Oh, Brother!

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is known for having its own unique terminology and customs. New members might be perplexed to find that a "stake center" is not a "steak center" and even more seasoned members may not be able to tell you the difference between PEC and BYC. And MTC is not the acronym for Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

In the church, it is customary to use titles when addressing other members, i.e. Brother Black and Sister Snow rather than using first names only. Missionaries use the titles "Elder" or "Sister" and local priesthood leaders go by "Bishop" or "President". It's a way of showing respect for the office they hold, not unlike the way "Pastor" or "Father" are used in other churches. When we use "Brother" or "Sister" it is used both as a show of respect but also as a reminder to us that we are all spiritual brothers and sisters, children of one Heavenly Father.

And I'm okay with all of that.

Except for one little part.

I don't like it to be used on me. I don't hold any position in the church that would necessitate a special title, but I don't like being addressed as "Brother". And I've found that I'm quite casual about bypassing the convention myself, which makes me wonder how other members feel about me using their first names.

Image Courtesy of David Castillo Dominici/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In some situations, I still find it entirely appropriate. Children should speak to adult members using "Brother" or "Sister". And if you are approaching someone much older than yourself, who you don't know well, it's also probably a good idea. And of course, using titles for church leaders is always the way to go.

But if someone who is approximately my own age uses "Brother" it kind of bothers me. It doesn't imply a brother/sister type closeness at all. Instead, it feels like they are establishing that our relationship is church-only. They aren't comfortable with me. They don't want to know me on a more personal level. It's almost like they are putting up a barrier. For me, using the first name feels welcoming.   "Church or no church, we're friends".

I'm not saying that I'm right and everyone should agree. I talked to my wife about this and she doesn't agree with me at all. And we typically agree on stuff. I'm sure that I am overthinking the matter and that not everyone perceives it the same way that I do.

October!

Today begins the best month of the year. I might be a little biased because my birthday is this month. But I wonder if October would still be my favorite month if my birthday was in December or May. Because there are many other things to love about this month.

For one, the weather is perfect. A little crispness in the air, but it's still nice enough for outdoors activities. You don't really have to run fans or a/c to keep it cool in your car or your house, but it's not really time to turn on the heater yet, so it keeps utility bills down for a bit.

It's a pretty decent sports month. Football season is in full swing, and it's still early enough that your team still has hope! Baseball, which loses relevance for a lot of people about mid-summer, means something again as the drama of the playoffs returns. The World Series is at the end of the month - one of the major sporting events of the entire year.

Halloween falls at the end of the month - it's not really a necessary "holiday" - but isn't it great to have a day that's not about commemorating or memorializing? I like Halloween, but I'm just not very good at Halloween, if that makes any sense. . . perhaps I will expound on that thought for a future post.

For me, the fall represents a time of renewal more than the new year or the spring. I work in public accounting, and I've taken to referring to October 16th as Accountant's New Year. October 15th is generally the extended due date for Form 1040, so by that date we will have completed all of our 2012 returns. (At least for those clients who are choosing to stay on the right side of the law.) I can get every file out of my office, throw most of the extra paper away, and start working on 2013. It's so great!

So it's my goal to do a blog post every day this month - I think about writing something for the blog frequently and sometimes even start a post, but struggle to get the words down, and eventually give up and never finish. So I'm going to attempt to get back in the groove, because there is a lot going on that I want to share. . . although if I ever had any readers they've probably forgotten all about me.

I Went to Bon Jovi

Bon Jovi at Pepsi Center 4/16/13

I'm 37 years old and just went to my first "rock concert" a couple of weeks ago - Bon Jovi. I don't really have anything against going to concerts, I've just never really had occasion to go. I grew up in a rural area where the nearest concerts going on would have been the Colorado State Fair in Pueblo, which we never ever went to. And then I've been married and poor for pretty much the last 15 years. So this was, as they say, a "special treat", actually a Christmas gift from my parents.

Bon Jovi has always kind of been my favorite band. I'm not sure exactly why - I just liked their music. I first started listening around '91 or '92, which admittedly was three to five years past their peak. The album that got me hooked was New Jersey. They released Keep the Faith when I was in high school, and it was certainly more mature music at that point, Jon had cut his hair, the signature song was "Bed of Roses", and I kind of sensed that Bon Jovi was sort of "uncool" at that point but I kept listening anyway probably because I too was uncool.

Wib came along to the concert and as usual is so nice to like most of the things I like. She did a retelling of the story of the girl from her school who went to a Bon Jovi concert back in the eighties and then came to school and gave an in-depth recap of everything that happened. She was also wondering as we people- watched before the concert started how many of the ladies had been flashers back in the 80's. We went in this crappy place called Brooklyn's across the street before they opened the arena and I'm pretty sure we saw several women in there who fit that bill.


There was a pretty good helping of the newer (which for me, is everything post-1995) stuff. I freely admit that I haven't really kept up with much of their new stuff and so a lot of it I was hearing for the first time.

Of course, there's no way they were leaving the Pepsi Center that night without treating us to the old classics: "Livin' on a Prayer", "You Give Love a Bad Name", "Wanted Dead or Alive", "Bad Medicine", and "I'll Be There for You".  And they didn't disappoint. They also included other well-known songs such as "Runaway", "Born to Be My Baby", "Keep the Faith", and "Bed of Roses".

There were a few notable omissions. They didn't do "Blaze of Glory", "Always", or "Lay Your Hands on Me". I was thinking during the concert that it must be nice to be an established band with a 30-year catalog of records to pull from. They can totally be like, 'yeah, that was a huge hit, but we don't need it tonight' and it's okay. If you're a newer band you probably don't have that luxury. Of course, this was my first concert so what do I know?

They pulled out a few lesser-known numbers from the earlier albums such as "Blood on Blood" and "Dry County" and it kind of made me feel like a true fan that I was familiar with them. Of course, if I knew that they were going to be pulling from the second tier on those early albums, I might have preferred to hear, "Wild is the Wind" or "Never Say Goodbye".

Bon Jovi was sufficiently loud, although maybe a bit much at some points. Not that it was too loud for me, but it seemed to be affecting the sound quality during a few songs. I guess you can buy earplugs at the concert, so maybe that helps soften it up a bit. I don't know.

The absence of Richie Sambora was noticed but not explained. I had to look up online afterwards to find out that he had left the tour for unexplained reasons a few months ago. Jon mentioned his replacement a time or two, and it sounded like he was saying "Felix" and I thought that was an interesting name for a lead guitarist. But I also found out by looking online that his actual name is "Phil X". Kind of the same thing, I guess.

Of course we bought concert t-shirts, for a cool $45 each. Because who knows when you'll ever be at another Bon Jovi concert? I passed on the $30 program, though.

The crowd, at least where we were sitting, definitely seemed to skew towards the middle-aged. This might be a little aggressive of an estimate, but I'd guess that 90% of the crowd was born between 1960 and 1979. A lady sitting in front of us was totally on her feet rocking for the first two songs. And then she was pretty much done for the remaining 2 1/2 hours, kicking back with nachos to enjoy the rest.

Like his fans, Jon Bon Jovi is definitely showing some age. He looked a little Mick Jagger-ish at times, but then he would flash the trademark smile and you'd know it was okay. He's not actually Mick Jagger. Although they did do a brief cover of "Start Me Up."

Jon was a good sport to come out for the second encore wearing a Broncos t-shirt. It must be exhausting to be a rock star - singing your heart out and dancing around for three hours, being congenial to the fans. I'd be tired after 40 minutes and I'm not sure I'd be able to put on a shirt of some team I hate and feel good about it. Of course, I guess Jon Bon Jovi and John Elway are buddies from their Arena League days, so maybe he doesn't do that everywhere.

Anyways, it was a good time. I kind of wish it had been a couple of weeks later. It fell the day after tax season ended, so I was a little low on energy. Oh, well, I guess they don't plan their tour around the needs of accountants.

As a Child, I Refused These

Cottage cheese. I never liked it as a kid, I don't like it now, and I can't imagine that I ever will. A lot of people treat it like it's a perfectly normal thing to eat. I don't get it at all. You can put it in the lasagna but that's about it for me. So gross.

Cooked spinach. I once read a Garfield cartoon that summed up how I feel about spinach. He's sitting at a table with a bowl of spinach. He says, "Spinach - it looks bad. . . it smells bad. . . it tastes bad." And then he dumps it out with a splat and adds, "It even sounds bad." That pretty much sums up how I feel about it. It's like eating wet toilet paper. Raw spinach is tolerable, however. I'll give you that much.

Tomatoes. I did not like tomatoes in any form as a child - unless it was tomato sauce. Not stewed, not chopped, not fresh, not in a salad, not on a sandwich, not on a house, not with a mouse, now you let me be! My heart was softened around the age of 18 and I decided to try them with an open heart and an open mind. And I became converted. Now a salad or a taco isn't the same without a tomato. I did, however, marry a woman who gives me her tomatoes because she doesn't like them.

Green chiles. As a kid, I was always on the lookout for some suspicious dot of green slime in the food. What the heck is this? I'm over it now, although I have to coach my own kids through their green issues.

Mushrooms. Maybe the worst thing that nature has ever devised. Raw, cooked, whole, sliced, chopped - I don't care. No thank you.

Cauliflower. My parents never fed us broccoli, but they do love to do the cooked cauliflower with cheese sauce. My senses just couldn't handle anything about it - the smell, the sight, the taste, the texture. I'm okay with it raw with a little ranch dressing, however.

Eggs. My parents will tell you that I stopped eating eggs after I questioned how they could tell which eggs had chicks in them and which didn't. And maybe that's true. But I can remember having a plate of egg concoction before me at the age of about four and thinking, "you know what - this is kind of disgusting." And I didn't eat eggs for probably 12 years. I've come around a little bit over the years, but I still balk at any type of hard-boiled egg and pretty much just take them scrambled.

Fish. We never really had fish growing up (other than visits to Skipper's), so that's good for me. I went on a mission to Washington, where salmon is kind of big, and I tolerated it while I was there. I still tend to steer clear of seafood whenever possible. I can do fish and chips at a restaurant, but even then I barely make it to the finish line. It's just a little too fishy.

Ranch Dressing. For some reason, I always steered clear of this "white" dressing - not sure why. Maybe I encountered some blue cheese by mistake? As a kid, I always stuck to the orange-ish dressings - thousand island, french, etc. I think I was nearly an adult by the time I discovered the wonders of ranch dressing, and I haven't turned back since.

Stuffing. This is one thing that never went on my Thanksgiving plate and still doesn't. I don't get it. Soggy bread crumbs with onions and junk? Pass.

I'm Back?

I've taken a hiatus from blogging, as you may have noticed. I was feeling like I didn't have enough time to blog. Also, I kind of felt like no one was reading it. Was I just writing to hear myself write? Plus, I felt a little weird that my blog didn't have a real solid theme. It seems like a lot of blogs are about a certain thing - whether it be their family, or food, or fashion, or photography, or travel. Did I need to focus my blog a little more? I want to come back. Mainly because I have things I want to write about. If no one reads my posts, I guess it doesn't matter. I just have a need to get things written down from time to time. For me, writing relieves stress. I've gone back and read some of my old posts and there are quite a few that I'm really proud of. I hope that others are able to enjoy them as well, because I often find my day brightened by the genius of a blogger or writer. I guess, ultimately, this blog is just for me. And who cares if my posts are all over the map? That's what the labels feature is for. If I need to write about the Broncos one day and discuss the scriptures the next, then that's okay. There's nothing wrong with ranking reality show contestants for weeks on end and interrupting it with some story about my personal life. After four years using the blog title "In My Book" I've decided to retire it and use something else. So I'm trying out new titles. For now, I'm using "Gallimaufry" which is by definition "hodge podge" and kind of fits with the theme (or lack thereof) of my blog.

Thoughts on the New Bronco

I've never really been a Peyton Manning fan. Although I liked him better than Tom Brady.

How DO you like a guy who destroyed your team consecutive years in the playoffs (2003 and 2004)?

Plus, I always got tired of hearing about how great the Colts were and so on and so forth.

It should be noted that the Colts were a garbage-dump NFL franchise before Peyton showed up in 1998, however.

I am honestly suprised by the developments of the past two weeks. I didn't think that Peyton Manning would give the Broncos the time of day. Even after his visit, I thought it was SO CUTE that the Denver media actually thought he would pick Denver. Because there certainly seemed to be better options out there.

It wasn't until it got down to Tennessee and Denver that I thought they had an actual chance to get him. But when it came out that San Francisco had secretly worked him out a few days prior to working out for the Broncos, I thought that was the ballgame. For sure he would pick the 49ers, who came up just short of the Super Bowl last season. And when it kept dragging on day after day, I started to think he would pick Tennessee.

Am I excited? Sure, I guess so. Who wouldn't want one of the Top 10 all-time quarterbacks, who should still have at least a couple of good years left?

Plus, it meant a certain end to the banal arguments about Tim Tebow that occur on a daily basis on the Denver airwaves. Now, don't get me wrong - I became converted to Tebow during the 2010 season. He can play. I just wish we didn't have to be discussing his quarterbacking acumen every second of every dang day.

A lot of people are exultant about the acquisition, because it certainly means that Super Bowls are in the future.

I prefer a more cautious approach. Let us not forget:

1) When Joe Montana made the switch to the Chiefs late in his career, while they were much improved, he could not get them to a Super Bowl.
2) Similarly, Brett Favre came up just short of getting the Vikings to the Super Bowl after leaving the Packers.
3) All the talk is how all of Peyton's old buddies from the Colts are going to come play for the Broncos. Let's not forget how well the "Denver Patriots" worked out a couple of years ago.
4) Even when Peyton was in his prime and the Colts were firing on all cylinders, they only made it to the Super Bowl twice and only won it once. It is true that Tom Brady and the Patriots were often the roadblock during the Colts' best years, but guess what? Tom Brady is still QB of the Patriots.
5) The Broncos aren't close to being a championship-caliber team, in terms of talent. Remember that just one year ago, they were coming off a 4-12 season and picking second overall in the draft.

That's what worries me the most - Broncos management was all fired up a year ago to start rebuilding the team through the draft. What are they going to do now? Forget player development! We need to load up on veterans and make a run for the Super Bowl! We only have Peyton for a little while, so we need to win NOW!

The Broncos were probably going to draft a defensive tackle or a cornerback with their #25 pick in the upcoming draft. But with Peyton on board, will that still be the case, or will they instead look to load up on more offensive talent? I don't know.

Denver has a serious case of wanderlust when it comes to their quarterbacks.

After Elway retired, we had Bubby Brister who it seemed would be the one to lead the Broncos juggernaut to a third straight Super Bowl. Only he didn't make it to the regular season, because we had Brian Griese, who was the next Joe Montana!

Only it turned out that he wasn't, so we moved on to Jake Plummer, who was going to be awesome once he escaped Arizona! And he wasn't too bad, winning over 70% of his starts in Denver.

But that wasn't quite good enough, so we moved on to Jay Cutler, who was FINALLY the replacement we needed for John Elway! He was going to be our guy for the next 10 years. Only, then he got in a tiff with management and was shipped off.

Kyle Orton was never well-liked in Denver, but how about that Tom Brandstater, who looked really good in the preseason game against Arizona!

And then the events of last year, when fans chanted "Tebow" until John Fox gave in and let him play. So unless the Broncos make the Super Bowl really quick with Peyton at the helm, everyone will be back to talking about what QB is available in the draft.

It will be fun, though. The Broncos are switching back to orange jerseys next year, Peyton Manning will be the quarterback, they should be on Sunday or Monday night football at least five times, with a heavy dose of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms on every other broadcast.

Playoff Time

I've been backing off from blogging lately. Not necessarily because I don't have anything to write about or because I don't want to write about them, but because life is busy and in evaluating activities that deserve less attention this blog is right near the top of the list.

But I do have to do a post today because the Broncos ended their five-year playoff drought yesterday - thanks only to the fact that the Raiders could not beat the Chargers. I kind of feel like their should be an intermediate four-team playoff between the AFC West teams to determine who should really be the division champ. The Broncos, Raiders, and Chargers finished tied for first - each with an 8-8 record, and the Chiefs finished one game back at 7-9. Neither the Broncos or Raiders seemed all that excited about making the playoffs yesterday. But they decide things like this on a system of tiebreakers, and the Broncos won on the basis of the third tiebreaker.

The 2011 Broncos rank as probably the least threatening Broncos playoff team in history, beating out the 1983 Broncos, who were led by a quarterback duo of rookie John Elway and Steve DeBerg. I'd feel a lot better about their chances next weekend if Von Miller didn't have that cast on his hand, if Brian Dawkins were healthy, and if Chris Kuper hadn't broken his leg yesterday. Oh, and also if they hadn't played like crap for the last three weeks.

But I am a fan, and so I will be supporting them and hoping they can pull off an upset victory against the 12-4 Pittsburgh Steelers.

Fact: This will be the Broncos' 27th AFC playoff game in their history, and the seventh against the Pittsburgh Steelers. They haven't met any other team more than three times in the playoffs (Cleveland Browns, Houston Oilers).

The Broncos' very first playoff game, back in 1977, was played against the Steelers. The Broncos won on Christmas Eve, 34-21, and later advanced to Super Bowl XII.

The next year, the Broncos repeated as AFC West champs, but were crushed 33-10 by the Steelers, who were on their way to winning Super Bowl XIII.

The first Broncos playoff game I personally witnessed was in January 1985, when the Broncos, coming off a stellar 13-3 season, were upset by the visiting Steelers 24-17.

Five years later, the Steelers again visited the favored Broncos and gave them a good game with the Broncos managing a narrow 24-23 victory on their way to Super Bowl XXIV.

In January 1998, the Broncos beat the Steelers 24-21 in Pittsburgh in the first AFC Championship game between the two teams and advanced to Super Bowl XXXII, which they won.

In January 2006, the Broncos had the path to their seventh Super Bowl laid out neatly in front of them. The week prior, the Steelers had upset the Colts, who had destroyed the Broncos in the playoffs in consecutive seasons. However, the sixth-seeded Steelers came to Denver and made easy work of the Broncos, winning 34-17.

So the series is tied all time, three games apiece. I would expect the Steelers to gain the upper hand come this Sunday and wouldn't be surprised with a final score that read something along the lines of Pittsburgh 34, Denver 13. And there will be thousands of Pittsburgh fans in the stadium because all the Bronco ticket holders will probably sell their tickets to them.

And just when it looked like Tim Tebow had answered all his critics, we will be in for another eight months of debate about his future. I may just disconnect the radio in my car.