Christmas 2008

Airfare from San Diego, through Denver, to Kansas City: $464.00

Travel time from Kansas City to Peoria by minivan: 6 hours.

Helping my brother chip ice off sidewalks and driveways while my niece and nephew try out her new sled and enjoying the smell of wood fires: priceless.

Obama: “Fags Under the Bus.”

Before the campaign started, before the primaries and everything, I thought that Bill Clinton had acted like a bad boyfriend to gay people, giving us two bad black eyes with the Defense of Marriage Act and Don't Ask, Don't Tell. And I was afraid the next Democratic Preident would turn out to be just as bad; saying just enough to get our votes and money and then turning on us when push came to shove. Imagine my horror when the current President-Elect didn't even wait until he was in office, didn't wait until sacrificing the homosexuals was the best compromise, as Clinton claimed with DOMA and DADT. No. Obama has decided to “reach across the aisle” and give a national stage to one of the most vocal of homophobes, this just after the passing of Propoition 8 left us more vulnerable than ever. And his gesture has been like a big green light to other homophobic Democrats to proceed with their anti-civil rights agenda. Even before taking office Obama has back-handed us across the face to add a big bruise to our two black eyes.

And we're expected to go crawling back to him because he's so much better than Republicans on gay rights? Forget it! I'm shedding my internal homophobia. I'm no longer begging for the approval of Mommie and Daddy Dearest in the form of Hillary and Barack and whoever else is supposed to be looking out for my best interest. In 2012 my vote and my support will be for the most viable third party candidate out there. I hope that enough people do the same to siphon off any margin of victory for the Democrats. The country has not done well under the Reagan/Bush era, but it hasn't come completely apart. Hopefully they'll get scared enough to do more than pay enough lip service to get our vote; they'll actually come to us and beg for our support and protect our rights as they're constitutionally bound to do.

No longer will I vote for someone who has, as my roommate said, “thrown us under the bus as soon as they need some traction.”

In 2012 I'm walking.

Out of the past.

Recently an ex-boyfriend from college surprised me when he tracked me down on facebook. I've been a bad correspondent and I love reconnecting with friends I'd lost track of. It's like finding a part of myself I thought I'd lost a long the way.

So this is me, circa 1985 (like an antique!). Thanks, Steven, for the photo and the renewed friendship.

It's like my younger self peeking out of the past and laughing at me.

Halloween

I'm a bad blogger, posting Halloween pics over a month late. But here’s the crew at work on October 31st. We are:

From left: Back row: Sarah Palin (Cristy), Rocker Dude (Billy), Captain Morgan (Zane), Medieval Lady (Ana), Hippie chick (Rosa), Cowboy (Tim), 1930s pilot (Doug).
Front row: Harry Potter (Amanda), baseball player (Lauryn), Mail woman (Michelle).

After we took the picture Cristy mentioned that she should have been over on the right, but I pointed out that she would have had to be so far to the right that we never would’ve gotten her in the picture.

And I’m a bad fag; all I did was slap a hat on my head. I didn’t even bother to dig out the cowboy boots.