The Fatted Burrito

Big City Burrito introduced me to the big voluptuous burritos that I have come to desire and love so much. At the time, Chipotle, was a little known burrito joint that was starting in Denver. I wasn't introduced to one of these beautiful 22 oz. burritos until 1999, when I moved to Longmont. The third Chipotle had recently opened there. Though the Chipotle burrito is different than the BCB, they are both delectable and tantalizing to the tastebuds. I have enjoyed many of these burritos over the years and parting with the weekly, and sometimes daily intake of them when I left Colorado was sorrowful.

Laramie, not being a big town, was unsurprisingly void of any burrito joint when I came here in 2001. However disappointing this was, I recognized that the burritos I left behind would be that much better when I returned to them. This was very much the truth. The aura from these burrito joints called me hither as soon as I would return to Colorado, even if it was for a day.

Then it happened. My sophomore year, Fat Burrito came to town. I took the opportunity to indulge in one of my favorite traditions, and hoped that it could live on through this Wyoming extension of a fantastical food-fantasy. I was wrong. The place was awful. A tremendous amount of gas lurched from my body for the next few days. Each unfortunate odor reminding me of my shattered hope. On top of that, Fat Burrito was handing out fliers that advertised them as being "bigger and better than the 'city". As you can imagine, this didn't quench my dislike for them. I vowed never to return.

Over the next three years I had heard "fat burrito" in the air; in other conversations. It still occupied the darkest and most disdainful corners of my mind. People close to me began to speak of it as though it had a promising return to burrito excellence in store. I took it as a grain of salt, but the grains began piling up with the good reviews of burritoful experiences. The pile of salt was much too high to ignore.

Again, I broke the threshold of Fat Burrito. An improvement had been made. The ingredients were digestible and somewhat tasty, though still bland in comparison to the long-standing tradition of BCB, and the young stardom of Chipotle. The burrito is certainly as big at Fat Burrito, but not as heavy. The density of the tin-foil clouds in my dreams is much greater. I left Fat Burrito willing to return again, but the time between visits will certainly be the determining factor in how good this place really becomes. There only need be a few hours between visits to BCB or Chipotle for me to be craving their goodness again. It has been 8 days since my return trip to Fat Burrito, and it doesn't lure me to it's tortillas quite yet. I hope in my absence from Fat Burrito that they continue to improve. That I might return and find a burrito as good as BCB or Chipotle is still fantasy.

Picture New Orleans

I don't know how many of you saw this picture during all the Katrina coverage, but it got my attention perhaps more than others. In a situation, previously unknown to most Americans, and especially to the rest of the world, Americans were pushed to the edge of civility and beyond it. The most basic need, survival, was everyone's obsession. Prior to Katrina, I think that most Americans had only seen this desperation enacted on a stage or in a movie, and for a week it was real news. I don't have any point to make, mostly I wanted to put this picture up here so people could see it if they hadn't already. There were thousands of images coming out of this disaster, but this is profoundly honest humanity, and that is hard to find.

The War on Terror

Saddam Hussein is a bad man. I'm glad he is out of power. There was a time shortly after his fall that the Iraqis were happy with our presence, but that time has passed. The Iraqis now see a new evil, or terror if you will, that has been ushered in by our enduring presence in the region. Much of the violence that continues killing Iraqis and U.S. soldiers and workers exists because the U.S.A. is now viewed, because of it's prolonged existence, as the nation that invaded Iraq, not liberated it. It's not an easy situation that this country finds itself in. If it was a no-brainer, I have faith that the problem would have been resolved by now, but I would like to see the U.S. leave Iraq. The country has there own long-standing problems of Islamic sects conflicting with one another. Our presence is now compounding those problems, and they have a better chance of residing with our departure.

I would not say President Bush is a war monger, but he and the USA have overstayed their "welcome", although labeled as we are, the invading nation, we can't have a welcome and it is becoming harder and harder to remember the time when a welcome was ever a possibility. There will always be those that oppose the USA and its policies. Staying in one nation long enough isn't going to change that.

The nation's focus for the last month has been on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Rita, but in the time between those hurricanes, 40 more US Soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq. I don't want to be comfortably writing on this blog a year from now while American men and women my age, and people of Iraqi descent, are being killed thousands of miles away in a war that lost its welcome a long time ago.

Wyoming is so Uncivilized

What is with people thinking Wyoming is behind everyone else? I decided to go to UW on a whim, but some people I knew simply couldn't put that behind them. They have these ideas about Wyoming: that it is uncivilized, that it hasn't seen the same "progress" that the rest of the country has been blessed with. Another favorite of mine, things can't be good in Wyoming, and UW is so rural that certainly you can't get an education there that is on par with other major universities throughout the country--this is absurd. Along with that, lets throw in the fact that UW is the cheapest or one of the cheapest universities in the nation. Therefore, many people think that it can't provide opportunities or an equal education than a school that costs four times as much. It doesn't really matter where you go, education is what you make of it. If you don't care about education you aren't going to get an education. Also, because we don't have the latest and greatest strip malls and shops, life here must really be a downer.

I know people are entitled to their own opinions. I myself have named off a couple places on this blog that I wouldn't like to live, but that is because I have lived there, or spent an extended amount of time there. I guess what bothers me the most about Wyoming is when I run into people that act like they know everything about this place. More often than not, this knowledge they claim to have is based on absolutely nothing. Wyoming is to them, a place where life isn't as fun, people aren't as fortunate, and where "progress" hasn't been made because it isn't filled to the brim with people. I can tolerate those opinions if someone has lived here, but if you have only driven through this state or spent one night in it, then you are lying to yourself if you think this way.

A Family Feud

Before I was born, in the time of leisure suits and big hair, my family was on Family Feud. The team that won two shows and lost a third was composed of my parents, my mom's parents, and one of my mom's sisters.

The tape of the show is hilarious. The questions, some of them, are so easy. The host...Richard something I believe, was so old. He had nothing but gray hairs on his head. His age only became bothersome when he puts his dirty lips on every woman on the show every time they are about to talk or answer a question. I just couldn't have handled it if I was on the show and this man was kissing my wife every five minutes. Feud would be too nice of a term.

Back to the tape. The jokes Rich made were so bad. The same jokes today couldn't get a grunt out of the audience. The commercial breaks are glorious; they last for about a minute.

I don't know if the Feud is still on. Something makes me think it is. Does Al from Home Improvement host it? I don't care who hosts it, I just hope they don't molest every woman on camera.

Quotes of the Week

I would like to share with you some of my favorite Dean quotes. These lines speak for themselves.

"This is the most I've aten in a while."
"Have they tooken those down yet?"
"I got my sound surround set up."
"Do you want to borrow my girls gone wild videos?"
"Do you want to borrow my Jerry Springer unleashed video?"

For those of you who know the man, these can be funny. For those of you that don't, these quotes should encourage you to stay in school, and if at all possible, go to college. Goodnight!

A Not So Recent Observation

Look at this photograph
Everytime I do it makes me laugh
How did our eyes get so red
And what the hell is on Joey's head

I heard this song on the radio the other day and nearly spit my soda all over the windshield when I heard the lyrics. I thought for a moment...the voice sounds familiar...and the lyrics are atrocious. Could it be them? No...well, maybe. Let us listen some more.

Remember the old arcade
Blew every dollar that we ever made
The cops hated us hangin' out
They say somebody went and burned it down

Ah, yes. To write worse lyrics than these should be something to pride yourself in. My doubt was no more. This is Nickelback, and they suck.

6000 Meters to Go

I found this in a journal of mine. I wrote it last fall during my last year as a student-athlete at UW. Swimming was an amazing experience and I wouldn't trade the 4 years I swam for UW for anything, but as you can tell from this, it was often frustrating.

21.November.2004

The time is approaching that most students will leave Laramie asap for Thanksgiving break. I suffer during this time because I have to stay around until practice is over on Wednesday. It's so easy to become depressed when you are walking to Corbett and there is no one in sight. Laramie is dead, especially the campus.

I wonder why am I still here? I need a break...a vacation. I don't want to do this. Can we just fall asleep on the pool deck? Isn't it time to go? My life would be easier and better if I wasn't here right now. Look at that bastard packing his car, about ready to go home for a nice long Thanksgiving break.

I can make it. Two more hours and I am home free. Maybe practice will be extremely easy...doubt it. I can't wait for Christmas break. Three more weeks of school, but I have to swim as well. This will make you stronger, Bryce. Don't succumb to the pressure and temptation to quit. Don't do it. You will be thankful in the end. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger....

I am thankful.

Just Too Sweeeeeet!

I used to eat, live, and sleep WCW and WWF wrestling. I was a freshman and sophomore in high school. My next door neighbor and best friend at the time, Trey, loved it too. We would watch 3 hours of wrestling on TV every Monday night; changing channels between WCW Monday Nitro and the WWF's Monday Night Raw.

We knew all the wrestlers, all the moves, and all the rivalries. Stacks of floppy discs next to our computers housed the wrestling theme song to every wrestler we had ever heard of. The cartridge in the Nintendo 64 was WCW vs. nWo: Revenge. Wrestling mottos and slogans were often stretched across our chests on our favorite t-shirts. We made mental notes and strategies on how to perform every move we saw on TV. We both had a trampoline and the moves we saw were constantly practiced. My trampoline saw most of the action because it was close to a brick pillar that we could substitute for jumping off the turnbuckles of a ring. A lot of the maneuvers were risky, even for a trampoline, so we practiced them as much as possible. We did hope to wrestle for a career, but like so many other passions when you are young, this one came and went.

The biggest reason for the abandonment of wrestling by the two of us was our change of interest. Trey started to develop a passion for music that still exists today and, I predict, will continue to dominated his life for as long as he lives. I moved away and thus, was disconnected...somewhat, from the only person I knew who shared my love for pro-wrestling. Sure, other people watch the stuff, but they didn't know it like Trey and I did for those years. For me, the time and energy I had invested in pro-wrestling dissolved into other pre-existing interests of mine. Wrestling was left in the dust. It became another childhood memory that I locked away in my brain to gather dust until it would randomly be thrown into my thoughts today. I do respect the people who choose that for a career. Yes, you may say it is fake, and yes, a lot of it is fake, but the the work that goes into it is very real and demanding. And some of the hits those guys and girls take, simply to entertain the audience, are really painful. So, I respect it, but don't live and die with this macho soap opera anymore, and never will again.

Kick the Bucket

A quote from a student in class today regarding the afterlife, "It's a coping mechanism to believe that life goes on after death. I mean, none of us are actually going to know until we kick the bucket."

I would like to dispel the notion that this is true. Obviously, some people do feel this way and they will all the way up to their death. However, Jesus has provided a way out from this thinking and if you know Him you can say you know where you are going, and you can say I know there is an afterlife. This isn't complex, and it isn't profound, but I get all happy thinking about it so, I had to write a little something.

The 2 Worst Yearbook Quotes

Case #1: Always reach for the moon, and if you miss you might just catch a star.

If there ever was a combination of words to spring me off my arse right now and cause me to do all my work for the rest of the semester in the next week, this would be far from it. I wonder, how do you catch a star when you reach for the moon? It is possible that the person who constructed this poor excuse for a sentence didn't actually realize the moon was much, much closer to Earth than the stars. And why the heck would you pride yourself in catching a star, when in fact you were aiming for the moon. You were way off target to begin with. We must also address the fact that "star" is a horribly generic metaphor for an unexpected prize, a blessing in disguise, a great and more worthy goal, or achievement, etc.

Case #2: Live in the moment.

We can thank the Victorians for this one. Why say live in the moment? Isn't that what I am doing as I type this. You waste more of your "moment" saying this phrase than the original construction of the phrase would oblige you to do. Sure, this one does make a good point that someone shouldn't live in the moment pretending it is the past, nor should they focus too much on the future. However, so many people still prance around proclaiming this as their mantra for their life--this is somebody's sacred scripture...sad. So, today, live in the moment folks. Whatever the past has taught you, forget it. It doesn't apply to now, so why use it. And whatever is in your future, don't think about it. Now is the only time that can get you anywhere, not 5 days ago, and certainly not 5 minutes from now.

BCB

I don't know what to write now, but I was thinking of Big City Burrito. If you have never been there, I am sorry. I wish I could utter these words....

Super on white with cheese, rice, black beans, carnitas, salsa, sour cream, and guacamole.

I can utter those words right now, but a BCB burrito doesn't manifest itself in front of me. Sad, oh so sad.

Big City Burrito in Fort Collins, CO. Check it out!

Stream of Bryce

"President Bush doesn't care about black people." That is absurd. If the other guy won in November the same exact disaster would have occurred. The conditions would be the same too. It's a disaster because you cannot prepare for it. No matter what storm a country prepares for there will always be one out there that does away with any good strategy we might have had to save people. One thing would be different though if the other guy was in office, the rapper who uttered this on national television wouldn't have said that. He is just hopping on the bandwagon, by blaming Bush for things that are beyond his control. Yes, he is the President. No, he isn't God. I think it's clear that the response could have been faster, but only if we had envisioned a storm like this in the first place. You simply cannot be prepared for everything nature throws at you, no country is that capable. For what it is worth, Bush did apologize for all the faults in the government response, and unlike the dude on TV implied, Bush didn't sit back in his chair and not worry about saving Hurricane Katrina victims because most of them were black.

Now, on to more important matters. Have you ever had a dill pickle with a nice cold glass of milk? What? You haven't? Get off your butt and do it!

3.August.2005

10 piece chicken mcnugget. Empty San Diego airport. Megan and Colton driving off into the SoCal abyss. Another goodbye. When will I see them again? December...I think. A new orange shirt. I wish Kate could have been here. Spring Break could've been a blast out here. It was still fun. Erik at the airport...or someone else? Nah, definitely Erik. They say you are only crazy if you talk to yourself and answer back. I just did. So many stories at airports. People are on vacation; going home; running away; going to a funeral; going to a wedding; investigating a potential job, "No, we didn't like it" or "Oh, it's perfect."

San Diego hills plus the fellas and a longboard wouldn't be good. I could be conservative and safe in my judgments, but I would worry about them. If St.Vrain road yields 40 mph speeds, then I wouldn't be surprised to see 55+ on some hills out here. Cellphones. Everyone has them accept me. Inevitably, I will get one when I am out on my own, it will make me feel independent for a fleeting morment before I remind myself to not let it make me dependent on it. (12.September.2005 - I have a cell phone now. I was unexpectedly added to my girl's family plan. It's cheap for me.)

No one, no matter how much they hate it, is invulnerable to pop culture. There are those affected at different levels. I believe myself to be at the lower end or the bottom of the scale in which the top would include those highly affected and suffocated by pop culture. A girl in front of me is reading Rolling Stone magazine. She sparked that thought? Actually, it was probably the magazine doing the thinking for her.

Flight is delayed an hour and a half now. Going to call Erik and let him know. One good thing...I won't be working tomorrow with such a late arrival in Denver.

1.August.2005

Today was a busy, but relaxed day. I caught up on sleep from two nights ago and slept until 11. Megan and I began the day by organizing her classroom. She is excited to begin teaching and I am happy for her. I am skeptical of their future in California. I don't trust this place. Naturally, I am afraid of the crowd out here. I don't know why. Chicago is huge, but I am comfortable in the crowds there. I want the best for Megan and Colton and I just have a tough time believing California holds the best life for them. Is SoCal worth all the pains? You know where I stand.

Megan and I ventured down the 5 to La Jolla, a small beach community. It reminded me a little of Manhatten Beach. I like Manhatten more due to the sense of seclusion it gives me even though it is surrounded by city.

I spoke with Kate. I wish she was out here with me, but I know she needs the time at home with her family. It would be fun to be in SoCall with her to see what she thinks of it. I would love to get her take on things. Her heart is, and always will be with Chicago, in terms of big cities. She would never like it more out here. I would go as far to say that she would never live here or be that willing to try it out. That is fine with me!

Erik is watching the house while Mom and Dad are gone. They came home for a bit yesterday and found that he was sleeping in my bed still. I told him he could while I was away. I have enjoyed my time here and I am terribly excited for two more days, but I also look forward to the next three weeks at home with the guys before we all go back to college. I hope that time spawns blessed conversation, memories, closeness, and fellowship. I pray so.

SoCal 2

31.July.2005

I am still feeling the effects from not sleeping Friday night. Tomorrow will provide a chance for me to sleep in and do some catch up in that department.

Harking back to an idea I threw out in the last entry, the desire to not live in California ever again is still present in me. It took me two hours to be turned-off with the sights in some of suburban San Diego. Many new commercial and residential developments are across the street from run-down, dumpy-looking homes that still run for $400,000. Southern California remains in an endless state of expansion and construction. I wonder, when does the "settling in" go on?

Colton is a working man (always has been), and when he is away from the office there seems to be someone from the company around. I have a lot of appreciation for what he is doing and how he puts in so many hours to excel at work, thus improving Colton and Megan's situation out there.

Today, Megan and I watched two of Colton's flag-football games. The team finished 1-1 today. A trip to In and Out followed. It was tasty, but not amazing. The idea of all fast food joints is better than the post-consumption feeling from a Double-Double, fries, and a shake. We went to the beach afterwards--Colton worked. A burrito for dinner from one of Colton's favorite places and a conversation with my beautiful Kate capped off the night. The evening of mischief has caught up to me now and I leave this entry as I left the last, tired!

SoCal Revisited

*I have been meaning to put more stuff up here from the summer, so here it is.*

5:51 am, Saturday, 30.July.2005

Late night tonight. I'm going on 1.5 hours of sleep after a long day of work, play, and mischief. Erik, Kyle, and Chris woke me up at 3 am. They were certainly not deprived of an adrenaline that could have only come from almost being busted so I listened to their story. I knew before I layed down for a nap they were going to hit golf balls into a public pool late at night. Simply put, they saw someone and they decided to book it. I am proud of those boys and their running amuck.

I am being honest when I say that running in that situation was a good choice. The surrounding homes are heavily forrested and the yards are fenced in. The fellas are in great shape and could outrun 90% of people in a flat out sprint. If I wasn't confined to my duties at home last night, packing, laundry, and tying some last minute things up, I could have been with them. I would have ran too. If I got caught after running, running would be my first regret, but we (guys) love breaking rules. This is an acceptable idea with a limit. Tonight's incident falls within the boundaries for me.

I am typically not a great plane-sleeper, but I need an hour and a half on this flight, without it, I will barely function today. I am terribly excited to see Megan and Colton...and the beach. The taste of SoCal may be sweet at first, but I expect it to lose its taste fast. In the summer of 2002, I had a realization--that after desiring SoCal since my family moved away in 1988, I no longer wanted to return to my home in this part of the country. From that moment on I have been content with the thought of never moving back there. Week long stints are nice, but during this trip I only expect my preferences to be found concrete once again. I board soon and should try to get drowsy--it shouldn't be hard.

What was that?

I was watching a rerun of Charlie Rose on PBS the other day. His guest happened to be a famous rapper. This rapper will not fail to tell you that Jesus Christ is his personal Lord and Savior, which is great. However, he was asked about Christianity as a whole and if he subscribes to Christian belief. I had to refrain from throwing myself out my window when he started talking about the idea that Christians believe anyone who doesn't believe what they do go to hell. That is a touchy subject, but he went on to say that little kids and babies go to hell if they die without being a Christian. I just wanted to send my condolences to anyone that was watching this. Please excuse these words as truth, they are not. Lastly, I want to thank the rapper for scaring more people away from Christianity with one false statement than any person not in the spotlight could do there whole life.