gay marriage

"While some Iowans may disagree on this issue, I personally believe marriage is between a man and a woman," the governor said.

the important part of this sentence is "i personally believe." we don't care what you personally believe. if you believed in the easter bunny it wouldn't make it any more legal.

i remember something that was said to me when i was very young:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

here's the deal... judges, lawyers and said people telling me that two men or women can't marry is based on religion. you aren't allowed to make laws based on religion. you cannot put your "marriage is only for two people who procreate. we need to defend the rights of marriage." so you're telling me that barren people shouldn't get married? a man whose had a vasectomy wants to marry a woman whose had her tubes tied should be happy with a civil union? no. since they are opposite sex, of course they can get married! but if it's two women, forget it.

these back-ass rulings have nothing to do with defending marriage. it has everything to do with close-minded, religious, homophobic, rich, law-makers. we need to stop this. if you believe that anyone should be able to get married, no matter what their sexual orientation, you should take action.

so here's what i suggest...

write a letter to you congressman.

it could go something like this:

Dear Congressman (insert name here), (or Senator)

I write you today not only as a constituent, but also as a supporter of gay marriage. I fear that the laws being pushed by the religious conservatives are seriously harming the public at large.

I am against the ban on gay marriage. I feel that it is an unconstitutional, unprecedented, unnecessary and mean-spirited precedent set by religious homophobes. I am very concerned about Mitt Romney's pledge to try for a federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. I believe this is unconstitutional. Our country was founded on religious and personal freedom. I don't believe that the "moral majority" should be the ones deciding who, by their standards, should get married and who shouldn't.

I urge you to speak up for the homosexual citizens of this country and vote against any amendment that would ban gay marriage.

Thank you for your time and support.

or something like that.

you can't let religious people set the precedent here. marriage has never been a religious institution. it's been about gathering lands and building alliances with neighboring countries. it's been around since before judo-christian beliefs, so it shouldn't be about judo-christian beliefs today.

you can find letters (.doc) at these links:
State Representative letter
State Senator letter
US Representative letter
US Senator letter

These are generic letters that you can fill out with ebedded links to help you find your specific US and state rep and senator. fill them out and mail them in. tell them that you've had enough of Bush's religious regime and that not allowing EVERYONE to marry is unconstitutional. Even gays should share in the misery of being legally betrothed.

a trip to india

i am going to attempt to make indian food this weekend. i think i'll start tomorrow and see how far i get, having the next three days to finish it up. scott has turned me on to indian food and i now have a achari murgh monkey on my back. but it's too expensive to eat out all the time, so i thought i'd try my hand at it.

the hardest part about ethnic cooking is finding all of the spices. this particular recipe calls for the following:

mustard oil
tumeric powder
funugreek seeds
fennel seeds
cumin seeds
whole cayenne peppers
onion seeds
mustard seeds

the first place i thought i'd try was cost plus. they had my tumeric, cayenne and fennel seeds. no problem. then i tried to find a few more places i found online, but to no avail. so i had to venture on over to devon avenue. for those of you infamiliar with devon avenue, it is like going to another country. going to several other countries, actually. it houses shopping and businesses from india, pakistan, israel, random middle eastern countries. it's amazing. and intimidating for those of white non-heritage.

but i braved it and found almost the rest of my spices. the most ironic part was searching through shelves of bagged spices while led zepplin was playing over the sound system. but i got a ton of stuff at a fraction of the cost i would have paid at a chain grocery store, if they were to carry fenugreek. the one spice i am without is onion seed. i hope it's not a pivotal spice.

anyway, i'll be working on the ventilation of the kitchen and i'll get back to you about my latest project. now if you'll excuse me, i need to empty my purse of tumeric before my iPod starts smelling like curry. mmmmm....

i'm an expert

if you wanna have some fun while you're stuck at work, click on the badge and save the planet. it's the most productive you can be on a lunch hour.

storm 1, billboard 0

scott noticed this when we were on lincoln at addison. he said, "look at that billboard frame, how warped it is by the wind."

"but it could have been like that before the storm," i replied.

then we noticed what was on the ground... the sign. huh.

real fire in the night sky

these pictures WERE NOT taken by me, but i really wish they were. These were posted on the trib.

fire in the night sky

this is what was headed our way when i left at 3:20:



i left early to avoid getting caught in it. annette and i had our first official personal training session and i didn't want to be late. so i head out on chicago ave and debated whether to take the red line (subway, would have to switch at fullerton) or the brown line (about 6 blocks away, elevated, could stay on the same train all the way home). i didn't want to miss any of the action, so i decided to brave the 6 block walk to brown line.

this is what i saw when i was on chicago:



i thought i could make it in the 10 minutes it takes to walk. after i crossed lasalle, i thought "one more block to go. surely i can make it."

nope.

the heavens opened up. but what was strange about it was that i noticed some white stuff blowing off of a 20 story building north on lasalle. i thought, "what the hell is that?" right when i got a face-full of road grime and dust. it was the storm, breaking open. i got a little shelter in the buildings to my right, but when i crossed wells, i was done for. by the time i got to the station, i was completely soaked through, down to the skivvies. here's a shot from the platform:



i got on the first train that came in, a purple line. i was thinking, "what's the worse that can happen to the elevated train in a storm this bad?" "it could derail," my inner voice replied. eh, better than drowning in a flooded subway, i guess.

anyway, we were on our way. then, a little south of armitage, we stopped. and i had a feeling that it wasn't good.

"uh, we're being delayed because our signals are out. oh, and there appears to be downed tree limbs on the tracks at paulina. we may be sitting here a while."

good thing i didn't have to go to the bathroom.

we sat for about 15 minutes. then we inched forward. i think it took us about 25 minutes to reach fullerton. once i got a brown line there, i was golden. but i was soaked to the bone in an over-refrigerated train car. by the time i reached my car (at 4:55), i couldn't feel my fingertips. it took until i started working out before i got rid of my goosebumps. and this is august!

after our workout, i got on the treadmill and watched it get darker and darker. kristin had TM'd me and told me the second wave was about to come through. all of a sudden, i couldn't see across the parking lot. holy shit.

annette and i decided to stick around until it let up. this was at 5:55. we finally made a break for it around 7:10. it was still raining. and the parking lot had flooded. in that hour, we got 1.82 inches of rain.


so then, i decided to take the scenic route home to see the damage. here are some photos:

$%^&*#$%&*&*$$%###

there aren't words to describe this week's cluster-fuckiness. tuesday, i get a call from "unknown caller." i have been getting these for about a week now, sometimes 2 or three times a day. an automated person leaves a message that says, "hello. this is tom moore (or other vague man's name). i need to you to contact me about a business matter. my number is ###-###-####." no extension. if you got a call, what would you think?

telemarketer.

i had called it back, just to see what the fuck was so important, but it needed a extension and the automated asshole didn't give me one. couldn't have been that important. so i ignored it.

then i got a call when i was sitting around and i answered it, mostly to tell them to shut the hell up. turns out that verizon was taking me to court over an overdue amount and they wanted to know if i had a lawyer that i wanted to be put on the injunction.

excuse me?

turns out this is the account i let phil keep. upon calling him, he said he had closed that account in order to move to tmobile. he paid the outstanding balance to tmobile, who has this deal that they'll pay off your last bill and the termination fee if you switch. but... i guess that didn't happen.

i paid it right then and there. but it's too late to save it from my credit report, which i had managed to keep spotless for the last 10 years. all of my hard work blown by two shitty cell phone companies. i called verizon to get a copy of the last cell bill and told the "recovery" employee that i think their automated phone system of calling people with overdue accounts was bullshit. that if i had gotten a REAL phone call from a REAL person, then this would have been taken care of a long time ago. now my credit is shot and they had to wait 4 months to get their money, plus the paperwork to send it to a collection agency. assholes.

everything has been worked out except my damaged credit report. but hopefully i can resolve that issue once i get some paperwork from phil, stating that the actually paid off the account in may and that tmobile totally dropped the ball.

this is for TMI Tuesday

1. Define "infidelity" as it relates to a relationship. Have you ever been guilty of infidelity? Have you ever been the victim of infidelity? Have you ever been a participant in someone else's infidelity?
infidelity to me means sharing something, be it body, soul or emotions, with someone other than your significant other. to avoid this, don't ever get a significant other.

2. What is the last thing you stole?
i snitched food from starbucks, but we like to call them "samples."

3. Name one place in your country that you have never been but would like to visit and why.
i would like to visit new york city, but i have the opinion that homer simpson does of it... i would like to experience the art museums. i would also like to visit seattle because of the mountains.

4. When movies can you watch over and over again?
Office Space, Happy Gilmore, Shawshank Redemption, super troopers, finding nemo

5. Who is the last person you saw naked?
my husband (cough)

thanks, sam!

and this one

how awesome is this shot?

get to know me!

the simpsons movie

i feel that i've let my public down by not commenting on the simpsons movie. so let me fill you in:

it's great!

it's well-written and it holds together for the hour and a half. they evidently have been saving all of their a-material for this movie. between homer's pet pig (you've seen the spider pig commercials) and bart wanting to hang out with flanders, from the silo marked "pig crap" to the egomaniacal EPA agent, it's just a good way to spend $9.

when it was over and we were back at home, scott turned to me and said, "can we go buy the DVD now?"

and marge swears. go see it. now.

hilarious

how did they get away with this?

see the simpsons movie

kid tested, parent approved

wow

they better have a HUGE box of tissues.

urban s'mores

chocolate chips
right bites cinna bites graham crackers (100 calorie packs)
marshmallow fluff (you know the stuff, in the jar)

i think you know what to do.

believe it or not

i've updated my photo blog. leave comments and tell me how much you love or hate my photos.