The Rumblings and Ramblings of Adam

Aggravated

2007-09-25T21:29:00.000-05:00

So I finally started working on grad school applications tonight. I thought biking (yeah I bought a bike since the last time I posted) to the main library would help me concentrate without all of the distractions my apt. offers. Read that as television.

So I'm here...kind of getting into a writing groove every now and then...but stupid people won't stop talking. First some jr. high kids were having a rubber band war in the book shelves to my right. I played the old man and shooshed them and they ran. I think it's because I am getting so muscle laden (yeah, worked out a lot since last time I posted too). Or, it might have been that a mean looking librarian came over and shooshed them at the same time that I shooshed. I choose to say that it was me.

After I took care of the jr. highers, a conference of some sort let out downstairs and filled the whole atrium with noise. The laptop desks are right by the atrium so it was really loud for about 20 minutes while they exited the building.

Now, some college student looking people are talking really loud at a table behind me. Singing in a group, cell phone ringing, laughing, etc. THey definitely look too old for high school. They definitely aren't smart enough for college. I bet they are in community college.

Anyways...I have 25 minutes until the library closes...wish me luck!

My mommy asked me to update

2007-05-15T22:16:00.000-05:00

Hello all! I am doing a lot of work on the internet for work, so when I get home I don't really feel like getting on the computer and updating here. Maybe the blogging apathy will leave soon...

The Sports World since I've been in Utah:

Major League Baseball
My Primary team: St. Louis Cardinals
Outcome: World Series Champions

College Football
My Primary team: Vanderbilt Commodores
Outcome: 5-6 - not bad for Vandy

Secondary team: Any SEC team
Outcome: best in the world....Gators = National Champions

National Football League
My primary team: Tennessee Titans
Outcome: 8-8, NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year - Great for the predictions/expectations

My secondary team: Indianapolis Colts (I'm a Peyton Man, I mean who wouldn't like a 6-4 quarteback with a rocket arm?)
Outcome: World Champions

College Basketball
My Primary team: Vanderbilt Commodores
Outcome: Sweet Sixteen - awesome

My secondary team: any SEC team
Outcome: 4 teams in sweet sixteen, gators = national champions, SEC rocks

College Bowling
My primary team: Vanderbilt Commodores
Outcome: National Champions (I'm a HUGE fan...I even know the cheer for when a bowler gets a turkey) (not really, but go dores!)

National Basketball Association
My primary team: Detroit Pistons
Outcome: up 3 games to 2 in a best of seven series...they should pull it out, then will easily handle the next team

My secondary team: Utah Jazz
Outcome: up 3 games to 1 (playing right this minute) in a best of seven sries...should pull it out tonight, match up favorably with both other teams so might have a chance.

College Baseball
My primary team: Vanderbilt Commodores
Outcome: Won SEC East, No. 1 nationally most of the season, should compete well into the world series...

I THINK IT IS SAFE TO CALL THIS THE YEAR OF ADAM IN SPORTS

And yes, it's all me...

Also, I think fast food restaurants should add sloppy joes to their menus

18 days?

2007-04-23T20:28:00.001-05:00

Has it really been 18 days since my last post? Someone's a slacker...

A lot has happened in the last 18 days. I went and had an awesome time hanging out with some of my friends from college in Colorado. One of them lives there now and two came up from the Nashville/ Alabama area. It was fun times.

Also, I broke my streak of 7 consecutive family birthdays forgotten. This is pathetic, I know. If I missed your birthday I'm sorry!

I spent all of last week in Southern Utah to hold meetings for one of the advocacy groups that I am working with. Southern Utah is pretty - lots of rocks and desert though. I like roads and buildings better. Maybe a little grass here and there to add a splash of color, but mostly civilization.

One of the side trips that we took was to Arches National Park. It has the largest concentration of naturally made sandstone arches in the world. It also has a lot of cool rocks.

This one is called "Balanced Rock." I renamed it "The Afro." See it?

This one is called "The Three Gossips." I renamed it "The Three Wise Men."

This one is called "Delicate Arch." I renamed it "Delicate Adam doesn't want to take the 1.5 mile uphill hike so he took a picture from way down here."

There were other cool places too...I actually saw Big Rock Candy Mountain - the one the song was written about. It didn't taste too good...

Cyberpimp

2007-04-05T00:06:00.000-05:00

Say what you will about me, but today, between 11:28 and 11:32 am, I got both of these messages and 3 friend requests from scantily clad women on MySpace.

Here are the two messages:

Apr 4, 2007 11:30 AM

Subject: no subject
Body: Hey there Im Amber and I decided to message you because your profile caught my eye as someone I would like to get to know better!! I recently signed up on a new and far more provocative dating site - all you need to sign up and find me is an email to join! You can find my profile here, under the name of sexyamberwantstoplay. I try to stay away from using myspace because it is very restrictive and too much spam. Thanks!

...and...

Apr 4, 2007 11:30 AM

Subject: whats up?
Body: H3Y BABE !!!...Cool myspace u got there.. was just browsing people who live near me and found ya..... Feel free to add me to your M~S~N or A~I~M (both are listed on my MS page..I prefer M`S`N as A'I'M freezes on me so I may not get ur messages...I jusst m0ved so try!ng to meeet sum new people.. xoxox chat soon cutie xoxoxo Paris

Now mind you, I am rarely on MySpace anymore. Maybe 5 minutes a week. Today I happened to get an email informing me of a message from a friend who I am going to see over the weekend so I thought I should check it. In the time I was on MySpace - about 2 minutes - these 5 ladies (remember the 3 friend requests) pounced on me. They were probably waiting on me...I'm apparently such cyber man meat. Actually...I might make my M`S`N or A'I'M screen name (both not listed on my MS page...(I forgot to close that parentheses just like the second message sender - name SEXYBELLA) cybermanmeatuno.

I added uno to this name so people ladies will realize that I am the number one in cyber man meat. Well, at least the ladies who can speak Spanish or played the beloved card game UNO growing up.

Okay, enough of this MySpace crap. But obviously the ladies like what they see on my profile.

Oh, and by the way, I am aware everyone gets these requests/messages. But do they get 5 in 4 minutes like this cyberpimp did? Probably.

Clarification

2007-03-30T22:50:00.000-05:00

So when I said I wanted to bring back the fanny pack, I meant that I want at least 65% of the US population to start using fanny packs. Once that 65% makes fanny packs stylish again, I will strongly consider wearing a fanny pack. Once the "fanny pack wearing" population achieves 80% of the entire U.S. population - documented or not - I will wear a fanny pack. My freakin' sweet leather fanny pack that has sat on the bench since 7th grade.

Remember, this is a strong contrast to the "Crocs Craze." I wore Waldies, the company that Crocs bought out, long before Crocs became cool to wear. I will take credit for that "Craze," as Crocs became mad popular about 5 or 6 months after I bought my Waldies. For the record, Waldies are exactly the same as Crocs, except without the strap.

On a sad note, the right arrow button on my ibook is acting up. I have to press it down very hard to make it work.

On a happier note, my right tricep is getting pretty toned because of the added pressure I have to give to the right arrow button.

I don't like the weather anymore...

2007-03-29T18:41:00.000-05:00

It is curious that on Monday of this week I was wearing flip flops and the temperature was about 80. Yesterday I awoke to a snow covered windshield and sub-freezing temps. Today it wasn't snowing, but it was about 40 most of the day.

That's all. I just wish the weather would make up it's mind here in Utah.

Oh, and I'm thinking of bringing fanny packs back. Who's with me?

I am serious. I still have a really nice one I got in7th grade but never got the occasion to wear, as they went out of style shortly after I had my "Jr. High Plan" established.

My "Jr. High plan" involved a mirror for my locker, fashionable jogging suits, and my fanny pack fully stocked with pens, pencils, first aid kit, lunch money, and various other things purchased at Big Lots. I was so cool...

For the record, the "plan" didn't pan out because of the fanny packs oddly going out of style over the summer and someone asking me why I wore my pajamas to school one day when I was wearing my "fashionable" jogging suit.

So let's bring 'em back!

Ramblings

2007-03-25T10:03:00.000-05:00

So, I've said a few times that I will update more regularly here soon. Obviously that's a lie. I think I will shoot for once a week. That seems like a good goal...Though, remember that in the past I have shot for every few days...

Onto some ramblings:

~ I don't think it is humanly possible to pick a worse bracket than I did this year...at least Vandy did great! Too bad I didn't have them in the Sweet Sixteen. Oh, and again, the SEC rocks. Florida better not upset me...or the 39 million other SEC diehards. I totally just made that number up.

~ When I was young I would flip my pillow at least 4 times a night to get to the "cooler" side. I can't remember the last time I have flipped my pillow? Is there an age where you stop wanting a "cooler" side of the pillow? I don't believe that I like warm pillows now, but it is no longer a priority for me to flip it anymore.

~ I was prescribed a new inhaler for my asthma - one with steroids. I have upped my work out plan just in case it is those kind of steroids. One of the more distressing aspects of this new inhaler is that I have to use it twice a day, whether I feel I need to or not. Also, I have to wash my mouth out after every use, as failing to do so might cause me to get a yeast infection in my mouth.

Now I have heard of yeast infections - never had one, not sure guys can have them - but I am quite sure that you don't want one in your mouth. I wash my mouth out twice after every use. Once with bleach.

~ There are few things more stressful than getting dollar coins and then trying to get rid of them. I felt the need to ask every store/restaurant where I spent one if they accepted them. I, for one, no longer accept them as currency.

~ Onto a couple of shout outs - one to my new friend Laura MD. I put MD not because she is a doctor, but from Maryland. We have a lot of similarities, well, other than the fact that I weigh 2.5 times more than her and am a foot taller. Other than that we are like twins. I bet you couldn't pick me out in a line-up if we were both in the room.

~ The next one to THIS IRISH FARMER who is supposedly going to write a book series that will replace the Harry Potter series. This is coming just at the right time for me, as I was a little worried that after the 7th Harry Potter book comes out in July, my life would continue without the great anticipation of the next seven hundred page children's book for 2 years. This is compounded because I just read from a credible source that Harry dies within the first 10 pages of the next book. Actually, i just made that up. I hope I caused a couple of you to get mad at me for that.

~ I have had a recent revelation that I am no longer the supreme athlete I once was. This realization came when I went with several friends to play touch football a couple of weekends ago. There were about 14 of us playing, and I could only successfully cover 3 people. Mind you that there were 4 girls playing, and one of the people I could cover was a guy. What happened? I used to be everywhere. 3 time flag football champion in college. 7 time little league baseball all-star. All-Region football player in high school. Winner of HORSE against 2 members of the Lady Cougars (Jr. High here in Salt Lake) basketball team. We'll just sum up all of these great credentials as "World Class Athlete."

If anything positive comes out of this realization it is that I will never make myself look like an idiot on Pros vs. Joes. Though, I am pretty sure I could beat Dominique Wilkins in a basketball game to 21 or keep Mia Hamm from scoring a goal. Yeah right. What are these Joes thinking when they go on this show? And they are usually cocky! I would cry. I just hope that I could be a productive member of my little brother's coach pitch team.

Airport Observations

2007-03-06T22:40:00.000-06:00

Here are some of my discoveries that were made in the airport on my recent trip to New Jersey...

~ You can arrive at the airport too early. And by too early I mean before the airline is even open for check-in. I had to wait thirty minutes just to let me check in. Then another 2 hours to board. Long morning...

~ The airport workers get really pissed off when they think you are trying to sneak gels and liquids on the plane. I usually check my baggage so I didn't think about having my dop kit in my carry on luggage. So, when the guy asked if I had any liquids or gels I said no...

I got taken into a special room because of all of my gels and such...many of which were taken because they were too big. They didn't believe that I accidentally lied. Jerks. On the bright side I got to keep my shaving cream, which ran out while I was in NJ. Mind you, it ran out after I had half of my face lathered...

~ Tolietries are expensive to replace in the airport.

~ The airport has vacuums that you can ride...like a riding lawn mower, except a vacuum. I think that is awesome. I almost asked if I could try...

~ There were two soldiers on their way to Iraq on my fligth from SLC to Atlanta. Both of them had brought their family to the airport. One of them was about 45 or so, so he had with him his 5 or 6 kids (it is Utah...), his wife, a woman I supposed was his sister, and his parents. It was quite sad to see them all cry when he was boarding, not knowing if they would ever see him again.

The second soldier was a kid who looked like he was still in high school, though I'm sure he was a recent graduate. He had with him his sister, mom, dad, and grandmother. They arrived to the gate around the same time as I did, so i was able to watch one of his family member's excuse his or herself, go to the restroom, and come back with red eyes. The mom did this several times in the course of the 2 hour wait to board. The young soldier had a stare that never left his face. At first I thought the stare was that "10 mile stare" I had heard soldiers have - where they are recreating images of war in their head, like a living nightmare. I later found out (by eavesdropping) that he had yet to go to Iraq. His stare could have been borne from fear or realization.

I couldn't help but get a little misty watching these two scenes. I was some merely an idle witness who is unsure about the war that they are being thrust into - one for the first time, the other a seasoned veteran, but neither certain to return. I hope they can both return safely to their family. Sooner rather than later.

~ On the plane on my return home I was mentioning these two soldiers to the friendly man with whom I was sharing a seat. He mentioned to me that his brother had been killed about a year ago in Iraq, and that his cousin had returned home safely but was not the same. He mentioned that his cousin used to be a really outgoing guy, but now he rarely spoke to anyone. He said that his Aunt and Uncle had to make him eat, shower, and do other things that most able-bodied adults have done since their childhood. Things that he used to do on his own. He even mentioned that occasionally his cousin would break in to tyrannical shouting episodes followed by moments of sheer terror and hours of tears.

It seems to me that every casualty of this war will not be written about in the newspapers' soldier death tolls. Not all of the casualties will have the luxury of being killed.

My soul hurts when I think of a troop surge. My heart cries when I think of the families, soldiers, and civilians who are suffering because of this war. I long for peace.

Wrap-up

2007-03-04T15:34:00.000-06:00

I got back last night from a Volunteers Exploring Vocation discernment event at Princeton Theological Seminary. It was a great event...lots of time to think, lots of thought provoking discussion, and a lot of really awesome volunteers throughout the country whom I had the opportunity to meet and hang out with.

I see a couple different posts explaining things that went on there, but for now...

I have two sports writers who I read very regularly - Espn Page 2's Bill Simmons and CBS Sportsline SPIN's Clay Travis. Both of them do a mailbag type of column every so often and respond to writers comments/questions. I have probably sent Bill Simmons 10 emails, thinking he might choose mine to respond to. However, I think he gets hundreds of emails daily and the chance of your email being one of the 30 or so her replies to each month is slim.

So, when Clay Travis started his weekly mailbag a couple months ago I assumed my chances would be better as he did it more often and probably has a much smaller readership (not to say he is a less interesting writer, but Simmons has been around a while and is very good/well known). I had not written until this week when Clay had posted a column about his experiences taking a Wonderlic test (a test that NFL hopefuls take at the combine to test their intelligence). He scored a 29 out of a possible 50. Mind you that he is an attorney, so this was quite distressing to him.

I did a little research and found that a former QB named Quincy Carter - a horrible player and moron who was kicked off of the team for using cocaine - scored a 30. I couldn't resist sending this in to add to Clay Travis' embarassment.

While I was in Princeton Clay replied to my message saying that he replied to it in his mailbag column. You can see it HERE. It is the last letter on the second page of the column.

Snow Retreat

2007-02-19T12:34:00.000-06:00

Let me start this retreat by saying that I just saw a guy who had a goatee tattooed on. Awesome. It gave me an idea, as thats about the only way I will ever get facial hair. Actually, I don't care to have facial hair, but I think I would look awesome with a soul patch...

The youth group that I have been hanging out with here in Salt Lake had a snow retreat this weekend up in the Wasatch Mountains. A couple at the church owns an awesome winter cabin up in Big Cottonwood Canyon that they let us use. It was fun hanging out with the kids and celebrating President's day in style.

On Saturday most of the group went skiing but a few of us stayed back at the cabin. When the youth leader needed a chaperone to stay back I obliged, as I'm pretty much terrified to go skiing because of a bad accident several years ago...I guess I will go eventually so as I don't waste the mountains here in Utah.

While back at the cabin I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood. It was an adventure, as the mountains get lots of snow. Luckily they plow the street in this little community or my walk would have been very short.

This is where I found out that "compacted snow" didn't mean what I thought it did. Coincidentally it's also where I found out that ankle socks and tennis shoes were not ideal for taking a walk in a neighborhood that get about 150 inches of snow each winter.

My adventure was truly an adventure, as I had a close call with this bear! Rar! I didn't scare it too much though. My favorite part of this picture is the outhouse in the background.

Finally, I took about 50 pictures like this one, trying to get a good shot of me with the mountains in the background. Sadly, this was about the best one. Who am I kidding. They were all good. I was in them.

Okay, I'll say it. I am dead sexy.

p.s.

2007-02-15T22:08:00.000-06:00

So...what was with Grey's Anatomy tonight?

Meredith can't die, right? RIGHT?

Does it make me a loser that both of the posts today have been about tv? I for real have only watched these two hours of tv the last two days...but I digress...

MEREDITH CAN'T DIE!!!

Yay!

2007-02-15T16:16:00.000-06:00

Just in case you were worried:

Matt and Julie got back together last night! Whew...

I love Friday Night Lights.

Sad News...

2007-02-13T21:50:00.000-06:00

Thanks everyone for the calls, texts and emails today. There was some sad news out of SLC - 6 dead, others injured in a mall shooting. While the mall is about half a mile from my house, I have never been. But still sad news...

I just wish that the majority of the calls I got today weren't "You didn't go crazy and shoot up some mall did you?" The better question would have been, "Adam, you are the most important person in the world to me - you and your friends are okay after the tragic events of last night aren't you?"

Now you know...

Now to tie up a few loose ends in the form of shout outs:

I wanna give a shout out to Sean Paul, Paula Abdul, and The Fray for always keeping me hype during my workouts. I couldn't do it without you guys.

I wanna give a shout out to my girls who had a little reunion in Pulaski last weekend and called me so I could join in on the fun. It was great fun all the way around

I wanna give a shout out to the folks at Lean Cuisine. You do it almost as good as Marie Callender and I don't feel so guilty afterwards. On the negative side I have to eat 4 Lean Cuisines to fill halfway up...

I wanna give a shout out to the good folks at Franzia. Who knew that boxed wine could be both tasty and economical?

I wanna give a shout out to my new best friend, the crockpot. Fajitas are so easy now!

I wanna give a shout out me. I am probably the greatest person I know. Not to mention the most humble person I have ever met. Really, I am a great friend. I aspire to be like me someday...

It's a love/hate thing...

2007-02-08T17:16:00.000-06:00

I love that I am 1/6th of the way to sexy.

I love that I can drink diet drinks and Crystal Light and not even miss real cokes and Kool-aid. I can't believe I don't miss Kool-aid...

I hate that no matter how hard I pedal I can't get the elliptical machine to let me do less than a 12 minute mile. Not that I could do less, but I have an excuse now...

I love that I can google "julie and matt back together" and see that there are several other Friday Night Lights fans who have the same concerns. But seriously...they have to get back together!

I hate that I didn't give the writer of THIS NEWS STORY my phone number when she asked how to spell my last name. (You should click on the link to see a quote from me) For real...the writer is super hot. Angie, if you stumble upon this, this isn't the Adam who works at Crossroads Urban Center with CORC and AHAC. It's a different one, so you shouldn't think it's weird that he wanted to give you his phone number - business purposes only. However, I do know the Adam that works at Crossroads Urban center...he is a very nice young man who acts like a gentleman. You would do well to ask him out. Again, things shouldn't be weird because this isn't that Adam.

I hate that most of the Utah state legislators drink coffee and lean in close when they talk to you in the halls. I think I might make a lobbyist gift of a pack of altoids to all legislators. Plus, more than half of them are old and have bad breath anyways...

I love avocados. Who knew that they were edible if they weren't in guacamole?

I love that there is an extreme obesity awareness bill up for approval this year at the Capitol. I especially love that some of the advocates for the group are extremely obese and that we are cordial with each other - head nods, smiles, and what. I love this because if I ever forget my lunch or am out of cash, I should be able to count on these acquaintances for tasty treats.

I love that I will have all expenses paid to go to Princeton Theological Seminary...to go to a Fund for Theological Education discernment event. Did anyone think for a second "Yay, Adam got a full ride to grad school!" ? ...cause that's what I was going for...

I hate that I have to quit this very interesting post...but I have to go to the gym...

I called it!

2007-02-04T21:50:00.000-06:00

Colts Win! Man, I am good. If you simply subtract 6 points from the Colts final score, 8 points from the Bears final score and add one interception to Grossman's total - I was right on. Go me! I think prophet is the word for what I pulled off in the comment section of my last post.

One disappointment from the Super Bowl is that I went from one party to the next right before half-time, but because of bad luck with traffic lights, missed both Vinatieri's missed field goal and the first half of Prince's concert.

Sad times...I even left my first party before the first half was over so I could see all of Prince...

Ramblings...

2007-01-30T20:51:00.000-06:00

~Dr. Marcus Borg, one of the foremost Jesus and New Testament Scholars of our time, is coming to the church I attend this weekend. I am pretty stoked...when you get a chance to hear someone of this magnitude - even if it is an all-weekend event - you take it...

~Working at the state legislature has been an exhausting but very eye opening and educational experience...too bad I can't find many legislators with an IQ above room temperature...

~I am quite put out by the fact that many of the people who use my gym are couples. How are you supposed to check out the hottie action if you are worried that the hottie's boyfriend or husband (this is more than often the case in SLC, no matter the age)will see you and come beat you up? This is a problem that needs to be addressed.

There a couple of these couples (HA!) that I want to talk about in detail:

There are two different couples who share weight. What I mean by this is there are two different couples who work out together, sharing barbells and such, and the weight never changes. The girl lifts the same weight as the guy. This is funny to me.

There is also an elderly couple that comes. The woman is probably 60 years old, but looks 233. She lifts more than me. The husband looks about 60 and benches about that much too. This could be a cartoon. A hilarious cartoon.

~ I am thinking of growing a soul patch. If I start now it might fill in nicely before I leave Salt Lake.

~ Two of my DCT shows ended in surprise wedding proposals last week. I can hardly wait until Wednesday and Thursday night this week...so exciting! The best part is one of the shows ended in two surprise proposals! I'm really not that excited. Especially since one of the proposees was my girl Lyla Garrity...

~ Last weekend, which officially sucked without football to watch (not that I didn't have other crap to do, I just had no reason to slack). I was a little peeved at the so-called worldwide leader in sports, ESPN, who allowed a host to say football-free weekend instead of football-less. Football-free made it sound like a relief. A ladies basketball-free weekend would be a relief...

~ Diet drinks aren't too bad...but I sure miss my kool-aid. I'm pretty sure it misses me too.

~ Sorry I'm so busy...I don't even think I'm funny on this thing anymore...wait...nope, not funny...

~ Oh, and GO PEYTON! I can't believe I really like an athlete because of his commercials, but before the first Mastercard commercial he was just another Vol...now he's my homie...

Wow

2007-01-22T19:44:00.000-06:00

I'm a little embarassed to admit it, but I have been too sore to type since last Monday - when I joined the gym.

I almost swore not to join Gold's Gym, as I called to inquire about their prices before Christmas and they tricked me into giving them my phone number..."can we get your number in case you get disconnected?" "oh yeah...sure, I'm a naive sucker". Jerks. So...I got about 10 calls from them after that night...hard sales. I suck at rejecting hard sales. Is it sales or sells? I don't know...

But anyways, I thought I had an "in" to another, nicer gym, but that fell through. So, the next time Gold's called I suckered them into waiving my membership fee - the up front one that is - and their monthly fees are quite reasonable, like 28 dollars or so. So, now I belong to Gold's Gym.

When I went to set up my membership, the guy who helped me was really nice - almost too nice. He offered to give me a free personal trainer session, which I later found out is standard, and the following coversation ensued:

Me: No thanks, I don't want to resent someone every time I see them.
Awkwardly nice man (ANM): Oh, but it will benefit you so much. You'll learn how to use all of the machines and which exercises will help you cut weight faster.
Me: Well, I used to work out pretty heavy, so I know most of that stuff.
ANM: Okay, so what is your objective in joining?
Me: I want to lose a little weight.
ANM: Tell me what your daily eating habits are.
Me: (I told him)
ANM: Instead of the personal trainer, why don't we set you up an appointment with our dietician (who just happened to run the supplement store).

Note: dietician can be spelled either this way or as dietitian...blows my mind...

So, that was a little embarassing. But, I know I didn't eat too much.

The "dietician" gave me a diet plan. I put dietician in parentheses because I'm pretty sure he is just some dude who works in the supplement store on commission. The diet looked like this:

Breakfast: 6 hard-boiled egg whites, cup of oatmeal
Mid-morning: Protein Shake
Lunch: Turkey sandwich on whole grain bread with lettuce
Mid afternoon: Protein Shake
Dinner: Chicken breast, green salad
Before bed: Protein Shake

So, I don't follow this. I was close to following it before a co-worker told me that the "dietician" probably works on commission, and just being mindful of what I eat will be better.

The one thing the "dietician" did do was schedule me an appointment with a personal trainer - thus the soreness...

Now, every time I see the personal trainer, mean words come to my head.

Television

2007-01-14T14:34:00.000-06:00

One of the challenges with my two New Years Resolutions - working out 6 days a week and reading for educational purposes two hours every day - is finding time to also watch the television shows that I have gotten into. It actually won't be that much of a challenge, as there are only a few shows that I watch every week...and they just happen to be spread out on different nights.

So, I present to you, my beloved readers, the "don't call times" for this winter season. "Don't call times" means if my cell phone goes off, I won't answer it. Don't believe me? I recently found out that two of my friends got engaged over the holiday season. One of them called last Thursday during the "don't call time," also known as the hour during which Grey's Anatomy is on, and I ignored the call, even though I knew the news they bore was BIG. Note, I did call them back after the show. So, consider me out of reach during the following times.

Monday: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - one of the best shows I've watched in a long time, seriously, I laugh. I cry. Actually, i don't think I've cried yet - but it's an Aaron Sorkin show so I'm sure thats not too far off. Don't call time (DCT) is 9pm to 10 pm, Mountain Time.

Tuesday: American Idol - of course I'm going to watch it. And it is going to be a challenge to watch this in it's entirety and get my work out/reading in. The first few weeks will be two-hour shows and then it'll start being on Wednesday, which might cramp my style with my Wed. night show. On the plus side I'll get to fall in love with another contestant and Katharine McPhee will probably get a reprieve from my fan mail. Wait, I've never sent her fan mail...that must be why she hasn't reciprocated my love...DCT = Tuesdays, 7pm - 9pm (for a couple weeks, then 7-8pm) Mountain Time.

Wednesday: Friday Night Lights - I know this might confuse you, but even though it's called Friday Night Lights, it comes on on Wednesdays. This is just a great teenager soap opera show. And Lyla Garrity is super hot. But I'm torn in saying that Lyla Garrity is super hot for several reasons. I will outline them here.

1. I'm sure that the actress portraying Lyla is much older than the character, but the character is only a senior in high school - meaning 17 or 18 years old. So, this admiration could be perverted. But I'm sure her character is much older than 18, as are the other actors/actresses portraying these high school kids...right? Right?

2. Lyla Garrity's boyfriend, Jason Street, was the star quarterback who is now paralyzed after the first game of the season. I can't steal a cripples girlfriend. That's just wrong.

3. Another character already tried to steal Lyla, then kind of got beat up by the cripple. This character, well, the actor, was later on the cover of Men's Health Magazine with ripping muscles. I guess what I'm trying to say is if the cripple can kind of beat up that guy, he won't have much trouble with me.

Anyways...DCT = 7pm - 8pm Mountain Time...if American Idol has their elimination show at this time I am going to raise hell.

Thursdays: Grey's Anatomy - First off...I love the show. Second off...the name is misleading as we have yet to see any of Meredith Grey's Anatomy. The false advertisement almost makes me want to discontinue watching. But, it's the best show on TV. And, I think Izzy and I would make a perfect couple. I will outline why here:

1. She's a multi - millionaire. 8.7 million to be exact.

2. She's a doctor who will make a lot of money.

3. She's beautiful.

See...perfect match. I like all three qualities in a woman. DCT = 8pm - 9p Mountain Time.

Well, these are the four shows I'm watching now. If they aren't on, and the TV is, it's either sports or Hogan Knows Best...that is until The Simple Life 5 comes on. I love that show! It's hot.

I'm a genius

2007-01-11T23:02:00.000-06:00

I have thought long and hard about it. I have come to the conclusion that the title of the last post - Brotherhood and the Travelin' Pants - is the most clever title I have produced as of yet. If you don't think it's clever, just think about those books written for teenage girls that most middle-aged women also read. I think there was even a movie. Clever play on words huh? Even more clever than my post entitled A Patriot Act, a title so clever I pat myself on the back every time I walk by the mail center where the picture from that post was taken. Incidentally my avoidance of the shop owner who took my picture has led to an awkward relationship, as for a couple of weeks after our "photo shoot" (no, not that kind of photo shoot) he would wave at me.

Also, I just re-read my post from a while back about flatulence. First Class. I laughed out loud several times. Man, I know humor.

I am writing all of this just to let you know that I am a genius. My geniusness (is this a word? I feel like a genius should know if this is a word or not, so I'm torn - but, geniuses can coin words too...I mean, honestly...Quirk? Einstein could have done so much better) has led me to realize that a true genius never stops learning. Incidentally, I, the genius, am not sure if my plural version of genius above is correct or if quirk is the word Einstein coined for that sciencey thing he did. Therefore, I will dive into learning by looking these things up later.

Anyways, this desire to learn has driven me to resolve two things. Well, actually just one, but I have two resolutions:

In 2007, I resolve to read for educational purposes two hours each day.

In 2007, I resolve to work out six times a week.

I have been able to do the reading, will join a gym soon to follow through with the working out. So, don't be surprised if I start showing up on Abercrombie and Fitch bags.

Anyways, I'm a genius. I'm also super humble. In fact, I would go so far to say that I am the most humble person that I know.

Brotherhood and the Travelin' Pants

2007-01-09T19:56:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the delay in posting...I know I start out a lot of posts like this though so it's probably losing it's value.

Anyways, I had a wonderful time at home in TN. I got to spend lots of time with my family and got to see lots of friends too! It was great.

I am glad to be back in the swing of things here in Salt Lake...work and everything...and it's even better now that I have a vehicle here. I can go places without planning well in advance.

Before I get to the meat of this post...let me say. Go SEC. Am I ever wrong? Never.

So...

Me and my awesome brother - David - drove my truck from TN all the way out here to Utah. It was about a 24 hour drive on paper. At the end of the first day of driving I thought we were kicking that paper's butt, as we were a little ahead of schedule.

However, the second day killed all hopes of getting back too quickly, as about 10 minutes into the day of driving (after it snowed the night before) I got a little too confident and, while going between 45-50mph on the interstate, hit ice and fishtailed into the median. David, myself, the truck, and all the luggage were fine. The only thing that was hurt was our confidence and my pride. After getting towed out after a short wait...we were back on the road. There were a couple of tense spots, but not too bad. It's actually probably good that we set the tone for the day of being safe early. On the up side I got to feel what its like to get gawked at by passers by. Who am I kidding...I've always known what that's like. The ladies gawk all the time...

Anyways, the two solid days of driving with David gave us good brotherhood time. And both days I wore my travelin' pants.

The last several times I have had a day of travelin' - whether it be an airport or in car - I have worn these pants. Thus, I am decreeing that from the present and henceforth, any time I, Adam Burgett, travels, the Travelin' Pants shall be worn. Sharing them with my friends will not be necessary.

Holiday Update

2006-12-27T15:10:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to make a quick post...and one gripe...about this holiday season.

First off, the gripe is nothing about my holidays, just an observation I made today at the mall.

Anyways, this has been a great Christmas. I really enjoyed seeing my family and look forward to the next few days when I will get to see some of my friends. I didn't realize how much I missed everyone...and their accent...and their southern cuisine...and everything else about home.

Santa was really good to me to. All in all it was a great holiday season. I love my family and was glad to spend time with everyone. The good news is I have another week to spend with everyone here!

On to the gripe...

I went to Opry Mills mall today - for those who don't know this is a fairly large mall that replaced the OpryLand theme park several years back. It is almost always busy - especially in the summer and around the holiday season. The summer I worked at the Grand Ole Opry I got acquainted with the mall fairly well - especially the food court. Thus, whenever I want to go to a mall in the Nashville area, I usually go to Opry Mills.

I mentioned that I worked at the Grand Ole Opry more to impress everyone. This is something that I usually say pretty soon after I become acquainted with someone. It is a good conversation starter, but mainly I just like to brag about the people I met there. So, just another example of how I am superior, er, interesting. I'm a shameless name dropper...

Back to my gripe - So, whenever I go to Opry Mills I usually eat at either the cajun grill of the chinese place, both of which I love. Today I got my food and went on the journey of finding a table. Remember, this is a popular mall so there are lots of tables, but after 4 or 5 minutes of walking around aimlessly I realize that it's so crowded I have no chance of finding a seat.

The only other time something similar has happened to me was in Laguardia Airport's (New York) food court. This was on the way to my US-2 interview so I was pretty nervous anyways, and to top that off it was the first time I had really flown by myself and it was to an airport, an extremely busy airport, that I had never been to. So, when I couldn't find a table I almost cried. But I soon noticed that people were just walking up to tables that someone was already seated at, pulling out the chair, and simply sitting down. No asking if it was okay to sit. No conversation thereafter. It was weird, but I was willing to give it a try. My General Tso's was getting cold.

So, I saw a lady sitting at a table by herself, approached the table, fought the urge to ask her if I could sit, sat down my tray, pulled out the chair and quietly sat down, the whole time watching the lady so I could thwart her objections. She never looked up from her paperback. So...I ate, never speaking to the lady. She, in return, never acknowledged my existence.

Back to today - remembering this Laguardia experience on my third time around the food court I decided to try sitting with a stranger. However, I knew that in the south I better ask before I sit, lest I get talked about for the next 10 years:

"Honey, you'll never guess what happened to me today. I was at the mall eating my lunch, minding my own business and some dude just came up and sat down with me. Never said a word. I'm pretty sure that I've seen him on America's most wanted."

Within a couple weeks my status will have been raised to being some sort of serial killer, or just mentally disabled, all because I acted like someone would act in the North. Not in the South. Just think if it is a woman you go to sit with and don't speak. Automatic mall security questioning.

Anyways, I see a guy sitting at a table for four by himself, ask if I can sit down, and am quickly turned down. He does concede "I will be done in about 10 minutes if you want to wait." I say "No thanks" and walk away, red faced and hungrier than ever. Luckily, a table opens up soon and I snag it.

This leads me to wonder why here in the friendliest of places can't we just walk up and sit with total strangers. I reckon (using southern word for emphasis) that it is because we are so friendly by nature, that when eating alone we just plain want to be by ourselves - we don't want to have to turn on the charm. If someone sits by me, it is awkward if I don't speak. Two people sitting at a table and not speaking doesn't happen in the south unless you are married. So, we haven't started the trend of sitting with stranger because we don't want to have to carry on awkward conversation in busy places, like the airport or busy malls.

After further reflection I realize that I'm glad the jerk didn't let me sit with him. I would have to still be there carrying on awkward conversation.

Update

2006-12-19T21:18:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the lag in posting. The holidays are pretty crazy...

Last week I got to go to two awesome concerts. Thursday night I went to see my main man Amos Lee. It was a good show - he played for about an hour and a half, then came out for an hour long encore. By the end of the night I was pretty ready for him to stop playing...but he's awesome. If you haven't heard him check him out. he has a new cd that came out in October. It's as good as the first.

On Saturday night I went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square's Christmas Concert. It was amazing...a 360 member choir, 130 member orchestra, around 100 dancers and 100 bell ringer....and my new lady friend Sissel headlining. I swear she's my new girl friend. Look at the way she's smiling at me.

She was smiling at me like this all night long. Through the camera of course. The concert was in the LDS Conference Center. It seats 21,000 people, so, I applaud her on her keen ability to spot me in a crowd and flirt on stage. Few have accomplished that. The Dixie Chicks and Katharine McPhee. Thats all. Now Sissel. My new love.

Anyways...I head to Nashville on Saturday, but not until we do our Christmas meal giveaway. That's right, on Friday morning I get to be up at 5 am just so I can start my PR people's plan of getting my name out there a little more to publicize my site...you know, get in a few more countries and whatnot. Actually, at 5 am I will be on live television, talking about Crossroads and the events of the day when 1200 complete Christmas meals are distributed that have been donated by lots of Utahns. I think that's so cool. There hasn't been a day this month when there hasn't been a food drive delivered to Crossroads.

Anyways, I just wanted to let you all know that I'm not dead...I will start updating more regularly when things cool off a little. That would be funny if you were all freezing every day like me. If it cools off much more I'm leaving and never coming back. I'm so thin skinned...

International Superstar

2006-12-11T12:02:00.000-06:00

Last week I loaded a program called Google Analytics that allows me to track how many people view my blog every day. Since it is designed for companies that actually need this data, as opposed to someone like me who merely wants to boost their own ego by seeing how many people read their blog, there are some pretty sweet bells and whistles. One thing you can do is see the location of the people looking at your page.

Of course, there is a splattering of people across the state of Tennessee reading this...no surprise there. Then, of course there are those readers in the cities where fellow US-2s are, whom I assuming are my fellow US-2s. Kind of a weird thing is that I have quite a large, relatively speaking, readership in Delaware. Most of whom have visited more than once. I know no one in Delaware. I'm still doing an internal investigation if Delaware is still a viable state. Actually, I'm being foolish. Delaware was never a viable state.

Quite a few other cities and states are represented that I have no idea who they are, but that is expected since the internet is public domain and people can stumble across my blog by a web-search. FYI - if you google "high altitude" and "sausage balls" (with the quotation marks, without the word 'and') guess whose webpage is the number three hit...go ahead guess....yep, it's mine. Go ahead, try it and then link to my page...maybe with enough hits I can move up to number one.

But, it's not like I need that moral victory of stomping cooks.com into the ground as the number one hit for a search of "high altitude" and "sausage balls," I mean, I already have readers in 17 states and 8 countries - including Egypt, China, the UK, Canada, Germany, the US, Greece, and India. Bam. That's right...I'm an international superstar.

So, like all international superstars I am having my PR staff make a list of things I will be doing in the near future. The list is still a work in progress, but I've had my people send me some of the major things that they have scheduled for me to improve my public image. Since you are all so loyal to me - especially my peeps in Delaware - I will share some of these things with you. Remember, these are coming from my PR staff so they might have legalistic sounding language. That just means I'm important.

Here it is:

Objective 1: Increase Adam's viability as an international superstar by holding tryouts for a trophy girlfriend. Swimsuit models will be encouraged to audition.

Objective 2: Set up scandal that will make international news to increase public knowledge/ face recognition. Possible scandals include nipple slip, or if more publicity is needed, a white collar crime.

Objective 3: Have Adam use his natural boyish charm to get acquitted from white collar crime (if necessary).

Objective 4: Update blog more regularly.

Well, that is the short list. I'm sure you will figure out some of the other objectives when you see me during the half time of the Super Bowl. (Not to ruin it, but that's when the nip slip is slated to take place!)

My hometown is making national news again!

2006-12-06T12:05:00.000-06:00

I was browsing through the national headlines in the Salt Lake Tribune this morning and I saw something about Nashville so I clicked it. In this simple motion of clicking the mouse I opened one of the most investigative, well-written journalistic articles that I have ever read.

It turns out that a plane flying to Dallas had to stop in Nashville because passengers smelled sulfur burning. Naturally, this sent warning signals to officials so they questioned the passengers. It turns out that one of them, a "lady", lit a match to cover the smell of her "flatulence." I put "flatulence" in quotation marks because it is the last word I would use to describe this action. I put "lady" in question marks because I am questioning this woman's "lady"ness. Not a very lady-like action. Especially on a crowded plane.

Actually, I know everyone has to pass gas every now and then - even ladies. Actually, everyone has to fart 14 times a day according to www.heptune.com/farts.html. (Lots of interesting info on this website) I question this number.

But why cover it up with match smell? Claim it or blame it! That's my philosophy. I can't even imagine the regret and embarassment the woman must have felt when she realized that the plane was emergency landing because she didn't want to feel the embarassment that comes along with a little gas dispersed among strangers. If she had it to do all over again I'm sure she would just do as I do - spin her head in many directions with a confused - "do you smell something? I think someone just passed gas" face after the incident hoping that people don't take all the motion for guilt. Either that or walk to the opposite end of the plane's lavatory, crop dusting on the way so each row thinks their neighbor dealt it.

Anyways, I wanted to write about this because, well, this is a topic that everyone loves to talk/write/read about. Farts are funny. They are as funny now as they were in elementary and middle school. Don't fool yourself. When anyone goes to a public restroom to wash their hands and hears a little trumpet noise from the stall they have to bite their bottom lip and think about that puppy that ran away. This is universal. I'm confident of this.

A little while back we had a group discussion with the youth group about lots of topics. One of the questions asked was "why are boy's so gross?" When asked for evidence that boys in fact are gross, a girl replied "well, boys like to fart, talk about farts, and laugh at it and stuff." My counter was that everyone likes to laugh at farts at some level. I know that even the most mature, distinguished people think that passing gas is funny. I know this. It's not up for argument. Before the night was over I had several Sr. High girls come up to me and say something to the effect of "I think farts are funny," even though they vehemently denied it earlier. Not that I needed the reenforcement. I already knew this.

I thought about taking this post even lower by adding pictures that I found on the internet. I decided against it.

What the &@#^!

2006-12-03T19:13:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I had a post planned where I vented my frustrations with the BCS system of College football. That's where the title for this post came from. But, Florida made it in so it is no longer appropriate...well, I still hate the BCS system but this year it's cool since an SEC team made it in...next year we'll see...

Like that reasoning? It is fair logic since the SEC should always get a team in the National Championship game. At least in my mind.

Go Gators!

Anyways...I digress...but I did even do research to argue Florida's claim to the title game. I won't bore you with it now, but if you don't think they belong let me know and I will whip it out.

To make the title of this post somewhat relevant...I will talk about my last night. Particularly, about the movie I saw last night.

I've been pretty sick this weekend so I have watched a lot of tv/movies. One movie that I watched was Beloved - the one that Oprah starred in a few years ago. It might have been a pretty good movie...but it was crazy confusing. It's like they didn't think that anyone who would want to watch the movie did not read the book. Just plain confusing.

After the movie was over...I could draw some meaning out of it...but the overall feeling that sprung forth was confusion, with the secondary feeling being anger that I was so confused.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about the movie since I watched it yesterday - more time than I usually spend thinking about movies. It's just a shame that many of those thoughts about a movie that deals with an issue as thought-worthy as slavery, were about how confusing it was.

A Week of Landmarks

2006-11-30T20:07:00.000-06:00

Counting today, I have been in Salt Lake for 105 days. In the last week, I have had many new experiences. I want to share some of those with you...Aren't you all overjoyed?

I'll start with the beginning of the week.

101 days in SLC - the first time I, a single male with short hair living alone, had to clean the hair out of the tub drain.

103 days in SLC - the first time I woke up to a Salt Lake with accumulated snow on the ground down here in the Valley. It was only about half an inch though...even though the weather people predicted 4-5 inches in the Valley

104 days in SLC - the first time I woke up to lots of snow in the Valley. There were 3-4 inches and I had to walk through it all to get to the bus stop.

104 days in SLC - the first time I realized that New Balance 574s aren't gonna cut it in Salt Lake snow. I probably need to run and get some shoes that are a little more weather proof.

Side story - though I complain a lot about the cold here, and I mean a lot...I really love snow. I guess I get so excited about it because we don't get so much in TN. There have been several instances where it has been spitting out a few snow flakes here in the Valley and I have been super excited. I would walk around and say "it's snowing! Isn't it great!" People would blow me off. They would say something to the effect of "it's not really snowing...just you wait." So I waited. And I thought that Utahns don't get very excited about snow.

When I got on the bus yesterday morning... the snow was all the buzz. The bus is pretty quiet on most days. Yesterday morning, there was a huge conversation going on. There is usually only 2 or 3 people talking to each other. Yesterday morning, there was like a 10 person coversation going on. It was crazy. I mean, I didn't join in, but it was cool. Everyone loves snow.

104 days in SLC - the first time I ever shovelled snow. Does sovelled have one L or two? Anyways, my landlord is a flight attendant and is rarely home, so he asked me to shovel the snow yesterday. I was more than willing as I had never done it before. Now that I've done it...nothing special. Actually, I didn't think it was possible to work up a sweat with the temperature in the teens. I was wrong.

105 days in SLC - the first time I made a near fatal mistake in my clothing choice. No, I didn't wear real white instead of winter white. Actually, I did...but that's not what I'm talking about. Today I wore a t-shirt over a white thermal shirt (like long johns but more stylish) and then decided to put on the thinnest jacket I own. I mean, the sun was out so it couldn't be that cold right? Not right. After about 2 minutes at the bus stop I thought I would die. I chalked it up to the thin jacket. When I got to work everyone was surprised I was still in Utah. This is because I whine about the cold a lot...before it was even cold (that is, cold to Utahns). I looked at weather.com and it said the temp. in SLC was 12 degrees, and felt like 6 degrees. I agree.

Great landmarks huh?

Utes vs. Cougars

2006-11-26T20:22:00.000-06:00

Yesterday (Saturday) I went to the BYU and University of Utah football game. I must admit up front, though it wasn't an SEC game, it was probably the best game I have ever been present for, and one of the three or four best games I have ever seen.

I also better admit up front that again, like last game, I had nothing at stake in the game and could really care less about the outcome of the game. With that being said, I must say that I did a darn good job cheering the Utah Utes on.

My friend is a grad student at the U (what us locals call the university of Utah - like how I called myself a local?) so she got the tickets and I went with her and some of her friends. It was a great day for a game, pretty cold, but a nice day for a huge rivalry game.

Our seats were in a section that was dominated by BYU fans, which made it even more fun to yell for Utah, even though I didn't care too much. The lady that sat right be hind me, well, we stood the entire game, so the lady who stood right behind me screamed after every play that was halfway decent for BYU. When I say screamed, picture the worst sound you can imagine and times it by 57. It was horrible, especially the first quarter when BYU dominated. I got in the habit of shaking my pompom they gave me right over my head, hoping to smack her in her face, so she would be forced to back up and not be right in my ear.

The same lady also called the BYU players by their first name in an annoying manner. My friends had a good time with this. She had to feel bad by the end of the game.

Well, she had to have low self esteem. BYU won with no time left on the clock, so she had to be feeling pretty good for that.

The ending was what made the game so good for me (an indifferent observer who just wanted to see a great game) and BYU fans. It had to stink for Ute fans. Utah had been manhandled in the first quarter, but then really owned the rest of the game. With very little time left BYU drove down the field and then on the last play, with 3.6 left before the snap, had an amazing qb scramble and pass to a man who had been left wide open in the end zone after the scramble. Great game.

All in all it was a fun day. It is an intense rivalries..plenty of bad words spoken about the other team. By each team. There were even a couple of fights - something I never expected to see at a game where one of the teams is the school of the LDS Church. But, there were so that was awesome. Below I have a picture of my ticket stub and pompom. Notice how the writing on the pompom is a little worn off. That is from my vigorous cheering.

Giving Thanks

2006-11-23T19:55:00.000-06:00

Today has been a good day. I was a little upset that I would be spending Thanksgiving away from home for the first time ever, but it wasn't so bad. I did miss my family gathering and all of that, but talking to some of them on the phone was nice.

I truly do have lots to be thankful for - family, friends, nice US-2 placement, etc...

One thing that has been awesome is that everywhere I have gone, people have been very nice to me. Here in Salt Lake, I have found people more than welcoming. I met with many of these new friends today for Thanksgiving Dinner. It was great.

I wanted to take something to the dinner, but was unable to make the pumpkin-cheesecake bars (from scratch, yeah I'm braggin...wait, can I brag event though I didn't make them?) I bought the supplies for because I was too tired after the giveaway yesterday. So, I walked to the store this morning to get sweet potatoes and made Southern Fried Sweet Potatoes. This reads Southern (Pause) fried sweet potatoes. Not southern fried (pause) sweet potatoes. There is a difference. They are southern, and they are fried sweet potatoes. The frying method was not purposely southern, though, it probably is.

I call them southern because I basically used so much butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg that the flavor of the sweet potato was really nil. I have discovered since I have been away from the south that much of the key to southern cooking is hiding the flavor of the food you are eating. Away from the south people actually want to taste their green beans, squash, etc so they don't put so much butter and salt/other spices when they cook - they also don't get them very soft.

Another oddity about eating out here in Salt Lake is that locals here don't realize how good southern food is. Today the main host made sweet tea in honor of me, but very few people drank it. There were gallons left - some of which is sitting in my fridge. I don't get why they wouldn't drink it. Said they didn't have the taste for it. Also, the same host made homemade banana pudding...it was foreign to most people there. Wow...they are missing out.

One last thing that wowed me. There is a group of grad students at the University of Utah that get together to watch Grey's Anatomy every week. One of my good friends here in Salt Lake is in that group of students so I have a standing invitation. One week I went, and as it's custom for everyone to bring snacks, I made sausage balls. No one there had ever had sausage balls except one girl from Alabama. Utahns are so deprived.

Anyways, the food today was great, including my sweet potatoes. Afterwards I came home and took my annual post-dinner Thanksgiving nap. Woke shortly after. Now I'm typing this.

One funny, well kind of funny - kind of gross story before I go. One year, I was awakened from my annual post-dinner Thanksgiving nap by a burp. I ate so much, I burped myself awake. I love Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Eve

2006-11-22T18:27:00.000-06:00

Well, I just made it home from Crossroads' Annual Thanksgiving Giveaway. I'm very sore. Today we gave holiday food - Turkey, Pumpkin Pie, Grapes (not sure this is Thanksgiving food, but it's what the food bank gave us), and various fresh spices - to over 3300 families in need. In those families there were almost 7800 people. It was a great, tiring, and long day.

It will make me even more thankful for the many offers I had to go to Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow. I will be going and breaking bread with friends from church and am looking forward to that...and sleep.

An observation: Never, ever have I considered being vegetarian. Never, ever will I consider being a vegetarian (am I spelling this right? I would look it up but...). Nothing against vegetarians...I just love my meat. But, seeing 3600 frozen turkeys spread across a gym floor is a sight to see...and think about. There was a point when i actually realized that all 3600 of those turkeys were at one time alive - that if they were still alive the humans in the center where we had the giveaway would think they were under attack. There was a point where I started to feel bad for all of the turkeys that were once alive, but were then pile in three foot piles over 100 square feet worth of a gym. It was like a genocide...and that was only with the 3600 of the 4312 that were donated to Crossroads that made it into the gym. Just think if all of the frozen turkeys that are being eaten tomorrow would have been there...what would that look like? I thought about this - deep ponderings - and then I went and ate some meat lovers pizza. I loves my meat...

New Best Friend

2006-11-16T23:46:00.000-06:00

I left the office for about an hour today to go take a couple of books back to the library. On the way, a guy about my age yelled from about 20 yards behind me "Hey man." After the second yell I turned around to notice that he was running up to me. We exchanged pleasantries, then he asked if I was going to the library. I answered yes and he said "sweet, we'll walk together."

I was okay with that. Boy, am I glad I didn't follow my instinct and say I had to make a stop in a store first...this was one of the more interesting chats I've had in a while.

I'll try to recreate parts of the convo for you. Well, the parts that are postable. I'll change some language - keep it clean you know...

Dude: I just got off work (He works at Sizzler - cheap steakhouse)
Adam: Oh, I am working now.
Dude: Do you make deliveries?
Adam: (Baffled)Sorry?
Dude: Your bag. (A man purse - sometimes called a messenger bag)
Adam: Oh, no I work at Crossroads Urban Center.
Dude: Oh, so are you in college too?
Adam: No, I've graduated.
Dude: Nice, I'm in acting school now - I'm going to be an actor
Adam: Oh, that's cool - what do you want to do with it when you're done?
Dude: Act.
Adam: I mean, like, what genre: movies, theatre...
Dude: Oh, movies and commercials. I don't like the theatre, cause I don't like to sing
Adam: Well, not all theatre productions are musicals. There is just plain stage theatre without the music.
Dude: Yeah, but those are called plays. I don't want to do them neither.
Adam: (Reeking sarcasm, but oddly he didn't pick up on it) Oh, my mistake.

Later in the conversation

Adam: I'm from Nashville
Dude: Nice, Nashville's cool.
Adam: Yeah, it is. But I like Salt Lake City too.
Dude: Yeah, theres lots of hot girls here. (You can't tell it from the parts I'm posting but roughly 90% of his words dealt with girls).
Adam: Yeah, I have noticed some well put together girls.
Dude: But most of them are Mormon. They won't date people who ain't mormon. Not that I know of.
Adam: Yeah, that's what I hear.
Dude: But some of them are freaks. (I have debated whether I should put this line in here. I still don't know if I should. He said this, or a variation of this, explicitly, at least a dozen times in the 10 minute walk to the library, so I feel it belongs...but this is a family blog - g-rated. So, I don't know...The beauty in the statement is that he has already said he doesn't know of a mormon girl who will date/whatever non-mormons, but then claims to know this detail. Strange...

Later in the conversation

Dude: Do you burn?
Adam: I'm sorry? (I didn't know what this meant. I'm not hip I guess. But thinking later I thought the term sounded somewhat familiar from somewhere. Several hours of thinking - well, not straight thinking - led me to remember during a advocacy group board meeting that someone asked one of my favorite sportswriters -Clay Travis- the same question and he, too was perplexed - weird huh?
Dude: Do you want drugs.
Adam: Oh, no thanks...
Dude: Oh, that's good. There aren't too many in Salt Lake.
Adam: (Confused, contemplating faking a phone call) Yeah, that's good.

So...once again, I meet people who make writing about them fun.

Life is Beautiful

2006-11-15T10:25:00.000-06:00

A couple of nights ago I watched Roberto Benigni in "Life is Beautiful," a movie I have been meaning to watch for some time now. I was not sure what it was about going in, and admittedly, almost turned it off after several minutes because of Benigni's silliness throughout the first part of the movie. I halfway thought it was some slapstick style comedy, but then remembered it received several oscar wins and nominations a while back so plowed through. By the end, I was glad I plowed through.

If you haven't seen it, I recommend that you do. It ends up being a beautiful story about the Holocaust - a concept that seems paradoxical at best I admit. But it is...the flying dust particles made a cameo at the end of the movie because of the emotions that even a somewhat light-hearted, more than likely unrealistic look at the Holocaust cannot subdue from the realities and horror of the Holocaust.

For most of the movie, the title made sense - a man's life goes just as he wants it, gets the girl, has a cute kid, fulfills his dream of opening a bookshop, and all the while has fun. But then the characters end up going to a concentration camp, where the title doesn't make much sense.

Of course, as I do with almost everything that interests me now, I looked up the movie on Wikipedia. It turns out that the title comes from a quotation out of Leon Trotsky's testament shortly before he was assassinated in Mexico. If you don't know, Trotsky was one of the leaders in the early days of the Soviet Union who then had a power struggle with Joseph Stalin. That struggle led to Trotsky fleeing Russia and later being killed by Stalin's people. The quotation from his testament reads:

Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.

The title of the movie seems appropriate now. A declarative sentence, followed by an imperative sentence. I don't think we as a society, during the time of the Holocaust or now, can declare something such as "Life is Beautiful" without following that declaration with an imperative along those lines - let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.

I am afraid that we, Trotsky's future generations - have accepted the fact that life is beautiful without feeling as much urgency to cleanse the world from it's evils. Racism, Sexism, Classism, Darfur, Poverty, the list continues endlessly...

Let us remember that life is sacred, and beautiful. Let us also do what we can to ensure that this declaration is true for all.

YLC 2006

2006-11-11T12:57:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the delay in posting. This has been a crazy week and hopefully I won't again go a week without posting. We shall see...

The retreat I went on with Christ UMC's youth was called the Youth Leadership Conference (YLC). It is one of two Rocky Mountain Conference youth events and was held at the YMCA of the Rockies - a beautiful retreat center in the mountains of Colorado. It snowed a lot of the time we were there which was cool. Haha...get it...cool, as in cold. I slay myself.

I am pretty spoiled by TN Conference youth events, but YLC wasn't too bad either. It was fairly well attended for a fall retreat and for a conference where there are three huge states as feeders. The band was pretty good, the speakers were nice, all in all it was a pretty good event.

The best part was hanging out and getting to know the kids better. They are all awesome. I really enjoy getting to work with this group. I laughed a lot over the weekend and had fun. Here is a funny picture of two of them. Many of the pictures I took are posted on another website. I think eventually the kids will add their pictures too. The address is:

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=138354889/a=58748998_58748998/t_=58748998

Sorry you have to copy and paste. Blogger doesn't like macs too much... I hope it works and you don't have to have a snapfish account to view it...if so, and you wanna see the pics, email me and I will send you an username and password to use.

Throughout the weekends I would get kids to pose for pictures by saying "Drop them Deuces." Of course what I meant by this was "throw down two fingers in a gang-like fashion." I don't know whom I stole the expression from. Someone. But I used it throughout the weekend. I have learned that slang words and expressions that are used in Nashville aren't necessarily used in Salt Lake. I guess this fact is responsible for the kids never getting that "Drop them Deuces" is also a euphemism for "Go number two!" (as in the bathroom). Sadly, I got immense joy out of this throughout the week. I would say the command, kid's would obey the command, and a bathroom joke behind all of it. I love being 23.

Speaking of going number two, the lavatory on the bus smelled horrible. Well, it smelled horrible on the way to YLC, it smelled deadly on the way back. One boy admitted to dropping them deuces in the lavatory on the way there, but the smell was much worse than that. It was at this mention that one of the guys remembered pouring the remainder of his egg nog down the toilet on the bus. This explained the smell. Rancid.

While the smell was bad, in hindsight it was probably worth it because of all of the conversations and actions that sprang forth because of the smell. Hilarious.

We decided to be proactive in taking care of the smell instead of just sitting idly by and letting the fumes take over. At one of the stops we bought air freshener. It ran out pretty fast. It seemed like a good idea to exorcise the demons that were trapped in the lavatory. The crucifix was made out of air freshener.

After the air freshener was used up, another idea came up. It proved to be the idea that contained the smell enough for us to make it back to Salt Lake. All in all...good weekend!

Weekend

2006-11-02T23:03:00.000-06:00

Well, I have to wake up in about 6 hours to ride on a charter bus for 9 hours with 40 youth tomorrow. I can't wait. Actually, I am looking forward to it.

Everyone should check out the one campaign to make poverty history. You can just click on the banner in the upper right hand of this page. Good cause.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Because you all asked so nicely...

2006-11-01T10:38:00.000-06:00

Fry Sauce is a sauce that people here in Utah use to dip their fries in. Since I'm sure you all figured out that much, I guess I will go into more detail.

My first encounter with fry sauce came during my first day of work here at Crossroads. The Executive Director here at Crossroads took me to the Greek restaurant down the street. I ordered my gyro combo with fries and answered the expected questions. "White Sauce or Red Sauce (for the gyro?)" "Fries or Rice?" I nailed these first two questions and was feeling quite confident in my food ordering abilities. Then, I was totally unprepared for the next question. "Do you like fry sauce?" I asked for a repeat. "Do you like fry sauce?" Since the girl taking my order was Greek, it was less a question of if I actually liked it and more of a question of if I wanted it. Thinking that fry sauce was her cute little international way of asking if I wanted ketchup, I answered "Yes."

When the food came I discovered that fry sauce was not, in fact, her cute little international word for ketchup, but it was a creamy sauce for dipping fries. It was tasty, but I was in no way prepared to give up ketchup for this foreign substance. I have had 23 good years with ketchup. The relationship was too important.

I have since found out that fry sauce consists of two parts mayonnaise, one part ketchup, and spices. Different restaurants use different things. A Utah chain, Crown Burgers, adds pickles and makes their fry sauce almost looks like thousand island dressing - but tastes very different. Almost every restaurant in SLC carries fry sauce, my favorite fry sauce coming from the Greek Restuarant where I was first introduced to the heavenly blend of condiments. I go there about once a week...not only for the fry sauce, but that is a big part of why I go sometimes. I don't always get fries, sometimes opting for the tasty rice...their gyro meat is way good.

I hear that fry sauce is kind of a Utah thing, with it not being found much outside of the state. That saddens me. You can buy it in grocery stores. When I bought a bottle, there were two brands. One that I have seen at every grocery store and is popular...even mentioned on the wikipedia posting of fry sauce. It's called "Some Dude's Fry Sauce." The second kind fo fry sauce was a weird brand that I hadn't seen before and haven't seen since. It was on clearance so I bought it, being about half the price. It sucks and I'm stuck with it for now. Oh well. I know to get the "name brand" fry sauce from now on.

As you might can tell I have made the switch, though with some pain and struggle, from ketchup to fry sauce with my fries. It is delicious, and as I said in my previous post, I am very much dreading leaving it behind already. Though I will cherish the time I have with it. And I will probably flirt with the Greek girl who works at my Greek restaurant to extract the recipe of their sauce. It's bien (that's spanish for "good"). I bet you didn't even know I spoke espanol(that's spanish for "spanish").

Further Observations

2006-10-29T15:26:00.000-06:00

...about life in Salt Lake City...

~ It is casual out here. I just spoke at three services of one of the United Methodist Churches here near Salt Lake. I went in slacks, shirt, tie, and a really sweet sweater - you know, the sweet kind that have a zipper about a quarter of the way down in front? - as my Pa-Paw would say, I looked sharp. But, I was still afraid that I would be under-dressed, as I am used to everyone wearing a jacket to church, especially people who are speaking. I was the only one in the church with a tie. This is pretty indicative of all church services here...work too...it's just plain casual out west. Pretty nice.

~I am already dreading that I have to leave in about twenty-two months. Well, not really dreading leaving as much as dreading leaving behind fry sauce. I am already hooked.

~Snow covered mountains are very pretty. And they surround me. I am in the midst of constant beauty. I hear the mountains say the the same thing, well, ever since I moved out here.

~Everyone loves a southern accent. And in Nashville I don't even have one.

~ Nobody says ya'll.

~ Everyone tries to say ya'll after they hear you say it.

~It never works.

~A t-shirt and a pullover - my normal winter garb - isn't even heavy enough for the fall here.

~If you are at a fast-food restaurant, the first question you hear is "to stay or to go?" It throws me off every time. I'm used to hearing"For here or to go?" Honestly, little things get to me.

~I went to Temple Square a couple of weeks ago and saw the Tabernacle, which is closed until April for renovations. I then left and walked by this establishment:

It's funny because LDS members don't drink, or condone drinking, and this bar is just a play off of one of their central buildings and most famous entity - the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I haven't been in there, but it cracks me up. I am intrigued by the duelin pianos so I will probably check it out before too long. It's just 5 blocks from Temple Square...pretty ballsy...

~My SEC bias isn't so well received when I'm not in the Southeast.

~Oriental Markets are super cheap compared to the Asian section of regular grocery stores. If you are interested in becoming an Iron Chef like me...visit one of these. I guess the things they sell are just staple items for most of their clientelle (sic?), not specialty items so they don't mark them up. Seriously, I got 3 bottles of sauce/seasoning, wonton wrappers, and egg roll wrappers for 7 dollars. I priced similar items in my normal grocery store and it cost 12 dollars. Highway robbery.

~Downy Wrinkle Releaser is very hard to find in Salt Lake. I went to about 10 different stores looking for it to no avail. I finally broke my Wal-Mart boycott to get some. I don't like to iron.

~My Wal-Mart boycott is mainly a convenience thing. Meaning, it's more convenient to not go. If I were still in Pulaski, TN it would be all Wal-Mart, all the time.

Well, these are tidbits of wisdom that I thought I would pass along in my ongoing effort to educate you.

Ensign Peak

2006-10-25T18:29:00.000-05:00

Last week I had the occasion to go up to Ensign Peak here in Salt Lake City. This is supposedly the spot where Brigham Young and his posse planned out the city.

(You can click on any picture I post on here to make it bigger)

I guess this site is one of the big reasons that SLC is one of the most well-planned cities in the world. The grid system of roads makes navigating the city very simple...anyone can find things easy...and the roads are very wide. I think I've written this before but since I am so committed to your education, I will inform you again on why the roads are so wide. Apparently, Brigham (we are on a first name basis) wanted the streets to be wide enough to turn around a horse/oxen carriage without having to back up. I can see why wide streets are needed. Urban legend says that Briggie Y (that's what he likes to be called) just wanted to walk arm in arm with his many wives...I've heard 20ish wives as a number and I've heard 50ish...not sure which is right. I think the urban legend mythos of wide streets is hilarious...

You can see the well-planned out the city in this picture...and the wide streets. You can also see where I live...I think...

Ensign Peak is one of the lower mountains surounding Salt Lake. Actually, I'm not sure if it is considered a mountain. It's high though. Legend says that Brigham Young and a group of fellow sojourners were going through this area and Brigham Young stopped the driver and said "This is the place." He had apparently had a vision of Joseph Smith (Founder of LDS Church) showing him this exact place.

The fact that Brigham Young rode up the mountain/foothill/whatever tells me that he was much smarter than me...as I walked the trail up the mountain. The entire time going up I thought I was going to die. My friend I was travelling with didn't seem so winded so I blame it on the high altitude. And my being out of shape. But mainly the high altitude. And possibly the mexican food I'd had for lunch.

But something tells me that with either 20ish or 50ish wives, Brigham Young was in pretty good shape and would not have had much trouble walking, running, or roller-skating up Ensign Peak.

It was so worth the pain and angush though. It was beautiful from the peak. You could see the whole valley. Aren't I a good photographer?

Gifts?

2006-10-21T11:14:00.000-05:00

I could probably do a post about these Bus People I am about to describe if I would have engaged either person in conversation rather than just eavesdropping on their conversation. But, I didn't engage because I was too enamored by my own thoughts that sprang forth because of the conversation that these people were having.

It started:

Lady with Very, Very Thick Glasses (LVVTG): "Wow man, you have a lot of hair to be so old."
Very Old Man with Very Thick Hair (VOMVTH) "Thanks. I like to call it my little gift from God. Did you know I'm 86 and have never had to do anything to keep my hair? It's all natural. Original color too." Editors Note: His hair was very brown.
LVVTG: "Yeah, I have a little gift from God too. I have better than perfect vision." Editors Note: Remember, she has very, very thick glasses."
VOMVTH: (With confused look on his face) "That's nice. Eyesight is very important."
LVVTG: "Yeah, I don't even need to wear these glasses. They just help me see better. I already have better than perfect vision. My doctor told me."
VOMVTH: "Then that is truly a great gift. I wish my eyesight were better."

It went on like this for a little while longer. LVVTG would say something that didn't make much sense. VOMVTH would keep saying gift. It got old an monotonous but, as I said earlier, did spark some internal questioning.

What is my physical feature that is my "gift from God?"

I'm sure most of you are like "Geez Adam, you're well put together. I would say God really blessed you and then broke the mold. You is fine. All of your features would be a gift to anyone else in the world." You are all too kind. And have very good taste might I add...

But, though I am very beautiful, these two people focused on things that don't really make up beauty...super human eyesight, an uncanny ability to keep your hair. So, my question is...what is my trait that is like this?

I came up with two answers on the bus ride. 1. My calves. 2. My triceps. Let me explain.

1. My calves.

This is actually fairly easy to explain. After further thought I no longer believe that my calves are a gift. I think they are the outcome of carrying the rest of me around all of the time. Most any muscle that has to support a big guy all of the time is gonna be pretty developed, so, my calves aren't a gift from God. Just a gift from Marie Callender, Li'l Debbie, and Captain D.

2. My triceps.

Okay, so I admit this is a bad picture, but it's hard to get a picture of your own tricep...and have it show the definition. And let me tell you there's some serious definition there. And I have no idea why it's there. It's been years since I've worked out regularly and for definition. All of my other muscles that used to poke out have long been gone. But, my triceps remain. This has to be a gift, as I have done nothing to nurture them. Why are they still there and defined (again, bad picture - I almost don't want to put it up as I feel some people will look at it and say, "How cute, Adam thinks he has triceps. I do...BIG ones.)? This is a mystery that I have no answer to. My triceps...a gift from God.

Anyways...I should have jumped in the middle of the conversation between LVVTG and VOMVTH and put on a flex show. I think they would have agreed that my triceps are a gift...

A Patriot Act

2006-10-15T17:18:00.000-05:00

I have a renewed sense of nationalism after a very patriotic act that I performed a couple of days ago. Actually, I performed the most patriotic act for the first time a couple days ago. I voted. Absentee. So, I made my mark on Nashville and Tennessee from afar, even though those two fine places can't claim me for the next two years as a resident.

I sent in a letter about a month ago to register to vote absentee. Early in the week I received my ballot and filled it out the very same day. I wanted my vote to get back in Nashville on time to count. You know, first time jitters.

Actually, I shouldn't have first time jitters as I have voted before. In person even. But, two months after the 2004 presidential election I received notice that my vote didn't count. They said that I wasn't properly registered or some bologna like that. Anyways, the same day I received that notice I registered to vote. So, technically this is my first time to vote, even though in actuality it's not.

I must say...I'm glad that I am voting absentee for this election. The ballot was huge...both sides full of writing. For my county there were about 10 amendment initiatives to vote on. I would have gotten flustered inside the voting curtains had I had to read all of these amendments. Even more flustered if it was busy when i went to vote and people were waiting on me. I probably would have frozen...similar to the urinal stage fright freezing that happens every now and then in busy bathrooms.

This renewed sense of nationalism really came through when I was preparing to put the ballot back in the mailbox to send to Nashville. I went to one of those Fed-ex type mailing places that is right down the street from where I work to mail it off, as I wanted the feel of actually sticking the envelope in the mail- being part of the process - than having a mail carrier take it out of the outbox in the lobby. The store was kind of crowded when I got there so I was able to talk a couple of ladies into singing the national anthem with me while I opened the mailbox. One man had brought a pair of cymbals to ship to his son in college and he unwrapped them just in time. "And the rocket's red glare (chhh (cymbal sound)) The bombs bursting in air (chhh) gave proof through the night....

The owner of the store even offered the flag he had flying outside to me, so I could wrap it around my shoulders as I placed the envelope in the mailbox, but of course, I didn't want to desecrate the flag so I thanked him and said no.

I encourage everyone to vote. Renew your nationalism. Be a Patriot.

This is Adam Burgett, and I approve this message.

link

2006-10-13T20:40:00.000-05:00

Here is my flickr account address:

www.flickr.com/photos/aburgett/

You can go here to see pictures I've taken. Right now all that is on there is some of the pictures I took at Big Cottonwood Canyon a couple of weekends ago. I will continue to add pictures as I learn to use the site.

I must say, I feel a little cheated...

2006-10-12T17:16:00.000-05:00

Riding the bus has allowed me to enjoy my ipod more than I had been able to before I was en route , walking, or waiting for about an hour a day. Not only has this down time allowed me to enjoy the ipod more but it has allowed me to enojoy the music that I am listening to more.

A lot of the music that I listen to are my old reliables: Amos Lee, Dixie Chicks, RENT Broadway Soundtrack, Elton John, Snow Patrol, and quite a few others whom I have listened to for a while or enjoy a lot. Katharine McPhee included. However, since I have 3828 songs on my ipod you can imagine that there are songs that I don't listen to regularly, or in the cases of the music that came to me through friends, songs I have never listened to at all.

Also, because itunes makes it easy to enter your credit/debit card once and then just buy and buy songs until your heart's content, I have music that I have purchased that I don't listen to regularly. In a lot of cases, I think "Wow, I would like to hear this artist, and it's cheaper to buy his whole cd now rather than buy one song now and then buy the whole cd later, so I'll just buy the cd" and then never really listen to the musician.

Until now. Prince is one artist that I'm really getting into. Now, by way of explanation let me say that Prince was an itunes purchase during a late night in US-2 training in New York. I don't remember what had gone on that day, or even why I was on itunes late at night, but I remember my rationale in purchasing Prince's Greates Hits. Heres the rationale: "I have $35 worth of itunes gift cards." Sound reasoning, huh?

Actually, though that was my reason for buying Prince I have had it in my mind for some time that I would like to listen to Prince. This desire stemmed from my Dad's love of Prince. I actually don't know if my dad loves or at one time loved Prince, but I do know that he owns the VHS to Prince's movie - Purple Rain. That translates to love in my book as I own the VHS to Runaway Bride just because the Dixie Chicks had a song on the soundtrack.

Anyways, since I've been listening to Prince I realize that he is really, really good. His music is awesome. Actually, he is so good that I wish his music caught on with my generation like some of the other older rockers - Elton John, Billy Joel, Meatloaf, etc. I want to talk about Prince with some of my friends and they might know him as "the guy who likes purple" or "Oh, I love his song 1999." But what I desire is for me to be able to walk into a room of my friends and me say "This is what it sounds like, when doves cry" and then the entire room in unison breaking out with "dum do do do, dum do do dum" and then trying to impersonate Prince's shrills. That would be so awesome.

But no, for whatever reason Prince didn't catch on with us millenials and I'm stuck singing Pink Cashmere to myself. I guess I'll stick to being able to walk into a room full of my friends and say "Everybody clap your hands" and have everyone in unison clap their hands to the beat of the ChaCha slide. That's fun too I guess, but I would rather hear "dum do do do, dum do do dum."

Soapbox

2006-10-10T10:27:00.001-05:00

If college football doesn't interest you then you will probably want to go ahead and stop reading now.

Something has been on my head the last few days that I just have to write about. I know I'm biased in the football conference area, but it is a fact that the SEC is the best football conference in college football. Being away from the area only strengthens my assurance in this fact.

Take this weekend for example...the SEC beat up on itself. Two previously undefeated, top ten teams were beaten by teams in their own SEC division. Now, in a conference that just a couple weeks ago had something like 4 teams that were undefeated and in the top ten now only has one undefeated team, and still several in the top ten. Even if by some chance Florida does make it through the regular season without a loss, they still have to play the SEC Championship - a game that is sometimes harder than the national championship.

I'm quite sure that Florida won't make it through the season undefeated. Just a hunch. Even the crappy teams in the SEC are pesky. The number 3 ranked team in the Country - Michigan - got played very well by Vanderbilt, the perennial worst team in the SEC. Vandy plays everyone close though...something that pains me to no end.

I guess I should get off of my soapbox...just know that I think the SEC is the best conference in the nation in college football. Not all agree...many would point to USC's killing of Arkansas as proof of the Pac-10 being dominant. I would counter with UT's whooping of Cal. Anyways...we're all right. It's football...it should not be as important as we make it. But I can't not make it an all consuming thing that dwarfs everything else in the world from August through January. All SEC fans are like that. That's why we're the best.

Me and Nature...we be tight

2006-10-06T18:39:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I went up to Big Cottonwood Canyon - one of the seven canyons within a short drive of my house. The accessibility of nature - beautiful nature - out here is amazing. In twenty minutes I could be at any number of hiking, climbing, skiing, or rapelling spots. All very beautiful.

So, this trip last weekend was great. Very relaxing. It kind of makes me want to rethink my assertion of myself as a city boy. Actually, no, I like the city. But I like nature in small doses too.

Speaking of small doses. This little guy caused me to seek a new pair of undergarments shortly after we arrived to the Canyon.

I can't wait until the Spring when I can just make a short drive and go sit in this wonderful nature and do whatever - write, read, listen to music - You know...relax. Who couldn't relax when you can just chill beside something like this:

As I am hungry I will just put a couple of other pictures here. I took about 80 that day. I am in the process of learning about a new picture sharing site a friend told me about called flickr and will probably start posting all of my pictures on this site. I will post the address when I learn more - unless I learn that I can't post the site and show other people my pictures.

What's the Deal?

2006-10-04T10:22:00.000-05:00

Every morning I always read the Tennessean online - for those of you who don't know that is Nashville's newspaper. I read it mainly for the sports page, so I can keep up with my Commodores and Titans (though I am increasingly not caring as much about the Titans as I used to). However, every morning I do read the headlines on the front page and see if anything interests me.

You could all imagine my surprise when I saw this headline this morning:

Wednesday, 10/04/06
Nashville's 25 most beautiful
Honorees enjoy the lighter side of being on magazine's annual listing

How is this unknown to me? The gathering of the 25 most beautiful people in Nashville that is apparently an annual event and I had to hear about it in the newspaper after the fact? At first I thought "Oh,they have started a new contest in Nashville. Too bad I've been in Salt Lake for a while. That must be why I wasn't included in the article or invited to the gathering." But then, after more thought I realized that the headline mentioned the annual listing and event. This has been going on for some time and I never knew. I couldn't understand how I never knew. I could understand if the headline read:

Wednesday, 10/4/06
First Annual Gathering Honors Nashville's 25 Most Beautiful
Only persons living in Nashville for every day the last 5 months eligible for designation as one of most beautiful

But, the headline didn't read this. It read as the first headline - the real one.

I must admit, I'm a little offended. Not only was I not included in the magazines listing and gathering. I have never even received notice that I was a runner-up to that was almost included in the magazine. This implies that I have not even been nominated. How disturbing. I know that I haven't been nominated because I would have either been included in the magazine or been a runner-up if it ws a bad picture of me. I am certain that runner-up receive some sort of notice.

Working at an institution that works with people who don't normally have a voice I have realized that people sometimes slip through the cracks. However, I have never seen someone slip through the cracks as much as I have for however long this listing and event has taken place. I should be featured in this article. We should right this wrong that has been done to the Nashville Community.

Buffalo Bill

2006-09-30T10:23:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-28T20:36:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-24T20:44:00.001-05:00

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..

2006-09-23T17:09:00.000-05:00

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...

2006-09-19T19:53:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-17T22:41:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-16T15:28:00.000-05:00

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...

2006-09-15T23:50:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-13T19:53:00.000-05:00

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...

2006-09-11T15:49:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-08T19:13:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-09-05T22:08:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-03T21:41:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-09-02T16:30:00.000-05:00

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.

What a day

2006-08-30T19:38:00.000-05:00

Some of you might have seen or read that yesterday and today President George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld are in Salt Lake City. Actually, Bush gets here in about two hours, but all three have had or will have speaking engagements in Salt Lake.

As you can imagine, there is much security downtown and outside of the hotel where they are staying. I went by a little earlier and there was a lot of Secret Service detail for blocks.

As you can also imagine there is much hype in the city because of these visitors. In all, there were/will be 7 official rallies taking place today.

The rallies are as follows :

1. Support the Troops Freedom Rally - a rally that is supporting the troops but protesting the war.
2. A Presidential welcoming party and appreciation rally - a group of about 3,000 people meeting the president at the airport to say "Thanks, and Welcome!"
3. A war protest in Washington Park - a war protest in the heart of downtown at the City/County building (yes, the same building where I saw the Pro-Polygamy Rally! speaking of, has anyone looked at all of the comments I got from that post lately...crazy, and one guy seems a little belligerent...) OH - a note about this rally - the Mayor of Salt Lake City spoke at this rally. Last year he introduced George Bush at one event, then went across town and spoke at an anti-war rally. Kinda weird and somewhat humorous.
4. A Call for Immigration Reform Rally - self explanatory...though, I guess the others have been too
5. An anti-Israel demonstration - I think some Anti-Semites heard the city was giving out a lot of demonstration permits so they pounced...I see little relevance to the government officials being here and "Death to Israel" (as the protest is officially titled), well, I guess I see some relevance in the last couple months, but I still think it's a stupid, intolerant rally. And I hate intolerance - that and the Dutch. Ha! (I don't really hate the Dutch. I can't hate a people when I have no idea where they hail from.)
6. A rock concert/ protest of war. - There is a cover band doing U2 songs and other old protest/rally cries.
7. Another Pro-Bush rally - to show support to our leader.

I know everyone has their own opinion about the administration, I do, but I won't say it aloud and I definitely didn't go to any rallies. I just found it interesting that by tomorrow, over 12000 people will have been at one of the rallies today.

The above picture is of one of the rallies, I don't know which one...I took it from the Salt Lake Tribune's website.

Sorry my posts have been really long here lately...I hope people are getting through them!

"Bus People"

2006-08-29T21:44:00.000-05:00

I have a new segment in my blogdam (you think it should be blogdom like blog+kingdom, since I am royally awesome at blogging, but I opted for the more humble blog+adam=blogdam). As you could guess I encounter many characters throughout my day working in a place where over 100 people looking for some sort of assistance come through the doors each day. But, the most colorful encounters thus far in my time in Salt Lake City take place on the bus, or in some cases, at bus stops.

Today's installment of "Bus People" (read this in a very light manner, like a child would, or perhaps a gentle lamb if a gentle lamb could speak) is inspired by a man I met at the corner of 400 East and 500 South right here in the heart of Salt Lake City. We will call my new friend John, as that is what he told me his name was.

First let me describe John. John was wearing a white, button up shirt and navy slacks. His shoes were clogs that you would normally see on asian women (not to stereotype, but some things just seem stereotypical). His hat was one of those hats with a mesh backing and a puffy, nylonish top which was very colorful. John was wearing sunglasses that only blind people or very old people can get away with. Luckily, John was old, like, super old.

I made a little small talk with John as I approached because he was nice enough to ask me which bus I was taking, then told me the time it would be there. We talked a little about the weather, then about the town in general, then I told him I was new and from Nashville. He immediately told me that he loved Dolly Parton, Minnie Pearl and some of the older stars. I then told him (as I do everyone the least bit interested in country music) that I used to work at the Grand Ole Opry (because it always gets a rise from people and allows me to feel superior to them). However, John didn't ask the standby question that I always get after this statement "Did you meet anyone famous?" John just went ahead in the conversation and told me all of the Country stars he liked and when their birthdays were. He went on to say "My hobby is knowing everything there is to know about celebities. I laughed, then realized he was serious.

Did you know Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, and a couple other people all turn 70 either this year or next year and that out of all of them, Warren Beatty is the oldest by several days? I did...er, do now. For ten minutes, until the bus came, John told me probably 50 celebrity's birthdays. Then where they grew up and other things I could never have known and gone on living. But, John was a nice guy so I'm not going to make fun of him. I won't. I will, however, say that John likes to talk. That's why I was relieved when there was really only one seat open on the bus and I, being the gentleman, young, and able, chose to stand as far away from that open seat as humanly possible and still be on the bus.

In the comments of my grocery shopping mishaps my friend kind of reminded that it isn't always beneficial to talk to strangers. But, my life would be so dull...

Story Time 3

2006-08-27T20:28:00.000-05:00

Editors Note: Earlier in the day before the following narrative, Adam mentioned to his father that he was upset that nothing had happened to him lately that was really worth blogging about. Apparently since Adam had gone to church that same day, God smiled upon Adam and sent the angel that you will read about in the following story.

Once upon a time a boy walked to the grocery store. Upon arriving at said grocery store the boy went to the counter and asked for a preferred customer savings card so he could save money. He was given a preferred savings card and was gracious to the store for preferring him enough to allow him to save money as he shopped.

While in Aisle two, the one with the bread and snack cakes, the boy was browsing the various breads and realized he was in front of a fellow shopper. "Oh, excuse me," the boy said. The fellow shopper replied "Oh you're all right. Can I help you find something? You look lost." The boy answered "Well, I am kinda lost. This is only the second time I've been grocery shopping on my own and the first time I had someone with me who knew what she was doing," just to make friendly conversation. The fellow shopper said "Oh, I would love to help you!" The boy thought that the fellow shopper was a little too enthusiastic in their reply and said "Thanks, but I think I'll be okay." Fellow shopper said, "No, I insist. Follow me around and I will help you."

The boy contemlated running out of the stor because he felt trapped. There was no way to be polite and turn down the fellow shopper's offer. Being a little scared and unsure of the fellow shopper's speed, the boy figured that he ought to obey the fellow shopper.

Things went smoothly for the boy the first couple of rows as he did not intend on getting much as he walked to the grocery store that evening. The fellow shopper was suggesting things that the boy should buy, but he was politely telling the fellow shopper that he already had or didn't need said items. The boy noticed that the fellow shopper had a habit of saying "I see" after the boy would give such a reply.

When the pair came to the canned vegetable aisle the fellow shopper said, "You just have to get some spaghetti sauce, it is always good to have spaghetti sauce on hand." The boy answered "Oh, I already have two cans of spaghetti sauce at my apartment." The fellow shopper said "I see. Well, maybe you should buy another just in case of an emergency." The boy looked at the fellow shopper dumbfoundedly, then said "That's a great idea!" as he put a can of spaghetti sauce in his cart.

The fellow shopper did not pick up on the sarcasm and said "I know."

Several more aisles went by with some things being put in the boy's cart, some things not being put in the boy's cart, and the fellow shopper saying "I see" quite often. After 45 minutes of shopping and counting the boy realized he made a mistake by not running.

When the pair came to the "Chips and Snacks" aisle, the boy's favorite, he picked up a jar of Salsa. The fellow shopper noticed the GIANT YELLOW SIGN right in front of the boy's face that said "Pace Picante Sauce, 2 for $4" and told the boy "get the Pace Picante Sauce, it's on sale." The boy replied "Oh, I see that it is, I just like this kind of salsa better than Pace. I'm not a real big Pace fan." The fellow shopper answered "But the Pace is on sale." The boy, really not wanting Pace Picante Sauce, said "Yeah, but I don't really want it." The fellow shopper, being relentless, said "But you are paying too much for that other salsa. I don't see why anyone would pass up this deal." The boy, feeling frustrated said "It is a great deal, I just don't want Pace. I want this."

Then the boy put the other salsa in his cart and said "I'm going to go find tostitos." He walked away from his cart and the fellow shopper so he could analyze what just happened while he went to retrieve the tostitos. When he walked back, guess what had been replaced in the boy's cart?

Quick post

2006-08-25T21:42:00.001-05:00

Salt Lake City is growing more and more on me every day. I am really starting to like working at Crossroads and the city in general is really cool I'm learning. There are a couple of people who have taken me around and told me some the the things that you probably wouldn't read in a visitors guide. There are lots of little quirks about the city that make it unique and fascinating. I would write about them, but I don't really want to right now. Like I said...this is a quick post.

Who get's to wake up at 5 am tomorrow to go work? I do! I do!

Goodbye Pluto...

2006-08-24T19:20:00.000-05:00

So, I am not sure if there have been more recent developments, but the last I heard the status of Pluto as a planet is in limbo. In honor, or possibly memory, of Pluto, I have developed a list of my favorite memories of Pluto.

1. Learning about it in 6th and 7th grade.

2. Thats all...no memories...

But, since my new work title does have the word "advocate" in it I will use all of my authority to advocate for Pluto. We need Pluto as a planet in our solar system - if not for reasons of diversity (it is the dwarf planet) - then for balance. There is power in the number nine - as in nine planets (for now), the nine monks in Buddhist ritual, nine being the highest single-digit number and thus symbolizing completeness in the Bahai faith, the nine powerful muses in Greek mythology, nine innings in baseball, and a hit television show that has nine deep spaces...though I forget the name of the show...Anyways, we need this power that the number nine offers and symbolizes in our solar system. We need nine planets!

Perhaps the most important, powerful reason for needing nine planets is because of the completeness of the old saying we all learned in 6th or 7th grade.

My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas

With that sentence, and my eyes are watering just a little, all of my favorite memories of Pluto come flooding back. My eyes are also watering a little thinking about the possibility of my excellent mother not knowing what she is serving us nine of. Without Pluto my very excellent mother would just be serving us nine. That is tragic...

How will kids learn the order of the planets from the sun out using an incomplete sentence?

As an advocate, I urge you all to write your local International Astronomical Union and ask them to keep Pluto a planet. Do it for the children...

Getting to work

2006-08-22T18:30:00.000-05:00

The last two days at work have been my first at Crossroads Urban Center. So far I think I like it, though I need to sit down and process all that I have learned...

A lot of work goes on at Crossroads that tries to help people in general, but especially those who would be considered the least of these. Today there was a demonstration at the City and County building which is downtown. This wasn't a very confrontational demonstration, rather it was simply an informational thing to show how much Utah needs a state or federal supported healthcare program.

I, along with several other Crossroads staff members, board members, advocates, and team members drew 132 chalk outlines on the sidewalks of the building (with their permission of course). Many of the local politicians came out an had their bodies outlined, several of whom I got a chance to talk to. One of those, Pete Ashdown - who is running for US Senator in the coming election, gave me a ticket to the local AAA baseball game on Thursday night. That was pretty sweet. He was a nice guy, though I think he might be anorexic. Actually, I take that back because his "people" might read this and take offense. He is just really skinny - not even relative to me - just really skinny period.

There were many press people from different newspapers and television stations there too, so a picture of me might show up in some paper or I may be roaming around in the background of a television interview. Also, I guess I am destined to be on Univision, as they were there too (with a really, really good looking camerawoman). I can still see me in Time's Square "Viva la Univision." If only I didn't chicken out...

All in all I was pretty worried about today's events when I heard about them, and particularly my involvement in them, last week. I was worried because it seemed much more confrontational than anything I had done in my life thus far. However, it wasn't confrontational at all. Everyone was very supportive of the demonstration, even the politicians, as it brought to attention an issue that needs attention - healthcare. Or lack thereof...

Haha...Yes!

2006-08-20T12:45:00.000-05:00

So yesterday (Saturday) I went out on a voyage to discover things about downtown Salt Lake...like, where I could purchase a Nalgene bottle and things of that nature. I had originally planned to go to the library to use wireless internet, get a few dvds to watch (as I don't have a tv yet, the computer and dvds are my entertainment) and maybe check out a couple books. When I arrived to the library I figured since I was downtown already and had nothing but time, I would walk around and try to find a mall or a camping store at least.

Right next to the Library is a Government building and as I was walking by it I noticed that there was something going on at the building's steps. As I approached I heard a band playing and saw picket signs. I guessed that it was some sort of political rally or protest so I decided to further investigate. When I arrived I saw a man with a couple cameras and, figuring he was with one of the newspapers, asked him what was taking place. Do you know what his answer was? The rally that was taking place was a PRO-POLYGAMY RALLY!!!

My reply to this was hahaha....yes! This reply drew an awkward reaction from the journalist. To ease the tension I simply turned around and walked away, pulling out my camera so I could prove to everyone that this is a true story. I took about 25 pictures and I think some people thought I was with the press.

At the rally there were two bands. Each band was a family band - where all of the members shared a father but not a mother. Instead of saying they were from the same family, they always said they were from the same community. I didn't get any good pictures of the bands though...

Also, they had between 10 and 15 young people, ranging from ages 12 to 23 talking about what it meant for them to grow up in a polygamous household/community. All of them were very positive and a couple mentioned that they couldn't wait to start a polygamous family of their own.

All in all there were probably 200 people there, so I am guessing there were 4 families there (pause for laughter), as I saw way more young people than parental looking people. However, I don't know how young people in this realm of society are accustomed to marrying. There were also several 15 passenger vans that families were scurrying to at the conclusion of the rally. Ha!

So...before I came to Salt Lake I joked, you joked, everyone joked about me coming back with 10 wives. However, I was not aware that there were people who still practiced polygamy. Apparently there are, and apparently they are ballsy enough to have a rally outside of a governmental building even though their lifestyle is not condoned. One thing I learned at the rally is that I no longer want to be a polygamist, er, even joking that is (I never really wanted to). You wanna know why? Because I'm afraid that all of my wifes will look similar - like this guy's:

Well, yesterday was my first Saturday in Salt Lake City and I'm sure one of the more interesting ones that I will have here in my two years. I did eventually find a water bottle, check out books and dvds, and return home to watch said dvds and read said books. The best part of the day, though, was the free snow cone I was given at the polygamist rally!

I'm Here!

2006-08-18T11:10:00.000-05:00

After a loooong day of traveling, getting acquainted with people/my apartment, and unpacking some of my things, I am finally here in Salt Lake. I'm actually in the Main City Library - which is amazing - using the wireless this morning after a good night of much needed sleep.

I don't know what I think of everything yet but I'm sure that I will grow into it all. I enjoyed taking the bus this morning and having to walk a little. Utah is the healthiest state in the union according to research so I will be doing my part to keep it that way.

As of right now, my internet access is restricted to work and when I am here at the Library. There is a wireless port in the house where I live but I will have to see if I can get a password to use it.

Expect some posts about my apartment, workplace, and Salt Lake in general in the next few days.

last day in nashville...

2006-08-16T20:43:00.000-05:00

It has been great getting around to see everyone before I head out...tomorrow in the early am. At this time tomorrow I will be in Utah, but it will be an hour later there. I think the anxiety is still there but there is a definite excitement in the air...

I can't think of a better way to ring in my last night at home than give my second segment of a many-part series, Ode number 2. This ode has been very special to me over the last few years...it seems like it has always been there when I have needed it.

Ode number 2 goes out to one of the greatest things in the history of the world and without further ado:

Cue the (boink) (boink)

Law and Order, how I love thee. I can remember many nights/days/weekends when I watched the show four hours or more. I think my record was one saturday where I watched 7 episodes. That was a great saturday.

I say I will miss the show because I don't plan on having cable. Thus, I will only get to watch the new episodes - which is something that I have never done. So, I won't get to break my record in the next two years. Instead I'll probably do a push-up, 4 sit-ups, and a couple jumping jacks on saturdays - you know, to get sexy (sexier?) and improve my odds of getting picked to be an extra for one of the Law and Order's that will be shooting while I am back in New York for US-2 midterm and endterm.

The best part about Law and Order is that everyone at some point has watched it, and a lot of people watch the reruns as regularly as I do. In a training session in New York L&O came up and it turned out the majority of the room had seen that particular episode. Law and Order is it's own language, a club for the people who have the time and desire to watch an hour of pure geniusness (is this a word?) whenever one feels like turning the tv on - because it is always on.

I could go on all night talking about Law and Order, but, I won't. My closing remarks ( which probably will not be as convincing as ADA Jack McCoy's usually are - the man's brilliant) consist of the fact that every Law and Order, with the exceptions of the 'to be continued episodes' and the 2 hour specials, are roughly 45 minutes. This is half of a normal movie. They do this at least like 26 times a year, roughly equating into 13 movie lengths a year. I have seen many stinker movies that cost fortunes...never have seen a stinker episode of Law and Order. Actually, I don't know where I'm going with this. I bet Jack McCoy could turn it into a conviction though.

(Just for fun, type Jack McCoy's name into Wikipedia - it gives a bio pieced together from many episodes of Law and Order...crazy and kinda funny in a sad way, the sad part being that some people have enough time to piece together a bio of a fictional character and the funny part being that some people have no life and have thus pieced together a fictional character's life...actually, type any detective's name into wikipedia and get their "bio's": Eddie Briscoe, Joe Fontana, Ed Green, Mike Logan, Elliot Stabler, Olivia Benson - ok, I apparently have too much time on my hands and am a loser...

My South

2006-08-13T16:36:00.000-05:00

For a large part I have tried to downplay the fact that I am from the South. When someone asks where I am from I make sure to mention Nashville - as if it isn't really part of the south. My drawl/accent/ twang isn't too strong (through practice and will), and I shun anything that might be the least redneck. When taking a test to see how redneck you are, I was 51 percent yankee and 49 percent redneck...something like that(I don't remember the exact numbers). I remember being kind of happy that I was less redneck than yankee...i'm not sure why.

However, since I am about to leave the south for an extended period of time, and since I did just spend a month away from the south, I know there are several things that I shall miss greatly. These are things that I probably won't have in Utah and definitely didn't have in New York. If your name isn't on here please notice that nobody's name is on here...this is a list of things and ideals.

1. Sweet Tea - this is a biggie as I am lazy and will not sweeten my own tea in restaurants. Luckily, I will be so poor that I'll order water whenever I go out.

2. The ability to be able to call every soft drink "coke". This was a hot topic of debate between the US-2's, some of who said "pop," others who said "soda," and us correct people who said "coke." I have been told that Utah uses the term "pop." I refuse to say "pop."

3. SEC football. It's the best - though I won't really miss the poor coverage that Jefferson Pilot provides.

4. Ya'll. I will continue to use it until I get beat up enough I am broken of the habit.

5. My southern food. My food doesn't have to be pretty...but there sure needs to be a lot of it.

I'm sure there are a lot of other things I will miss but these are the five that I can remember easily. I hope I can hold on to some of them...

Worst...Book....Ever....

2006-08-11T14:40:00.000-05:00

So, I just finished reading James Patterson's book The Lake House and shoowee, it stinks. More correctly, I had about 50 pages of the novel left and gave up. I write gave up because I decided that it was a crappy book within the first 50 pages, but kept reading to try to find some redeeming value...there was none, thus I gave up.

<--- Incorrectly titled The Lake House. It should be called The Outhouse

Man, I'm funny...

Let me paint you a picture of how ridiculous (Is that the right spelling? My dad told me how to spell this word but I forgot and I refuse to speel chekk) the book actually is. 6 of the 9 main characters are bird/human hybrids. Yes, you read right, little kids ranging from 4 to 12 who have wings, super good sight and hearing, and other birdlike qualities; not to mention their genius level IQs and super-human strength. Well, they apparently are being chased by some mad-scientist type super-hunk doctor who created his wife...really...he has a remote control where he can control what his wife does - he decides if she cooks, cleans, just sits in suspended animation, or performs other wifely duties. The doctor wants to kill the kids because they know too much about his experiments at The Hospital

I'm not sure how the book turns out but I'm sure the kids/birds end up safe in the end. The most ludicrous parts of the book that I can remember include the kids running away and building a nest, eating grubs, and collecting nuts they spot from half a mile in the air, a ten year old and a twelve year old making love - rather graphically described too, - the doctor working on a project that would trade human organs from a young healthy person to a dying person for the price of $100 Million Dollars, the doctor turning his wife off upon his arrival home after she tells him that dinner is ready - then turns her power back on before bedtime, and oh so many more...

I guess I should be fair and mention that this was the second book about the kid/birds. I can only be thankful that I didn't read the first book in the series. Actually, if I had read the first (or attempted to) I would have saved myself the pain of reading (most of) this book.

The real question if why James Patterson wrote the second one...

Feelings...sorry

2006-08-11T10:37:00.000-05:00

Well I've long said that I wish I would either get super excited about moving to Salt Lake, super nervous, or somewhere in between. I am leaning towards the super nervous end of the spectrum right now - though I am excited.

I'ma miss lots of people when I leave too...

I head out on Thursday early in the morning. I am working on getting everything ready so I can leave. I've been slowly packing, getting things together, and saying my farewells. Monday I head down to Pulaski to say goodbye to everyone down there for the second time...I wasn't sure that I would make it back so I did it once already.

I'm working on a couple social commentary's right now about issues that really anger me...maybe I will post them on here when I finish them - at least summarize them on here...

I'm rambling... ( I also use the ... more than anyone I know)

Story Time 2!

2006-08-08T21:17:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time a boy went out to eat with his family. When they arrive at the restaurant, the dining party waits for the host to seat them. After a couple of minutes, the host asks how many people would be eating. The Boy's mother answers "3." A Random Old Lady (referred to henceforth as ROL because ROLWISOTSHTSOABWWTSTBS is too long - that stands for Random Old Lady Who Is So Old That She Had To Sit On A Bench While Waiting Two Seconds To Be Seated - you'll understand the hostility in a second) says "that looks like a party of four to me!"

The Boy is perplexed and looks around to see if another random person is in the midst of his family trying to be part of their dinner party. Said random person does not exist. The Boy wonders what the ROL was talking about. The boys mother obviously realizes the ROL's train of thought and says "well, he is a pretty big boy."

The Boy then realizes what is going on and shoots the ROL a glance of death, to which she mistakes for a smile and politely smiles back. The boy makes a mental note to work on his glance of death in the mirror upon his return home. It was during this exchange of "smiles" that the boy contemplates drop kicking the ROL in the forehead. The boy does realize that ROL is seated so it should be easier to reach ROL's forehead. Then, losing focus the boy contemplates the definition of a drop kick - second guessing himself if this will be the most effective kick to perform on the ROL. Would a Roundhouse make his point better? What about the crane kick - it worked for the Karate Kid...

The Host says "please follow me," which interrupts the boys inner struggle. He follows the host and his family to the table with his tail between his legs, slightly embarrassed but slightly more regretful that he didn't point out ROL's own weight issues.

The End

For the record: I don't mind jokes about being big - I make many myself. From family and friends it's cool, funny, all that. From random strangers...not cool...Fat Old Lady...

Weekend Update

2006-08-07T09:47:00.000-05:00

So I had an awesome time this weekend...

Friday and Saturday I was at Beersheba Springs for Summer Sizzler - a youth retreat sponsored by the TN Conference UMC. It is always the end of summer retreat so it's special for everyone, especially the seniors who graduated because this is their last retreat. It was pretty cool for me since it will be my last retreat with the TN Conference - at least for a couple of years. This year was great, as always. The speaker was great, my small group was awesome and it was super to get to see some of my peeps again before I head off. TN Conference youth events is gonna be one of the things I miss a lot over the next two years.

Sunday I left Beersheba early to get back home for my going away party with my family (and some extended family/friends). It was great to see everyone here too. I love my family and really am grateful for all of their support in whatever I do. It seemed like everyone is happy to see me leave since everyone showed up and some even brought presents to entice me to leave more regularly. Thanks to everyone who came! It was great!

Now, I want to give a shout out to something that made this weekend possible. As mentioned, the retreat was called Summer Sizzler, and boy did it sizzle. It was riddiculously hot for most of the weekend. Also, the party got a little warm with so many bodies and the door being opened regularly by comers and goers. So, this shout out is to a special something - a loyal friend if you will - that has been with me throughout the last several months. Many of you whom I encountered might not have noticed that this friend was even with me, but it was - both at Sizzler and at the party.

So, without further ado I will make the first part in a multi-part series of odes to my deodorant, BAN:

This is a big deal to me because before I found BAN (and yes I know it's a ladies deodorant) many deodorants would work for a month, maybe two, but only to start failing me when I needed it most. BAN (yes I know, made for ladies) has been effective for almost four months now...actually it's been more than effective. I can sometimes wake up the next morning after putting it on at 8am the previous day and I still smell powder fresh. BAN (haha, you're funny - no I'm not a girl) will be the first deodorant I haven't had to rotate around ever. This is why my first ode is to my deodorant. BAN (for the last time I don't care if it's designed for women) is my savior, my loyal friend, my trustworthy companion, and my integrity filled partner - I hope it continues to work now that I have bragged so much...

Link

2006-08-04T09:52:00.000-05:00

I will be away this weekend for my last TN Conference youth event - at least for a couple of years...

I read this column off of CBS Sportsline's SPIN site and thought I would share it.

Clay Travis is one of my favorite writers (and he's from Nashville!) and this column describes many of the reasons why I don't like mega churches (and most evangelical churches).

Click this to link to the page!

There is wireless in Beersheba, so I will try to update there...

New York? Check

2006-08-02T19:11:00.000-05:00

While in New York it seemed like everyone had a list of things that they wanted to do while in New York. These lists had things like "buy a hot dog from a street vendor" and "order chinese delivery at 4 in the morning." Other lists were more simple like: "go to a broadway show" or "visit museums."

I went to New York with no such list...however, I have created a list of things I should have done, and how close I came to completing them.

1. Go to FAO Schwartz and show off my newly discovered piano skills by playing Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" on the BIG Piano.

Outcome: Sadly, I did not make it to FAO Schwartz to play Journey on the BIG piano. I did, however, go to the life size Barbie house in the Time's Square Toys 'R Us and look at almost every Barbie there. I was the only guy that night...

2. Get on a hit television show.

Outcome: I was oh so close. One night while in Time's Square, we saw what we thought was some kind of tv show or commercial or something about to be shot. We hung around this area for a little while and talked about the guys who we thought were paparazzi. Eventually we got tired of waiting so I walked across the street (I was the only one brave enough to ask!) to ask the "paparazzi" who they were keeping their cameras on for. It turned out that they were all just freelance photographers taking pictures of Time's Square. (does time's square have an apostrophe? I have been putting one there) Then one of the girls told me to ask the video camera "paparazzi." I obliged and he didn't know of any celebrity in the area either, he was simply getting shots of the night too. I then asked him what tv station he worked for and this dialogue took place:

ADAM: What tv station do you work for?
UNIVISION: Univision
ADAM: I want to be on Univision!
UNIVISION: Do you speak Spanish?
ADAM: Un poco
UNIVISION: Really? Ask that guy then (pointing at the man holding the microphone
ADAM: No thanks

I was oh so close to being a Spanish Icon! If I didn't get scared and bail...

3. Meet a famous movie star and have her fall in love with me.

Outcome: Once again, I was oh so close. On the next to last night we were there, on the way back from dinner, one of the other US-2s, Emily, and I saw Liv Tyler.

Let me preface this by saying that Liv Tyler lives about 5 brownstones from Alma Matthew's House, so I halfway expected to see her at some point. On this fateless night she was getting out of an Escalade in front of her house and Emily and I were between the car and her house. We (accidentally) cut her off while she was trying to get to her house and promptly sped up to get out of her way. While getting out of her way Emily and I made eye contact to confirm that it was in fact Liv Tyler. I should also say that Liv and I made eye contact.

However, since it was dark, Liv did not drown in my eyes and fall in love with me. Had it been daylight and she had the chance to fall in love with my eyes we would be on the cover of next week's People magazine talking about the love that caused her to divorce her husband, give up her career, and move to Salt Lake.

Well, it looks as if I accomplished very little of my made up list...I shall do better next time.

Good ole' Alma

2006-08-01T20:05:00.000-05:00

So I am super happy to be back in Nashville for a short period of time but I do have a few residual New York posts...

While in NYC, the US-2s were housed at Alma Matthews House - which is a private residence owned by the United Methodist Church. It is used mainly by the GBGM, UMCOR, and Woman's Divisions as a place to house visitors -guests, and staff persons who don't live in New York - on a temporary basis.

Here is a picture of Alma Matthews:

Alma (Ma for short) bequested the double brownstone to the United Methodist Church when she passed. She originally opened the house as a sort of halfway house for woman immigrants many years ago. Ma was a good lady who wanted to help these newcomers to America adjust better to the changes of culture, including dress, hygiene, job training, etc. I think this is all correct.

It is a really nice place to live for a month. I'm sure if put on the market today it would cost a pretty penny.

One of the craziest things about Ma's house was the picture you just saw. Her eye would follow you if you were near that picture. One day someone broke a chair and Ma was grimacing at him just as if it were her chair. I'm certain that the picture is really just like the pictures in Hogwarts, only Ma can't let us Muggles see any of the actual movement. Well, I guess I should say she shouldn't let us see..

One day, while minding my own business, I was sitting in the room where the picture was reading. All of a sudden, Alma was nearly on top of me trying to make out with me! I don't know if she cared that I was a muggle or what but obviously I was too much temptation to keep her little secret any longer.

I have a security camera still-shot as proof since I knew no one would believe me:

See! I told you!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

2006-07-29T15:03:00.000-05:00

We have been pretty busy the last couple of days wrapping up the training. Yesterday we had to create several things, one being a litany using the Social Principles of the United Methodist Church. It came out really nicely and I might post it on here before too long. Last night I went to my first poetry slam and my July roommate, Harris, won first place in it. It was really cool...I might look into doing poetry sometime.

For now I'll settle for reciting one of the few poems I have memorized. This is called "Samson Agonistes" and is written by Ogden Nash.

I check the bath before I sit,
And I'm always moved to wonderment,
That what chills the finger not a bit,
Is so frigid upon the fundament.

Moving on...

Throughout the month we (the US-2's) have been receiving gifts of agape from various people's churches and United Methodist Women groups throughout the U.S. Many of the gifts have been from US-2's home churches. First Presbyterian of Pulaski has represented and supported all of the US-2s in an amazing fashion sending leather bound Bibles, phone cards, and many kind notes and cards. We had been receiving one or two small cards a day.

However, when we were doing our closing worship this morning someone came around and loaded our beds with Agape that had been sent to individuals instead of the group. When I walked in it was like Christmas...I had several packages and a lot of cards. It was awesome! Here is a picture.

Obviously the computer wasn't agape but everything else is just what we were given today. I could have done a better job of spreading everything out but it was awesome! Thanks to everyone who sent something if I don't get a chance to thank you personally.

Concert in the Park...suckers...

2006-07-27T16:00:00.001-05:00

So I promised a post on this...

Last night a group of us went to Central Park to hear a Damien Rice (whom I like) and Fiona Apple (who scares me) concert. The thing is, tickets to this concert were $50 dollars. But, being the smart people we are we went to a grassy knoll (read woodchip filled area) right behind the fence that separated the sheep from the goats...the goats being the morons who paid $50 to get in the fence and the sheep being us beautiful creatures who laid in the grassy knoll (read woodchip filled area) and laughed at the people who wasted their money.

I have pictures for proof.

The sheep :

The goats (morons) :

Clearly I could have thrown a rock and hit them...but I didn't want to make them feel worse...

This is how many people were in the sheep section before it got dark (several people got there after dark - no photo evidence provided).

This taught me that I will never buy a ticket to an outdoor concert again. I will simply get my lawn chair, cooler and some food and thank those suckers who are paying the money so I can enjoy the music for free...

2006-07-26T21:56:00.001-05:00

So, I know I've posted since the weekend but I need to update you all on what's been going on since then. I'm afraid this may be more boring than you are used to so brace yourselves...

Saturday I hung out with Brandon, Dr. Gregory and Patrick and it was loads of fun. We entered the lottery for 25 dollar tickets to The Drowsy Chaperone and I won! Too bad I am using up all of my lottery karma on stupid stuff so when i finally play the real lottery I'll just end up losing money.

Since I was the only one who won Patrick and I saw the show since Brandon and Dr. G will have many more opportunities to see it than will we. It was hilarious - by far the best show I've ever seen...out of the 5, so you can take that with a salt grain or garlic clove or whatever the saying is.

That night Brandon, Patrick and I - along with US-2's Valerie and Tyler - went to a Haunted Restaturant. It was quite possibly the lamest thing I've done...ever. They had "ghosts" coming around talking to us and asking us questions. Lame.

When the weekend was over it was back to work with training sessions and things of that nature. We have had a free night or two so I went with some peeps to a choir performance last night and was talked into (at the last minute) to going to a concert tonight. I will give a full post to this later so get excited!!!

Anyways...that has been the last few days in my life. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.

(now that last sentence was the lamest thing I've done)

I am going to be an artist!

2006-07-24T12:56:00.000-05:00

So...I promised a post about the MoMA...here goes...

I really did thoroughly enjoy going to the Museum of Modern Art; however, there were some pieces of "art" that left me a little perplexed. Some of the pieces of "art" didn't seem like art at all. Take this picture for example...

Now compare this work of "art" to what I just did in 7 seconds...

Why did the guy/gal who painted this get paid millions (maybe) of dollars for their painting and I get nothing? This blue "painting" is not a work of art. One of my friends said that she felt bad for house painters who do the same thing but millions of times more than that and don't get their "paintings" in museums.

This wasn't the only thing that isn't art in the museum. There is a canvas that has been sliced in the middle that is called "art." There is a rope suspended from the ceiling to the floor called "art." There is a blank canvas...a BLANK canvas in the museum called "art." This is all crazy. I think I have a new calling in life...

Story Time!

2006-07-23T14:12:00.001-05:00

Once upon a time a boy was walking to a restaurant with his friends. This boy was in the middle of the group of friends, several in front of him, several behind him, and one beside him. As they walk along a stranger cuts into the group. The boy and his friends don't think much about the stranger and continue their various conversations. While the group is walking, talking, and having a good time, the stranger starts acting strange. The stranger bends over and touches things on the grounds, mumbles unintelligibly, and claps for long periods of time. The boy and his friends look at each other in wonderment but carry on with their conversations, realizing that they are in the big city.

One of the conversations that is taking place near the boy is about dogs. One of the boy's friends mentions that some people treat dogs as dogs and others treat dogs as people. The boy has a question about this statement so he offers "what does it really mean to treat a dog as a dog?" Just at this moment the stranger turns around and says "wow man, that is deep." The boy tries not to make eye contact; his friend who was walking next to him drops off the face of the earth and joins the group walking behind the boy. The stranger persists "no man, I mean, I like to joke around and stuff because I have to but what you just said was some deep stuff." The boy tries humor and says "Yeah...I'm a philosopher." The stranger doesn't get it and continues to talk to the boy. The boy feels very awkward and wants to get out of the situation by any means necessary. The boy realizes he isn't a strong runner. The boy must listen to the stranger.

One of the boy's friends comes to the rescue by asking him a question. The stranger drops back. The group of friends who were behind the boy drop back farther as to not have an encounter with the stranger. They see the stranger spit at a woman crossing the street. The boy walks fast not looking back. The boy and his group of frinds arrive at the restaurant. The stranger is still amongst the boy and his friends. One of the boy's friends allows the lady in the restaurant to sit first; the stranger instead goes to the restroom. The boy and his friends are seated looking at the menus. the boy happens to glance up and see the stranger at the hostess stand. He's perplexed. He then witnesses the stranger start pulling things off of the hostess stand and throwing them on the floor. The stranger wipes a table of it's glassware, breaking everything, and then knocks a tray full of things that a waitress carries on the ground. Then the stranger runs out the door, chased by two waiters.

The boy ponders the situation that just took place...then he laughs and remembers that he is in the big city...

The End

true story by the way...

Seasons of Love

2006-07-21T21:47:00.001-05:00

Seasons of Love - one of the best songs from Rent - has been stuck in my head since I went to see the Broadway show last night. Why oh why can I not get it out of my head? It's torture; not only for me but for all of my US-2 classmates who constantly have to listen to me sing it.

Anyways...NYC is a lot of fun. Like I've said, we have been staying busy but there has been a lot of free time. We've been to Central Park, Times Square (multiple x's), a Broadway show, every freakin restaurant in the Village, MoMA, and other places too. MoMA will probably get it's own post in the next few days.

I'm excited about this weekend because I get to hang out with some familiar faces from Martin Methodist...Brandon Baker, Dr. Jack Gregory, and Patrick Bryan. Hopefully we will get to have some fun times. It's gonna be good to hang out with all of them before I have to move out of country, er, to Salt Lake.

New York Observations

2006-07-18T22:00:00.000-05:00

I have been living in Greenwich Village on the lower West Side for two weeks now training to be a US-2. Prior to my coming to New York many people warned me of things that I would see in the Village. For the most part, I didn't think anything of it as I am open-minded and don't mind seeing things that go against the norms of society - at least in the South. However, even I wasn't ready to see something that blew my mind on the first day that I arrived while walking down Bleecker Street to lunch.

This is an act that I had never witnessed before and something that I don't think I will ever get used to. (I still double take everytime I see it).

The act is...Dog's taking craps on the sidewalks...

Now I know that this dog is not on the sidewalk, but the internet has failed me and I don't think people would appreciate it if I take pictures of their dog's relieving themselves...

The worst part about this horrific act is the vulnerability, embarassment, and pure fear that you see in the dog's eyes as they pass. Having a dog in the city is opening a dog up to riddicule.

I like the NBA

2006-06-02T15:51:00.001-05:00

You know what? I like the NBA...

It seems to be a dying sport in the nashville area...at least in my family...but this season's playoffs have revived a love that might not have ever been there - so I guess they sparked a renewed interest.

I can remember watching NBA with my family once, when MJ was still in the league, and his Bulls were in the playoffs against the Lakers - I'm assuming Magic's but the only person from that team I remember is Vlade Divac because my dad and his brothers had a fight about how to pronounce his name. Ever since that viewing I liked Vlade...

Tonight is Detroit (my team, for the last 4 years or so - not to be confused for my old team - the Jazz, Malone Stockton days - or the Celtics, Bird days...yeah, I like winners) vs. Heat. I like Shaq and Dwayne Wade but my beloved Pistons need to pull this out to force a game 7.

I think I have bored you all enough - I like the NBA - and whoever wins might be my favorite team...

It's official...

2006-05-24T22:06:00.000-05:00

I have some bad news...it's official - Taylor Hicks is the American freakin Idol...I know only a handful of people knew this already, i'm one of the few viewers - thats why I'm telling everyone, well at least everyone reading this, which is no one because I haven't told anyone that it exists...i shall soon.

Taylor had at best the 6th best voice of the competition - though I must admit that he was one of the most entertaining contestants.

I bet you are asking yourself "well why in the world is Adam wasting a post on this if he hasn't posted in a month and only has 4 or so posts anyways?" Well, I say you are asking a good question, and a good question deserves a good answer. And I got good answers...

I think I deserve to post about this because not only have millions of other people written about American Idol the last 5 months...I have spent the last 5 months with American Idol. It sucked me in. I have spent more time with the contestants than I have with many of my family members...ever. They were my family - my crazy (paula), annoying (paula) and sexy (paula) family. Even my future wife was part of Idol this year...I wonder if she'll hyphenate her name - Katharine McPhee - Burgett. Man, I wish I had met her before she made it on the show and got famous - I hate hyphenated names, but I guess I'll get used to it.

Back to topic - think about it...some weeks Idol was on 5 hours...5 hours! Thats more than college students are in a class for one week. Because of this time commitment for busy college students, I am proposing that all colleges offer some sort of credit for Idol watchers. I'm even going to offer a sample syllabus for this new course in "Music, Culture and the American Dream."

Class Requirements:

Watch American Idol everytime it comes on, whether it is for 1.5 hours a week (final 10ish), 3 hours a week (last 2 + finale), or 5 hours a week (auditions/top 24).

Be prepared to discuss in class:

Contestants and song selection
Fashion yes's and no's of the night
Judge comments: were they fair?

Write one paper responding to the following comment: " It doesn't matter how good the contestants are, the producers pick the most marketable contestant to win and then keep the rights to the better singers so they can sign them a few months after the season is over."

Well, that's a start on the syllabus...

Movin' in with the Mormons...

2006-05-01T13:05:00.000-05:00

Well, it is looking like I'll be living with the Mormon's for a couple of years starting in August 06....

The powers that be at the GBGM have placed me at Crossroads Urban Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. I don't think that I could have drawn up a better placement for myself in terms of the work that I'll get to do while at Crossroads. Check out the link above to see the type of work they do and I will get to participate in...

With that being said - it is in Salt Lake City, which actually my quick research has shown is not that bad of a town. Hopefully I'll get to use public transportation everywhere (which is a goal of mine for the 2 years) and won't have to take my truck on the 24 hour drive from Nashville to Utah. When I first heard Salt Lake City I was surprised - though not totally upset. I mentioned that I preferred to be in the northeast, but this placement is too good to pass up.

I have to schedule a phone interview with Crossroads in the next few days to finalize the placement. I am exicted, especially since I get to go somewhere where polygamy is semi-condoned...look out ladies...

Bittersweet lunch

2006-04-27T10:20:00.000-05:00

Since returning from New York I was successful in convincing myself that I would not be accepted in the US-2 program. Thererfore, everytime my cell phone has rang the last few days my heart stopped.

While at lunch with the staff from the Center for Church Leadership at Martin Methodist College for "Assistant's Day," my phone started vibrating furiously, which gave me a small thrill but scared the crap out of me. However, it was "just" my mom. I write "just" my mom because she had some bad news to spread about my uncle and the tumor on his liver - specifically the inability of the doctors to remove the tumor during surgery yesterday.

While processing this, my phone rang about 30 minutes later. This time the news was much happier as I was informed that I was accepted into the US-2 program!!!

More info to come about where I'll be, what I'll be doing, etc....

Beginnings

2006-04-25T14:02:00.000-05:00

It is funny that I titled this first entry beginnings, as it is being written at a crossroads in my life...

I just returned yesterday from a four day trip to New York City. It actually was an interview for the US-2 program, which is a social justice program of the GBGM of the UMC. I think the interviews went well, though I am cautiously optimistic as I wait for the call which should come sometime this week.

If I am accepted into the program, I will be sent to work in a United Methodist affiliated agency that works towards social justice. The placement could be anywhere in the United States, but I made it known that i preferred the Northeast. The weekend was better than I expected - the awkward lack of anxiety from the 12 persons interviewing seemed to fill the rooms as much I had expected the anxiety to. All of us will have a long week ahead of us waiting for the call from Lauren Green - a former US-2 and current Missionary in Residence for the Young Adult Program.

Hopefully, last weekend will be just the beginning...