Marriage, and why it’s so important.
Today it was announced by the supporters of a same-sex marriage bill in Washington’s legislature that the bill has enough votes to pass in the senate. The bill already had enough votes to pass in the house of representatives. What this means is that we’re extremely close to having true marriage equality in the state of Washington. There are still a few complications that could happen, however. For instance, the bill could still go to a referendum. If critics of the bill are able to get enough signatures the new law would go to a vote, exactly like what happened with Senate Bill 5688, the bill that extended the same rights of civil marriage to domestic partners in the state of Washington. Well, almost all of the same rights. The one right that a domestic partnership doesn’t get is the right to be a real marriage. I love Levi, but our domestic partnership is not a marriage. We aren’t married. Sure we have the same rights as married, but we aren’t married.
We can’t say we have the same rights as somebody else, when somebody else has the right to a marriage and we don’t. This is the fundamental issue with a domestic partnership. No matter how many rights you give domestic partners, they will never be able to say they have a marriage because a domestic partnership was created to give same-sex partners similar rights while keeping them separate from heterosexual partners. (Why? Because, apparently, same-sex couples aren’t good enough to have the same title as heterosexual couples.) Keeping people separate but equal isn’t acceptable, and it’s a lesson we should have learned many years ago. Separate isn’t equal. Separate can’t be equal.
Equality is important. Not just so grown adults can have the right to say they are married, but so young gay children can look to the future and have hope. Hope that, one day, they too will be able to have a family like their heterosexual friends. Hope that, one day, they too will be able to marry the person they love – not just partner with them. (You see? It’s just not as nice..) Hope that, one day, they too will be accepted. No child should ever be told that they don’t deserve the same freedoms as another child.
While the support of our legislators is important, and exciting, it may not be enough. If this bill is passed it will, most certainly, come under attack by the same people who attacked Senate Bill 5688. If, and when, this happens we will need to fight just like we did before. The only difference is that today, we have the knowledge that we have won before and we can do it again; however, that knowledge could easily cloud our judgement. The fight isn’t over when the bill is passed. The fight is over when we no longer live in fear of losing our rights.
The fight is over when we can stop explaining to people what domestic partnerships are, and how they are “sort of like marriages.”
Read MoreParties, Badass Bandaids, and Vacuums.
On top of the list of things that I never thought I would be doing, making German food is one of them. Tonight Levi and I attended a party for one of our newest friends, it was German themed to “acknowledge his German heritage.” The notice, although short, was sufficient enough for me to find a recipe and make something for the party. I made Apple Pudding Cake. I don’t really care for apples that aren’t apples, so I was skeptical when I tried it but it wasn’t bad at all. Everyone seemed to like it, and there was none left by the end of the night. There were some other delicious foods as well but, seeing as how I could hardly remember the name of the dish I prepared, I can’t be expected to remember their names.
The party was a ton of fun. We played some munchkin game, and then trivial pursuit, and then cranium. I probably don’t need to spell this one out, but I was not very good at any of these games. Fortunately, my brain was somewhat functional this evening so I could play most of them without extreme handholding. I think the best part about tonight, was playing with the play-dough from cranium; I made a pretty badass bandaid.
Overall, it was a lot of fun and definitely worth missing my vacuuming day for. (I wish I had a good reason to skip vacuuming day every day.. If only cat litter could just move itself out of the carpet.) This is going to be a short one tonight, I’m very tired and have a lot of chores to do tomorrow. I need my sleep.
Read MoreSnow, and Birthdays.
I don’t think I need to say this because I think most of my readers are local, but it’s been snowing for the last few days. All of this culminated with a large storm that brought almost eight inches of snow to my neighborhood, and similar amounts of snow to nearby areas. There was so much snow that Levi’s clinic was closed for the day and he got the day off of work. I didn’t work today either, simply because I wasn’t scheduled, so we went out for a walk in the snow early in the afternoon. (Which turned out to be a walk to get lunch, and a trip to the park down the street.) We had a lot of fun out in the park. As embarrassing as it is to say, I had a lot of fun on the swings.. I jumped off of them into the snow, it was great fun.
When we were finished in the snow, we came home to relax before heading back out again. We went to the mall to pickup Levi’s iMac from the Apple store, but we found out that it was closed when we got there. Since we obviously couldn’t pick up the iMac, we stopped to get some food and then left the mall. The drive there and back wasn’t so bad, but it was very icy. I’m pretty safe when it comes to driving in the snow, but there are others who aren’t careful at all…and they deserve to be slapped or something. On our way home, there was a truck following so closely to my car that it would have slid into my car if we had had to stop. We made it home in one piece, and didn’t get stuck on the hill leading up to our apartment building like 20-ish other people did. (Seriously, there are around 20 cars parked along the hill because they couldn’t make it up. Fortunately, we live towards the bottom of the hill..)
At home, I did my vacuuming and some quick cleaning and sat down to relax. After a few hours, Levi and I went out to get some groceries. Not wanting to risk getting stuck like those other people, we walked. The walk wasn’t so bad, especially because Levi let me wear a pair of his winter boots, but when we made it home we were both a little worn out. Overall, today was pretty eventful. Hopefully the roads will just be wet tomorrow morning when I have to drive to work.
Yesterday was eventful as well, it was my mom’s birthday. (She turned 19.. True story..) Levi and I both worked during the day, but his classes had been cancelled in the evening so we headed to my mom’s place after work. We stopped by the grocery store to grab her a birthday cake before heading there. She seemed surprised and happy that we got her a cake, and I am glad.
That’s all for today. Hopefully all of this snow melts soon. I’m not really a fan..
Read MoreMigraines, Chicken, and Rice.
This morning, around six, I woke up with pressure and pain in my right eye. (I’ve come to find that this means I have a migraine coming on.) I chose to ignore it so that I could get some rest, that was a mistake. At 6:50 AM when my alarm went off, the pain was awful. I got up, went straight to the medicine cabinet and took some migraine medicine and had a chai latte. It was too late, however. I lasted probably 30 minutes before I threw up the medicine and the caffeine I had drank. When I get a migraine I find that if I don’t catch it early enough, I won’t be able to get the full benefit of the medicine. After about four hours of suffering, the pain had subsided to the point where I was able to get some rest. After about six hours, the photosensitivity was gone and shortly after that I was able to function again.
I was supposed to work today but, on account of the fact that I couldn’t hold in the contents of my stomach longer than a few minutes, I wasn’t able to go. Instead I took the time to recover and, when I was finally feeling better, I did some housework and ate lunch. I still have a lingering headache, but it isn’t so bad anymore. I always feel bad when I can’t make it into work – especially under today’s circumstances: snow. I wasn’t calling in “snow” today, but I know a few people probably did and my migraine didn’t help matters. I’m sure they were happy I called in four hours in advance, instead of 10 minutes like some people like to do.
It’s been snowing for the last few days and I’m not a big fan of it. Now that I live so far away from work, snow is kind of a big deal. The road was pretty icy when I would have needed to go to work today and, in a way, I think that this migraine might have been a blessing in disguise. My car is quite small and doesn’t handle well in any kind of wet, especially if that wet is frozen. Hopefully the road isn’t so icy tomorrow when I need to go to work. (And hopefully my migraine doesn’t come back..)
I need to cut this one short, because I need to cook dinner. We’re having chicken and rice.
Read More14 things my husband has taught me
Over the last few years, my husband Levi has taught me a lot of things about life. Here is a list of 14 of those things.
- “Clean it up.” means “Clean it up once and make the same mess again the next day.”
- “Clean it up, and stop making this mess.” means “Clean it up for two days, maybe three, and then proceed to make mess again.”
- “Because I clean the house.” isn’t a good enough reason for “Clean it up.” until there are tears involved.
- Adding additional ingredients to food, after I’ve cooked and served it, doesn’t mean “This food doesn’t taste good.”
- It’s OK to get frustrated at me when you’re asked to stop leaving your socks around the house. (Even though I’ve asked you not to do so every day for the last three weeks.)
- Eventually I will just give in and clean the socks up myself.
- Protein powder belongs all over my kitchen, and not inside of the blender bottle.
- In order to ensure maximum kitchen coverage, protein powder must be spilled on the counter when putting it into the blender bottle, and then one must subsequently fail to close the opening properly before shaking the blender bottle.
- More money must be spent on protein in a month than is spent on groceries.
- When I say “It’s OK if you put my towel on another rack so that your towel can dry.” it really means “Stop letting your towel share the same towel rack as mine when it is wet, because it won’t dry and will start to smell.” and not “Continue putting my towel on the same rack as yours.”
- The cats must have the ugliest, loudest, most obnoxiously large toys and cat furniture known to man or they will die. Never mind the fact that they survived thousands of years without these things.
- Cats will freeze to death if I turn the heat off in the apartment when nobody is home. Their built in fur coat isn’t real.
- Exercise equipment must be visible at all times.
- Furniture must be comfortable..even if that means it’s ugly.
I love my husband, even his annoying habits.
Read MoreScott Pierson Trail Bicycle Ride
Yesterday I said that, rain or shine, Levi and I were going to bike the Scott Pierson Trail. Well..we did it! It was really hilly. I had read in the reviews for it that it was a bit hilly, but at no point did I expect it to be as bad as it really was. There were some inclines that I could barely walk up in my current shape, I certainly couldn’t bike up them. In total, the trip ended up being 12.5 miles and was actually a bit longer than the five miles that I had read. From end to end, it was probably more along the lines of seven miles.
The ride itself went mostly smooth. One of the problems we had was a very gusty headwind that didn’t help us on our ride. The wind was also extremely cold, I didn’t sweat at all on this ride due to the cold and the wind. Halfway through the ride, it started snowing. There was no accumulation, but that didn’t make it any less annoying. Snow kind of feels more like rocks when the flakes hit your face..especially when you’re already cold.
It took quite some time to make it to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge at the end of the trail, but once we made it the views were breathtaking. I hope to return some other time with my camera, should the weather permit – I’m not really sure what I can accomplish with my camera but it will be interesting to see the results, nonetheless. On the ride down from the top of the bridge into Gig Harbor, I hit 31 miles per hour – Levi, on the other hand, hit a rock. The aforementioned rock punctured his front tire and left a hole in his inner tube, which I then proceeded to change at the top of the bridge in 35 degree weather..wind blazing..without my gloves. After that minor huge issue was dealt with, we rode back home and got there just as the sun was going down.
Overall, it was a great trail that I would love to ride along again. The noise from the highway wasn’t as bad as people had said it was, and the breathtaking view while biking over the bridge was well worth the effort put into it. And if you’re not one for scenery, there are a lot of hills to speed down. Personally, I enjoy the scenery and the fast descents so I will be riding this trail again. Did I mention that it is practically in my back yard?
Read MoreDead Computers and New Friends
It’s been an interesting week! I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had the time to write an entry about it.
At the beginning of the week, my iMac turned off and wouldn’t turn back on again unless left unplugged for about 10 minutes. The symptoms were all pointing to a failed power supply. At first I thought it was my cat, peanut, stepping on the power supply that did it. (He likes to play on top of it and has, in the past, turned it off in the process.) This sudden cut to power could cause damage to the power supply so it was my best explanation. I took it in to the Apple store and the “Genius” seemed to agree with my findings. It wasn’t until Tuesday night when Levi’s iMac started exhibiting the same symptoms that I began to suspect it might not, directly, have been the cat at all. I say it might not have been caused directly by the cat because I believe my vacuuming caused the damage. Vacuum cleaners, when turned on, draw a large amount of electricity causing a brownout. If this brownout occurs on the same circuit as the computers it will cause the power supplies inside of the computers to work harder to keep up with the demands of the computer. This damage builds up over time, and I have always vacuumed on the same circuit that the iMacs run on. I think the problem was exacerbated by the increased frequency of my vacuuming in the new apartment. (The cats’ litter is in my living room now, instead of in the bathroom.) Now that both iMacs are in the shop, we are sharing my 13 inch MacBook. Thank god we didn’t sell it. In order to prevent this problem from happening again, we are going to get an uninterruptible power supply with voltage regulation. If anyone reading this has any recommendations, please share them.
On Wednesday, Levi and I went bowling with a few people who I’d never met before. That was a ton of fun, despite how terrible I am at bowling. I didn’t do too badly, I suppose. (Levi told everyone he was terrible, and the first thing he bowled was a strike. Jerk. The worst part? He was the first to bowl!) I’ve always been kind of shy around new people and I tend to avoid meeting new people at all costs. That being said, I am glad I took the chance and agreed to go. Everyone was really nice, and it was nice to meet other gay people. I don’t know many gay men.. I lost contact with the ones I used to know when I left CWU and the few I know now are a bit younger than I am and still live with their parents. It’s difficult to hold a conversation with someone who isn’t at the same stage in their life as you are, they tend to lose interest. I know that Levi was very happy to meet new people, and make new friends. It’s nice to meet other gay men, because they tend to understand where I’m at in my life better than others might and they tend to understand where I’ve been. Also, I feel like it’s easier to talk to other homosexual people – I don’t need to censor anything so as not to offend, and I don’t need to explain anything in the middle of a story. I’d like to think that these new people had just as good of a time as we did, because I know Levi gets lonely sometimes without having anyone else to talk to but me.
All of the aforementioned stuff in combination with work really kept me busy this week. I started working earlier than usual this week, and it was a little weird having to function at seven in the morning. Next week, I start working on Mondays again. I haven’t really worked on a Monday since October when I took the entire month of Monday’s off for some dental work. That ended up turning into me just not working them and when Levi’s car died it became really convenient for me to work less so that we could have the car. With the new apartment, it is no longer necessary for me to drive him to work because he commutes in by bicycle now. Now that he isn’t dependent on the car, I can drive myself to work and am able to expand my availability.
Tomorrow, rain or shine, Levi and I are going to bike the Scott Pierson trail. The trail is a 5 mile bicycle and pedestrian path that goes along highway 16 through Tacoma and over the Tacoma Narrows Bridge into Gig Harbor. I am pretty excited about it because it is so close to our new home. I love living in Tacoma, everything is conveniently located – I can bike anywhere and if I do need to travel by car, I don’t need to get on the highway to do so. I’ve never really seen the Narrows up close, so I think it will be nice to finally get to see it without having to pay to go across. Hopefully we can make it the entire way there, apparently this trail is a bit hilly so it might be too much for me right now.
I would like to apologize for the lack of content lately. I am going to really try to do better. As soon as I get my iMac back, I’m going to add another portfolio gallery and work on revamping some of the content of my blog. All of my photos are on the iMac’s hard drive, so I can’t really work on adding new sections to the gallery because of this. I was going to participate in Friday Favorites with Jenn, but I can’t really do that without my iMac either because I don’t have Lightroom on the MacBook and I can’t edit the photos I took this week. I really liked a few of them too..
Read MoreAbout Me
