Broken

 Here's the index, so you can see the reading you've missed :-P. Today is Saturday, September 9 at not yet 10pm. Ha! 

I have a story to finish. It's about the time I broke my best friend. It wasn't on purpose, and I felt really bad. He has never been the same. The Conclusion

So I had quite the little empire going on, but as the case was, i was alone in my tolerance. My grades actually stayed fairly decent, though. But for the most part Pat and I stayed study buddies, getting totally stoned before each cram session and baked off our asses before each test. It worked. And I just assumed that Pat was keeping up. It was't until my wife came along that the official word became "Don't try to keep up with Murray, just heed the warning and you can thank me later" was something she used to say. (I'm paraphrasing as that was almost 30 years ago) So when we'd take 2, he was only taking 1 and when I, or we, were taking 3, he was still only taking 1. I was clueless as to what was going on, I was just getting high and sharing with my friend. And all that was in college or shortly thereafter.

Fast-forward a couple years and Pat was still in college and I was on unemployment after a small but pertinent run with my first real job and my first bout with  morality. I had to put my morals out in front of making money and I quit my job over an injustice that i was made to take part in and I didn't want anything of it. So this must have been 1997 (Scratch that, see the math coming up) 1998. I'm going to say spring, prior to my first trip to Thailand and my first run in with my soon to be almost first wife. Yea, soon to be, almost first. (And yet, another story, for another time) So, it was about February 1997 1998, this year was to be epic. In March I went to Thailand, April I started my own company, and in August was when I met my wife to be. (Wait, back up. I worked for McE for 1.5 years, did start MsN in 1997, met Jenn in 1997 August, graduated EWU in 1994 December. so, 1995 was the year the bust went down, and 1996 must have been first to Thailand and moved to Yakima and 1997 must have been 2nd to Thailand and 1998 must have been started MsN because in 1999 i was already living in Tacoma after a year in Renton/Kent. ) So, my bad, correction, this was February 1996, and the beginning of a whirlwind of awesomeness, but also the long road's beginning of the end. But it was then end of the century, awesome was the name of the game.

So I had went to live with my grandparents after losing everything when my pot dealer went down big time because of buying my acid and letting his guard down and selling to an undercover. Lucky for me, he had morals and despite threatening him with life in prison, he kept saying "I don't know who you're talking about" over and over again for an over night interrogation. He said it was made easier because they kept asking for blonde haired Chris, whom they had met. They had tapped his phones so they had heard him talk to me and knew my name was Chris, but assumed only one Chris and asking for the wrong one and since he caught on to that he didn't have to lie, he just had to think of the Chris they were asking for and, well, you get it. Anyway, I had made the paper again, this time, though they didn't use or know my name they used my buddy's, and he actually made national press (High Times magazine) because were going to take his grandma's house because his brother was actually growing put in grandma's basement and. they followed the trail of pot from one house to the next. Quite brutal.

After a short bit of living there, I had started working for MC Events/TM Visuals as the general manager and was learning my trade: graphic design. As a bonus I got to manage a few people. I liked that job so much I called my buddy Pat to see if he wanted a job. He did. But he was not digging on his job as a salesman so he soon left, but we kept in touch and the first time i had free was after i resigned because  was tired of signing the checks that stole from the other boss of the company, a younger guy named David Jett. A year later I started MotorSports News with him. And at that time I went to visit him in Pullman and we dropped some acid, except this time i said "Aw, c',mon" we he declined my offer of two hits. It didn't make sense. So he didn't want the other hit but my innocent bit of peer pressure and he did. We were with his main squeeze at the time but they were just good friends, as pat was even worse at initiating anything than I was and eternally making friends with girls who would have been more than who were than more than willing to date but we, or he, just didn't see it. But anyway, I had said "Aww c'mon" and for that, I took full responsibility and was for the most part, really scared for Pat.

I don't remember many details of my trip. It seemed kind of non-eventful for the most part. It was fun, lots of laughing, sitting in a circle with that chick and Pat and I. I don't know what was going on in his head but i remember how it started: he kept repeating "Hi, I'm Pat, glad to meet you, what's your name" Every few minutes he's say that to either one of us. At frst it was funny but then we noticed and, well, okay so Pat was tripping. He was on one of those LSD circular events that I thought everybody had when you got too high. I had them quite often and had learned to recognize them, name it as "that" and just prepared to go through this boring yet perplexing bout of circular reasoning, that can sometimes get overwhelming despite recognizing that you were on drugs and knew the progression and that it would naturally work its way out. I don't think that I had never seen anyone else on it, though. At one point i remember Pat going on a tangent and that was when the girl and I exchanged worried glances like oh my gawd what the mother fuck. He said something about how his Dad had all the 'Power," because he was Pat and his name was Powers, but he had the Power now, but it was confusing because he kept repeating another part of the saga about how he was scared because a baby sitter had tried to take the Power away from him but he said it in such a way, his motions and the way he used the words, we both didn't have to say anything but we knew: Pat had been molested by one or if not both of the perpetrators —the antagonists— in his story. We kept him calm as much as we could and he never really got animated or anything just rocking back and forth, kinda going in circles from introducing himself to us over and over and repeating the Power saga. After a few rounds of that and some sideways glances to each other, m and the chick, for some unfathomable reason we decided that we wanted food and we went to a restaurant to eat. i think morning had come and gone and it was about time.

Pat was an outgoing friendly sort of guy. He knew a lot of people. Everyone just thought he was being a goof when he introduced himself to them, no one really thought anything of it. Only we two knew wht had really happened. We were down, way down, sub normal, and Pat was still there. Worried was an understatement. Everybody always every time came down. Except this onetime when Pat didn't. I don't recall ever telling anyone of his roommates or anyone what had happened. We may have but if we did i don't recall it.  The rest of my trip there in Pullman was overshadowed by the memory and the agony, the fright, the drama that was Pat. He woke up on day number three still tripping. As far as I can recall, I left to go back to Yakima and he was still tripping.

I remmeber seeing him some months later, after he had gotten out of the looney bin. He was marginally better. He wasn't repeating the mantra of who are you nice to meet you, but he wasn't the old Pat from the before time. He'll probably never be that sane dude. He had gotten a Materials Science Engineering Degree from WSU. To the best of my knowledge he never did use it.

I've done a lot of drugs since then, but I never really did LSD much since that tije, maybe a handful, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the once twoce a. week that i had going at times with the slow times being once s a month. Over the course of abojyt ten years thahts a lot. Thats over 200 times, considering that the vast majority of those were 2-5 hits with bouts of ten strips every time during the middle of the decade, its pushing 500+ hits. I had some fun times, sitting alone, sucking on a tank of nitrous while tripping oh that shit was super fun, a whole bunch of times watching Beavis and Butthead, trying to hit the record button on the VCR in case it was one i hadn't seen so i could have all of them on VCR—classic, but i'll always remember the time with Pat. 

All in all I never really did see any cool visuals and that was what i ws always going for. In fact, i'd say the visuals where at best a 1 on the 1-10 scale, with my first toke on DMT being al 11, now thats some serious tripping...  but thats a story for another time.