On Being Offended

I just ran across a quote that I think is absolutely true:

"You cannot be enlightened until you cannot be offended."

I've been reading a book called The Intimate Enemy. I'm simultaneously reading another book by the same author called The Essential Laws of Fearless Living. One of the golden nuggets of wisdom I'm getting from this author is that events in our lives are generally neutral. Any pain caused by those events is in our own minds. We control how we react to situations. The events themselves have no power over us except that which we give to them.

As new situations arise in our lives that are potential causes of stress, we should strive to take the perspective of the enlightened observer. Step back from ourselves and view it neutrally. Reach inside yourself to your true, unblemished and whole self, and see how it would react to that situation. The true you is perfectly strong, whole and healthy. If you allow it to be in control of your life you cannot be offended. You cannot be hurt by the actions or words of others. You realize that the way others think about you or treat you has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on you or your true identity. You can interact with those people neutrally. They lose the ability to "push your buttons" because you'll have no buttons to push.

Once you learn this, and I mean *really* learn it, freedom and enlightenment follow.

Stormtrooper at the World Series!

If you watched the World Series games in Denver, you may have noticed a guy in the stands wearing a Stormtrooper helmet. That was my boss. You probably didn't notice me next to him, mostly because you were probably busy thinking, "Whoa. A dude in a Stormtrooper helmet!"

I was lucky enough to go to both home games and I had a blast even though the Rockies lost both games. I had to watch Boston sweep the series and win on our turf. It was tough, but kudos to the Rockies for making it in the first place. They were on a historic run to the Series. I think the layoff really hurt them, though. Baseball is a game of momentum and timing. The Red Sox were regaining their momentum after coming back to beat the Indians. Meanwhile, the Rox were trying to find ways to keep the rust off. It didn't work, as you might have noticed as they got blown out 13-1 in Game One.

Also, I've got to mention this guy:



Rockies left fielder Matt Holliday caught a flyball to end an inning and he trotted over to our section to throw the ball to a kid who looked to be about seven years old. Everybody around started diving for the ball, knocking this poor kid to the ground in the process. The guy in the picture ended up with the ball and refused to give it to the kid even though about twenty of us were chanting, "Give the kid the ball!" He finally turned around and used some rather profane words to tell us what we could do with ourselves. Really classy guy.

You, sir, are an ass. I hope the lady you were with dumps you. But since she didn't stand up to you when you took the ball from the kid, I doubt she'll leave you even though you're now a proven ass. Some women like that, I guess.

Anyway, if you'd like to see the rest of my pictures, go here:

World Series Game Three

World Series Game Four

Cutest kids ever

I know, another boring post about someone's kids, right? Right. But they are freaking cute. Jack was picking up Kate, so Kate decided it would be fun to kiss him in an apparent attempt to get him to put her down.


Unfortunately for her, Jack thought it was pretty funny, too, so he kept picking her up! I know it will bore all of you who don't know me, but I'm definitely going to put up some more pictures later.

I'm going to the NLCS Game Three!

So, I bit the bullet and bought a ticket. It's a single-seat ticket, so I hope I have some cool people around me. I've been wanting to catch a game and I know that tickets are going to be insanely expensive if the Rockies make it to the World Series, so the NLCS is probably the best I could do. I found a single-seat, club-level ticket right behind home plate! It's going to be freaking awesome...as long as the Rocks are winning, anyway. If they get into the World Series, this very same seat is going to go for over $5,000. It's safe to say I won't be spending that much money on a baseball game.

Too early to put a fork in the Broncos?

I have to say that was one of the worst home games I've ever witnessed. I'm stunned that the Broncos were able to play so poorly at home. They should have won this game, but absolutely nothing went right for them. Combine all the bad bounces with their bad mistakes and you're in for a long day. A long, very embarrassing day. I know that USC lost this weekend, but I think even they could have beaten the Broncos today as poorly as they were playing.

At least we have the Rockies and the Avs. You know it's a bad week in Broncoland when you get outscored by a baseball team and a hockey team.

I know no one is actually reading this blog, but if anyone does happen to drop in, I'm taking suggestions for new hobbies. I may need something new to keep me busy on Sunday afternoons for the rest of the NFL season.

Is Mr. Tittle Following Me?

If you read my post about NFL 101 then you saw the picture of the women with their stuffed animal, Mr. Tittle. I've never seen Mr. Tittle before last night, but I just saw it again somewhere else. Very weird coincidence. For your viewing pleasure, here is another picture of Mr. Tittle:

Broncos NFL 101

I had the pleasure of attending the Denver Broncos NFL 101 last night at Invesco Field at Mile High. It's an annual event that, until last year, was open to women only. I did not know this. Even though men are invited, I was one of two single guys there. If I'd known that, I might have spruced myself up a bit more!

The event was a lot of fun. Dinner and drinks were provided, which was very cool. Loved the coconut shrimp. The host for the rest of the evening was the lovely and talented Amy Van Dyken, who just loves reminding everyone how many gold medals she won in the Olympics. I won a t-shirt in a trivia contest because I knew who the Bronco's long snapper was (Mike Leach). Then we split up into three groups and attended breakout sessions on offense, defense and special teams. The session on offense was led by offensive assistant coach Jim Ryan and offensive lineman Ryan Harris. The session on defense was led by defensive line coach Bill Johnson and safety Curome Cox. The special teams session was taught by assistant coach Charlie Johnson and linebacker Louis Green (Looooooooooooooouuuuuuuuu!)

I got lots of pictures of the event. One of the coolest was of these two women from Berkeley--yes, in California--who just happen to have Broncos season tickets. They also have a stuffed animal named Mr. Tittle that they've been taking to stadiums around the country. I asked for them to pose for me. Here they are with Mr. Tittle in front of the two Lombardi Trophies:



The rest of my pictures can be found here. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the cute ladies I sat with during the breakout session on offense. I also think I know a couple of things that are going to happen on Sunday against the Chargers, but I'm sure as heck not saying anything! We'll see if I turn out to be right.