AVALANCHE!!

I was originally just going to tweet about this, but it is just too weird of a dream not to describe it fully, even if no one is interested in reading about it. Plus, it is now just past the time I am usually up for work so my mind is telling me to get up.

I was working at a Kohl's store that was on top of Mt Baker. The store hadn't opened yet but we had a lot of our merchandize (including all our jewelry). We were having a group meeting with all the employees who were prepping the store, about 10 people (all of which I work with in real life) when we started to hear a faint noise. We told the people talking be be quiet and everyone could hear a faint rumble. It sounded like either some one was trying to break in to steal the jewelry or it was an avalanche. My boss told everyone to call 911 so we all took out our iphones (yes, really). But before anyone could even dial, the building started to shake and I knew it was an avalanche. In my dream I felt sick because I could imagine the store sliding down the mountain and getting buried in snow. Luckily this is when I woke up, because I have no desire to get buried in an avalanche, even if it is only in a dream. Of course I have been getting used to waking up at 6:00am for work so my mind went to wake up mode since it was about 6:30 when I woke up. But it is a Saturday and I refuse to volunterly wake up this early so I will have to buckle down and try really hard to go back to sleep. At the the very least I need to stop typing because Dante is head butting me in the chin.

iphone

I bought Janson's old iphone from him and signed up for AT&T.  Now I can browse the internet on my phone while on the bus. I have a new number now, but you'll have to email me or message me to get it because I don't feel like publishing my number on the internet.

Geek Heaven

Last night/this morning at about 12am I thought I had died and gone to geek heaven. Janson and I along with his sis and her boyfriend stood by our living room window to watch the fireworks shoot off the space needle. We tuned the radio to 101.5 where the musical accompaniment was being broadcast. 

(link to video (ignore the broadcasts cause they get paid to babble.))

So yeah, 2009 started off great for me. 

Hello Pavement....

So I woke up late. I guess I slept through my alarm or something. I rushed around and left with just barely enough time to catch my bus. I was kinda doing a sort of run/speed walk down the street and my thoughts were as follows:

It sure is cold. Didn't even see that person until they shut the car door, man they were quiet. In some ways it is kind of nice out here when it is quiet and dark and OhShit!ThisIsGoingToHurt!IAmGoingToMissMyBus!IHopeIDon'tBreakAnyBones! 

WHAM!!! 

I really would like to just lie here for a bit. But I can't miss my bus.

I rather painfully scrambled up, picked up my lunch bag and stuffed the things that had spilled out back inside. I managed to do a hobble/run and made it to the stop with enough time to survey the damage. My knees both really stung and one had some scrapes (luckily my pants were intact. On the bus ride from Seattle to Southcenter I had to pull my pant leg off my knee every few minutes because it kept trying to stick in the wound. Yes that hurt. Over the course of the work day my knees got stiffer and stiffer and by the time I got home my right knee had developed a pretty amazing bruise. Still hurts to bend my knee but I can tell it is felling better. Ouch. Not really interested in repeating this experience anytime soon, nor can I recommend it to anyone else.

That's right folks, it doesn't matter what race or sexual orientation you hail from, you have the right to be married to the partner of your choosing. No If's, no And's, no But's.

Marriage is about a partnership, it is about commitment and it is about love. Denying anyone the right to marry is wrong and to be frank and honest, when this denial is based on religious "principles" it is a travesty against both human rights and the very religion that is being "defended".

Curious as to what brought this post on? Recently California's Supreme court recognized that same-sex couples have the right to get married. Prop. 8 went onto the ballot as a proposition to eliminate that right. On November 4th, California voted 52.2% to 47.8% to strip same-sex couples of their right to get state-recognized, legal marriages.

I've heard some people spout off about how we shouldn't "redefine marriage". But until marriage was redefined in 1967, many states had laws on the books that made it illegal (a felony) for couples of differing racial heritages to be married. In 1967, Loving v. Virginia was brought before the Supreme Court which ruled (unanimously) that the "Racial Integrity Act of 1924" was unconstitutional and interracial couples had the right to be married. Mildred Loving who fought the state of Virginia for the right to be with the one she loved had this to say, "Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don't think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the "wrong kind of person" for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people's religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people's civil rights. I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard's and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That's what Loving, and loving, are all about." (June 12, 2007).

Another argument cites the sanctity of marriage. Well, if this, this and this (and this and this) don't destroy the supposed sanctity of marriage, I fail to see how gay marriage can. Does denying some people the right to marriage make yours stronger? One of my favorite slogans in regards to same-sex marriage is "If you don't want gay marriage, don't get one!" If you don't believe that same-sex marriage is right, don't marry someone of the same-sex!

Just trying to write this out gets me angry. Because it hurts something deep inside me to know that there are people in this world who would willfully deny a basic human and civil right to another human. Gays, lesbians, bisexuals and trans-gendered people have the same capacity for love that all humans do. Telling someone that they can have "civil unions" or "commitment ceremonies" when everyone else can have a marriage is wrong. Separate is not equal.