Memorial Day Adventures

After getting our butts kicked at work over the busiest weekend that theater has seen since being opened, I was ready for an escape.

I hadn't gone exploring with Heather in a couple of weeks, and she suggested going to Seven Falls, just outside of Colorado Springs.

This place was far more impressive than the Seven Falls of the Catalina Mountains in Tucson! Only difference is you can't go in the water because it has little bacteria buggers in it. Still, it was absolutely beautiful.

The Odd Couple.

We also met some of the locals. This is Tom and Jane, and they've been here for quite some time. As soon as I remarked to Heather that Tom was standing on one leg (quite possibly for our amusement), Jane immediately began doing it as well. Except, she was quite conspicuous about it, as if to deter our attention away from her sweetie. They were the only two ducks we found in the entire park, though, so we were thinking this was more of a retirement situation for them. We wished them the best.

We also went on a little hike and saw some extraordinary views, and learned a couple neat things about the wildlife.

Chalk one in for Nature.

These trees exist, fyi.

View overlooking Colorado Springs.

The true highlight of our Memorial Day excursion, though, was Garden of the Gods.

There was still plenty of daylight enough to walk around the entire park, and am I glad we did.

Three Graces

If its description is accurate, you could say this is the heart of Colorado.

The name "Colorado" is Spanish for "colored red," which would make this place very special. It was so special, in fact, that a very wealthy landowner donated this land over a century ago and set up a trust to help take care of it through the generations. The park is extremely well-maintained, like all of the parks in Colorado. But this one is special.

It doesn't have any lakes or ducks or recreation of any kind. It's just a collection of beautiful rock formations which man has, through the ages, found so compelling that he has decided to honor it.

Balancing Rock

Many of the rocks don't look anything like the others. There are white rocks, grey rocks, orange rocks and red rocks, all scattered about. It is truly a remarkable sight. Put it on your bucket list immediately.

Something Big Is Happening in Denver

This week has been quite a busy one for me, and at the moment I am exhausted, having worked the first of three Memorial Day weekend days at the theater. They expected we would be busy as all hell, and they were right!

I hadn't gotten a chance to post it, but last weekend I attended one of the days of the convention for the Libertarian Party of Colorado. I met some very interesting people, including the state chair of LP Texas, and you can see the interview I filmed with him here.

I also didn't have a chance to post it, but I'm now contributing for them as well, writing articles for the party website. You can read my first article on the wave of scandals here. I'm quite proud of it, actually.

Perhaps one of the biggest highlights of the week was also at the convention, where I met a very smart dude from Wisconsin. After the dinner and the speech that night, he and I got so deep into talking that we had some drinks in the hotel bar and chatted it up for several hours. He's a blogger's blogger, and he's pretty darn "in the know" about a lot of things that are happening right now.

More than that, I felt that his overall view on the world and on humanity was so much closer to my own than anyone I've met since I moved up here that I had to believe I was meant to attend this convention, if only to meet this guy. And the feeling was mutual.

We talked a lot about universal spiritual concepts, how the Libertarian Party plays into the changes going on right now everywhere, and everything in between. I'll see if he wouldn't mind me posting a link here to his work in the next post.

On my way home from this very same convention, I also had a spiritual moment.

I was coming back from an event that we all felt was very important. The Libertarian State Leadership Alliance was also there, and they are sort of like the national leadership, which has their conference in a different state every year. A big role they serve is to help affiliates like us (Colorado) with seminars and workshops.

And we all came away from it feeling like we know what needs to be done, and I couldn't help but feel personally involved in this mission. Like I knew where my role was. It was a great feeling, being a part of something that could change the world.

And I was thinking about this, and all the stuff my new friend and I talked about, when this song by Dido came on the radio.

I'd heard it many times before, but at that very moment, it might as well have been meant for me. It was like verbal confirmation of the highest order, confirmation that I'm on the right track. That when I say to others that the Universe is full of love, and that it wants us to get better and to succeed, and that it has been doing so all along, that I am not too far off.

It was nothing short of a love letter from God in that very instant, and I could not hold back my tears.

On Easter, the same thing happened with this song. It wasn't that the song struck a Christian chord in me, because it meant much more to me than just its literal meaning.

If a Christian wanted to explain to you why Jesus is an important figure to them, they would (or perhaps should) say something along the lines of: "Because the power of forgiveness heals all, and our God happens to have done the impossible: forgive us all."

Us barbarians.

How awful we must have been, and for so long. With no hope for getting better. I believe forgiveness has the power to put an end to cycles of strife as well as self-hate, and Christ - whatever you might believe about him - represented this alternative solution.

The idea that some person who has wronged you should be forgiven is very hard to do, but if you don't, you cannot move on. And you will destroy yourself as well by not being able to forgive yourself when you wrong someone.

Why do I bring this all up? Because something is happening right now that is bigger than all things. It is bigger than Denver, bigger than American politics and even bigger than the legacy of Jesus himself.


I'm feeling it quite strongly here in Denver, and it even seems like Denver is a at a crossroads. It literally is, geographically speaking. It is like the doorway into the west, and I see this everywhere in the city. Some big things are going to start here, I can feel it.

First Day Off

So I've been working like a dog for the last five days in a row, training to be a bartender at the most amazing movie theater that I know about. And I now have a day to rest.

My training was supposed to consist of two solid days of learning how to run food and drinks into the theater, followed by a four-day service bar training. I am quite pleased that they take training as seriously as they do, because nothing bugs a person more than finding out their co-workers don't know how to do half of their job. We all hate that.

Running food for a movie theater is one of the most interesting things I've ever done.

I've run food before in restaurants, but never in a movie theater. The things you have to consider are a good deal different than in regular restaurants.

For example, in a restaurant, if you accidentally serve a pizza that is supposed to be gluten-free but isn't, or if you serve a salad with walnuts to someone with an allergy to nuts. The customer might recognize it in a restaurant, but in a movie theater you cannot see what you're eating, so bad things can happen. 

You also have about five minutes to get all of the drinks in a theater out, less than fifteen to get the food orders taken and the appetizers out, and thirty minutes to serve the food. On a Friday or Saturday night, that can mean as many as 800 to 1,000 people in 45 minutes that all have to be served.

It's a massive operation, and a very impressive one.

There might be 60-80 people in the kitchen at one time all buzzing about, handling three things at once. 

My training as a runner, however, was just to familiarize me with the operation. I will mostly be in the service bar, which is in the kitchen. And yay for that, because I love it there.

For one, it's challenging. There are four stations - shakes, beer and wine, wells and non-alcoholic - and some days, you might be responsible for all of them. Getting the knowledge has been fairly easy, like how to pour beers properly and how to make a decent alcoholic shake with the appropriate garnishes. The speed is the killer, though. You have to hustle, as any bartender no doubt will tell you.

But I love a challenge.

I also love the fact that, as a bartender, I get to try different beers. It is also the ideal environment to learn how to mix cocktails correctly.

And I admire the sense of order, so I feel like the most challenging aspects of the job come from the job itself. I don't feel like I'm working against anyone or picking up someone else's slack.

That's not to say it is the most well-oiled machine of a workplace, though. After all, the place opened on March 25th of this year, so it hasn't even been open two months.

And that is also very exciting. Many of the people who started when it opened have already been promoted, or have moved into other positions which they enjoy.

My short term goal right now is to wind up in the bar downstairs, making tips and turning people onto new beers. When I start making money again, I'll break out the brewing kit I wisely chose to bring with me from Arizona and start making my own beer as well. It will be great to work in a place with like-minded lovers of beer who might give me meaningful feedback on my concoctions

The "film geeks who drink beer," as one of the bartenders referred to many of the staff, have certainly found a fellow in me.

Spoon Gets A Job!

After a month of unemployment and dropping off applications at all of the surrounding movie theaters, the one I wanted to get hired at the most was the Alamo Drafthouse. It is the closest to where I live, but it is also the movie theater experience I've always dreamed of.

They have 32 beers on tap, and they are all Colorado beers. They serve food - and when I say they serve food, I mean they SERVE you in the theater. It is a dine-in movie theater, and a sort of high-class one at that.

They also have many creative arms of the company - Drafthouse Films for one - which produces and distributes its own content. Many of the people who go into this part, as it turns out, started in the movie theater.

I'm excited to say that I've been hired, and I start on Thursday.

I will be working in the kitchen drink station upstairs (the bar) pouring beers and mixing cocktails. Eventually, there may be an opportunity to move downstairs into the lobby and hopefully into the actual bar.

This is by far the best opportunity to come my way since I moved here, and I could not be happier. I really believe this theater is the future of what the movie-going experience could be, and should be.

Chess at Pablo's

There's a cozy little shop on 6th, east of Broadway, called Pablo's. Heather and I went there once about two weeks ago, and since I was in the neighborhood job-hunting, we decided to meet up again. 

They feature a good selection of art, their coffee is top notch and they have games. I know coffee shops exist that don't have games, and shame on those places. This place even has backgammon.

I actually asked for a coffee a bit too late, as they were closing had no more coffee, and a kind fellow made me some tea instead and didn't charge me for it. I don't wanna get the guy in trouble, but that deserves a shout out.

Heather and I played chess outside until it got to be too freezy cold to concentrate. Good times.

Starting to Lull

I am fortunate I have gotten to see some of the city before becoming broke as a lame joke, and have spent some quality time with family and made some new friends. But I'm starting to feel the weight of financial pressures, and that is going to chip away at the sugar high I've been on since I got here.

What I wouldn't do for just one potential client of mine to actually turn into a paid gig.

I don't know why so many people expect you to deliver the equivalent of a Monet, but are only willing to pay for deco they might find marked down at Ross.

I don't wanna turn up work, because cheap work is better than no work. Bu seriously, this man has to eat!

I'm trying to stay positive and busy. The volunteer work I have around the corner with the Libertarian Party should distract me from my money troubles.

Here's to following the dream...