This is a video I made centered around the start of flag football season and our first game. I'm going to make a new video every week, so you all can see just how rigorous and tough it is to be an elite flag football player.
And I just let Nicki know that she sleeps next to a champion. While she was in bed, I stood over her, flexed, then put my face about negative two inches from her face and said in a Texas accent, "Honey I just wanna let you know, you sleep next to a champion. Eight and Oh (zero)."
See, I'm kinda nervous about the game tomorrow night. To be a starting quarterback on a team is a tremendous responsibility. Not only that, but as team captain, I'm responsible for making sure the morale of the team is where it needs to be, and that my guys are happy and content. A man with my mental and physical gifts cannot afford to be complacent about such things. A man with my mental and physical gifts has a responsibility to his other teammates to set the tone of the game.
All of that aside, I guess the thing that is keeping me up right now, is the possibility that there may be some college scouts out there at the game, looking for the next big thing. Now look, I don't want get ahead of myself, but lets just say I have it on good authority that there are going to be some big time coaches and scouts from some Division 9 colleges at the game. And I do NOT want to disappoint. I've had a rigid two day a week (not to exceed 5 days in a 14 day span) workout regiment. Along with that grueling routine, I have been on a very strict diet which does not allow me to eat snacks after midnight, while also cutting my soda consumption to a meager 6 liters a week. Combine those things with my 5 minute study session of the league rules, and you've got yourself an athletic and cerebral phenom. I feel sorry for whatever team we play tomorrow night. I predict the score to be 25 to -4.
Team ALL-IN has had two practices. And I think in those 3 hours we spent together, running plays and getting to know each other, we've really come together as a unit. Our first practice was kind of all over the place, but by the end of our second practice, I only had to explain "American football" to my teammates twice.
I'm pretty sore right now because I had football practice yesterday...
Yeah that's right. FOOTBALL practice. I've only lived here 7 months, but I gathered 11 guys I know (alright, a few of them I don't know because they're a friend of a friend) and formed Team ALL-IN, Roseville California's PREMIERE Flag Football team. Our first game is next Tuesday night. Some have said we're the New York Giants of the Flag Football world. Just a solid bunch of over achievers that work hard, play hard, and get the job done. (Alright FINE, no one said that.)
We had our first practice yesterday. It was brutal. I've been swimming and doing cardio for about 5 months now, losing weight and getting in shape, and even I'm sore today. So I can imagine how much more sore the rest of the guys are. In fact, I know, because they called to tell me. Thing is, we didn't stretch. We didn't warm up. We just went out there and slung it. We scrimmaged for about 25 minutes, and then did some drills for the next hour. There were guys diving, falling, jumping, spinning and doing everything else you'd imagine a group of late 20-somethings, early 30-somethings and one 40 something doing. It was hot and bright, but like true warriors, we practiced until it got too cold.
At my age, the game has really slowed down for me. I'm seeing things on the field at a slower pace than I think most of the other guys see it. I recognize defenses faster, read blitzes quicker, and I'm able to audible at the line in any given situation, in order to call a hot route that will surely give us the advantage. (Alright, none of that is true either, but I've always wanted to say that. Especially the "game has really slowed down for me" line.)
Since I love video games so much, I came up with a hot route system based on them. If I look to my left and say 3 pac-man, that means the third guy from my left does a slant. Looking to my right and saying the same thing, the 3rd guy from me would do the same. Here's the breakdown of the audibles. Just in case you were wondering. (I know. None of you are wondering).
Pac-Man = Slant Centipede = Seam/Streak Frogger = Post Dig Dug = 5 and out
Anyway, it's 7 on 7. I'm probably the smallest guy on my team. Which means I'll probably be the best. Because that's how life works. I plan on posting our stats every Tuesday night after the game, and possibly some video clips as well.
Well, the culmination of all of my lifes experience has come to this...
I've finally decided to answer God's calling in my life, and become a pastor. I'll go ahead and let that sink in for a second.
Yup. Not a joke. Still need a minute? Ok.
Well, now that you've had a minute to digest that, I'll tell you a little more about my decision, and why it's the most clear and peace of mind decision I've ever made. Since I was 16, I've had 22 jobs. 22 jobs in about 15 different fields. I've waited tables, been on television, been a janitor, installed phone systems, fixed computers, sold stuff and been a youth counselor just to name a few. But with every new job I ever took, came the same feeling as the last job. And that was the feeling that I honestly had no desire to work my way up the ladder, or attain a title like CEO or Supervisor. In fact, I've never been promoted in my life. Not once. I just always had this feeling inside of me that I honestly didn't give a rip about any of the jobs I've had, in terms of making it a career.
But I always struggled with why God had given me the desires, skills and dreams of being an actor/writer/producer and entertainer, but not the desire to move to Los Angeles or New York. I had opportunities to. But I never wanted to take my family, or myself away from my parents and siblings and cousins. I would always have these internal discussions with God and ask him why he gave me all of those things, but not the desire to move and give it a chance. Along with my desires and skills to entertain, I've always had a deep love for my fellow man. Nothing, and I mean nothing, gives me more pleasure or makes me feel more alive than helping someone out. Whether it be through encouragement, through gifts, financially, giving advice or just listening, I've always loved and felt like communication was a powerful gift I've had.
Unfortunately, I have been pretty prideful my entire life, and thought I knew better than God what I needed to do with my life. But I'd always had this small voice inside of me saying "What about what I want you to do? What about becoming a pastor?" And when I say small, that's what it was. It wasn't this loud, overbearing revelation type experience that some people talk about where they just felt like since day one, they knew they were called to ministry. Mine was a quiet whisper. And I had mastered the art of tuning it out. So I never really had a problem with not answering.
Well, 6 weeks ago I was laid off from the 23rd job in my life. Again, I decided to ignore that voice when I was laid off, and instead immediately hit up craigslist, sacbee, journalismjobs, jobstar, goldvalleyjobs and about 5 other websites daily, in order to find another job. I was determined to provide for my family. But a funny thing happened. I applied to 52 jobs in the last 6 weeks. Jobs I am qualified, under qualified, and overqualified for. Guess how many have got back to me?
Zero.
My rent was due Thursday. I had negative $65 in my bank account. My rent was is $1700. I have no job, Nicki's paycheck was $188 and we already used it, and she wasn't getting paid again until the 20th. We refused to ask our parents for help. We'd done that each month since moving up here. We were in dire straights. I went to Church for a class on Wednesday night. Long story short, after church my pastor asked if how things were going and if we needed any help. Instead of being prideful I told him our circumstances, and he wrote a check right there for $1000. Keep in mind I've been going to this church for 7 weeks. It takes me longer to beat a video game, than I've been attending that church. Later that day, a friend of mine emailed me and said he'd had a pretty good month at his job, and mailed me $100. Meanwhile, I had also called my old church in Fremont to ask for help, and my old pastor said to meet him Friday morning and the Church would give me $500. Do the math. That's $1700. Amazing.
So I drove out to Fremont Friday morning, and had a meeting with my pastor. He asked me how things were going, and I was honest with him. He asked me what my plan was, and I told him that I was going to keep on keeping on. Then he said something to me that changed my life. He said "I've known you 7 years, and in those 7 years I can't think of a better person I've met that has the potential to become a great pastor". It'd take me another 4 hours to write everything else he said and the things we discussed, but that was it for me. My moment had arrived. I knew then that there was no better job for me on Earth, than to become a pastor. Not only that, but he explained that as a pastor of a Church, I could use my love and passion for entertaining/writing/editing and so forth, as a pastor. Now I consider myself a pretty smart guy, but I had never put all of that together.
The last thing my pastor asked me to do before I left Fremont, was to ask my wife and my mother, the 2 people closest to me about what they thought of my revelation. So what I did instead of coming right out with it to Nicki and my mother (Nicki on the phone, and I took my mother to lunch) was posing this question: "What job or career, considering all of my skills, passions and desires, do you think would suit me best?" Without hesitation, both my wife and my mother said "Well, I've always thought you'd make an amazing and wonderful pastor. I've always thought that".
I didn't need any more affirmation. I knew that I knew that I knew this was it. I had FINALLY found the ONE job/career that I've been made to do. All of my life's experiences, my joys, sorrows, screwups, triumphs, friends, enemies, family, former jobs and everything else that's happened to me in the last 30 years has been preparing me for THIS. THIS IS MY CALLING. I've never felt more sure or peaceful about any other decision in my life. It is unbelievably calming to know that I will NEVER, NEVER NEVER NEVER have to go job hunting again. I'll never have to sit behind a desk all day doing something just to pay the bills. I'll never have to wonder what my purpose in life is while doing some horrible job that isn't developing or progressing my skill set. I feel like I won the lottery. I cannot wait for August 28th when I begin classes at William Jessup University, just 2 miles from my house. It's the premiere Bible College on the west coast, and it's 2 miles from my house. I knew we were supposed to move out here. I just thought it was for Nicki's job that she's at. I would have never imagined in a million years that the reason we moved out here was actually for MY future.
It's going to get bumpy from here. Becoming a pastor is not a decision I made while on cloud 9 or while I had my rose colored glasses on. I know the kind of life I have to lead. I know the kind of sacrifices I have to make now. I know the kinds of things people will say about me and judge me. I know the kind of hard tests (I'm not referring to academically, by the way) that I will go through. But I'm ok with all of that because A) I know this is what God wants me to do, and if he is for me, who can be against me? And B) the problem I had with the 23 jobs in my life was that I wasn't interested in them because they had nothing to do with bringing people to Christ. It didn't interest me to climb the corporate ladder ever, because I knew the top wouldn't be high enough. Being a pastor leads to changing people's lives and introducing them to Jesus, who can give them eternal life. No amount of money, stature or fame can rival that.
Pray for my family and I. We're all in this together, and we're going to need all kinds of support to get us through the next 3 to 4 years while I'm in school.
One last thing my pastor pointed out to me before the breakfast was over. He made note of the fact that I, at 30, am just starting my ministry. He then reminded me about another person who started his ministry at 30. His initials are JC.
I liked Hellboy 2 better the first time I saw it when it was called Blade 2.
Don't read this if you haven't seen Hellboy 2 yet. Plenty O' Spoilers are in store.
Guillermo Del Toro, who directed Hellboy 2 is a visionary. No doubts there. Have you seen Pan's Labyrinth? No? You should. Guillermo Del Toro also directed Blade 2. So here is a list of similarities between Hellboy 2 and Blade 2. If I was Guillermo Del Toro, I'd sue myself for plagiarism.
Blade 2: Co Stars Ron Perlman Hellyboy 2: Stars Ron Perlman
Blade 2: Main bad guy is played by Luke Goss. Hellboy 2: Main bad guy is played by Luke Goss.
Blade 2: Main bad guy kills his father to start war on humans. Hellboy 2: Main bad guy kills father to start war on humans.
Blade 2: Main bad guys' sister does not agree with him, and decides to help Blade defeat him. Hellboy 2: Main bad guys' sister does not agree with him, and decides to help Hellboy defeat him.
Blade 2: Blade is led into the vampire dance club to locate main bad guy and obtain more info. Hellboy 2: Hellboy is led into the troll market to locate main bad guy and obtain more info.
Blade 2: Ron Perlman gets an explosive weapon stuck in his head which was put there by his nemesis. Hellboy 2: Ron Perlman gets an deadly weapon stuck in his chest which was put there by his nemesis.
Blade 2: Blade falls in love with the sister of the main bad guy. She dies in his arms. Hellboy 2: Hellboy's partner falls in love with the sister of the main bad guy. She dies in his arms.
Blade 2: The bad guys locate and break in to Blade's secret hideout. A fight ensues inside. Hellboy 2: The bad guy locates and breaks into Hellboy's secret hideout. A fight ensues.
Blade 2: The plot is about an army of super vampires that are are on the brink of wiping out humanity. Hellboy 2: The plot is about an army of super robots that are on the brink of wiping out humanity.
So I think that about covers it. If you have any other similarities, let me know.
The downloading of all 6 Star Wars movies in HD is COMPLETE. Talk about patience. I checked in on it (the download) about two to three times a day. It went at a snails pace. Normally, it would have only taken about 3 days, but since everyone sharing the files had their sharing set to the lowest possible speed allowed, it was sloooooooooooooooow. Finally though, sometime around 3am Sunday morning, all of my hard work paid off. So yesterday evening after Nicki's family left (it's Nicki's 30th birthday today, so they were here celebrating) I downloaded all 6 of the films to my Playstation 3, and watched a little bit of all of them.
The best way I can describe my experience is like this, it was like I was watching Star Wars for the first time. I saw things that I'd never seen before. Literally. People standing in the background, an earring on the Rancor monster, the actual contour of Carrie Fisher's hand when it was zoomed in on. It was incredible. Star Wars has NEVER looked or sounded so good. There's absolutely no substitute for watching a movie in HD. None. The best thing is, Kayla loves it too. She watched about half of Return of the Jedi last night. Twas neat-o.
In other news, it's hot as hell here in Lincoln. Probably like 105 today. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 108, and Wednesday it's supposed to be 111. Right now it's 90 in our house. It would take like 3 hours to cool it down, and then as soon as we turned off the AC we'd it'd got hot again anyway. Not worth it. So we just keep the fan on and stay downstairs.
Brielle is great. She's acting as if nothing ever happened. She's now known as "Danger Baby". Thank you everyone who prayed for her. It helped.
Nope, those aren't pictures of some weird X-Ray I found on the internet. Those are pictures of the insides of my 8 month old daughter Brielle. Today started off normally enough. Me waking up to having no job, Nicki getting ready to go to her $3 an hour job, Kayla waking up in turn waking up Brielle because Kayla turns her music on really loud in the morning. So like I said, the usual.
All of us ended up downstairs around 8:15, and we all started eating breakfast together. I gave Kayla a couple plums, and then made her some pancakes. I made Brielle a bowl of baby cereal, and Nicki had just started on her muffin, coffee and Bible study. When Brielle finished eating, we put her down to let her crawl, and she went and grabbed one of her toys she loves to play with, the Disney Princess Cell phone. Her face lights up every time she presses the buttons and makes the phone beep. Everything was going as usual. Brielle was crawling with her phone, and ended up in the kitchen. A few moments later, we heard a smash, and looked over to see the Disney phone in 3 pieces. So Nicki walks over and starts picking up the pieces to the phone, and asks me:
"How many batteries are in this pink phone?"
"Three." I said.
Then Nicki said "Oh no." "Are you sure?"
I asked her what the problem was, and she said "I only see two batteries".
So I assured her that one of them probably went under the refrigerator or the oven and not to freak out. We both looked all over the kitchen floor for a few minutes and didn't find it. So I got the fly swatter and started sweeping out the contents from underneath the fridge. Then the oven. No battery. Alright, so I'm a tad nervous at this point and say, "I'll go check online to see what happens if a baby swallows a battery. I guarantee you we just have to wait for her to pass it. No big deal."
So I google "my child swallowed a battery" and within seconds I kept seeing the same thing in the google mini results; "Take your child to emergency and call poison control". At this point I was getting a little more nervous but was SURE that poison control was going to tell me that we should let her pass it. Wrong again. The guy tells me we have to get Brielle to emergency room sooner than later, as the alkaline (if the battery was stuck in her esophagus) could damage her throat and burn a hole in it. It could also burn a hole in her stomach if it had settled there as well. Bottom line, it was NOT good, and not something to be passe' about.
At that point Nicki went upstairs, changed Brielle, called her office to tell them she wasn't going to be in until around noon (it was 9am at this point) and off she went to Sutter Hospital in Roseville. I was totally fine. Calm, cool and collected. I bathed Kayla, ate breakfast and started looking for a job. Then Nicki started texting me things like "took first X-ray. it's not in a good spot". So I text back, ask some questions and start getting really emotional. About an hour later she texts me again "It hasn't moved, so they're taking us by ambulance to Sutter in Sacramento to suck it out of her stomach. My phone has one bar btw."
I decided to call Nicki anyway, and get some more info. Her phone stayed alive just long enough to tell me she was being transferred to Sutter Memorial in Sacramento, then her phone died. I was pretty much a sobbing mess at that point. I had Kayla here at the house, but Nicki took the car with the carseats. So I frantically called a few friends that lived in Lincoln to see if they could watch Kayla while I went to the hospital. Unfortunately, none of them answered their phones. But my mom was doing the same thing from Manteca, and got her best friends parents who happen to live less than a mile from us to come watch Kayla. They arrived about 15 minutes later, and I left Kayla here with them. She was screaming bloody murder because she'd never met them, which made me feel even WORSE, but I had to go. So I kissed her good bye and off I went.
I actually arrived at Sutter before the ambulance had, which made things worse on me because I had been gearing myself up the whole ride over to see Brielle immediately and be with her. So when she wasn't there, I got more anxiety. Anyway, to shorten the story up, her and Nicki arrived 2o minutes later, and I spotted the EMT's rolling Brielle down the hall in a stretcher (in her carseat still). That's where I lost it. What little thread that was holding me together at that point broke. I got so emotional seeing my 8 month old daughter on a stretcher that I just couldn't keep it together.
I followed them into the Ambulatory Response area, and that's where they told me all about the procedure. Basically, they were going to put Brielle under anesthetics, (not exactly something I was thrilled about hearing) then they had to stick a breathing tube down her throat (keeps getting worse) then finally stick a vacuum down her esophagus, (strike 3) and get the battery out. The funny thing was, at this point in the room Brielle was up and playing and laughing and making all the nurses love her. It was strange to think that in a short while she'd be on an operating table (even though she wasn't technically being operated on) undergoing a procedure.
About an hour later, the team came in, said they were ready to take Brielle, and off we went into the prep room. Now look, I wasn't so much upset and emotional because I thought she was going to die. I was upset and emotional because thinking about my 8 month old daughter having to go through all of that just broke my heart in two. Even now as I type this, hours removed and Brielle asleep in her bed, it STILL makes me emotional. So back to the prep room, the nurse performing the procedure said "Don't worry Mr. Borba, God's got this baby. It's going to be ok". Now since my mom was in the room with us, my mom said "Well, lets just go ahead and pray right here then, since you mentioned God." I could tell that a couple of the nurses were REALLY weirded out, because my mom had put her hands out for all of us to join hands, but they all grabbed each others hands and there we prayed together. After that I kissed Brielle, held her tighter than ever before and said one more prayer. They took her, then escorted us to the waiting room.
We were told it was going to take about an hour, so we were prepared for that. But about 15 minutes later the nurse came through the door and motioned me over. My heart fucking stopped. (Sorry for the F-bomb, but I literally have no other way to describe it). I got really dizzy, and started thinking the worse. In my mind, the nurse had a sad look on her face. Thank God when I finally made it over to her, she said "Well that was quick! We got the battery out and she's doing just fine." I took the biggest sigh of relief in my life, and stabalized myself. Then started crying again.
About 20 minutes later they let us into the recovery room and I saw Brielle sleeping in the arms of one of the nurses. I went over, took her and held her closer to me than ever before. She looked so peaceful, sleeping. I knew that the worst was over. But I felt so horrible for what happened to her. I just looked at all of her little body parts and thought of the IV going in her arm, the tubes down her throat and then the battery being sucked out. But I was so thankful that she was ok. I just sat there with Nicki for what seemed like an eternity, looking at Brielle and thanking God that she was alright.
An hour later they woke Brielle up, and as soon as she opened her eyes, she started smiling and playing. I felt like I had just won the lottery 52 weeks in a row. I'd thought I loved my daughters, but after today, I really realized just how deep my love for them goes. There has never been anything more urgent and important in my life, than being with Brielle today. It just makes me realize even more how unimportant the stuff of this world is. Some people are blessed with fame. Some fortune. Some both. But I've been blessed with two beautiful girls. And there isn't a thing, person or place on Earth that's more important to me than them. I have no idea how we're going to pay the rent this month, I've been looking for a job for almost a month and have only had one interview, Nicki is struggling at her job with making decent money and we never know where or when or how we're going to have money for groceries and things. But all of that pales in comparison to the concern and stress I had today going through all of that.
I'd gladly lose everything and live on the streets the rest of my life if it meant I got to keep my family. God has blessed me more than I can even comprehend. Maybe I'll never make good money, maybe we'll always have these struggles. It doesn't matter though. I am rich beyond measure. My girls are priceless to me.
