Buffalo Bill

This post is kind of a landmark post. Not only is this the fiftieth post on The Rumblings and Ramblings of Adam, it is the post that will knock my pro-polgamy rally post into the archives instead of on the main screen...sad day. That has been by far my most popular post. Oh well...

On Wednesday I, along with the Executive Director at Crossroads - Glenn, went to Denver to attend a Speaker's Bureau in the UMC Rocky Mountain Conference office there. It was a pretty cool day. I met quite a few people from the conference and even met another US-2. That was awesome! Unlike Salt Lake City, Denver isn't surrounded by mountains but there are some imposing and beautiful mountains there. I know that is a well kept secret but there are mountains in Denver. You probably haven't heard of them though. I think they are called something like the Rocky Mountains. Pretty obscure.



We had some free time so the Conference Treasurer took Glenn, myself, and a man from UMCOM who came down to help lead the Bureau to Buffalo Bill's burial site.

I knew little about Buffalo Bill before I saw his grave, and even met him (I have pictures!) but I did a little research when I got home. It turns out that Buffalo Bill, formerly known as William Cody, actually had to win his name in a Buffalo killing contest where he beat Bill Comstock, formerly Buffalo Bill, 69 to 48. He led a pretty cool life for that time, being part of the Pony Express, Civil War, and then his own Wild West - a circus-like traveling show. He died.



His tombstone thingie says he was buried in Colorado at his own request, but he actually wanted to be buried somewhere else. I think Wyoming. The state of Colorado promised Buffalo Bill's wife that they would pay off all of their unpaid debts in return for her allowing Bill (since I met him, we are on a first name basis) to be buried in Colorado. Colorado officials saw the tourist hotbed that this burial site would create. They were prophets. There were at least a dozen people there while we were.

There actually are a few things of interest at Buffalo Bill's grave. In the gift shop there was a stuffed buffalo. They are big. Also outside the gift shop there was this buffalo, not stuffed, but metal (I think, but the sign told me not to touch it so I couldn't confirm whether it is really a metal or not). The gentlemen I was with wouldn't allow me to break the rules and hop on the buffalo to pose for a picture.



Also as I mentioned earlier, I did get a chance to meet Buffalo Bill and his sidekick Annie Oakley. I knew you wouldn't believe me so I took pictures. Sadly, no one was a round to take the pictures of me with them so I had to settle for me taking a picture of them, thus, I wasn't able to get in the picture. Here they are.



















Look at Buffalo Bill's fearsome grimace.

Observations

Observations of a guy living completely on his own for the first time.


~The cycle of dirty laundry, dirty dishes, and empty cupboard shelves is endless.

~Frozen dinners taste much better if cooked in the oven.

~If Lil' Debbie and Marie Callender were real people, I would reconsider polygamy. Wait, is Lil' Debbie legal? I don't need the Special Victims Unit after me. Well, you can send ADA Novak...growl.

~Eggs go bad.

~If I buy a whole gallon of milk, I throw some out. If I buy a half gallon of milk, I need more way before the expiration date.

~Cleaning is not fun if you don't do it very often.

~If you don't fold your clothes immediately after they come out of the dryer, you have to iron every day.

~If you cook the whole bag of spaghetti noodles, be prepared to eat spaghetti noodles for a long time.

~If you live alone...you can't ignore bugs and hope someone else kills them.

~My family was very, very good to me. Thank you Mom, Dad, Tony, and Lisa! I love you guys...

Aww, how sweet...

Attack of the Giant Dust Particles

When I signed on to help out at Christ UMC youth, I knew that the time of the meetings would keep me from watching some of my favorite shows. But, I've since found out that Crossing Jordan is in a new time slot on Friday, Law and Order CI is on Tuesdays I think, and Grey's Anatomy is on Thursday. So, it turned out that the only show I would miss is Extreme Makeover - Home Edition.



Since the Lock-in last night wiped me out, I stayed home from church to rest. In the midst of my rest I watch Extreme Makeover - Home Edition. Watching it again for the first time in a while I realized that I would not miss this show at all.

It's not as if I don't like the show. It is really good. Entertaining, sentimental, good stories, etc. It's just that whenever I watch the show my allergies act up, mixing with GIANT dust particles floating around (mysteriously I never see these GIANT dust particles except during this show), and make my eye's water for the majority of the show.

Take tonights episode for example. It was a two-hour special premiere episode. I would say that for about 1.5 hours of the 2 hours my eyes were under attack.

After this aerial assault, which coincidentally stopped with the ending of Extreme Makeover, I realized that though I will miss getting to watch the show on a weekly basis, I won't miss the odd display of my emotions, er, dust particles.

I don't know why or exactly when it happened, but around two years ago I started crying. During movies, moving songs, some television shows...other things, I would sometimes find moisture coming out of my eyes. It was seemingly foreing to me...you know, I was a man. Men don't cry except at funerals and when they are young. Now, I cry. Especially during Extreme Makeover Home Edition. They just play with your emotions on that show.

At some points in this episode I would think that there was nothing that one of the people on the show could say or do and extract more tears from me. I was never right. Darn that Ty Pennington.

I hope that this sudden appearance of tears over the last couple of years doesn't make me less of a man. In that two years I have graduated to shaving twice a week instead of one, so if anything I would say I am more of a man now than I was before the tears started coming.

Oh, and just so you know, I haven't been using my ladies deodorant for two years, so the chemicals haven't been messing with my hormones. I guess I finally gave up on the macho thing...and plus, I'm pretty like a girl so I might as well act like them in certian movies and tv shows...

hmm..

I have several posts that I will do in the very near future. One of those I think I have mentioned several times - showing you where I live - but have not had time/motivation to clean up my apartment to take pictures of it. I will in the next day or so...actually, no promises.

It has been raining like crazy here...I was told that Utah was the second most dry (most dry is what I settled on when I spelled the alternative several ways, none to my satisfaction - driest, dryest, is this even a word?) state in the Union, but this week was very, very wet. I think it rained part of every day. Not dry at all.

I don't know what happened to the last post with the screwed up test and picture placement...probably the Super Secret Spies of the soon-to-be North American Union found it and tried to sabotage it since I made fun of said Union, and the stupidity of the idea.

Last week or so I playfully mentioned that I am becoming an Iron Chef. I even created a masterpiece using my face superimposed over a Japanese guy's face which was hilarious - and NO ONE even complimented me on it. Anyways, today I realized that I am becoming quite the creative culinary crackerjack (my dictionary says crackerjack is a synonym for expert and I was going for alliteration). Today I made a super good hot and sour soup in the style of Lili's in Pulaski and then for dinner made a chop steak with saute'd onions and mushrooms. Excellent.

I ate an early dinner because I am going to help with a lock-in at the church where I am volunteering with the youth tonight. I figured I would eat early, take a nap, then get up to go to church. I will go sleep now.

Something weird is going on...

The internet here is going crazy. Sometimes lately it just won't work, then other times it flies. I don't know whats going on and my landlord (who is gracious enough to allow me to use his wireless) is out of town so i can't figure out if it is a problem with the connection or my computer. Actually, I'm assuming it isn't a problem with my computer as it is a mac and nothing is ever wrong with a mac...

I am updating because I don't know when I will get to again. And I hope that I can now...

Last weekend, actually two weekends ago, I stumbled upon a rally at the city/county building. Sound familiar? To my disappointment this was simply a political rally...



The Constitution party is a fairly conservative caucus in Utah. In my ongoing effort to educate all of you I will talk about it for a few minutes. (Like how I said tIt is also fairly non-existent in the State Senate and House, but that doesn't keep them from running every year. I guess when I say they are a fairly consevative caucus, what I mean is they pick a couple of issues to make noise about...guns, immigration, conspiracy theories about the current administration...and they take them to the extreme. My understanding is that instead of protecting the Constitution, as their name would suggest, the Constitution party takes parts of the Constitution - Right to Bear Arms, Stopping Illegal Immigrants, etc - that would appeal to a good portion of the nation and couples those issues with some merit with really crazy ones.

One of those really crazy platforms: (quoted from their propaganda)

...The Bush Administration has been operating in secret for at least two years to establish what can only be described as a North American Union with Mexico and Canada, along the same lines as the European Union. It eventually means an end to the U.S. Constitution as our ruling document, replaced instead with a new North American Government. It will eventually lead to the surrender of U.S. Sovereignty, independence, and national borders. (This is the best part!) It will result in the establishment of a North American currency called the "Amero".




The Constitution Party doesn't want America tread upon by Canadians or Mexicans. They can take their "Amero" and buy their own country!










One redeeming quality of the Constitution Party is that they know how to arrive in style.







Overall, this caucus is pretty much a joke. I mean, they have some noble stand I guess, but they are mainly saying some of the same things the Republicans say to get any voters at all. One of their other ideas is that the Bush Adminstration is creating a Super Highway that would be "the width of eight football fields" and run from Mexico to Canada without enforced inspections...so, anything can travel through our country.

Tangent Alert The roads here in Salt Lake are super wide...not quite the width of eight football fields...but wide nonetheless. The myth about why Brigham Young, in planning out the city, made the roads so wide is that he did it so he could walk arm in arm with his 50something wives. Ha! The real reason is so someone could turn around their horse-carriage without backing up...but the other explanation is funnier.

Anyways...the Constitution Party is pretty wacky, though interesting. Most interestingly, they dress like this:

Hilarious book

In New York, while we were training, the US-2 class had a great idea to start a book club, where we (the ones who chose to read) would all read the same book each month. The first book suggested was Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore.

I started the book in August because I was lonely, even though we weren't scheduled to read it until September. Because of my cheating, I have been done with the book for a long time and haven't been able to talk about it with anyone. I have posted on our book club's blog but no one has answered...so, I will tell you all about it.

First off, the book is as it's title suggests...an authors (hilarious) guess at what Jesus' childhood/adolescence/teen years/young adult years would have been like. It is a big stretch historically speaking, as the author claims, but is written as a (hilarious) novel. Have I mentioned that it is hilarious?

I would love to suggest this book to everyone because I liked it so much, but there is quite a bit of language and sex in the book. No, Jesus doesn't curse or have sex...or does he? You will have to read to find out. But I'm not suggesting this book. I wouldn't want anyone getting offended by what they read and then blame me because I suggested it. But if I were you I would read it. But I'm not endorsing it.

Biff, Jesus' childhood pal, is the narrator of the book and a source of most of the humor. Jesus does have some laugh out loud lines though. Here is one of them:

First off, let me say that this takes place right after Jesus' turns the water into wine at the wedding in Cana and right before he passed out and was carried home by a camel.

Joshua (Biff uses the English version of Jesus' name, you know, Yeshua-Jesus-Joshua) stumbled through the gate and crashed into us. We were able to catch ourselves and him before anyone fell. The Messiah was holding (a) little girl's pet bunny, hugging it to his cheek with the big back feet swinging free. He was gloriously drunk. "Know what?" Josh (Jesus again...you'll catch on) said. "I love bunnies. They toil not, neither do they bark. Henceforth and from now on, I decree that whenever something bad happens to me, there shall be bunnies around. So it shall be written. Go ahead Biff, right it down." He waved to me under the bunny, then turned and started back through the gate. "Where's the friggin' wine? I got a dry bunny over here!"

See! Hilarious! Get it...Easter Bunnies...hahahaha. This was one of the many, many times I laughed out loud in this book.

Everyone should read this book...this novel. But I'm not recommending it...

FYI

Just if you were wondering...I had planned to go out to the canyons today with a new friend/acquaintance, but there is too much SNOW on the canyons to actually go! Needless to say we have rescheduled.

It is cold here already. Wow. Who's jealous?

True ramblings...

I feel like I need to fill you all in on what is going on where I work. Crossroads is a really cool place where there is tons going on in a given day. The emergency food pantry at Crossroads is the busiest in the state of Utah where daily anywhere between 150 and 200 people are given a 3 day supply of food, gas voucher, prescription voucher, clothing voucher for Crossroads' thrift store (which gives away clothes and other necessities to about 20 families a day, and other services. There are limits to how much of something people can get, so it is truly only an emergency pantry.

Clients of the pantry make up one of the advocacy groups that is based at Crossroads with which I work - the Anti-Hunger Action Committee. Issues that AHAC is wokrin on vary between issues that the members dictate - things like restoring vision and dental to medicaid, state-run healthcare, and state-mandated living wages. I do some community organizing with this group and will get more into research and legislation, grant writing, and advocacy training eventually.

Another advocacy group is the Coalition of Religious Communities, or CORC. CORC is a group of people from varying faith traditions - Bahai, Jewish, American Baptist, Episcopal, everything and anything - who rally together and support/advocate for issues regarding poverty. CORCs main issues right now are removing the sales tax on food, raising the minimum wage, and state-regulation of payday loan companies. I haven't done much with this but have done enough to know that CORC is very politically charged and ferocious - something I will have to grow into.

I guess the reason I wanted to write this was to talk about some of my observations. One being that I now know where the stereotype of Native Americans being alcoholic comes from. Growing up in Nashville I heard the stereotype, but never knew why it was a stereotype. When I arrive at work in the morning there are anywhere between 10 -15 people waiting for the building to open so they can use the phone, get food, or just relax in the air-conditioning. As i walk past this group of people I get strong smells of whiskey and mouth wash. Can you imagine being so desparate for the taste of alcohol that you actually drink mouthwash for the alcohol? Dependence is something else...oh, and more than half of the people who come into Crossroads drunk are Native Americans - not saying I buy into the stereotype, I just know where it comes from now. Half aren't Native Americans and the majority of all alcoholics aren't on display for the world to see like these men I work with...

Okay, sorry to bore you. I'm sure my next post will be funny, enlightening, and not ramblings (though my blog title might have to change)...but no one can give Adam quality blog postings every time...not even Adam. Also, I didn't proofread (as usual) so excuse gramatticool arrows and missspeleengs please. See that was funny, but didn't redeem the posting I'm afraid.

Just Call Me Iron Chef

Yeah...I stink at my freeware version of Photoshop...but that is me...

So until Monday night the most courageous I had gotten in the kitchen was either Sloppy Joes or Spaghetti, which ever dish is harder to accomplish.

I was tired of meals that I had to pull straight out of the fridge or simply add heat so I went to my trusty old friend the internet to look up one of my favorite dishes - General Tso's Chicken. The recipes I found were all a little more intense than I wanted to try, but I really was in the mood for some General Tso's and therefore tried the one that seemed like it would be the most correct.

Here is a picture of the food in the process of cooking.



When the chicken was frying, the smoke kept setting the smoke detector off so I had to improvise.



All in all it was a pretty hard process. The recipe said that it would take an hour to make. It took me closer to two hours, though, I did by the dark meat chicken with bones and had to cut the meat off the bone. I won't make that mistake again.

Before I started the process of cooking like the chinese restaurant chefs I cleaned my kitchen thorughly...unlike chinese restaurant chefs according to most health scores. I washed every dish...and I'm glad I did...look how many dishes I used to make this dish, which served me for 3 meals. Remember...there were no dishes in the sink and I only ate off of one plate.



In the end...the food was worth the trouble, though I would love to make it a little spicier. I guess practice will make perfect. I have found quite a few dishes online that I hope to try next. I think my next venture might be spring rolls from scratch.

I've Been Doing This All Wrong...

So last Thursday I went to a meeting of persons interested in helping out with the youth group at Christ UMC - the largest United Methodist Church in the state of Utah (there are only 16 or so). There I met a lot of cool people, one of whom called me on Saturday and invited me to the University of Utah game against Northern Arizona.

Not having gone to a school with a football team (technically UT Martin, my first school, had a football team but I think they won two games total in the two years I was there so we won't get hung up on technicalities) I have never really had a student-fan experience. All of my college sports fandam (fan+adam, just like my last made up word) consists of rooting for a school where I have never attended a collegiate class - Vanderbilt University. I wrote collegiate class because in 6th grade my class went to the campus theater to watch Little Women on the big screen.

My fandam experience with Vanderbilt is pretty intense. It involves knowing as much as I can know about every football player, coach, mascot, opponent, cheerleader, etc. Okay, I know nothing about the cheerleaders, but I get obsessed with the team during the season. Then, when gametime comes I watch on the television (where available, not here) because I get the commentary with the game action, not like at the stadium, and cringe, yell profanities, and second guess every move that the coach makes. Then, after the game I can't wait to read all of the commentary in the various papers and websites...you know, I'm a true fan. My mood depends on the outcomes. This is true with Vandy basketball, Titans football, and Pistons basketball to an extent.

When I accepted the invitation to the Utah game on Saturday, I was opened to a new sports experience. I went to one of my new friend's friend's houses and about 12 of us hung out and watched warm-up games on television. About 15 minutes after kick-off of the Ute's game, we headed up the hill to start the 10 minute walk to the stadium so we would show up a stylish 25 minutes late. We head to the student section (my first time to sit in the student section at a real college football game...once again, UT Martin doesn't count) and proceed to stand the entire game, except at halftime. Everyone on the near vicinity is a friend, even though we've never met before. The Utes are what tie us all together. I talk to several people, all who second guess my clothing choice.

Sidebar: I had to work all morning until I was picked up to go to the friend's house...therefore I wore to the game what I was wearing for work - a blue shirt. I soon learned that blue is BYU's main color so everyone I talked to said "Next game you come to, wear anything but blue." I replied to each of them with, "Oh, this isn't red? I'm so color-blind" to escape beatings.

End Sidebar

When the Utes score, which happened much that day, everyone around you gets a high five. It was awesome. I had no vested interest in the outcome, knew nothing about anyone on the home team, and no connection to the school but I was yelling, booing, doing the wave enthusiastically, and having the most fun I've ever had at a football game. So much less stressful than Vandy games on TV. As we were leaving, my 50,000 new football friends were thinking of the score, which was something like 49-7 and I could have cared less what the score was. I experienced the fun atmosphere of a football game that true fans probably never experience...no agony in defeat, no need to make sure every writer in the nation isn't ripping your team, no worries about injuries, only good times...


Since I'm rambling and rumbling about sports, I might mention that Trent Green, the NFL Quarterback who was carted off the field in a stretcher yesterday, was on ALL 3 of my fantasy football teams...goodbye defending champion team :Adam's Winners...maybe next year...(Adam's Winners are actually only the defending champions in one of his leagues, one is a public league and Adam knows no one in it, the other is a new league with various UMC pastors and youth leaders in the TN conference, but if he was in either league last year Adam would have won...)

Ode 3

In a couple days I will post pictures and a description of my apartment. Until then, amuse yourself with the 3rd part of my 213 part series of odes (yeah, I stole that from Stephen Colbert).

This ode goes out to someone very special to me...someone who has been with me for many years and has never let me down. Many of you know that this is someone who is very important to me. You guessed it...it's:



I cannot think of a time in my life when I didn't drink Kool-aid on a regular basis. I love it. Every flavor except lemonade and pink lemonade. My favorite flavor is Strawberry.



I would venture to say that Kool-aid is the best drink ever. Even better than Sweet Tea.

Kool-aid is one of the 10 or so things I bought during my first grocery store visit upon arrival in Salt Lake. I haven't been without it since. Because of the difficulty in carrying cokes (Coca-cola, Sprite, Root beer, Sam's Choice,etc...the real definition of coke) back from the store either on foot or by bus I am drinking Kool-aid exclusively (besides milk, water, sweet tea, and orange juice, but we'll say exclusively for emphasis). I always have two pitchers of it too...as soon as one runs out I start drinking the other while I make more in the empty pitcher. That's organizational skills and a lesson for all in promptness and priorities.

The best part about Kool-aid is the big pitcher man guy who I think has a name, but I don't know it. He's creepy, but there is something about him that makes me thirsty. That's good advertising...

What were they thinking?

Post Labor Day sightings of people wearing white: 12 people. How do you spell faux pas?

The sightings were among lobbyists and legislators at the Capitol today. How can we elect these people?

My Library is Better Than Yours

It's true, my library, the Salt Lake City Library, is better than your library. I know I tend to brag every now and then, but this is not such a time. I am simply conveying news that was released earlier this year. See:



Now that I've gotten that out of the way. Let me tell you why the library is so cool.

I have spent a lot of time at the library so far in my time here in Salt Lake. They offer several tours but I have not take one yet. They Mayor of Salt Lake, the same one who protested George Bush the other day, had a hand in designing the library to be very envirionmental friendly, or "green" if you will. You will notice that all of the windows on the outside of the library reduce the need for manufactured light inside the library.



The outside alone is really cool. There is a ramp outside that goes from the ground to the 5th floor, which is opens up to a roof-top terrace where there are places to read and relax. Here is the ramp:



The view from the roof is really cool. You can see my house from there. I think. I know you can see a lot of Salt Lake CIty so I am assuming you can see the house where I live.

Moving on. Inside the library, there are various shops, cafes, galleries, and a theater (theatre, I never can figure out which is appropriate). Here is a picture of the foyer area where some of the shops are. On the left side of this picture there are desks on every level that are for people to use the wireless internet, study, or do other scholarly things. On the right side is the library, five levels of books, cds, dvds, magazines, reference materials, and other things.



The bottom floor of the library, the basement, is the children's area.



In the children's area there are special children's reading rooms. I didn't take pictures of these because there were children playing and reading, and I didn't want to be taken for some pervert. The reading rooms have themes. One theme was "Grandma's Attic," which looked exactly like an attic, complete with beams and everything. Another room was called the "Crystal Cave," which looked like a crytal wonderland. There were crags coming out of the floor, ceiling, and wall while the room as a while was painted a smooth light blue. The third room was called the "Coat Room." This was my favorite room as there were actually coat hooks on the wall, coats on the hangers, and cubby holes for hats. It was so realistic. By far the coolest themed room. I can't understand why there weren't children reading in there though...

There are cool little reading areas for adults as where. This next set-up looks like something I would expect to see at the Museum of Modern Art, as it is way more creative than a lot of things there.



Those are fireplaces by the way...

And of course, there are books and lots of them. I was afraid that there would be some sort of censoring inside the library walls because Utah has a reputation as such a conservative area, but I have been able to find most everything i have searched for...even horror movies and what not. There is a huge selection of DVDs, CDs, Books, and whatnot.



Well, this is all evidence that I am once again proven to be better than everyone else...even to the extent that when Salt Lake City heard that I was coming to town and liked libraries they built a new, award winning library. Oh, and I'm not better than everyone else...

Weekend!

I got a very awesome surprise when I plugged my new tv into the wall a couple of days ago. I have cable! Not just basic cable either. I have ESPN and an HBO...pretty sweet huh? That means I got to watch Vanderbilt (lose) today against Michigan and will get to watch football while I'm here in Salt Lake! UT Game starts in about 5 minutes...I hope they do as well as Vanderbilt did today.

Last night the Executive Director at Crossroads, Glenn Bailey, took me to a Salt Lake Bees (Triple A) baseball game. They too lost but it was a fun night anyways.

Look at the awesome backdrop to the stadium here in Salt Lake.




Well, this is an awesome weekend full of football and I can't be more excited. It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Work is getting better and better everyday. I'm liking it more and more. I will talk more in detail about this later.