We’re tearing through the days

Jeromey Balderrama

Monday

It was a Monday, not really much that I can say…  Two noteworthy events though: 1) Web Site Help; 2) Pastoral Council meeting

So you may not remember, but about 2 months back I wrote an entry about the fiasco with my church web site. Well, for the last few weeks the person who took it over has asked me if he could have some of my time to ask some questions about it and to be taught a few things.  This turned out to be a pretty humbling experience.  There was a big part of me that was insulted to be asked, and this was the equivalent of pouring salt over my open wound – ("Can you help me further ruin and alter your original design?"), but I swallowed my pride, tried to be forgiving and went in there to help.  It wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be.  I think if anything they have an appreciation/awareness of just how complex the original site was, and how much they’ve really downgraded the thing when it comes to functionality.  It was funny to see the "deer in the headlights" look when I went off about how the Sign-Up forms worked (adding/updating/removing people from the student database, subscribing them with the mailing lists, categorizing their interests).  When I left I think the questions were answered and I felt better about not being a cold prick about the whole thing.  There are still some old wounds that lay there, and I still need to pray for healing and forgiveness.

Later that evening we had our latest Pastoral Council meeting.  No real big fireworks went off, except for the fact that I’m still struggling with my place within this group, and ultimately my place at John XXIII.  I’m chairperson of this group, but I really feel like I don’t make much of an impact, am not invested in the group (or parish leadership), and am not a strong leader for this group.  I really struggle because when the meetings end I just think to my self "Well X more times until I’m done with this gig and off the Council".  I remember when I started on Pastoral Council and was excited to be part of such a visionary, diverse and valuable group.  Now I see Pastoral Council (and basically all leadership groups at my parish) as mere puppet organizations, with a very select group in our church pulling all of the strings.  The time we spend in discussion quite frankly is a waste, as it rarely is heard or taken into account by any of the decision makers in our Parish.  It saddens me because I look at the quality of people who give up their time to be part of Pastoral Council, and oftentimes wonder if all of their efforts and wisdom are all for irrelevance.

I still hold out faith that this group can make some kind of impact, and pray that we’ll some day be able to create that avenues that used to be established back when our Parish was healthy & vibrant.

Saturday

Broken down into two highlights: Kristi’s wedding and seeing Sam & Sophia!

Kristi’s Wedding – it went off without any complications and overall things went pretty well.  One note though – I am not ever going to have a fall wedding in Colorado.  Last Wednesday, when I picked out my outfit the temperature was about 50 degrees, which led me to choose a sweater, long-sleeved shirt, tie & dark grey slacks.  This seemed like a pretty good idea for a fall wedding.  Then Saturday roles around with a high of 89!!!  Wearing the sweater was a great idea, especially since the reception was outside.  I ditched the sweater at the reception, but that still left me a long-sleeved shirt and dark slacks to get sweaty in for the rest of the day.  Oh well…

Lesson Learned: No fall weddings in Colorado

I also got to see my good friend Carrie (picture to the left), and was reminded just how much I miss hanging out with her.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out there wasn’t a Head Table at this wedding, so the Bridesmaids got to sit anywhere, which meant I got to hang out with Carrie during the reception.

 

Seeing Sam & Sophia – Perfect way to cap off my Saturday!  The three of us went to grab coffee and it was really fun relaxing and reconnecting with Sam, and of course holding little Sophie   Actually she’s not going to be little for much longer.  It’s amazing – I saw her a week ago and she’s grown so much since then!  I’ve really been blessed that I’ve been able to see her pretty consistently, and need to make a point to continue, or else I won’t be able to recognize her.  Sam took a really great picture of the two of us that I thought I’d share.

Saturday turned out to be a great day.  I also manged to get home early enough in the evening to get some laundry done and relax a bit.

Sunday – Broncos win (Yeah!), I kick butt in the football pool again, and I got to see the Steve Gadd drum clinic- which turned out to be really cool.

 

Drum Booths

Jeromey Balderrama

Quite a bit has been going on throughout the last few days, and I thought it’d be beneficial to forgo my nightly game of Super Mario World or Madden 2006 that I end my evenings with, and actually capture a few thoughts while they’re still fresh in my mind.  This entry may be a little random and all over the place, but that’s probably how things are going in my mind at this point.

Friday Craziness

Ended up going to Denver and back in a matter of hours, arriving just in time to play my "Gig".  I left early from work on Friday, packed my drum set into my car and drove down to Denver to go to my friend Kristi’s wedding rehearsal.  It went just about the same way any wedding rehearsal goes – nothing spectacular.  My only reason for being there was so I would know when to go up and read and know how loud I need to read – they didn’t even have me go through the whole reading and just stopped me after a few lines.  I got a good dinner out of it though, plus I got to see Kristi and her sister Carrie, Kristi’s sister from New Mexico and also one of my best friends.

At that point I ducked out of Kristi’s wedding rehearsal and made my way back up to Redeemer Lutheran Church to play at the Habitat for Humanity Benefit Concert.  This concert, called "Raising Voices, Raising Walls" featured 8 groups select from area churches and featured groups from the Evangelicals, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Mennonites & Catholics.  Our choir got picked to represent the Catholic bunch.  Overall the evening went pretty well.  The numbers were maybe a bit low, but I think for the first annual event, it wasn’t too bad.  I think the biggest success from the evening was the fact that they made all these connections and inroads with the various musical groups, now all they need to do is advertise it better.

Noteworthy thoughts from Friday:

  • The law of church drum sets rang true – if a drum set belongs to a church, then it pretty much has to be crappy…  It ended up working ok though.  I still packed and brought my drum set (leaving it in the car) in case something did come up.  I did get to use my own cymbals and hardware, which turned out to be pretty good.  I still don’t understand why people put duct tape onto your drum heads.  We wall want to muffle our drums from ringing, but there’s a market full of products that will help you do just that.  You don’t need to break out the duct tape.  And if you are going to resort to tape, use electrical tape – at least it won’t leave crappy residue all over your heads.
  • I have come to loathe "drum sheilds" – these see-through plastic booths that they’ve made for drummers.  The drum set at this church had them, so we had to use it.  I managed to find a picture of one (which is posted to the right).  Basically these things are supposed to do two things: 1) Keep the drum sounds from being picked up by other mic’s 2) muffling the drum sound.  I think for most people these are moot points – 1) For most groups, especially church groups, you’re not likely to use quality mics that will pick up those sounds, or the stages are probably big enough to filter out the sound and 2) Learn to play quieter – if your technique is developed well enough you can control the dynamics.  You don’t need a crutch to hide your lack of ability to play – adding in a $500-700 contraption isn’t a solution.  I joke that the only benefit this provide is if anyone at your gig is strapping and wants to take a shot at you, you’ll be okay. This may also be useful if you’re a drummer in the witnes protection program.
  • Our choir is freakin’ good, and I’m lucky to be part of such a talented group of musicians.

Geez, that was just one day, 4 more to go..  I think I’m going to break these entries up a bit.

Why Wedding Registries drive me crazy

Jeromey Balderrama

One of my best friends from high school is getting married on Saturday, and tonight I’m going out to get their gift, so I check their Wedding Registry and have found the "perfect gift"…

Imagine me saying this on Saturday: "Kristi you’ve been one of my best friends since high school.  You’ve done so much for me and have always been there for me, so that is why on your wedding day I’m happy to give you this 2-step Step Stool as a token of my appreciation and friendship."

Of course, when I think "a best friend since high school" I think 2-step Step Stool.

Evil Vending Machines

Jeromey Balderrama

Before I couldn’t stand the vending machines here at work, but now I hate them.

I forgot my Nalgene today, so when my typical afternoon thirst came up I decided to go get a pop – don’t ask me why I need to have pop when I don’t have my water bottle, I don’t know the answer…  So I get out my wallet and put $1 into the machine hit "Cherry Coke" and get in my hand ready to catch my pop… WHEN NOTHING HAPPENS.  The machine flashes $1.10 at me.

$1.10 for a 20oz plastic bottle of Cherry Coke?!?  What’s the deal here…

Our freaking vending machine vendor (which is also our food vendor) raised their prices – again!!  What gives?

$1.10?  It’s bad enough it’s $1.  I remember when it was $.75 for a 20 ounce bottle! (Now I feel old)..  But $1.10 – where do you come up with that extra dime?  Vending Machine consumers like nice round numbers – or increments in Quarters.  $.50 – $1.00 – $2..  But $.10??  So I had to put in another $1 and I almost didn’t get the change back because I couldn’t figure out that you had to press a button to get your money (I guess the machine assumes that I really don’t want my $.90) Now I have a pocket full of change that rattles whenever I walk!  This sucks!

Freakin’ Vending Machine vendors and their stupid price increases.  I’m almost wondering if I should set up my own pop machine here in my cube and charge $1.00 – so people can have their nice round number and this vending machine price-gauging can stop.  Some nice healthy competition should drive these pop prices back down.

If the vending machine people are going to charge $1.10, they might as well mark up the price to $2 so we don’t have to worry about getting our change out of the machine.  Then when the price is $2 I can just walk to the hotel down the street to a hotel and buy a pop out of their vending machine – at least I’ll get some exercise and have some variety in the soda merchandise.  – And why is it that pops in hotel vending machines cost so much?  Has this ever happened to you: You’re out on a trip, it’s late at night and that Bathroom faucet water isn’t cutting it, so you figure you’d like to quench your thirst with something cold to drink when you walk out to the vending machine only to find that the pop there is $3 for a little bottle (or like $2 for the can).  How many of you have bit the bullet and actually bought that soda???

So lesson of the day – don’t forget the Nalgene water bottle again.  I just hope that our vending company doesn’t start charging for their water dispenser…

Great Broncos Sunday

Jeromey Balderrama

Ohhhh man… Freakin’ Broncos – that’s all I can say.  Physically, I can’t say much right now, my throat is raw from all the screaming that we did tonight at the game.  But it was worth it 30-10!  For the longest time it was 30-3!  It was an exciting game tonight, and I was lucky to be there and be a part of it.  Bethany and I had a blast!

This game topped off an awesome football weekend, where things turned out very well for me:

  • I won the family football pool with a 13-1 picking record, 13 minus points (of course the Carolina upset had to be ranked high)
  • I won the 950 the Fan football pick’em for my group
  • I won my first Fantasy Football game of the season – 92-86 – it’s about time!!
  • I cleaned up in my ESPN Fantasy League
  • The Broncos SPANKED the Chiefs

Alright, it’s late.  I’ll write more tomorrow…