 1993, Southwest Texas State University had already been notorious for being a party school for years. I was there as a BFA Acting Major. What? No audition I had ever been to cared either way if you had a degree in acting. No job I have ever applied for since wanted someone who had a degree in acting either. Long story short, after much debauchery, and late nights, I decided to get out of town. There was no point in getting that degree, so I dropped out of school to get my head clear.

I decided to go home, but not back to Bastrop. I decided to go to my home away from home, the place I had spent every summer, Thanksgiving, and Christmas; New Orleans. My Grandfather had begun to loose his battle with cancer, so my mom and I moved in with him for a month or so until he passed away. After the funeral, my mother left went back to Texas and I stayed behind to try school again. By now, it was 1998 and I had been working in restaurants for 9 years, (an actor that waits tables? Unheard of!) so I decided to attend Delgado Culinary Institute and become a Chef. I continued to work in restaurants, on Bourbon Street as a waiter, and at South Shore yacht club as a bar manager. No matter what anyone ever tells you, there is no staying out of trouble as long as you work in the restaurant industry. While there, I met a few members of the Junior Mafia, and continued the same lifestyle I had been living at SWT. Clearing my head I was not.

After 2 years of N.O., I finally called my Mom and crawled home with my tail between my legs. I lived the sober life, I even took a job working for MCI selling long distance. . . for about 6 months. Then there was Earl. They called him the Tyler Rose. You may know him better as the infamous Earl Campbell. He decided to open a restaurant on Austin's 6th Street, I decided to get back into it. I moved out of my parent's house and back into Austin, and though I did manage to get into some trouble, I met some of the closest friends I have to this day. Rick, Jody, Missi, Donald, and the love of my life, Rachel.

I worked in several places after Earl's. Austin Java Co. at The Backyard, (a great venue) CRS, and finally, my new home away from home, Maudie's Cafe. I love those people. After living here for 30 years It was you Maudie's people that finally made me feel like Austin is my home. Well, I finally had to grow up and think about the future. The future of my life, my wife, and someday, my children. So here I am. After 15 years of working in bars and restaurants, giving up my dream of becoming a famous actor, and experiencing more in 10 years than most people see in a lifetime I can finally take a breath.

Now, I'm trying to take it as easy as I know how to. I work at a little fruit stand called Apple. I’ve been there for two years now and have taken to computer technical support like the natural. I’ve scrambled up the promotions ladder, and now I’m training on servers to support corporate customers. I even started my own company called Mouton Solutions, where I provide on-site technical support to restaurants and individuals. It’s been a slow start, but I’m optimistic.

I'm still known to get a little too crazy on the weekends, but I've been going to church lately, reading more, and trying to do anything I can to ease my troubled mind. If you made it all the way to the bottom of this blurb, you may be a little bit too interested in other people's lives. If so, can I recommend one of my therapists?

Men in Black

Last night was a weird one. I starts off on the top of a 6 or 7 story building with a large flat roof. I am there with 3-4 other men pacing around a group of about 15 other men who are all wearing handcuffs with their hands behind their backs. They are all on their knees and in a strait row shoulder to shoulder.

One of the "prisoners" starts getting upset, screaming and ranting about how there is no such thing as aliens, that we are all stupid. "There are no aliens, we shouldn't be here, just let us go!" he said. That's when another one stood up, broke his cuffs, and threw his shoulders back so far that his chest opened up and he literally transformed like a Decepticon into some kind of robotic alien. Two of my men tried to grab him, but not before a chamber in his chest opened up and dropped 2 dozen cell phones on the ground. Somehow I knew they were bombs so I dove off of the roof and landed on the ground on my back. Apparently no one else on the roof wanted to blow up either, so they kicked the bombs off of the roof, right on top of me. Already on my back, I did a backstroke and "swam" through the tall grass to some bushes and flipped over them to the other side. I heard the explosion, and saw the flames lick the top of the bush I was hiding behind. I stood up, and my men had secured the Transformer on the ground, but he had already turned back into a man. I walked up to him and started yelling, "Are you crazy? You trying to get us all killed?" I gave him a kick in the stomach and walked away from him. I jumped and flew back up the 7 stories to the roof where the rest of the prisoners were still being held. I walked up to the man who had been yelling before, "Still don't believe in aliens?" I said.

Fishing Dream

Last night I dreamt that I was fishing with my father, grandfather, and dog, Souly. We were in his old boat in the delta of Louisiana, fishing off the back of it like we did so often when I was a kid. Everything seemed normal enough, I even dropped a nice 14 inch Red Fish off the back of the boat. There is a slight time elapse, then we are in another part of the marsh. I am still in the back of the boat, and off to the right I see two gators; one on a log and another in the water and I could just barely see his eyes. I look to the left and see Souly about 20 feet away swimming toward the boat. I look back to the right and both gators have slipped into the water and were swimming toward him. I immediately dove into the water out to Souly, grabbed him by the collar and swam as hard as I could toward the boat. My Dad grabbed Souly and pulled him aboard, then I felt the gator grab me and pull me under the water, then darkness.

Reading in a Dream

Last night I dreamt that I was in some kind of old english township of some sort, flying over the tops of the buildings. I floated down to the street where I met a man I knew, but I cannot remember his face. I told him that this was a dream, and he argued with me that it was not. I told him that I couldn't really fly, that the only place I could fly was in my dreams and he told me that i was wrong. He seemed worried that he could be living in MY dreamworld. The man told me that if I was really dreaming, then I would not be able to read anything, so to prove it to him I looked around the apartment and I found and old leather-bound book. I took the book from the shelf and opened it up. At first, I did see letters on the pages, but they were scrambled and unreadable, so I concentrated, and started to read. The words on the page turned into pictures, and I was able to read the pictures as they told a story about two frogs who fell in love. The frogs got married and had hundreds of little frog babies. I closed the book and told the man that I was able to read it, but the words turned into pictures on the pages, and that I was indeed dreaming. The man turned and said to me, "the words on pages always turn into pictures, whether you are dreaming or not"

Rain, Rain. . .

The last two nights have been about storms. The first night, the first thing I remember is standing on a second or third story patio balcony and looking out into the ocean. The waves were 20 feet high, but were lapping up onto the balcony as if I were standing on the edge of a beach. I remember finding my way out of the apartment, and to some kind of emergency boat shop, where they were selling floatation devices, but these things were barely designed to hold up a 5 year old in a kiddy pool. Some of them WERE kiddy pools, and people were climbing inside and floating off. I was handed what looked like an inflatable whale or walrus, and remember thinking, "this thing is going to last about 5 minutes" The next thing I know, I'm in some kind of situation room, looking on a map of the disaster area. We appear to be looking at the Gulf coast, and what looks to be the Mississippi river is now over 40 miles wide for 200 miles from the coast up.

The dream the next night I was driving in the car with Rachel, everything was fine and I was on the phone with my mom. I looked into the sky and it looked like we were about to drive into a black wall of clouds. I hung up the phone and entered the blackness.