Media Day Celebration DNCC: The Politico

It seems like we had been training for this day for well, well Like FOREVER! It was almost a month ago that Sidney, Linda and I travelled down to the Wells Fargo theater to learn about how to converse with people through empathic listening, giving each other the Obama bump and well everything about customer service that the Dale Carnegie Corporation had to teach us.

The Day of the DNC Media Celebration arrived with angry dark clouds and a bit of thunder. Once again Sidney, Linda, Robert (Sidney's Son in Law), Mike, and I traveled down to Elitches for the big event. Parking it should be noted was horrendous and well we were told to park at the Aquarium and shuttle services would be provided over to the Event site at Elitches itself. To avoid a whole bunch of unnecessary confusion I drove Sidney's car downtown dropped everyone off at the front gate and then went to park. After a brief shuttle ride I was back at the front gate where I registered with everyone for the event to get into the park and let it be known that we were here. It is true what they say, Democrats maybe disorganized, but they sure know how to throw an amazing party. The registration process was no exception.

After passing through security, attending a quick meeting and receiving our assignments we marched off to our assigned area and waited for the fun to begin. The time that separated the beginning of our actual events in the Arena, the area where I was stationed, was enough for the group of volunteers I was with to get some lunch and socialize. We grabbed our "boxed lunches". Sidney and I had a bet going to see what they would be She said roast beef sandwiches, potato chips and a cookie. I was right with ham sandwich. There was no cookie however. The boxed lunches had a sandwich and chips in it Honestly when you've got volunteers to feed you really gotta take care of them. It should also be noted that since the taxpayers of Denver we all expected just a little bit more.

Once the festivities started the fun really began to happen. I was stationed as a bartender in the arena with one of the coolest women I've ever met in my entire life. That woman who was short in stature had enough energy and attitude for a person who was eight feet tall and eight hundred pounds! She was a grandma and had been for 53 years. Her husband is the current Chairman of the Board for Fitzsimons Credit Union. Jackie and I had a great time IDing and handing out beers to anyone who was of age and had a golden Coors 21 means 21 bracelet.

The festivities within the arena. Included the singing of the national anthem by the group called Family. Family is a theater performance group for people with disabilities based in Denver. They sang so beautifully. The singing was then followed up by the blessing of the convention by Local Native American tribes. Dancing and drumming in a well choreographed dance. Actually it was spectacular. The colors on the dress were amazing bright yellow, neon orange and little tin bells that tinkled like sleigh bells at Christmas. The dancing was followed by speeches from Senator Ken Salazar, Governor Bill Ritter and Mayor John Hickenlooper. Hickenlooper introduced the last act of the night which was an hour and a half long concert by Denver Local Band the Flobots.

The Flobots are in a league of their own in regards to the sounds they pump out. It is as if Classical music and Rap Hip Hop all got thrown in a pot and boiled down to just their pure essence and then bottled up in one. The one woman in the group plays electric violin and sings while the men play guitar, bass and rap with such passion that you are completely blown away. By the end of the evening Jackie and I went to find her husband and then I left her with him to go find the rest of the car pool.

The night ended with Fireworks.

The Evening was a complete success and I can safely say that I would volunteer for events like that again and again.

Walking the road to weight loss: Little Steps

Hope
In the world of political activism and grassroots organizing we talk about setting goals for campaigns through small victories. For example in one of my most recent grassroots events we did voter registration drives. Our goal for the Campaign was to register 5000 new voters. When you see that number you think if we can do that its awesome. That number though is a little daunting though when you think of it as a whole. So instead of looking at the big number we train ourselves to look at that number is several more manageable smaller goals. In the case of voter registration we always celebrate our first person registered then the first 25 and so on. By setting smaller goals it breaks the big number up and helps us to feel like we're making more progress with a chance to congratulate ourselves on our hard work so far with out this Humungous number hanging over our head. With this practice in mind I can carry it over to something else in my life, weight loss!

In weight watchers we also set manageable goals with the practice of setting it small and celebrating. The first goal I have set for myself is the first 10 percent. In case you don't know how much weight that is for me its 28.3 pounds. Now in my head 28.3 pounds is a lot of weight so instead i'm celebrating more manageable goals and I keep telling myself a message.
PLUS
The goals are important in activism and organizing, but the message that we put out is just important. In the organizing world its usually a message that all people can repeat and come together around. In a relatable example, During the 2004 Democratic convention, as the keynote speaker, Barak Obama used the word hope as a message. In that message of hope he used the word "Hope" 42 times. Now that's a lot repetition, but after hearing it so many times the country was undeniably convinced that if we voted for the democratic candidate we would some how gain a new sense of hope. This year the buzz word or message is change. On every candidates promotional material from Ed Perlmutter to Barak Obama to even John McCain we see the word change. All candidates are spewing out the message that we need to change and that in whatever form that change takes it is all for the better.
CHANGE
Change is what is occuring as I lose weight but my message is a little different. My message is a phrase that I repeat and see every day. On the bottom of one of the programs we use at the credit union is a place for notes and a scratch pad. On that scratch pad reads this phrase You can do it lose one and shoot for two. In regards for weight that's my goal each week. After four weeks of reading that message I've done pretty much that. Although this week was a little less than one pound exactly I'm still excited about it. Margaret my weight watchers leader talked about 2 tenths of a pound and what a stumbling block that can be for some people. Well I was exactly two tenths of a pound from the one pound I was shooting for this week. Well I've decided to turn that stumbling block into a starting block. That two tenths is just that a success because it gives me hope that next week my weight loss will be just that much greater.
EQUALS
The Goals and messages we set are what keep us rolling every day. The umbrella that brings them together and keeps us going is the idea that both of these things are manageable. So if we can keep our messages and goals under that umbrella than there is only one outcome. That out come is success!
SUCCESS!

Weight loss thus far 9.6 lbs!

Keeping Childhood Alive! a trip back to Highschool PE

My weight watchers leader, Margaret Snodgrass, yes that is her name, made a good point at our meeting two weeks ago. The point she was trying to make was that as adults we don't play anymore. Playing, like being silly and doing things that are fun for us as adults that shake us out of the daily grind is something that we give up doing. At some point in our lives it no longer becomes socially acceptable for us to play. When does that happen? In my opinion it hapens sometime in our twenties when we're supposed to have jobs and be done maturing and be all grown up. Well i'm not going to let that happen. Whether we play sports, silly games, with friends, ride horses or even just relax and read a book. Playing is important and we should never forget that. So with this in mind here is something that I did this weekend to keep my need to play satisified.








Do you remember in Junior high or High School Gym class playing team games? Well I do because we did it a lot. Well this weekend some friends of mine resurected a game from our PE days. We played capture the flag. For those of you who have never played capture the flag its played at night, involves strategy, team building skills and well a lot of running and laughing! The object of the game is to capture the other teams flag and get it back to your own teams territory before they have the opportunity to tag you and send you to jail and hide their flag again. Its almost like hide and seek with a crazy mix of tag and war mixed in.

Well on Saturday August 16, 2008 we all met around 9:00 pm at a parking lot of a local safeway and carpooled to the game site. The park we played in was a humongous park with an elementary school attached. We divided in to teams at safeway and the games were on. After Hiding flags we were set to go. We had so much fun. I didn't get caught by the other team.

An hour and a half later we were still searching for each others flags and well our game got broken up. A guy nobody knew showed up at the park and started causing trouble. He was all thugged up and probably drunk although we had no way of knowing for sure. He started getting up in peoples faces and shouting at them saying he would kick their asses. Now I don't know about you but I would sure like to see a half drunk guy take on eight men and seven women. That would be worth the sight. So all the while this is happening one of the guys we were with called the cops. When the cops showed up we thought we would be in so much trouble. They were pretty cool about it though and said they didn't mind us being in the park after dark as long as we weren't causing any trouble. They did however apprehend the thug. Unfortunaltely for him he ran from the cops and then was found in the possession of some paraphanailia and some pot. The cops took a statement from some of us told us to have a good night and they were on their way with the thug in the back of the car.



We left the park right after,with both teams calling it a draw but also claiming victory. Some of us later headed for a local bar had a good time and then went home. Capture the flag was a success of which we plan to repeat. Childhood came back. I got a chance to play and well felt much better surrounded by friends and a good time.

Walking the Road to Weight loss

July 12, 2008 and was the bottom of the whole. I weighed the most I've ever weighed in my entire life. A trip to the doctors because I had some kind of weird throat infection was the cause of my Holy Shit I've hit the bottom moment. When I stepped on the scale at the doctors office and the nurse kept moving the weight balance further and further to the right I about died right there.

Twelve days later I joined weight watchers with my sister. It should be made known that Mom, Dad, and Adrienne have been doing weight watchers for the last year or sometime around when dad almost died from septic shock from swallowing ocean water that my cousin Holly thinks was tainted with "Seal Feces". They've been doing really well on it. Adrienne looks great. She's only 7 lbs from her goal weight. She's been the biggest support for me so far.

To give up the dirty details. I'm 6'2 23 years old and for all intensive purposes I should weight about 175-195 to be healthy. However I don't fit the healthy bill. At the time of my first weigh-in I was sitting at a hefty 283 lbs. Wow big guy right? Well what you should know is that every time I tell people that they're a little surprised because I hide my weight well. Well not anymore I'm gonna lose it. I haven't set a big weight goal just 10 percent of my body weight but 28 pounds is a lot to lose. After I get down my 28.3 lbs to 254.7 lbs I'll start setting the big weight loss goal!

Before my grandfather died we went to visit him in Glendive, Montana. It was just before we left for the trip back to Colorado that he pulled me aside and told me something I'll never forget. He said you're to good to look like you do. You don't want to look like me when you get to my age. 81 at the time. He was right I needed to lose weight. He's my inspiration and when my mom found a picture of him at my age, with his shirt open and him basically looking like a male black and white pinup, I said I want to look like that. He's my inspiration. I can do this and I will lose the weight.

So, Today being August 15, I've lost 8.8 lbs so far the healthy way and I'm extremely excited to keep on trucking! Everyone's support is much appreciated and I don't know what I would do with out it. If anyone is thinking about losing weight, Weight watchers is the way to go. They support and the meetings are important because even though its kind of like Alcoholics anonymous for "traditionally built" people it will help you more than anything.