Be yourself; everyone else is taken.
–Oscar Wilde

His costume was better, but he didn’t even really smoke… (Credit: Mohamed Hamad)

A couple years ago on Halloween, I went out as Raoul Duke (Hunter S. Thompson from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). It was a good person to go out partying as and I spent all day getting into character. I even ran into another Hunter with a much better costume, but I was in character so I like to tell myself I won that run in.

The only problem was that it took me four days to get back out of character. I was even talking like him when I’d take client calls at work. My buddy (who took the pic) worked next to me and wouldn’t let me live it down and kept laughing at me, but I couldn’t help myself — I couldn’t stop.

A year later, I found myself single (and heartbroken) for the first time in years. I had no idea how to start over or start dating again. But I happened to be catching up on all the previous seasons of Californication, which means that for weeks, I’d been spending a few hours every night with Hank Moody.

He rubbed off on me, and I started carrying his silly wit and sense of humor, and that shit actually worked. For a couple weeks, I could pick up any girl I talked to. It was good timing to have that kind of super power, and it got me through the first few weeks of the break-up, but once I was all caught up on the show and my time with Hank Moody was up, it was gone forever.

This probably says a lot about me than anything, but I think it also says something about how we’re impressionable creatures who are influenced by the people around us, the art we consume, and the characters it portrays. But it’s been a long week and it’s Friday afternoon and I’d really rather talk about myself than get heady and introspective and philosophical.

Being Uncle Andy…

So what I’m going to take from this is that I want to be Uncle Andy. If I’m going to copy anyone, I want it to be someone who is as dedicated and loyal (albeit hopelessly) to the ones he love, but has the good sense to not hold grudges and the piece of mind to let something go when there’s nothing left he can do about it.

Of course, I only really realized this while watching the series finale of Weeds last week, so I’m all out of time with Andy Botwin, so I guess I’m just going to have to be myself…