Broncos, Eagles and TO

Jeromey Balderrama

It’s been a long and crazy week, hence no posts.  Things are only going to get crazier, so I thought now would be a good time to capture some big reflections before they escape my brain.

Last weekend I went to one of the coolest Broncos games I’ve been to, one that I’ve been looking forward to going to for years.  Broncos, my favorite AFC (and overall) team, playing the Eagles, my favorite NFC team.  This is the first time since 1998 that they’ve played each other, and will be one of only 2 times every 8 years that they’ll play each other.  So you can bet that I was excited to see this game go down.

Being that the Broncos are my first and all-time favorite team it was no doubt that I would choose my Broncos jersey over my Eagles jersey, but I still wanted to show some kind of allegiance to the Eagles, so I decided to sport my Eagles hat in combination with my orange John Lynch jersey.  The other reason this game was so amazing is because of where I got to sit.  My good friend Emily invited me to sit with her in her family’s seats – on the 30 yard line, 4th row, behind the visitor’s bench!  It was sooo freaking cool.  I managed to take my camera down there and take some pictures to give you an idea of just how close I was.  It was freakin’ sweet!

We actually didn’t get into those seats until the 2nd quarter, as one of Emily’s friends had asked to switch seats with us for a quarter. Emily, being a good friend, agreed, so we spent the first quarter in the nosebleeds in Section 518, only a few sections over from where my normal season tickets are.  That first quarter experience was an adventure in itself: the right side of the section was all Broncos fans, but on the left side of the stands there were 3 rows worth of Eagles fans.  I’ve meet individual Eagles fans before, but this was the first time that I’ve been them collectively, and I was extremely disappointed.  These guys were almost as vulgar and belligerent as Raider fans – and that’s the standard for savage fans.  These guys didn’t limit their smack talking to football, they were cussing up a storm, flipping everyone off and then saying things about people’s mothers…  What a bunch of jerks! 

They were most arrogant and out of hand at the beginning of the game.  Then the Broncos stormed down the field and scored on their first drive.  They were still jerks. Then the Eagles went 3-and-out on their first drive, and as they were punting the Eagles fans started to quiet down.  When the Broncos stormed down their field the second time in the row the Eagles fans finally shut up and just looked really somber.  At that point I said one of the funniest things that I’ve said in a long time.  One of the Eagles fans got on his cell phone and started talking away on it, at which point I decided to yell loudly "Eagle fan, are you calling your mom to come pick you up?", the whole section of Broncos fans erupted with laughter.  It was awesome   Then the quarter ended and we left and took our seats.

The game turned out to be very exiting.  The Eagles began to stage a come-back in the 3rd quarter, but their hopes of winning were squashed by a Broncos interception in the end zone.  At that point the Broncos just piled on and drove the score to 49-21.  It was an awesome win

One of the best parts about sitting in Emily’s seats was the fact that you could heckle the visiting team, and they could actually hear you.  It was awesome!  We spent pretty much the entire second half heckling Terrell Owens (or "two") as I call him (in defiance of everyone calling him T-O).  At one point during the 4th quarter he starting yelling back and it was freaking awesome.  The rest of the time Two just went around and yelled at everyone else.  He always needed to complain to somebody, but when it came time for him to make a play, he ended up dropping some key passes during the 4th quarter.  Two did end up scoring a touchdown, but it was up against a hurt Champ Bailey.

One of the funniest parts was at the end of the game when the crowd sang "Kiss Him Goodbye" to the Eagles…  Knowing that they heard every word of "Na-na-na-na" was just awesome.  Then one of the fans in the next section over started flapping his arms in the ear like an Eagle would flap it’s wings – right in front of their defensive linemen – it was hilarious.

Overall it was one of the funnest Broncos games I’ve been to, and I can’t be happier that the Broncos are 6-2.  I can’t wait until next weekend when we punch the Raiders right in the mouth!

A gross but interesting pondering…

Jeromey Balderrama

This morning while I was in my staff meeting (which was a phone conference), we heard a lot of background noise going on.  Just when it was about to get unbearable, the high-up manager chimed in "Guys, I’m really sorry for the noise.  I’ll be honest, my son just got sick and threw up at school, so I’m picking him up."

While on the phone a few of us were IM’ing back and forth, saying how bad we felt for her son, then one of my co-workers mentioned how embarrassing it must be for the kid.  "Probably the most embarrassing thing that could happen to you at school."  At that point I started thinking WAAAAY back to when I was in elementary school.  Is getting sick the most embarrassing thing that could happen to you at school?  From this spawned my list of most embarrassing things that could happen to you during elementary school.  Getting sick ranked #2.

So think back to when you were really young, and in that mindset, what are some of the worst things that could happen to you?  Maybe some happened to people you knew, or maybe you were the unfortunate victim of one of these incidents…  As you start forming your list, check out mine.

10. Showing up with a lame lunchbox

9. Getting Nerdy Glasses

8. People finding out about your 1st crush, or worst yet – your 1st kiss!

7. Getting kissed by your parents in front of everyone

6. Getting caught snapping girl’s bras

5. Major food spillage

4. Getting sent to the principals office

3. Forgetting to button your fly, or having your pants ripped in a revealing area

2. Getting sick and throwing up

1. Having a "bathroom" accident, soiling your pants

I know, I probably left off something majorly embarrassing, so make to make any additions/revisions to this list in the comments section!

DMB Red Rocks CD-DVD!

Jeromey Balderrama

SWEET!!!!

WEEKEND ON THE ROCKS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER

Dave Matthews Band’s 2005 summer tour ended with four spirited nights at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO. We are pleased to announce that we’ll be bringing the Red Rocks concerts live to you with the release of Weekend on the Rocks and The Complete Weekend on the Rocks. Weekend on the Rocks features the highlights of all four nights, 9.9.05 – 9.12.05 and will be available as a 2-CD / 1 DVD. The Complete Weekend on the Rocks will feature the four full-length shows and will be available as an 8-CD / 1 DVD set and an 8-CD digital download.

Highlights of the Weekend on the Rocks CDs include rare songs such as Don’t Burn the Pig and Halloween, a cover of the Zombies’ classic Time of the Season and an extended version of Bartender. Weekend on the Rocks DVD highlights include So Much To Say, Stand Up (For It), Recently and Louisiana Bayou featuring Robert Randolph on pedal steel.

Weekend on the Rocks and The Complete Weekend on the Rocks are available NOW for preorder! Given the custom nature of The Complete Weekend on the Rocks, preorder early to insure delivery on the release date and to take advantage of the $10 savings on the price of the box set.

All preorders of Weekend on the Rocks and The Complete Weekend on the Rocks will receive a free Red Rocks sticker and be automatically entered to win a grand prize of an out-of-print Red Rocks Amphitheatre Event Poster, framed, autographed and personalized by Dave Matthews. Ten runner-up winners will receive autographed copies of The Complete Weekend on the Rocks.

That makes two shows I’ve been to that they’ve turned into CD’s/DVD’s!

YES!!!

As the world turns at J23…

Jeromey Balderrama

So the latest drama out of our church, and another sign that times are still bad for our faith community – our music minister has resigned, after less than 15 months on the job…

I don’t blame her one bit for leaving, and in all actuality understand and support her reasons for doing so. J23 has to be a tough place to work.  It’s disappointing when volunteers aren’t adhering to your requests and completely ignoring any policy that you’ve set.  It sucks because the previous music minister had this "laissez-faire" approach and really wasn’t all to invested with the music groups, so these groups have spent years doing pretty much anything they’ve wanted.  The leadership at the church has been pretty hands-off as well, which hasn’t helped the situation.

On top of all that the leadership amongst the staff has become weak.  This starts with the Pastor drastically cutting the music ministry’s budget, without even having the courtesy to inform the music minister.  Then with members of staff failing to acknowledge the music minister’s presence doesn’t bode well for that staff member’s perceived value.  Whether this was done intentionally is not an issue – the damage that has resulted is still the same.

The music minister’s departure is especially concerning for both the staff, the music ministry and ultimately our faith community at John XXIII.  Her hire 15 months ago was part of a massive turn-over we had, with 4 (of the 9) staff members leaving within weeks of each other.  In my opinion, her hiring was the only staff upgrade we made between the old staff and new staff (with the other staff members leaving big shoes to fill).  I’m really anxious to see if we’ll be able to find someone who has a skill set remotely comparable to our departing music minister.  Quality, talented people will not come in to work for weak leadership.

With that comes my greatest fear and likely prediction: that they’re not going to replace the music minister.  The pastor is going to make the same statement he made about the former "Director of Campus Ministry" position we had: That the money isn’t available, the search process would likely be difficult and there will have to be a period of time that will need to pass before we can hire someone.  Better yet, in order to make the books look better, we won’t hire someone until the end of our church’s fiscal year (June 2006), and the choirs will just have to manage on their own for a while.  Then when the summer roles around, the leadership will claim that we really don’t need a music minister, and there’s no need to hire one.

Mark my words: something like that will happen.  The result with the music ministry will be catastrophic.  The musicians are all hard-working, thinly-stretched and under-appreciated, and have this desire to be recognized for the contributions that they make.  They need to feel relevant, and the church needs to support them by providing a competent, organized staff member that can coordinate their efforts and serve their needs.  If a music minister is not hired before the spring, you will see 1-2 more choirs disband by the summer.  This will be a grave situation for our faith community, being that our strong music ministry has always been a staple of our liturgical experience (and for many, one of the few reasons to go to J23 rather than another Catholic church in Fort Collins).

I just hope I’m wrong…

Busy October Weekend

Jeromey Balderrama

Another busy week down, another week gone by with virtually no posts…  This last week has been an attempt to plan and schedule my time effectively, fail at doing so, then just putting out fires that need to be put out.  I had a few big deadlines at work that needed to be met, and I was lucky to get them in under the wire.  So with that, I had a very nice and relaxing weekend, and a few "Weekend Warrior" stories to share…

Friday Night – The Fritzler Maize – For those of you who don’t live in Colorado (or any other areas where corn-growing is prevalent), you probably don’t know about Corn Maze’s.  Essentially, it’s all in the title, an entire maze, made up from a corn field.  Oftentimes the maze is created with a special design that can be viewed from an aerial view (this year’s design were pictures of Ray Charles & Elvis).  During the day it’s a very interesting experience, at night it can get downright scary (think of the movie Signs).  Throw in a bunch of people going through the maze dressing in black, wearing masks, then essentially having a Haunted House in the middle of the maze, it turns into a night of Halloween entertainment.

The key to going to a Corn Maze is to go with people who get scared very easily (especially if you’re someone who really doesn’t get scared).  Part of the fun is watching them scream at every turn, squeezing your hand, and then watching them get freaked out when you ditch them in the maze.  In our group of 5, two people fill the role very nicely and made it funnier.  The actual haunted part was pretty neat, they had a haunted school bus, this big circular tunnel that made you dizzy, and of course, lumpy ground with a chainsaw guy running after you.

Something interesting/weird that happened that evening.  As we were going through the haunted part of the maze, Shannon realized that she no longer had her cell phone.  We then began to go back in an attempt to retrace our steps (not at all easy to do in a maze) and try to see if we could find it .  We also started calling it over and over again, hoping that it would ring/glow.  Then after our third attempt to call the phone, someone picked it up.  Michael (who was on the phone) started asking him questions to see if there was a place he could drop the phone off, or perhaps meet him.  Then the next thing we realized is that the guy on the phone was on the other side of the corn hedge talking to us.  Shannon really lucked out, I didn’t think she was going to get her phone back (at least not that night anyway).

Overall, not a bad way to spend a Friday night in October.

Saturday was a relaxing day for the most part.  I got to sleep in, play some Madden, and enjoy a peaceful afternoon before church.  I did manage to get one productive thing in – working on my T-shirt design idea.  I’m trying to do this play off from the iPod commercials.  Let me know what you think…

Saturday night Bethany and I went out to dinner and saw Flightplan.  It didn’t really live up to any of the hype.  Basically the whole movie ended up on the plane, and if you’ve seen one airplane movie you’ve seen them all.  The plot wasn’t very complex, and you spent the last half of the movie saying “Get to the point already!”.  The only cool thing about the movie was getting to see the new double-decker plane.  It looks really sweet!

Another Sunday, another day of football – I love Sundays in the fall.  Matt, Amanda joined Bethany and I as we went to Wild Buffalo Wings to watch the Broncos game.  We are all such Fantasy Football junkies that I brought my laptop and we were taking advantage of the free wireless over at Wild Buffalo, hence the random posting yesterday from the bar.   I love going to the bar to watch football games.  It’s so neat to watch everyone get excited when something big happened in the Broncos game, but it made losing all the more worse.  When Toomer caught that last touchdown with 5 seconds to go, people just filed out of the bar in droves.  It was most depressing…

So those are my “weekend warrior” stories, ready to kick off another busy week!