I wish I had something exciting to tell you but, there’s nothing terribly exciting.
I went to Chicago for a conference that was great.
I saw Sex and the City while I was there.
I’m going to see Mamma Mia tonight.
I went to Taste of Kalamazoo with 2 cool girls today.
I hung out with a cool girl last night and had fun. Not a “date” girl, a sweet friend girl.
And that is that.
From a picture on Salon.com: If guns kill people, do pens misspell words?
Do I have to own a gun to support the constitution?
We have a constitutional right to bear arms. I am not in favor of banning guns. I am in favor of limiting, say, the sale of AK47s and assault weapons to anyone outside the military or perhaps law enforcement. It isn’t as if we really have to worry about being invaded and having to protect our homes. Okay, you never know when those Canadians are going to get fed up with us and come to kick our asses, but really? Having to fight The Bad Guys right outside our own doorsteps, thus needed an automatic rifle to take out an many as possible, isn’t all that likely in the US. For better or worse, the rest of the world recognizes that we have enough nuclear power to bomb them into oblivion AND that we are just crazy enough to do so.
The NRA acts like by saying that no one needs to own an AK that we are just on the verge of banning guns entirely. While I realize that our current President thinks that the Constitution doesn’t apply to him, most of the rest of us aren’t likely to disregard it so easily.
In a debate, Sen. Mc Cain “admitted” that he didn’t own guns. The NRA only gave him a C+ rating for this and other reasons. Do I have to own a gun to support our constitutional right to bear arms? No wonder the “Right” (or as I prefer to call them The Hopelessly Misguided Wrong) wants an amendment to the Constitution banning same sex marriage. I mean, clearly to support something for others you have to do it yourself, right? And NOBODY wants to see Bill O’Reilly married to James Dobson, for example. :shudders: That would not be pretty.
I have a new page called “Bumper Stickers and Funny Stuff.’ See? On the right there?
Go read. Got any others?
Know what I wanna know?
How does MySpace decide what ads I’m going to get? How do they *know* this stuff? Like, okay, I can understand the lesbian stuff since I say I’m a lesbian. I have a few trans friends on my friends page, so I can understand that. Except I get weird ones that say things like “Date a transgender!” Besides trans stuff is in my interests. Lately, though, I’ve been getting ads for interracial dating sites. How on earth do they know that my girlfriend and I are of differing races? Besides, if I have a girlfriend, I don’t need a dating site, let alone one that appears to be for straight people.
Stream of conciousness: I read a book called “Choices” by Nancy Toder waaaayyyy back when I came out. One of the characters, one who couldn’t decide if she was a lesbian or not, objected to the use of “straight” to refer to heterosexuals, one of which she presumably was, because to her (this was the 70s okay? I mean the book was placed in the 70s) “straight” meant “uptight” and I think people who didn’t drink or use drugs.
Next random thought: MDLS is clearly having an influence on my music. Check out my playlist. There are *country* songs on it. Largely thanks to MDLS and a little bit due to my sister. Mostly MDLS.
3rd random thought: my friend JV called me this weekend. I was surprised. She rarely calls me, even when I’ve indicated I’m in a bit of an emotional crisis. She’s “too busy.” Well, she is busy, I’ll give her that. I’d decided not to call her again until she called me. She always knows when I come to that decision and calls me.
From the Chronicle of Philanthropy: There are people who are criticizing Planned Parenthood for trying to market to a more upscale audience, people who can pay for their services. Even other reproductive health providers who say that PP has “forgotten” poor women. How on earth do they expect that PP will get the money to pay for the services to poor women if they don’t have more affluent women who pay full price or whose insurance pays? For pity’s sake.
Final Thought du Jour: George Carlin died. He was 71. I can’t believe he was 71. I loved GC until I saw him in person. He was racist and I don’t like that, so we left the show. I can’t remember any more what he said that was so off-putting, but after spending $70 (10 years ago!) to see his show, it must have been bad for 1) MDLS to suggest that we leave – she isn’t prone to that – and 2) for me to not say “But we paid $70 for these tickets!
Okay, I’m going back to work.
It seems like I go in spurts - I’ll write every day for months and then nothing for what seems like ages. Then I wonder why I don’t get any message from my friends! Well, one of my friends now is freelancing full time and too busy to send me messages, the other I used to get a lot of messages from isn’t talking to me as much (probably for a good reason like making sure he stays married!) and then my girlfriend has a new job so even SHE isn’t online much any more. Pathetic.
On the other hand, my IRL social life has picked up. I’ve been out to dinner with friends a few times, out to a bar where I drank wayyyy too much and, if I remember correctly, removed a $1 bill from the waistband of a cute but shy and VERY young woman. Sigh. I told y’all I really shouldn’t drink. I get Friendly. 
I’m still having the introspective phase. I think I’m having a midlife crisis. :) Gratefully, mine doesn’t include a sportscar, a divorce and an affair with a child. Okay, well, it did include a divorce.
I’m trying to avoid writing “woe is me” messages on my blogs since a) there are alot of people who know me IRL who read these days b)how boring is *that*? and c) the thoughts change so frequently that I can barely pin one down before I begin a new one. On a good note, there are those who say that this is a good thing, a good place to be and that I’m being “responsible.” Whatever.
On another good note, I paid off one of my school loans. I got the statement and it said I only had $600 left so I paid it. Yeah. Of course, I will not be going out to dinner or anywhere else until after 7/15, if doing so involves me spending money. Well, after tomorrow that is. I am finally going to get a new bed. I’ve had the mattress for ages, but not the bed, so I’m going to get it tomorrow. Maybe I’ll even post pictures.
You KNOW it’s going to take another week to get the damn thing put together, thought, right?
Well, darlings, I’m having a quiet few days. My friend, Boss Chick, and her partner, Blond Butch Chick, have gone away for a few days because Boss Chick’s father is ill, and I’m dogsitting. Peggy Sue and I are hanging out with Nick, their big ol’ lab. He’s the same age as PS and pretty easy, overall. Being me, I read an entire book after work yesterday.
Tonight, I’m going out with friends, then I’ll be home and quiet for the weekend.
I haven’t had much to say because …. I haven’t had much to say. I have been busily working. I’m surprised at all that I’ve gotten done this week. I have no intention of doing anything remotely productive this weekend, however. Short of walking Nick, I’m going to cook yummy stuff and chill. On an acquisitive note: next week I am going to buy a new bed! I might even get carried away and buy some new sheets and a duvet. I will post pictures if I do. 
Yeah, I know … I have TWO cameras and can’t take a damned picture. I will. I promise. Soon. But maybe not of me, so much.
Very few of my friends actually know one another. I have a disparate lot rather than a group of friends who are all friends with one another. It’s just the way it’s worked out. My friends are across the country and the ones here are not all friends with one another.
Except then, I have these friends. There are 3 of them, in this particular group. In my email address book, I have them set up as a distribution list which I call “Grammar Freaks.” It’s not only grammar, though, it’s mispronunciations, it’s bad spelling, it’s atrocious punctuation (every “s” is not possessive!) and enjoying the bastardization of American English we hear in this lovely Midwestern city. For example: I can’t tell you how many people I hear say “bag-eege” rather than “baggage.”
Every so often, we get together, have drinks and bar food and have a great time airing our idiomatic grievances. One of them, Ms. Board President, reads this blog. Another, Boss Chick, doesn’t, or at least not regularly. The third is Mr. Board VP and he just found out about it. I told him I’d send him the link, which I am doing today.
Welcome to Dichotomous Nature, Mr. Board VP. Chances are good that you’ll find out far more than you ever wanted to know about me since I often forget that people I know in real life actually read the site. The only “requirement” for being a member of the Friends of Dichotomous Nature group is to leave comments! I love them! I solicit them. I beg for them. Don’t make me track you down because you haven’t left any.
Shockingly, I got up at 7 am this morning and took Peggy Sue for a walk. I am going to do it tomorrow too. You should see her - she’s so happy to go for a walk. Her tail wags the whole time we’re out. I think she may be getting some arthritis, so walking is good for her. Not too bad for me, either.
In other, more cryptic, news: I have GOT to learn not to take things so personally. Really, truly, I do. It almost never is about me.
Apparently, allowing me to marry my partner of choice will trample the religious freedom of the diehard fruitcake whack baskets of the “right.” I can not get this link to work correctly, so go here to read the story: http://pewforum.org/news/rss.php?NewsID=15724
They are very worried that they are going to be forced to perform same sex marriages or be sued. No minister or priest has to marry anyone he or she doesn’t want to and that is that. Religious freedom is religious freedom. You can choose to remain ignorant if you want to.
Oh, and it’s a bad thing that schools will have to teach children that homophobia isn’t good.
On a completely unrelated note, I would never set foot in a Dunkin Donuts again, if there were one near here to be bothered by it. Those motherfuckers have made me so damned mad.
First of all, you may or may not know that I love Rachel Ray. Love her. I should Tivo her show but I forget. Love, love, love Rach. So, I was happy to hear that she was doing a Dunkin Donuts campaign. The, the people who call themselves Christian, but aren’t remotely Christ-like, raised a ruckus over a web ad where Rachel is wearing a scarf that sort of, vaguely, if you aren’t paying close attention resembles a traditional Arab headdress. For pity’s sake. WHO CARES????? Arab does not = terrorist, people. Besides, Rachel isn’t Arab. Not that her family’s roots matter one bit – racism is what this is pure and simple and Dunkin Donuts caved. For the story, go here: =” http://pewforum.org/news/rss.php?NewsID=15724
/rant
Today has been good. I had to go to a meeting in Grand Rapids, an hour away, at the University Club. I didn’t remember until I was well on my way that I was going to the UC and I was wearing jeans and Tshirts. I stopped at Meijer and got a new shirt, which was the best that I could do. It turned out fine. I had a yummy sirloin blue cheese salad and lemonade.
On my way back to work, Boss Chick called me to tell me that one of the grants we submitted was approved, in its full amount! That was pretty thrilling. $10,000. Not the biggest grant I’ve ever written, but not bad either.
Once I was back at work, I paid some bills (exciting, right?) and ordered some new makeup. I have to tell you that if you buy Bare Minerals, you should definitely buy the Prime Time. It’s one product that does exactly what it says. My makeup still looks pretty good at the end of the day. Good enough, in fact, that last week MDLS asked me if I’d touched up before we left to go somewhere.
I was supposed to do something tonight but now I’m not, so I am going to go home, drink an entire bottle of cheap champagne all by myself and read. Well, unless I get too drunk to read. I am going to chill with my dog, in my bed, with booze. MDLS has something to do tonight so who knows when she’ll show up.
I hope you all have a great long weekend.
