Category Archives: Religions and Spirituality

Busy Musical Weekend in Northern Colorado

It was a busy four day weekend. First we had our party on Wednesday evening, then we had to clean and recover on January 1st. Then that evening we went out salsa dancing at Suite 152 in Fort Collins. We got there early to go to the lessons, but they weren’t open so we went to Lucky Joes (I think that’s the name of the bar) and had appetizers and peanuts that we got to throw on the floors.

Lucky Joes in Fort Collins
Eating Peanuts at Lucky Joes with Shana and Lorena

Salsa Dancing
Salsa dancing at Suite 152

We got a merengue lesson that could be a Larry David moment, I swear. Eets so seemple! There was reggaeton, salsa, hip-hop, techno and merengue played there. We were some of the oldest people there since it was 18+ night. But it was fun. I love to dance, Britton, not so much. We are also planning to take salsa lessons here at the Greeley FunPlex starting tomorrow night to prepare for our trip to Puerto Rico. 

 

Then, Friday night, Shana invited me to temple and then to Island Grill to watch a co-worker’s husband play in a band.

Shana and me
Shana and Me at Island Grill in Fort Collins

Girls from work
Some of the girls: Lauren, Mary, Shana and me

Magic Trick
A magician was even there to levitate some paper

Turn down your speakers because the sound quality on this is horrible…

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (0)
  • Awesome (0)
  • Interesting (0)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (0)

Christmas Festivities- Johnson’s Corner and all

This was like a marathon Christmas weekend. Wednesday evening, Christmas Eve, Britton and I  went over to my parent’s house for dinner and we played poker and other card games. Then, Christmas morning we went to Johnson’s Corner, which is probably one of the most famous truck stops in the US for breakfast and it is just off of I-25 in Colorado! Britton thought this was hilarious…a greasy spoon for Christmas. It was actually quite busy! Johnson’s Corner was in the movie “Larger Than Life” with Bill Murray and Matthew McConahey (sp). We met our long-time family friends, the Fitzgeralds, there.

Christmas at home
With my family

Justin and Dad
My Brother Justin and Dad

Britton and Mom with neck massager
Playing Poker, Britton and Mom with a Neck massager

Johnson's Corner

Famous Cinnamon Roll at Johnsons Corner
World Famous Cinnamon Roll -WAY TOO SWEET!

At Johnson's Corner
Sue, Mory, Dad and Mom at Johnson’s Corner

Me and Mom with rings
Magic Rings we won playing at the arcades in Johnson’s Corner

Later that afternoon we went over to Britton’s parent’s house and had Christmas dinner with everyone there. Our gift to our niece and nephew was an afternoon with us on Saturday. We took them out to lunch, to Target to pick out a present, went to a music shop down by the University of Northern Colorado, took a walk around UNC, went to the library, then hung out playing video games at our house.  Then, last night we went over to Matt and Jamie’s and hung out, played cards, used their new juicer and played Rockband. Fun and busy weekend!

Nikki and Schnoodle
Nikki, a Schnauzer and Schnoodle at Britton’s Parents for Christmas

Tree at UNC
Helping give a boost to my nephew up into a tree in front of UNC

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (0)
  • Awesome (0)
  • Interesting (0)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (0)

Yom Kippur

So apparently while I was at Yom Kippur services with Shana, Britton was jamming out last night. I kept asking Shana different questions about Judaism, so she finally decided to just take me to temple. I have never been to a synagogue before, so I didn’t really know what to expect, and I told Shana to correct me if I did anything that was obviously offensive, but I think I did ok. I took Anthropology of Religion in college and have learned a lot about and I am interested different religions, but I haven’t experienced very many of them first-hand.

The services start with lighting of memorial candles and a lot of singing in Hebrew which was difficult for me to follow along because, I can’t read Hebrew. And the book is read from right to left. They had a few parts where I could try to sing along in Anglicized Hebrew. We said “avinu malkeinu” over and over again which means, (now that I can look it up on Wikipedia) Our Father, Our King. We also said “Adonai” a lot which also means Lord our God. And of course, Amen…but it was more like AH ah AH ah AH ah May aaaeeen (imagine singing it for about 30 seconds). We stood whenever the “Ark” was open. The ark is like the alter but it is where the Torah is kept. I kept thinking of that scene in Pulp Fiction when he opens the case and it glows gold on his face…

Then when it was closed we usually could sit. The closed ark had a beautiful golden picture of a tree- the Tree of Life. They had five heavy wooden things that were covered in pretty cloth that they rotated having different men hold. These, Shana explained, are the 5 books- the first 5 chapters of the Bible- and they store them in the Ark.

Since Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, we also talked/read along about all the things that we may have done willfully or unwillfully wrong to people and to God. It is kind of like confession except that everyone would do it together and no one was singled out.

The rabbi, who was female (that’s cool!), also gave a sermon called “Why Be Jewish?” I thought it was pretty interesting. She also talked about divine pleasure as the main reason for being “one” with God: all other pleasures are fleeting. The men and boys -and some women- all wore yamikahs (sp?) and a shawl (I can’t remember the correct term for it). And most of them had little knots on them that Shana said are supposed to remind you to do good deeds or mizfuts (sp?). I thought she said “misfits” but probably not. 🙂 I think the yamikah is to remind you that God is always above you.

Shana said that everyone is supposed to fast and go to temple all day today until sundown when they will Break-The-Fast. After the sermon (is that the right word?) we went and said “hi” or “Good Yentuv” to people. It was kind of funny because I knew more people there than Shana did!

Overall, it was a very neat night and I learned a lot. I definitely should have worn better shoes for all the standing though! And, we were also invited to go to a sweat lodge with an American Indian soon, so that will be cool as well.

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (0)
  • Awesome (0)
  • Interesting (0)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (1)