Governor Chris Gregoire signed the marriage equality bill this afternoon, just like she said she would. This means that in 90 days it will go into effect. The last hurdle to get over is the referendum process. The people who do not support the bill will soon be out in full force, collecting signatures to get the bill on the November election ballot. You will likely be approached by these individuals outside of grocery stores and other retailers. If you are approached by one of the individuals, make sure you know what it is you are signing – they may try to mislead you so make sure you read anything they try to get you to sign. (Or even better, ignore them completely.) I know from personal experience that it can be difficult to ignore these people, they are pushy and usually very impolite when they have a cause.

Fighting the inevitable referendum process won’t be easy. People are very opinionated when it comes to marriage, and the same people who supported the idea of extending the benefits of marriage to domestic partners in Washington may not be supportive of the idea of granting the actual right to a civil marriage to gays and lesbians. When a domestic partnership is involved, people tend to think that the union doesn’t really encroach on the “fundamentals” of religious marriage. A civil marriage on the other hand, shares a name in common with religious marriage so people are oftentimes confused about the differences. A civil marriage is not a religious marriage. In fact, a couple can be married under the church of their choice and never even file for a civil marriage. This doesn’t mean their religious marriage isn’t valid, it just means that they don’t have a civil marriage – the two are completely different.

The reason why I write this post is that we aren’t done fighting. We won’t be done fighting until we no longer live in fear of having our rights taken away from us. While the governor has signed the bill, it is not yet a valid law and will not be for some time. If we lose sight of our final goal in the haze of a small victory, we may lose what we have fought so hard to gain – just like the good people of California did when they lost their battle against Proposition 8. They have since regained the right to marriage, but the same stroke of luck may not rear its head in Washington should we lose the referendum process. Furthermore, even though we have almost achieved equality on the state level, the federal government still does not recognize our unions and will not until the Defense of Marriage Act is overturned.

There is still so much more we have to fight for and getting distracted now could prove to be a big mistake in the long run. Remember, when someone comes up to you to ask you to sign a petition to have the marriage equality bill put to a vote, don’t sign it. Even though it will likely go to a vote anyway, every person who refuses to sign is making a positive difference in the world. Also remember, if the bill does go to a vote, make sure you vote to approve the referendum and remember to pay attention to any other items on the ballot that might be related. You can also help by telling your friends and family about marriage equality and why it is so important. Remember, being silent about what is right is doing a disservice to your friends and family who are hoping and praying that they can one day enjoy the same rights as heterosexual couples.

Tomorrow, I’ve got a pretty easy day. I only work three hours and forty-five minutes, and then I have nothing else to do. I think I will probably finish cleaning my apartment when I get home tomorrow. The way I talk about it, you probably think that it’s filthy…it really isn’t – I just like it to be super clean. When you have two cats, it is very important that the rest of the apartment be clean, on account of the fact that the two disgusting felines usually aren’t.

Levi and I are currently sitting at a table in a coffee shop. I was hoping that coming here would get Levi to work on his paper that is due next week, but he has decided that he is just going to do it tomorrow. Which means that we might be making another trip..at home he is currently being distracted by Kingdoms of Amalur – he really loves the game. (I love it as well, but I’ve already stated that here.) I think his favorite part of the game is blowing up monsters, he doesn’t really care about the story much. In fact, he just follows the circle on the mini-map and blows up everything in his way.

Anyway, it’s time to get going. I’ve got a lot of stuff to do tonight.

P.S. I feel like a cliche when I blog from a coffee shop.

Levi has drill this weekend, so I went to a coffee shop with some friends. (This was a welcome departure from the other things I need to get done today… Like cleaning my bathroom.) Since Levi has the car, I biked to the coffee shop. The weather wasn’t super fantastic for it, but I did it anyway. When I went to leave, I noticed that my helmet was hanging from the chain awkwardly and it had been unclipped. I’m pretty sure somebody tried to take it, but they were thwarted by the way I looped the chain through the helmet straps. (Thwarted might be a bit strong of a word, but I like it.) Had they really wanted to, they could have gotten the helmet detached but I am glad they didn’t. I kind of need my helmet. Fortunately they didn’t try take anything else, like the $50 worth of lights that I leave clipped onto my bike. As I write this, I realize that my bike is just asking to be vandalized – it’s so vulnerable.

Since I’m on the topic of cycling, I should probably mention that I am definitely out of shape right now. The moderate inclines from my apartment to the Forza down the street had me gasping for air and praying that my legs wouldn’t explode from the work of moving myself uphill. I can honestly say that I am ashamed of my performance on the ride today. In my defense, I hadn’t ridden my bike for a few weeks before this afternoon. (I’ve been busy.) I hope that as the weather gets a bit nicer that I will be able to get out there more often. I should probably be going to the “gym” in our apartment complex to use the stationary bike, but I’m just so lazy that I never make time to go. I feel like there is always something more interesting I could be doing than sitting on a stationary bike, pedaling to nowhere…staring at a wall.

Levi should be home any minute now, so I have to figure out what we are going to have for dinner. I’m thinking sandwiches. I never think about dinner until it’s time to make dinner, and by that time it’s too late to do anything. One day, I’m going to figure out how to safely thaw chicken in 5 minutes.. You just watch..

The game is a lot of fun, and I can tell that a lot of hard work went into it. There are so many side quests that I just don’t know what to do with myself. I have this problem where I feel like I need to do every single quest, and in Kingdoms of Amalur it is kind of difficult to do them all and still maintain a decent progress through the game. In the 10 hours I have played so far, I have only just begun to make good progress in the main story line. Given my lack of progress through the main story, you might think that I am getting bored with it, but I am not. Even the side quests have compelling story lines and are a ton of fun. (Trust me, I’m an expert…I’ve done like 8 hours of side quests already.) If you’re questioning whether or not to buy this game, just do it. (This is coming from somebody who hasn’t seriously played a single player RPG since Final Fantasy X. None that I have tried since then have been interesting.) The only reason why I’m even blogging right now is because I thought I should let Levi play before we head to bed.

Tomorrow is going to be a really long day for me. I work at seven in the morning until four (9 hours..) and then after that I have to go home, get changed, grab my camera and head to Elmhurst Elementary School where I will be photographing portraits for a Father & Daughter dance. I did the photos last year as well and they turned out pretty good – I am going to be using a flash this time, so the pictures should come out even better. Right now I am charging up my camera batteries for the shoot so that I will, hopefully, be able to make it though the entire thing. (I’ve got two batteries, which should be more than sufficient.)

I need to get to bed soon, or I am going to be a cranky jerk tomorrow. I have so much to do tomorrow, and I probably won’t get home until around 10 at night.

Sunday was nice, I’m not really a football person but it was entertaining to watch Levi cheer for the Patriots. Not only because they lost, but also because he didn’t really know what was going on – he just wanted them to win. Aside from Levi being silly, not much happened. Some of the commercials were funny, I really liked the one where John Stamos got headbutted – that one had me rolling.

Monday night was pretty normal. Levi and I enjoyed sandwiches for dinner and stayed home. Tonight, Levi has class but is now on his way home. Tonight we are heading out to the store for groceries and we’re going to pick up the game “Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning” – I’ve heard great things about it. (Also, my cousin’s fiancé was one of the people who worked on the game, which is actually how I heard of it.) I’ll be sure to blog about the game as I start to play it.

I have to cut this entry short, because Levi is now home and we need to get going. We’ve got a lot of stuff to do before nine, when the game store closes.

Today I finished the first season of The Big Bang Theory. I’m sure my neighbors will appreciate the inevitable decrease of laughter coming out of their walls at two in the morning. I can’t really get over how hilarious this show is. I’d seen bits and pieces of it before getting the first season, but I’d never really gotten into the show because I didn’t want to invest myself into something halfway through it. (I’ve never been able to watch a sitcom without catching up on it beforehand. This is usually very expensive.) I am looking forward to watching the rest of the series in the next few months. It might give me something to do when Levi is in school and laundry doesn’t need to be done.

Our tax returns came in this week. Levi and I both used them to pay off our credit cards. For the first time in about 6 months I have zero credit debt right now. (OK, that’s not entirely true..I used my credit card yesterday for bowling alley reservations – I’ll get into that later..) Another thing we did with the extra money was upgrade my cellphone; I’ve gone back to a BlackBerry, specifically the Bold 9930. Some of you will probably scoff at the idea of owning a BlackBerry, but hear me out: this phone has the best keyboard I’ve ever used. I really loved my iPhone and the large selection of applications, but the BlackBerry platform offers everything I need and a good keyboard. (Not to mention, the Bold 9930 is the sexiest phone with a keyboard on the market right now.) While the iPhone was a gorgeous device, my need for a keyboard just wasn’t met with it. The keyboard isn’t the only great thing about the Bold 9930, the screen is also fantastic. The pixel density is high enough that images are crisp and the colors are fantastic. My only quibble is the battery life. The iPhone definitely beats the Bold’s battery life. That being said, the battery life is good enough even if it isn’t as good.

Now, back to bowling. We went bowling last night with our friend Angie. We don’t meet up with Angie all too often, but when we do we have a lot of fun. The last time we met up was my first trip to a bar since turning 21, which was a lot of fun. Bowling went as well as it can go for me. (I’m not very good at bowling..) Levi beat us every time. After bowling we went to Target and then Bertolino’s Espresso Bar. We sat outside because there were so many people, but it was OK because it was very hot in there.

Today, we’re going to be heading over to my Mom’s house to watch the Super Bowl and eat her food. My parents are going to be making Chip Dip and French Bread Pizzas. I freakin’ love chip dip.. I’ll be sure to blog about the time spent at my parents house later tonight. (Ok, don’t hold me to that one..)

Today has been pretty calm. After work today I came home and relaxed a bit and payed some bills before Levi came home. When Levi got home we went out to get the rent for the cats and out to REI to get a bike rack for our bedroom. The bike rack worked great and we now have a little bit more space in our bedroom for moving around. (Levi has been getting into bed from the end because the bikes took up all of the space on his side.) Living in a small apartment forces us to get a little creative with storage. After REI we went to a couple of stores for groceries – I finally got to use the coupons I got out of the newspaper this week. (The newspaper subscription has paid for itself at this point..which is nice.) All of this lead to right now, with me blogging and Levi editing the final draft of a paper for his English class.

We’ve found that Levi will only work on his classwork when away from home. There are no distractions away from home because he can’t play World of Warcraft on his iPad. Coffee shops are great for working on homework because of the Wi-Fi…and the Chai Lattes of course. We found this out last Saturday when we were out at Forza with some friends, Levi finished his entire first draft while there..something that would never have happened at home. It was fun to enjoy time with friends as well. Another benefit of Levi doing his work at a coffee shop is that I get to work on my blog. I don’t really get a lot of time to blog between my job and my chores at home. (If I were home right now, I’d be doing dishes..not blogging.)

There is only one problem with blogging right now – it’s supposed to be a Wordless Wednesday. Despite the fact that it is a Wordless Wednesday, I’m going to be publishing this. Maybe next Wednesday I’ll be doing a better job at not using words. That is, if I remember to participate next week. (I’m flaky…I know.) I really do need to blog more, eventually I would like to monetize my blog and it’s a bit difficult to do that without regular content flow. It’s also hard to do that without regular readers, something I am also working on. (The two kind of go hand in hand..)

I plan to be here for another hour, but I’ve already run out of stuff to blog about. Levi is only halfway done editing his paper, and I’m completely done with this blog entry. In fact, this last bit is just filler so that I could tell everybody about how I am out of stuff to do and Levi is not. It’s going to be a long hour.

1) What is one of your favorite ways to spend a Saturday?

Photographing stuff. Seriously.

2) List your top three favorite TV shows.

In order, my top three would have to be: Will & Grace, Weeds, and 3rd Rock from the Sun.

3) Would you rather be in pictures or take them?

Take them. I’m not too fond of having my picture taken. I’m not very photogenic.

4) Why do you blog?

Initially, it was because I wanted something to do and I’ve always loved setting up websites. Now, it has evolved into giving me an excuse to operate my web server. I also like talking about myself, of course..

5) Share five websites that you visit regularly.

Facebook, Twitter, The Verge, Ars Technica, and the Photography on the Net Forums.

6) If you could have lunch with one person from your Twitter list who would it be?

Well, I only have four people on my twitter list who are actual people, and of those four people one of them only has a twitter account so she can enter contests. That one person is my sister, and I miss her a ton. So I would have to choose her.

7) List a few of your favorite snacks.

I really enjoy all snacks, so much so that I can’t buy them because I have no self control. When I do buy them, I find myself gravitating towards various types of cookies.

8 ) Do you have a pet? If so, what kind?

I have two cats, Bella and Peanut. Both are obnoxious. Bella is the black one on the right, and Peanut is the orange one on the left.

9) Which three material possessions would you struggle to live without?

My iPhone, my camera, and my iMac. My phone, because it’s the only way I can keep in contact with Levi to make sure he gets to work safely every day. My camera, because it’s my means of expressing myself through artwork. My iMac, because it holds all of my music collection and enables me to edit my photos.

10) What’s your favorite drink?

Various forms of the Chai Latte. So good.

11) Do you enjoy cooking?

I enjoy baking a lot, but cooking dinner? Not so much. I always feel disorganized when I cook.

12) Do you have children?

No kids.

13) What are your favorite hobbies?

Photography, reading, and blogging are my favorite hobbies. But, you’ve probably already figured those things out.

14) Would you consider yourself to be shy or outgoing?

I tend to be a little shy around new people. So much so that I will avoid meeting new people, especially when I am by myself. I guess you could say that I need a support system to meet new people.

15) If you could change one thing about yourself, what would you change?

My negative outlook on life. I’m not sure why, but I oftentimes have trouble seeing the positive side of a situation. I’ve been working on changing this about myself for quite some time, and I think it’s been mostly successful.

16) Who is your favorite actor/actress?

I don’t know if I could choose just one, but if I absolutely had to I would probably pick Julia Stiles. Followed by Debra Messing, of course.

17) What’s the coolest thing you’ve done this week?

Well, it’s Sunday…so…clipping coupons this morning? If I include last week, it would probably be getting coffee yesterday with friends.

18) Do you live near your family or far from them?

I live near my immediate family, except for my sister who lives in texas with her husband and daughter. My extended family live all over the place.

19) List three of your talents.

Well, I’m pretty good at cellular respiration..there are at least three chemical reactions involved there. Just kidding. I consider myself to be pretty good at photography, though I will always have room for improvement. I’m also fairly decent at managing time and cleaning.

20) What is your greatest attribute?

I like making people laugh.