Romey's Ramblings

Well now that we’re well into our short week after the holiday, I thought I should offer the final recap of my holiday weekend.

So my birthday turned out to be really awesome!  I ended up waking up and going to Mass with my mom and sister, then they took me out to lunch.  After lunch, my mom and sister offered to come back and help me clean up my apartment (which was in dire need of a good cleaning).  We worked for two hours and got the downstairs very clean!  It was so cool to have a sparkling clean place (for the last few weeks it’s been "decently clean" – neat enough for people to come over, but could be cleaner..). 

At that point I met with Jackie and Emily to talk about our living options. The leases for both of our places are up at the end of this month and we need to figure out what we’re going to do.  Jackie’s contract at the CDC is up in September, so it’s a bit hard for her to sign a lease, but we thought about pooling our resources and seeing what our options are. Well as it turns out, we’ve decided that we’re going to be looking into getting a house for the three of us for a few months, then when Jackie figures out what’s going on with her job, we may try to find a room mate at semester break.  We have a few options available.  So this week Emily and I will be going around Fort Collins looking for 3-4 bedroom houses.  I’m really excited!  Moving is going to suck a bit, but this should be a lot of fun.  Emily and Jackie would make awesome room mates!  We’ll see how things turn out!

After our little talk Jackie and Emily took me out to Coopersmith’s for my birthday, which was awesome!  I’m grateful to the two of them!   Then after that we had the poker party.  It was funny because although we were technically going to start at 7:00 with an instructional period, no one showed up!  I was a bit nervous for a while there, but then as it got closer to 8:30 (tournament time) people started trickling in – to the tune of 14 people in my apartment!  Wow!  That was awesome!  10 people played poker, we played Texas Hold’em, tournament-style.  We started off with two tables, then combined tables in the course of the evening.  As it turns out I was actually the first one out of my table, the second one out in the tournament , so happy birthday to me.  2 & 1/2 hours later, it came down to Christian and my sister Jessica, and my sister Jessica walked off with all of the money!  It was actually pretty funny because she pretty much won and left a minute later (granted she was 15 minutes past curfew for her, but there was still something funny about that).  $50 pay-out to her..  So how about that birthday present Cass?

The rest of the night was a blast.  Some people took off, but many stuck around to play a friendly game of Cranium, ordered a pizza, then we watched Team America, had our discussion on global terrorism, then pretty much everyone went home at 5:30…  At that point Julia and Joel stayed over: Joel made arrangements, and Julia stayed because she fell asleep on the couch half-way through the movie and wouldn’t wake up..  Joel and I capped off our evening by staying up until 6:30 playing Madden.  What can I say?  He freakin’ beat me 35-32 though.. Arggh..

So that was my incredibly fun birthday!  Thanks to everyone for making it special!  Thanks to Joel  (picture on the right) and Julia for organizing it and bringing A TON of beer!  Thanks to Bethany for bringing her poker chips   Thanks to Em for bringing her stale pretzels and goldfish chips (just kiddin’ Em!), and thanks to everyone who came and had a blast!

I got pictures of the party posted though!  Check them out!

Cell Phone Update
So for those of you who may not know, I stupidly left my cell phone in my shorts pocket from Friday night, and when I was trying to be productive and do my laundry Saturday morning, I left the cell phone there in my haste – so my phone got washed and dried.  PERFECT!  Surprisingly the phone still worked, but the ring tones and sounds were all jacked up and the display is completely shot…  Working to replace my phone, in the meantime I tried to live with my broken phone, but it just wasn’t working out.  Luckily I have my really old cell phone that still managed to work after I did a SIM card swap…  Wow, not bad!  So I do have a phone with a display once again.  However this phone is big and I’m not liking the dial pad the way I used to (and yes Matt, I realize I’m using the same phone you have – no offense).

So I’m working on getting a new phone, but the process has been horrendous!  I’m sick of cell phone companies!

1) Step 1 – I went to the Cingular (formerly AT&T Wireless) store, showed him a picture of the phone I wanted that I found on their web site.  ($250 phone -$175 -$25 = $50 – all rebates instant) He said I couldn’t get the price I saw on-line (our company has a substantial discount policy with Cingular) because those were ON-LINE PRICES, and I’m in the store..  The best he could do is get the phone down to $149 with a $50 mail-in rebate (Argggh Mail-in Rebates), but he gave me a phone number I could call to get the number.  Trouble is they’re only open Business Hours, M-F…

2) Step 2 – While I’m waiting for the place to open Tuesday morning, I go to the web site and try to order the phone.  That’s where I got the original price quote.  I had everything in the shopping cart and tried to check out when I got an error message "Because you’re a business partner replacing your phone you have to call our Business Center.  You cannot order on-line."  Crap…  So much for trying…

3) Step 3 – Tuesday morning comes, time to finally order the phone!  I call the center and give them my numbers and account info and finally I tell them what phone I like.  They tell me "That’ll be $75"….  Wait, where’s my $25 instant rebate that goes along with that?  They said that they can’t give it to me because it’s ON-LINE PRICING…  Well I tried to go through the on-line pricing, but it told me to call you, I can’t order it on-line..  She basically told me I was SOL and there wasn’t anything more she could do….  Geez, thanks for nothing!  What a freakin’ scam!  I’m convinced the "on-line pricing" is made up pricing..  They probably give the real consumers the real pricing, but for us business consumers they tempt us with these fake prices, give us the run-around and then we finally end up paying about what the regular consumers pay.. Arggh…

Happy 4th Everyone!  Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend, filled with fun, food, great weather and of course fireworks!  I had an awesome 4th weekend, probably that best I’ve ever had – thanks for everyone who celebrated it with me.  I’ve been making these smaller, half-assed entries for the last few days, and I do want to capture all the thoughts that have gone through my head all weekend, so I may end up making a few entries, but to summarize, here is how my weekend went.

Friday Evening  Dinner with my sister, her friend and Bethany.  Mmmmmm Sushi!  Fun game of Mexican train with the family.  Bethany revealed my birthday surprise…

Saturday   …which was tickets to Red Rocks for the Big Summer Classic!  I got to spend the whole day in arguably the most beautiful concert venue in the country, and got to see some awesome bands: Keller Williams, Spearhead, String Cheese Incident.  Had a blast (pictures below)

Sunday  Turned 24!  Had an awesome birthday!  I started the day with Mass (always a good thing), lunch with my mom and my sister, then met with Emily & Jackie (more to come on this later), they took me to dinner, then had my kick-ass poker party with many of my closest friends, it was a blast!  Stayed up until 6:30am Monday morning!

Monday Slept in until noon, then Joel, Jackie, Michael and I went to go see Batman Begins (and for those keeping score at home, this is the third time I’ve seen it!)  Then home for BBQ, watching fireworks and birthday cake!

Wow, what a great weekend!  Some thoughts about Saturday:

Big Summer Classic – Great show, great venue, great music – WAAAAAY too many hippies!!  Wow…  I guess with the jam bands that played we shouldn’t have been surprised, but at the same time the thought of Eric Cartman saying, "Hippies.They’re everywhere. They wanna save the earth, but all they do is smoke pot and smell bad." (more Cartman hippie quotes).  Okay, so I’m just messing with the hippies, but in all seriousness there was something about the crowd there that really bothered me that I’ll get into later on.

Bethany and I got in time to see Umphrey’s McGee but they really weren’t that memorable.  But when they finished I was really excited to see Keller Williams get onto the stage.  In between the bands and while they were setting up, I was very surprised to see Keller himself going out onto the stage and setting up his gear with the roadies!  I haven’t been to too many festivals, but I’ve seen a lot of bands with opening acts, and I have never seen someone from the next act actually setting up their own stuff.  That was awesome!  Sometimes when I have my fantasies about playing in a band at a venue like Red Rocks, I like to think that I’d be setting up my own stuff, in part due to the fact that I’m uneasy about other people configuring my equipment.  But getting back to Keller Williams…  Dude is amazing!  He’s a one-piece band, going out there with loop tracks.  He has like 5 different instruments laid out and picks on up, plays a groove with it (while recording it), then setting it to a loop track.  While the loop track is playing, he picks up another instrument (a percussion instrument for example) and plays another groove on top of that loop track, then he laid down a bass groove, and so forth, then sang.  It was amazing!! 

Then came Spearhead – I was most excited to see them, and they did not disappoint!  With the festival structure they could only play 8 songs, but 4 of them were new songs.  They definitely had the most energy, and I felt that out of all of the bands there, their songs had the best messages and engaged the crowd in the best fashion.  I loved how they got the crowd going.  My only wish is that they could play a full set at Red Rocks!

String Cheese Incident was really cool as well!  They are such creative and talented musicians, it was fun listening to them.  Then during the first song we started seeing fireworks go off!  It was a very enchanted and awesome moment in the evening.  At that point I really enjoyed being out there in a summer evening, at such a beautiful venue, being blessed with the opportunity to listen to amazing music and spending time with Bethany.  It was a great way to end an awesome day!

There were some interesting things and people that were there, but there are two that really have stuck in my mind.

First off there was this guy there that Bethany and I designated "Hippie Guy" that spent virtually every song doing interpretive dance.  At the beginning of the concert it was just freakin’ hilarious, because this was the weirdest dancing you’ve ever seen, and it was just really random – exactly what you’d picture for a "weird interpretive stoned hippie dance".  He was a big distraction to the concert all night, but then the humor faded and the fear set in.  Dude was really scary..  First off he was gorked out of his mind, on something.  I’m not really sure what chemical he kept saying, but it didn’t sound like it was meant for consumption or inhalation, but chances were it was in dude’s system..  He had a very intent look in his eyes, and was casting them on any random person around him.  Then he started just spatting out the weirdest stuff.  Like I said, a little crazy…  Then the feeling of fear subsided to feelings of pity. It was obvious this guy is struggling with demons in some form, and you can’t help feel for someone going through that.  In the end, however, I had a fear of frustration towards the Red Rocks security.  Dude ended up having this hard-cased box (almost like a first-aid box, that was pretty much filled with narcotics..  He kept going into his box, pulling out a pill or something that’s probably illegal and kept showing it to people, offering it to some.  At that point I was pretty upset with Red Rocks – how could you let a guy with this box right into the concert?  Did you think these were jelly beans or something? Arggh… 

Secondly, I must offer my hippie rant, or should I say "wanna-be hippie" rant.  Let me first say that I have great respect for true hippies, and while I don’t understand or embrace the values and lifestyle of hippies, I can respect the way they do the thing they do.  But these posers that were at the concert – they’re something else…

While Spearhead was on stage, about 5 song in front-man Michael Franti starts talking about the Iraq war, telling a story about a woman that he knew that’s working to provide assistance in Iraq, an advocate for peace, that ended up getting killed in a suicide bombing in April  At that point Michael started playing his guitar and wanted to dedicate the next song to her..  At least I think that’s what he was doing..  I couldn’t hear because ALL THE HIPPIES AROUND US WOULDN’T SHUT UP!

But then it got more frustrating…  Before String Cheese Incident took the stage, some members of the Lakota Nation on the Pine Ridge Reservation (a cause near and dear to my heart) took the stage, thanking people for a food drive that was done for their cause.  Then to thank the people the Medicine Man and his family offered a song, and then an actual prayer..  But again, the FREAKIN’ HIPPIES WOULDN’T CLOSE THEIR MOUTHS DURING THE SONG…  They weren’t even paying attention to what was going on.

This really frustrated me.. In my eyes one of the qualities of a hippie (aside from the dress and life-style) is that they’re passionate about a political or social-justice issue.  It could be anti-war (as many of them are associated with), the environment, poverty, anything along those lines, but hippies have always been PASSIONATE about SOMETHING. But for the people at the concert, they were completely disengaged from the justice opportunities that were presented to them.  Being a hippie is more than not showering, growing out your ‘pits, making your own clothes and burning the lettice – but aside from legalizing the chronic, these people had no issue they were passionate about.  Michael Franti was trying to reach out to them in regards to a very hot-button issue, and these wanna-bes couldn’t care less!  I was really anxious to hear what Franti had to say.  I think Iraq is a very complex issue, and I’d like to hear other people opinions, but when people aren’t even paying attention to the band’s out-reach, what respect do you have for the issue.  The talking during prayer really set me off to!  This might be sterotypical, but I thought Hippies were supposed to be in touch with other avenues of spirituality…  I think that if you’re looking to wear the clothes and talk the talk and love the lifestyle, but not "walk the hippie walk" – you’re just a wanna-be hippie, which is just disappointing.  Sorry for the rant, am I off base here?

But because you stuck with me… PICTURES!!

 

Haven’t been to Red Rocks yet?  This is what you’re missing!

Bethany and I

"Hippie Guy’s" interperative dance…

Ummmmm..  Lol, wrong decade dude….

‘Freakin Spearhead

Spearhead again (did I mention they rock?)

6:38am Baby!!!! And I am now going to bed!  I had A BLAST tonight for my birthday!  Had a nice poker party where many of my awesome friends came – Joel, Emily, Leanne, Michael, and of course my sweetie Bethany   …  We ended up having 14 people over in my little apartment!  It was so much fun!  I took some pictures too and will post them later on today!

Everyone pretty much went home around 2am, then a few of us stayed and watched Team America, lol…  Then got in this engaging discussion on global terrorism and foreign policy that lasted until 5:30… Then Joel and I figured we’ve been up this late, might as well knock out a bit of Madden..  Freakin’ Joel beat me 35-32.. Arghhh…

But now it is time for bed, we’re going to go see Batman Begins.

GOOOOD NIGHT NOW!!!!

I had an AWESOME day today – Bethany and I had so much fun at the concert.  I really want to get into it more, but I’m dead tired.  I have some really funny stories to tell, and I took a ton of pictures, but I’ll post one as a teaser for now… 

This is Spearhead… Not the best quality, but it’s 3am..  I’ll fire up Photoshop in the morning… 

At this very moment I’m very pissed…  This morning I could not find my cell phone.  I looked all over but ended up having to go to the concert without it (which I pretty much felt naked without the phone).  I came home and tore apart my apartment looking for it…  Well I found it… But it turns out that I WASHED IT!!! That’s right, I had it in yesterday’s shorts pocket, and I put it through the washing machine.  Surprisingly the phone itself still works.  I can make and receive calls on it.. But the display is fried, completely gone…  So it looks like I’m getting a new phone.  Argggh…..  I’m so mad at myself…

More on Saturday later this weekend

So I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade to Premium.  Largely due in part to the onMouseOvers that are in the recent Xanga adboxes were hosing Internet Explorer on my desktop.  I figured no adboxes, no problem, but my IE is still hosed.  Maybe it’s because of the new Google Toolbar, or maybe it’s because Internet Explorer has become a piece of crap…  Something tells me that my desktop is due up for a good white-wash and re-install of Windows…  Maybe when I have a weekend to kill – not anytime soon.  Anyway, Xanga Premium, looks good so far.  I figured I post enough that I can justify the $25 per year for it.  We’ll see how it goes

So last night Bethany totally surprised me!  For the last few weeks I’ve been told to keep July 2nd open as she’d like to take me out for my birthday.  Last night she told me what we’re doing – she got tickets to the Big Summer Classic over at Red Rocks!  I seriously had no idea – it was such a surprise!  I am so excited to, especially to get to see Spearhead, along with String Cheese Incident and Keller Williams!  This is going to be a great concert!  I’m so excited!!

I’m going to bring my camera so I can show all of you who have not beed to Red Rocks (or don’t live close to here) just what you’re missing.  This is one of the most AWESOME venues in the country!

Thank you so much Bethany!  You are such a sweetie   Now I need to finish my laundry and we’re heading down there in a few… More to come