The Confessional: Mariah Carey and the Mission

Since I no longer blog on Sundays, I couldn't have a Sunday Confessional on a Friday. So instead of waiting till Sunday to blog I decided to rename my Sunday Confessional blog to just The Confessional.

I have been thinking a lot about Christmas lately. Gee, I wonder why? But I was thinking of past Christmas seasons and I remembered what it was like to have Christmas while serving on my mission. Christmas in New York was magical. It seemed like the Christmas season even penetrated the people of New York. People were friendlier, there was definitely a good feeling that overcame the city. There was a lot of lights, there was a lot of decorations. The city was absolutely gorgeous when the snow would come and blanket the city. I loved Christmas in New York. Sure, I was a little homesick and I missed being around my family but the city takes care of their own. And I was happy to be counted among them.

My second Christmas in the field was the best one. I was serving in the Rego Park area and my companion was Elder Powell. My best friend in the mission field. We served in a nice area and we knew a lot of fantastic people, people that I still think about all the time.

Now I also love Christmas music. I love all Christmas music in all of its forms. Elder Powell and I wanted to get some Christmas music to play at the apartment so we stopped by a music store and bought some CDs. And I found a CD that I really wanted.

I still have this CD

Now I like Mariah Carey. I don't care for her new stuff, I really liked her first and older material. You know when she was pretty and nice. Not when she went crazy and went thuggy. Her Christmas music was absolutely fun to listen to, her rendition of O Holy Night is still one of my all-time favorite covers of that song. We listened to that CD every chance we could.

And then I found out from my friend John that she was giving a free concert downtown.

Mariah Carey is giving a free concert at Saint Patrick's Cathedral. John invited us to go if we wanted to and we would have really good seats because of his connections and maybe even get to meet her. I really pondered this, when would I get another chance like this? The only bad part is that Saint Patrick's is located in Manhattan and out of our mission. If it was just out of our area, I wouldn't even think twice about it, I would go. But it is out of our whole mission and that could lead to trouble. The last thing that I would want to happen is something to go wrong while we were out of the mission boundaries. President Bailey would be so ticked! But our Branch Christmas Party is the same night too and I didn't want to miss that either. But Mariah Carey! Powell and I decided it would be best if we just went to the Branch Christmas Party instead. I think I would rather want to regret missing Mariah than regret being kicked out of the mission or something drastic as that! On the other hand I would love to have seen President Bailey's face when he found out.

We ended up taking John to the Branch Christmas Party with us. It was a fun evening and I am glad we made the decision to go to this instead of seeing Mariah Carey.

So I almost snuck out of the mission to go see Mariah Carey. A small part of me wishes that I did it anyway. Like I said, it was a chance in a million to go see her and perhaps even meet her. And a small part of me wanted to do it to spite my mission president. We did not see eye-to-eye on a great many things. Luckily wiser heads prevailed and I went to the party instead.

And we spent Christmas at John's house.

Sunday Confessional: Public Speaking

Day 365

Well here it is. My last official blog entry. This last year has sped right on by. Since I am discontinuing (at least for the time being) Sunday columns I will celebrate this final one with another Sunday Confessional and one that is quite fitting for today.

Today I have to speak in Church and I couldn't be happier...

Wait, what?

Seriously, you heard read me right the first time. Okay, okay, I am lying just a teensy bit. I am not a huge fan of speaking in Church and I am not all that happy that I have to but I do like to speak publicly.

Can you dig it?!

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld had a real funny bit on public speaking:

According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.

Public speaking doesn't phase me all that much. Don't get me wrong, I still get nervous as all out and I did shake and I sweat to death. But the act of public speaking doesn't freak me out. But it is not the thrill or the rush of having a group of people listen and hang on every word that I love (although it is pretty close), I love the preparation. I love piecing together the talk, I love finding small interesting facts, I love including my own personal experiences. It is like having this huge puzzle that only you can figure out.

I am not the type of person that likes to write out word-for-word what I want to say. I am the type that likes to just have the Cliff Notes in front of me and then I wing it. If I feel that the audience needs more, I can give them more. If they catch the drift, I can cut parts of my speech/talk right out and move along. I usually over-prepare and I end up cutting out tons of what I want. But I would rather have that problem that not having enough.

The only thing that I fear when I speak in public is that the words get clogged in my brain and I don't say what I want to say. I fear the dreaded Brain Fart. That it will sound stupid and it will stink up the joint. I can usually eliminate that by practicing and timing myself and jotting down key words on a note card or single piece of paper.

Usually this works out good for me. I guess we will find out tomorrow after I give my talk in Church.

I love it when a speech comes together.

That feeling of satisfaction when it is all completed is one of my favorite feelings and one that will last for awhile. And yes, I think I would rather write my own eulogy.

Sunday Confessional: My "2-Year" Mission

Day 295

The month of August will always be linked to when I served my LDS mission to New York City.

I left for my mission on August 25th 1993. That means it will be 17 years since I left for my mission which mean it will be 15 years since I have been home. That is hard to believe. It seems like it has only been a few years since I have been back.

They say that these 2 years are the best 2 years of your life. I don't think they were. They may be the most memorable but I have had happier years. But then I didn't serve a full two years.

I came home August 16th, 1995. A little more than a week earlier than my full two years. Sure, I could have extended my mission out another month but somehow I don't think my Mission President would have approved that. We didn't see eye-to-eye on a lot of things but I'll blog about that sometime later.

On July 2nd, 1993 I received my mission call in the mail.

“WOW! My mission call finally came! I had a ten minute break from work (Pepperidge Farms) so I came home and called my mom and opened my call. After I told her where I was going, I called probably my best friend Damond. It was a little disappointing that I wasn’t going foreign but New York New York South is going to kick butt! I’m really excited!”

I was leaving on August 25th and that was just next month, I couldn’t believe it. I had also called my dad and asked him where he thought I was going. He said as long as it wasn't a big city like Los Angeles or New York he would be happy for me. Too funny.

I had actually prophesied that I would be in New York so it should not have come as a surprise. During my Freshmen year in Seminary (for those that don't know what Seminary is, it is basically church classes you could take every day like you would at a public school) I was posed the question "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" I wrote down "New York City." And sure enough, five years later I was in New York City. I thought I still had this piece of paper but I cannot find it anywhere for the life of me.

Anyway, I enjoyed my 2-year mission even through all the difficult times where I truly thought I was on my own. I'll save those maybe for another time.

Sunday Confessional: The Little Mermaid

Day 197

I love the Little Mermaid.

There, I said it.

I don't know why this Disney film affected me the way it did but I absolutely love this movie, I love the story and I love the music. It ranks as one of my all-time favorite movies.

I remember the first time I saw it even. It was at high school towards the end of the school year. It was in Mr. Merkley's class. It was at the end of the year and we had taken our final tests so we had nothing to do. So he put on this Disney film that I had absolutely no interest in. I planned on falling asleep but instead I was enthralled by this movie. There was just something special about it.

Now I know what some of you are thinking. You only like the Little Mermaid because of her sea shells. Before you call Chris Hansen from Dateline on me, let me debunk this little rumor.

I do admit that Ariel is cute but that is all. And the reason I think she is cute is a legit one. She was based on Alyssa Milano (who was around the same age as I was at the time) and I had a mad crush on her. Maybe that is what made me pay attention.

I bought the soundtrack along with a bootleg video while serving my LDS mission in New York. We were allowed to watch and listen to these types of music. I also remember singing the Little Mermaid loudly while walking down the street in downtown Manhattan without anyone batting an eyelash.

Kristy knows of my secret too. In fact she bought me a Little Mermaid book and candy when she went to Disneyland with her track team a few years ago.

I remember a few years ago I was working at Dutro during the afternoon shift. They were re-releasing the Little Mermaid in the theatres again and the local radio station had a contest so you could win free tickets to a couple of showings. I was sad that I missed it in the theatres the first go around so I had to win tickets. I told Andy (a friend of mine at work) to call in along with me and a few other buddies to help me win tickets. Sadly, I didn't get through and neither did my friends.

Then I heard them announce the winner on the radio and I heard my name! I did win! Andy came over to me and said he was disappointed. He was the one that got through and won me the tickets. He said that when they told him that he was the winner he put on a high voice and made me sound like a complete idiot. He told the DJ that he luved the Little Mermaid and that he (being me) would act it out all the time and that this was a dream come true! Usually the DJ's will put the announcement on the air but this time they didn't. Andy was so disappointed that I didn't sound like a fool on air!

I still listen to the Little Mermaid pretty often and I have the Broadway version as well. While I enjoy the original the most, I would love to see the Broadway version. And I am excited that next summer they are coming to Salt Lake.

Sunday Confessional: My Hidden Talent

Day 168

I have a hidden talent that only a few people know about. I could make quite a bit of money using this talent if the situation would ever present itself. But sadly it hasn't.

Take a look at this picture and see if you see something out of the ordinary.

Nothing?

I took this picture the moment Kristy and I returned from the hospital with Logan after his birth.

There is something to this picture that has to do with my hidden talent.

Now do you see it?

Yes, that is a stuffed cat posing in the picture with Kristy and Logan.

That is Ernie the Cat.

You see before Logan was born Kristy had a bunch of stuffed cats that she accumulated from birthdays and other holidays.

And I used to make these cats talk much to Kristy's chagrin.

One of the things that I would love to do is voice work for animation/cartoons or do some voiceover work for the media. I don't want to be tooting my horn here but I think I can do quite a variety of voices ranging from old men to Muppet Baby-like voices. I think it would be so much fun to do voice work! Ernie's voice is my favorite one to do.

Kristy would come home from work and Ernie (or one of the other cats) would greet her. And he would talk to her while she was grading homework or watching television. He was a fun cat to have around the house but was eventually replaced. But not by another cat, he was replaced by Logan. Except that Logan has been known to be a cat from time to time.

Now Ernie sits on a shelf in our computer room and has seldomly been seen and rarely heard from. Every once in awhile Ernie will make an appearance and talk but he is old now and bitter. Ernie totally doesn't look to happy to be sitting with his replacement.

Maybe Ernie has just grown up. Or perhaps we have all grown up. While I am saddened that Ernie has been sent to sit on a shelf, I am very happy with his replacement.

And Kristy is thrilled. You might not be able to tell it from this picture here but she really is thrilled.

She has never liked Ernie as much as the other cats. Probably because Ernie was a lot like me.

Sunday Confessional: Hot Chocolate

Day 161

I love hot chocolate but not in how you think I would love hot chocolate.

I like to eat hot chocolate plain like a Pixie Stick. Right out of the carton or right out of the packet, I will eat it plain.

My mom used to get mad at me when she would find a hot chocolate wrapper that I had forgotten to throw out to cover my tracks. I don't eat as much as I used to but I have been known to sneak a spoonful once in awhile.

Surprisingly with all the yummy flavors that Stephen's Hot Chocolate puts out it is amazing that I don't eat more of it.

The new Cherry Chocolate is awesome but I will always go back for a cup (or spoonful) of Irish Creme.

Sunday Confessional: The Squared Circle

Day 141

I am a recovering wrestling fan.

It all started way back in 1990. I was watching WTBS and was waiting for a James Bond film to start. WTBS always started programming 5 minutes into each half an hour and I was stuck watching the remaining five minutes of the program that came on before the film.

It was World Champion Wrestling. I didn't want to flip the channels to find something else so I decided to stick it out and watch it. And that was a big mistake. The last five minutes involved 2 of my all-time favorite wrestlers, Sting and Ric Flair. Sting was part of Flair's group the 4 Horsemen and Sting had a World Title shot wit Flair. Flair and the other Horsemen didn't like it so they kicked him out and attacked him, right in the ring. I had always thought that wrestling was just a bunch of wrestling matches in the squared circle (what they call the ring) with no story lines.

Yes, I was fooled. Fooled and hooked.

I just had to see what was going to happen next. So from that moment on, I watched wrestling and WCW in particular until they shut down in 2001. Unfortunately the wrestling business is not what it used to be and now I rarely watch wrestling nowadays. Sure if I am flipping through the channels, I may stop and watch but it doesn't hold my interest as it once used too.

It didn't help that my mom watched wrestling too. Her favorite was Ric Flair.

Are you ready for another huge confession?

I have been to an actual live wrestling event. And I took my wife and my mom with me. My sister's family came too but they sat elsewhere. I went to see WCW back on May of 2000. And it was a lot of fun.

Here is a picture of the event. In the ring is Ric Flair.
Are you ready for another larger confession?
I actually made a sign to take. That is a staple of a wrestling fan, to make a sign and take it to an event. I wanted the full experience so I made a clever sign to take. Not your average misspelled poster. This was a classic. Both my mom and I were fans of Ric Flair and he was known for being quite a womanizer. One of his favorite things to say was "All the ladies want to ride Space Mountain." So I thought it would be funny if I took a sign that said, "My Mom Wants to Ride Space Mountain." And then my mom held up a sign that said "I'm His Mom!" Everyone around us thought that was the best sign. We didn't make it on TV though.

You know at the time we all thought it was funny. Now I am not so sure, now it sounds kinda creepy. Maybe I finally have grown up.

Wrestling was a fun thing to watch. People may think it is stupid and there are aspects that I think are stupid too but it was still harmless fun. I don't regret watching it at all, it was fun. And it was something to do on Monday nights when football was not on. Think about it, wrestling has no reruns. They are brand new every Monday night.

I hardly watch wrestling anymore, unless it is some of the old stuff. It just isn't like it used to be. Now I am much more interested in what was going on behind the scenes, the backstage decisions and the drama. That backstage stuff is much more interesting. I will admit that one of my favorite books is The Death of WCW. It chronicles how a company had lost 95% of its paying audience in about 4-5 years. It also is not afraid to poke fun of professional wrestling. Another book WrestleCrap takes a look at all the terrible stuff wrestling has done. And my next book for next month is an autobiography of a famous Canadian wrestler Bret Hart.

The biggest comment I get is well, you know it isn't real. Yes, I know that. I know things are scripted out and planned. But I also know that while wrestling moves are staged, they still have some impact and that these guys are definitely athletes. Just ask John Stosell if he thinks it is fake.


I feel much better getting that off my chest. Go ahead and make fun of me if you wish to. Just be careful, I know how to take a chairshot to the back (ask my bro-in-law Eric) properly. Do you?

Now I am off to go put Logan in the Torture Rack.

Sunday Confessional: Trailer Trash

Day 127

I have not done a Sunday Confessional for a long time. I am not counting the last one that was posted since that was when Kristy blognapped my blog. In all honesty she did do a pretty good job.

I lived in a trailer.

When Kristy and I were to be married we had to decide where we should live. We both wanted to live either on campus (we were both attending Utah State University) or close by it. My mom suggested that we purchase a trailer from the USU Trailer Park. My mom had five good reasons.

1) It was cheap.

2) It was on campus.

3) She knew someone that was selling one.

4) It would look good on our credit.

5) Deep down inside she always wanted to live in one.

Kristy's sister was living in a nice trailer so I was not opposed to living in one. We had enough money and I was making barely enough to cover the monthly pad and loan bill. My mom called her friend (it was her daughter's trailer) and we went and saw it. The only thing that I remember was how SMALL it was. But it was cute and it fit all the reasons above so we bought it and moved in after we were married.

Here is the outside of our trailer. We lived on the each of a block so we really only had one neighbor. The porch was awesome and was almost bigger than our living room.
This is the front of the trailer so now you get an idea of how wide it was. *Sigh* Such simpler times. Don't we look so young?
It was so small (how small was it?) it was so small that our double-sized bed took up 88% of our bedroom. In fact when we put our bed in that bedroom, we had to bend the walls to squeeze it through!

This is a picture of our kitchen taken from our living room.
This is a picture of our living room taken from our kitchen.
Both of those pictures were taken from the exact same spot.
That was our hallway. Behind me was our larger bedroom which we used as our computer room. I am standing right beside the entrance to our bathroom and the dark shadow on the right was our bedroom. It didn't have a door so we bought some beads instead.
Sadly, just a few weeks after we had redecorated it to our liking, Kristy got her first teaching job at South Hills Middle School down south and we had to sell our first home. Selling it was a horrible experience. We still had to pay for our pad fees even though we were not living there. And USU sent us a letter threatening to evict us if we couldn't prove that we were students at USU. Of course we weren't current students! We were not even living there! Finally we found someone to purchase our trailer and we made the deal at a McDonalds. How trailer trash did that sound?

I'll drive by the old trailer every once in a while. I really liked living there, I had some good neighbors and it was a great experience. I remember one time the wind was blowing so hard that you could feel it through the trailer. The wind would gust and our walls would move. Interestingly enough, I learned that during a terrible wind storm over thirty years ago, the trailer that was in my spot (#130) tipped over during a wind storm.

Another time our pipes froze. I sent Kristy to Lynn and Roger's to sleep and I called my dad and we hooked up an extension cord and a blow dryer and cradled it under a wooden box so the pipes would thaw out. We went and got some awesome hot chocolate and waited all through the night for the pipes to unthaw.

Good times.

Sunday Confessional: Cadbury Creme Eggs

Day 113

One of the reasons I love spring and Easter is the candy. Some people have a sweet tooth. I have a whole set of sweet tooths. And my favorite Easter candy is the Cadbury Creme Egg.


I could eat a whole box of them. I have eaten a box of them at once. If I could eat one every day, I would. But for a time I was happy that I could eat them all throughout the Easter season. And sometimes I would be lucky to find them around Valentine's Day.

And then I made a startling discovery. And I will share this horrible fact to my North American friends who love this delicious candy. And I have photographic proof!

Did you know that in England you can have a Cadbury Creme Egg anytime? During the off-season they have a candy bar named Cadbury Twisted. Essentially it is a creme egg only in candy bar form and not in the shape of an egg.



What the crap?! Those lucky Brits can have a Cadbury Creme Egg anytime! They are so lucky. C'mon, United States! Get with the program!

And not only that. The McDonalds in England also come out with a Cadbury Creme Egg McFlurrie! OH MY GOODNESS! I have heard rumors that you can get those in Canada too.


I think I will need to visit England sometime soon. I love that gooey stuff!

Sunday Confessional: Wait Till Next Year

Day 85

Tomorrow I take all my Jets clothing that are hanging in my closet and I put them away until next year. This is a sad occasion but I can say that I was proud to wear my colors for an extra three weeks into the postseason. Something I have not done since 1998.

Those who know me well, know that I take losses hard. And today was another hard loss that will take days for me to get over. And I don't want to talk about it and I don't want any pity. It'll take some time but I will recover, I always do.

I remember in my first college class, Sociology 101, we took a lifestyle test to compute how long we could live. I scored pretty high until I got to the question about competition. It's funny, I don't think that I am that competitive. When I play sports, I play for fun and I absolutely hate it when some stupid jock ruins the game by being overly competitive. But I am extremely competitive as a fan. I am not the type to brag about my teams, I hate those types of fans. I believe in sportsmanship, not being a loud-mouthed braggart.


But I am loyal to my team. I cheer loudly for my team, I become invested in my team. In the extreme sense, I feel that I am a part of that team. And with the heartache of a loss, I suffer that same heartache. Because of this, I lost five years of my life in that sociological test. Being such a devoted fan has robbed me five years of my life. Honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. I will be a New York Jets fan until the day I die. Which is five years closer than I thought.

But I have to admit that this Jets season was special. Especially since we played 3 more games past what I thought was the end of the season. And I see a tremendous potential in the future for my Jets team. But I'll blog about that next year when the new season starts. Wait until next year.

Sunday Confessional: Ladies Night

Day 57

Sometimes you have to sacrifice yourself for others. This night I just did that. I sacrificed my machismo and took my mom out for her birthday. Just the two of us. Now you might say that isn't so bad, all sons should treat their moms to something special and this night I did just that.

For her birthday, I got tickets to see one of her favorite performers and I would go with her. And I think I was the only guy in a two hundred seat parameter. I admit it, I saw Barry Manilow in concert with my mom.

Yes. THAT Barry Manilow. There is really only one Barry Manilow right?


And guess what? The concert was pretty good. Seriously, I think I was the only man in a two hundred seat radius but I still had a pretty good time. Barry had just released his new CD called Here at the Mayflower, which is a concept album based on an apartment complex called the Mayflower. With each song he would take you through the lives of various people living there. Now I like concept albums so I got a small kick out of it. What I really liked is that Barry took the time to explain the album and how it was made.


After he finished up the album he went into all of his classics and it was kinda cool to hear them all live. He also took the time to explain how he wrote the songs. One that stuck out to me was that he brought on stage his old voice recorder and explained that he had written a song early in his career that he tried to sell to everyone but no one wanted it. So he used this voice recorder to record his own voice in layers and put it together. That song turned out to be his signature song Mandy. He then joked that he was so glad he made the song instead of selling it.

I have to admit Barry was quite charming. I don't think I would have enjoyed his concert as much if he didn't go into explaining his songs. That really drew me in, I love that sort of thing, learning how creators create thier stuff.

At first I was a little embarrassed that I was at a Barry Manilow concert. But after a few minutes in I was enjoying myself. Until Barry made an annoucement that really embarrassed me. After he covered his new album and before he went into his classics he said (and I paraphrase it) "You men out there? It will be all worth it coming to this concert later tonight."

I don't think so Barry.

Aside from that, I had a hoot at the concert and if my mom wanted to go again I would be happy to attend it with her. Sometimes you just have to take one for the team.

Barry ain't that bad. I loved it when Hellboy and Abe sang "Can't Smile Without You" in Hellboy II.


Watch Hellboy ll - Can't smile without you in Animation  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Sunday Confessional: Christmas Edition

Day 43

One of my favorite things to do for Christmas is snooping. I admit it, I love to snoop for my gifts. Half of the fun of getting gifts is when you find out beforehand what you are getting. It makes me even more excited for Christmas morning to come.

I know, I know. That is a horrible thing especially at Christmas. We should be finding happiness in giving gifts and not the receiving. And I do get a lot of joy giving but I'll be perfectly honest here. I like getting gifts and who really doesn't like getting gifts? But for me, the best part of getting gifts is doing the detective work, narrowing down the suspects and finally seeing the evidence firsthand.

I am notorious at this. I have done this for as long as I remember and I was taught by the master.


One night my parents went out on the town, if I remember right they were attending the opera. My sister Jennifer was in charge of babysitting me and as always we had a great time. My sister and I looked for our Christmas gifts and she found them in the hall closet. One of my gifts was this helmet, I think it was either a policeman or fireman's helmet. I tried it on and played around. My parents must have come home early and found me still wearing that helmet.

Did that ruin my Christmas? Not at all, in fact knowing just made me anticipate Christmas morning even more!

This sort of behavior has continued all throughout my life. But then I was taught how to snoop without even looking around the house. Just grab your mom's purse and look for the Christmas list. That made life a lot easier since you can find it all in one place but the only bad thing was that if your mom's purse was at home, she was too. So you had to wait until the middle of the night or when she was really busy.

My parents got a little smarter, they started to hide the presents at their offices at work. So I might not have found the actual gifts themselves but we still had the list in the purse.

Kristy hides the lists (now that she has found out that I like to snoop through the purse to find the shopping list) and she also wraps all the presents weeks before. In fact, just the other night she wrapped them all. So even if I do find them, they will be wrapped. But that won't stop me much from looking for them. And the Christmas Season is not the only time that I will look for goodies. I do this around my birthday too.

I do want to apologize to my family for faking how surprised I was Christmas morning. I had fantastic parents and even with all the snooping and list-reading, they still had a few surprises.

And this year I have not snooped at all.

At least not yet...

Sunday Confessional: My 2nd Biggest Addiction

Day 36

A couple of Sundays ago I revealed that I am addicted to comics. This Sunday I am admitting to another addiction that goes pretty much hand-in-hand with comic books.

Whenever I get my monthly shipment of comics (I order them online) I like to have something to drink while I am flipping through my new books. There rarely is a day when I don't have one. And I have been known to drink quite a few of them in a day too. My 2nd biggest addiction is soda.

And I don't call it pop either. Ever since I came home from New York, I call it soda. I will never forget trying to order an orange pop at a pizza place in Brooklyn. It took forever for us to understand each other, so soda it is!

I remember back in the 9th grade. I was locker pals with a kid named named Gregg and we drank Mountain Dew ALL day. We would have one before school, during school, at lunch and probably one on the way home. We kept all of our cans at the bottom of the locker and we spilt some one day and never cleaned it up. It solidified into a half-inch layer of Dew. I don't know how we passed locker inspections at the end of the year, I think I threw a backpack on it to cover it up.

Now I try to limit my consumption. I am trying to do one a day. I know that may seem like that is still quite a lot but I think one a day is good enough. Except on Sundays when football is on, I may sneak two in that day.

So what are my favorite sodas? I drink pretty much anything but if I could have my choice of soda, RIGHT NOW, I would pick the following.

1) Lime Crush
This was my favorite soda all growing up. It was not like Sprite or other Lemon-Lime sodas, it had its own flavor. It had a rich Lime flavor that tasted sour crossed with a green Lifesaver. Sadly, this is only available in Canada and even sadder then that it has been discontinued. If I could find the stuff, I would order me a case. The closest thing that I have found that tastes like it is Tiger Wood's Lime Gatorade.



2) Stewart's Cherry Cream Soda
My friend Joel turned me on to these soda makers. I first tried the Key Lime soda (hoping it was like Lime Crush) and it was pretty good. But then I tried the Cherry Cream and that instantly became my favorite. It is extremely sweet, it is not a soda that I can guzzle. You have to sip this soda. It has a sweet Cherry flavor, that kind of reminds me of cough syrup. Sadly, this soda is not available in my area as it used to be. I can find all the other flavors but this one.

3) Mountain Dew Livewire
I love Mountain Dew in all its forms but the best one that I have ever tasted is its Livewire. It is a mix of Sunkist Orange Soda and Mountain Dew. This came out as a promotion and I bought tons of it. Now it is part of the Mountain Dew family and is available everywhere. But Cache Valley. Sadly, (notice the trend here?) I have to travel a few hours out of the valley to snag some of this awesome soda. At least I can still get it. My mother-in-law will get me this soda for my birthday or other special occasions.

4) Ironport
Ironport is an old-fashioned soda that was served in the early 20th century locally. It can still be found in parts of the West, mostly in Utah. It tastes a little like champagne cola or Inca cola but a lot toned down. I can never find it bottled (although I found a picture of one here) but I can find it at two of my favorite restaurants where I live. Whenever I hit Juniper Takeout or the Bluebird, I always get an Ironport. You can also get a Cherry Ironport too. Kristy and I went out last night to the Bluebird for her birthday and I had two excellent glasses of Ironport.

5) Freshly Brewed Ginger Ale
I thought I liked Ginger Ale, Canada Dry is fantastic stuff but then I went to a local steakhouse and they home brewed their own Ginger Ale. It was unbelievable, the place was known for its steaks but it will forever be known for me as the place to get Ginger Ale. Sadly, I have gone back twice to eat there and each time they are not brewing it anymore. I have tried numerous gourmet Ginger Ale sodas but nothing matches it. Let me know if you have any suggestions. Until then, Canada Dry it is.

Now I'm thirsty.

There was a soda that I was not a fan of that I eventually really began to like. I was on my LDS mission in New York. One of the guys I lived with was very proud of being an Inca. So he would buy this awful soda and my companion and I would sneak drinks out of it. It would drive him nuts, he would get so mad about it. So one day we went to the local bodega to grab some snacks and Reese (my companion) and I thought it would be funny to buy some Inca Cola. Pena (the Inca) was always accusing us of drinking his Inca Cola (which we were because I didn't like him all that much and I was starting to acquire a taste for it) and so we thought it would be funny to get some of our own to mock him. He came home and we showed him that we bought our own 2-liter Inca Cola and he was ecstatic. He wanted to get a picture of all of us drinking it. He ran to get his camera and I whispered to Reese that we should turn our backs and moon the camera. Pena came back all excited and Phil (our other roommate) took the picture. Both Reese and I turned our backs and we mooned the camera without Pena knowing. Phil lost it and Pena thought he was just excited like he was. Boy, was he mad when he developed the pictures and saw a couple of full moons.


I had to edit the original pic for more sensitive readers!

Sunday Confessional: The Hair-Do

Day 29

Every once in awhile I like to change things up. After I graduated from high school I decided to do something that I never thought I would ever do.

I got a perm.

Like a real perm. Why? Beats me. I liked the look of having wavy hair. This was supposed to be a loose perm. So I went to my favorite hairdresser, Shirley Whitman, and set up a time for a perm.

So I went to get my hair permed and I spent the next couple of hours chatting with Shirely as she permed my hair. Shirely is fantastic to talk too, you can never run out of things to speak about with her and the time passed by so quickly. And then it was time to unveil the perm and I will never forget seeing myself for the first time with my hair permed. She had just finished blow drying my hair and she turned me around to the large mirror. And I broke down. I just burst out laughing. Then she laughed, which made me laugh even more. It was a good twenty minutes later that we stopped laughing. I just looked ridiculous. It was tighter than we both thought but after a few days it really looked nice. Surprisingly, that night I went to visit one of the girls I was interested at work and she LOVED it. Interesting to note though, she did stand me up on my next date and I was so heartbroken that I never asked her out again.



I still got my haircut by Shirley for many years after. I even interviewed her for the local paper, the Herald Journal, that was published. In that article I even included this very experience. But I never have got my hair permed again.


There are only a few pictures in that exist that show photographic evidence of my perm. And I like that just fine. It was like the brief time I had a small pony tail. I actually had it but there is no evidence to prove it.

Shirley is quite the character. She tried to embarrass me with a fart machine one time I got my haircut. She also came with my mom, Kristy and I to "The Music of the Night" which showcased the best of Andrew Lloyd Webber in Ogden and went to dinner with us. I don't think we ever laughed so hard.

Sunday Confessional: My Addiction

Day 22



Anyone know who this is? I'll give you a hint, he is part of the problem. I have a huge addiction that I have spent thousands of dollars on.

I bet the vast majority of my readers have NO idea who that fella is. His name is Banshee and he is a member of the X-Men. Yeah, the same team Wolverine is on. But this character is no where near as popular as my fellow Canuck. Banshee is quite an obscure comic book character. And what does that make me? That pretty much makes me an obscure comic book collector.

Yes, I admit that I am an avid comic book collector.

I own a lot of comic books. There are tons of boxes in my bedroom loaded with hundreds of books. In my den, I have two full bookshelves loaded with graphic novels and tradepaperbooks. Basically, more comics in book form.

My comic book collecting habits have changed a little bit recently. Lately I have been on a one-man quest to complete my collection. I am working on getting a collection that has no filler, just all the good stuff I enjoy. That means rooting through thousands and thousands of comics and handpicking the ones I want to keep. It also means going back and picking up comics that I had as a kid. Comics that have vanished from my current collection and some are so battered and torn that they need replacing. And there are comics that I don't have and never had that I want part of my collection.

Is that geeky? Yes, so therefore I admit it. I am a geek. It should be pretty obvious, I run the Alan Davis Message Board (my favorite comic book artist) and I also have the world's only blog devoted to Banshee called the Banshee Blog. I have no problems being called a geek and I am proud of that fact. I read and enjoy comics quite a lot. My house is loaded with comics and trades and other comic stuff. I have comic shirts and I have a tattoo of Banshee on my chest. Okay, I am making that last part up. But I do have a mini statue of Banshee at my desk.


How many geeky things can you find in this picture of my desk? Can you see the Banshee statue? The Princess Leia in her Slave outfit action figure? I have another shelf on the other side of the desk full of comics.

Comics have influenced my life and will continue to do so. So how did I get into them? Lets start at the beginning. My parents were very supportive of my habit, in fact they are the ones that started it. It started out with Donald Duck and Archie comics and then they got me into Super-Friends, Spider-Man, Batman and a bunch of others. It was a random sampling of books but sometimes I would have small runs of comics. Super Friends was one of my favorite books.


Here I am at five years old reading an Archie book. Notice my cool curtains?

The late 70's and early 80's were a great time to be growing up. I was three years old when my parents took me to see Star Wars and like every other kid, I was absolutely taken by it. I remember back in the spring of 1979 when my dad came home from work with some Slurpee's and two comics. Battlestar Galactica #2 and Star Wars #22. My dad liked to read the comics too so I would get a new Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars comic almost every month. I used to re-enact the comics with my collection of action figures. I was a real happy kid growing up.

FUN FACT: I was not the only one that loved the old Marvel Star Wars comics. One of my best friends, Joel, was a huge fan of the series as well. He grew up collecting the comics and we were reminiscing and looking at the old Marvel series and picking out our favorite stories. He picked out issue #76 and remarked to me that he never got that issue, which was the conclusion of the fun Isakalon storyline. That story was one of my favorite ones too. Joel said that he saw the comic at the local 7-11 and ran home and asked his dad for some money to buy it. His dad made him do a ton of chores and finally gave him some money to buy it and he went back and it was gone. That issue was special to me, I was on vacation with my parents to the United States (I was from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) and I was with my dad and grandpa golfing at the local golf course. We stopped by the 7-11 to get some drinks on the way home and I found Star Wars #76 and begged my dad to buy it. He bought it for me so I could have something to read on the long drive home to Edmonton when we left the next week. After I had told Joel this story he looked at me funny and then it hit me. Joel lived in the same small town of Smithfield, the same small town that had a golf course and a 7-11! I was the one that bought that comic that Joel wanted! Who would have thought that twenty years later we would be best friends and that we would both remember that comic. I did let him borrow that trade so he could read the whole story. Small world.

Then in the Sixth grade my life was forever altered. Sixth grade was one of my favorite years in school. I had a teacher that I really liked and she was supportive of my comic reading as well. She allowed me to read comics during reading time. At this time I became friends with Neil White and he introduced me to a whole slew of comics, the first being Transformers and G.I.Joe. So I begged my parents to buy me some comics and they were supportive of me reading so I got some G.I.Joe and Transformers comics.

My friend Neil also reintroduced me to some familiar faces (like Spider-Man) but then he introduced me to a whole new set of characters, the Uncanny X-Men. And I have never stopped since. Eventually I branched out and have read all sorts of comics, straight super hero stuff, science fiction, fantasy, crime, horror, you name it, I probably have it.



This is an addiction that I am happy to pass down to my kids. It gives kids a new strange world to visit and more importantly it gets them reading. I am thankful that my parents introduced me to comics, I wouldn't be into reading without them. Comics are part of my everyday life and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Sunday Confessional: Get Your Jersey On!

I have a confession to make. I have a few actually. So here is my first in a series of confessions.

There are some people think it is white trash to wear sports jerseys. Some people think it is okay to wear them ONLY at games. I am not one of those guys. I am a big NFL fan and I admit that I have a ton of jerseys. Most of them I have worn out in public. Now bear in mind, I only wear them during the NFL season. And I am picky about which ones I wear and on what day. If one of my teams is playing, I will be wearing a jersey. And usually under that I have some sort of team shirt on too. And if it is cold, I have a sweater or jacket with the team logo on it. Every Sunday, even if I am going to church, I have either a jersey or team shirt under my suit. No one can see it, only I know it is there. And yes, there is football on today and I am wearing a jersey while writing this. But I will take it off when for family pictures this afternoon.


Logan and I snuggling watching football. Notice the team blankets? I have a Jets one on and there is a Ravens one next to it.

Am I superstitious? A little bit, even though it doesn't really work anyway. My teams rarely have success unfortunately. But I will do my best by supporting my team by wearing their colors and jerseys proudly! So how many jerseys do I have? You might be surprised. The New York Jets are my favorite team followed by the Green Bay Packers, Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs. The Jets and Ravens I will follow no matter what. The Chiefs and Packers were all about players that played on their teams. Sterling Sharpe and Brett Favre were my favorite Packer players but I will not support the Packers again until Favre officially retires. I guess that means until he dies. Tony Gonzales and the great Joe Montana made me Chief fans and even though they are not there anymore, I still vote for them. I really mostly like the Chiefs because of my dislike of the Broncos. So believe it or not, here is a list of jerseys that I own:

NY JETS: #19 Keyshawn Johnson (bought this in New York)
NY JETS: #7 Boomer Esiason
NY JETS: #28 Curtis Martin
NY JETS: #51 Jonathon Vilma (I still like Vilma but since he left for the Saints I removed his nameplate so I have a blank #51. I also got this for free for entering a sweepstakes on Amazon)
NY JETS: #4 Brett Favre (white away jersey)

GB PACKERS: #4 Brett Favre (home jersey)
GB PACKERS: #4 Brett Favre (yellow alternate jersey)
GB PACKERS: #84 Sterling Sharpe (favorite wide receiver)
I also have an official Cheese-head that my mom's friend got for me when she visited Green Bay on a business trip. She carried it on her lap the whole flight home. Thanks Julie!

BALTIMORE RAVENS: #52 Ray Lewis (I got this jersey the year before they went to the SuperBowl)

KC CHIEFS: #89 Andre Rison (I liked Rison and it was only $20)
KC CHIEFS: #19 Joe Montana (why I became a Chiefs fan)

I used to get a new jersey every other football season but they have gotten ridiculously pricey. They used to be around $45 for a replica now they are close to $90! There are a few more retro jerseys I would love to have and I will browse eBay every once in awhile looking for some. Now I am more interested in getting some more shirts. I would love some socks too, they look so comfortable.


And I have passed this tradition on to my son Logan very early in life. We watched out first Jets game (we beat the Pats) just a few hours after his birth.


He actually wanted to wear it for this picture and who am I to complain?


I am such a proud poppa!