I believe when people die, that their spirit is absorbed into the universe, just as god intended*. My mom, my best friend, my grand dad....
On a nightly basis, (usually when I take the dogs out) I look up at the sky, see all of those stars and realize that the number of familiar spirits is increasing. It makes me sad, but it also makes me incredibly curious.
I say hello to them all, say a little prayer and wonder what it's like for them out there....
(*not really the catholic way, but consider this yet another example of why I am not a good catholic.)
- My tooth hurts. Again.
- Gotta get some dental insurance, or maybe just some magically found money in an old purse.
- Just over half a stack of papers done; two and a half stacks to go.
- Shouldn't have spent so much time on the phone, but I got to catch up with friends, which I should always spend more time doing.
- Mostly clean house, which is nice. Did tons of dishes and microwave cleaning and whatnot today.
- New pajama pants, very softy nice.
- Cat peace continues to hold.
- Almost all of tomorrow off to play more catch-up.
- And SLP will be home. :)
Our nephew Shane and his girlfriend Maggie eloped yesterday in Atlanta. We are very happy for them and will see them on Thanksgiving at Charlotte and Randy's house.
A year ago tomorrow Kevin's brother Shawn married Kim in San Jose. Kevin arrived in California the day Proposition 8 passed to celebrate his brother's happiness. This week we got to watch people a thousand miles away vote on the civil rights of their fellow citizens in the state of Maine.
So, since we have lived in Nashville we have celebrated our nephew Billy's wedding, Shawn's, Shane's, and in June next year Megan and Ryan will be married. My sister and her boyfriend Bob eloped also.
If, suppose, I died tomorrow Kevin would be left alone, lose his Medical Insurance, forfeit my pension, and have to ask my family's permission to bury me.
Each time we celebrate the union of those we love we quietly get to reflect on just what the implications are for us. We have only been together for 18 years. Collectively more than all our newly married loved ones combined as far as the time they have been together prior to getting married. There has been no party or anniversary wishes. No invitations to send out or thank you notes to write.
But we have each other for as long as we are alive and perhaps one day somebody will "allow" us the same basic civil rights as the people in our lives have.
As you know we love our families dearly and support them all and share in their joy each time a milestone occurs. It would be nice to invite them all to share in our joy but we have decided that we will wait until we can do it legally rather than do something symbolic. They all treat us as though we are married so it would really just be a technicality anyhow. Oh, and then there are the 1,200 legal rights we would enjoy in addition to a new toaster and a few gift cards.
by making it illegal for you to divorce!
I am looking into getting a Referendum on the ballot to make Divorce illegal in Davidson County in Tennessee. Marriage is a right and not a privilege. It should be treated as such.
In the Judao-Christian tradition, barring anyone's personal beliefs it should be illegal, based on Christianity and the tenets of most Christian faiths to divorce.
What God has created let no man tear asunder........It doesn't matter if you are Jewish, Muslim, Agnostic, or Atheist. Your rights will be decided on by the religion of the majority. There is no Separation of Church and State and I want to help you get into heaven when the time comes for you to meet your maker.
I am looking into starting a Petition Drive to get this on the ballot in Nashville. I am researching wording for petitions and the process involved in making this happen. I will stand in front of large Christian Churches with petitions and then also go to Gay gathering spots to ensure getting enough signatures to get a referendum on the ballot.
Additionally I would like to make it illegal to remarry if you are already divorced. If you can't get it right the first time you should not get a second chance given so many people are not legally allowed to marry. That would be a gross abuse of a right that others are not permitted to exercise.
Saturday night I experienced the awesomeness that is Zombieland. This
movie was hilarious. The guest cameo was perfect for the movie. The
main character was channeling Michael Sera, and doing a good job of it.
It makes me wonder if they actually wanted him for the role but he
turned it down. Woody Harrelson pulled off the role perfectly. Great
movie. Not for young audiences due to sci-fi/horror violence and
language.
Before Zombieland we were graced with the preview for 2012. At ten
seconds into the preview I broke out into uncontrollable laughter. A
few seconds later someone else shouted out "oh, come on!" The preview
is completely silly and does nothing to make me want to see the movie.
It actually had the opposite effect. Who approved this preview? Who
approved the scenes from the preview in the movie? This one is going to
bomb badly in the theatres.
The terrorist attack on Fort Hood makes me realize how vulnerable we can be. It's a sad tragedy and a reality in our lives today - as united as we have always been in this time we can never become too comfortable in any situation.
Yeah I am lucky enough that my car is not going to be totaled. It will take 5-7 days to repair, once they finally have the parts. So hopefully I will get it back by the end of next week.
Yeah it's a crappy line from a crappy Randy Orton intro. Oh well.
I have a few more caws I'll put up eventually. Yes I know lately it seems I run away into escapism rather than feel.
I don't know that that is exactly whats going down. (Okay maybe a little) but it's a lot of fun, and in the case of one of the caws it's even therapeutic.
Speaking of which, today would knock even the most dedicated recoverer off of the wagon.
I spent over an hour in traffic for what should have been a fifteen minute trek to work. So I was 45 minutes late along with almost everyone else. Then I had a nice double whammy today because the traffic jams delayed our shipment, so that took forever. On top of this, I basically got to hear all day about how craptacular we apparently are, and how everyone is on the brink of unemployment. They didn't come out and SAY that of course. But if you read in between the lines as I've learned to do over the years that's pretty much what they mean. Now I don't dispute there is some level of merit to their complaints. After all in the course of a month we went from #1 in shilling attachments to the middle of the pack. That's like being the World Heavyweight Champion, and jobbing out to the Intercontinental Champion. Except in this business you're not trying to "Build" the stores of tomorrow by putting them over.
That said, one would think by now management in all facets of business would realize that threatening your henchme-- er I mean employees, does not MOTIVATE them to do well. It merely scares them enough to barely scrape by so they can still pay the bills as long as humanly possible. It never worked in any of my other jobs, and it isn't working here.
Compounding this low morale is the fact that it's a tumbleweed month. So without the foot traffic it's only oh, 1000 x harder to climb back to the top of the mountain. There's not a lot you can really add to the sparse order of highlighters.
After work I probably would have gone to a pub, but the traffic was almost as bad as when I went in, so I opted to go straight home instead. Tomorrow I get to close. Another even more tedious 8 hours of hearing about nothing ever being good enough for anyone. In the famous words of Ric Flair: "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!" Now if only I could actually knife edge chop one of those nincompoops before saying that.
I really liked this book.
Having spent some time in the Muslim world, many things mentioned - such as the bazaar, hamman and henna - were familiar to me. And I got so involved in the story of the young female protagonist that I finished the book in just one day, staying up late into the night to find out how the tale ended.
If you like historical fiction, this novel set in 17th century Iran is a nice change of pace from the usual tales of wealthy or royal Europeans.
This was the November selection for my monthly book club and I'm really looking forward to discussing it with others.
