Before the Blog: Home From Texas

We got back in town on Sunday from spending a week with Whozat's family in Texas. It was a great trip; we got to visit several friends and eat at all our favorite restaurants!

(Shrike will readily concede that the food in Texas is better than that in BlueState!)

We spent last weekend in Houston, particularly in Montrose (the gay area of town). We went out dancing Friday night and hit several bookstores Saturday afternoon, and of course, spent way too much money!

Shrike spend most of the week with a cold, and about the time we got back, Whozat came down with it, so that part wasn't too fun.

Monday night Whozat walked into a chair leg and was convinced that she'd broken a toe, until X-rays proved otherwise. So, she's spent the last couple of days being a big ol' whiner, and Shrike's spent them babying her!

Before the Blog: Whew!

Our letter to the editor ran on May 9 and the feedback we've received couldn't be more positive.

Oh, of course, a couple of the "bad guys" have had letters in response printed, but that was to be expected.

Our biggest concern was that the letter would, obviously, out Shrike at work, but she's gotten nothing but support from her coworkers.

Before the Blog: Letter to the Editor

Our local newspaper recently printed a letter to the editor, in which the writer quoted from the Bible, to try to show why same-sex marriage should not be legalized. The following is the letter we wrote in response:

As a lesbian couple, we were deeply troubled by a letter printed recently, against the legalization of same-sex marriages.

We find it ironic that anti-gay Christians are so intent on upholding "God's laws" of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, yet few seem to heed those proscribed in the surrounding chapters. Leviticus 17 sets forth guidelines for animal sacrifices to God, while chapter 19 prohibits, among other things, fully harvesting ones crops, interbreeding cattle, planting fields with more than one kind of seed, wearing clothing of mixed fibers and eating fruit from a tree that is less than four years old. Furthermore, when Jesus himself was asked, in Matthew 22: 36-39, which was the greatest of all God's commandments, he said that there are only two commandments - to love God and to "love thy neighbor as thyself."

The more important issue here, however, is that the question of what the Bible may or may not say about homosexuality is moot. The fact is, the Bible and the laws of the United States are two separate entities. The founders of our nation granted us not only freedom of religion, but also freedom from religion. The same amendment that gives the writer the right to practice her faith according to her beliefs prohibits the government from imposing those beliefs on us.

There are many "sins" named in the Bible which are not reflected in the laws of the United States. In fact, of the sins prohibited by the Ten Commandments themselves, only murder, theft and lying - if under oath - are illegal. The Bible says that pride is a sin; we shudder to think how many prisons we would need if that were declared illegal. If one chooses to make the Bible the authority that guides his or her life, that is fine, but one cannot expect the government to force the rest of the nation to do the same.

The freedom to marry is not a religious issue, it is a legal one. There are already many churches that perform same-sex unions, and those that do not want to could still refuse, just as they can refuse to marry any couple who does not meet their requirements. We are not asking anything of churches; we are asking that the government grant us the same rights and responsibilities afforded to opposite-sex couples who wish to marry.

Gay and lesbian couples face a number of obstacles based on the fact that we cannot legally marry. If one of us becomes ill, the other can be denied the right to visit her in the hospital, or to take time off work to care for her. If one of us dies, the other may have no legal claim to the property that we have obtained together, has no voice in decisions regarding funeral arrangements, and may not even be granted bereavement leave by her employer. No matter how long we have been together, the survivor cannot receive the social security or pension benefits that an opposite-sex spouse is entitled to from the moment the couple says, "I do." In addition, it is legal to fire us from our jobs, or to evict us from our homes, based on our sexual orientation. We must conceal one of the most important aspects of our lives or risk harassment, discrimination, or even bodily injury. However, unless we speak up and demand equality, we have no chance of getting it.

Before the Blog: Millennium March

Since the last update, Shrike turned 31, so a belated "Happy Birthday" is in order. We are now the same age - for another 5 days!

We spent last weekend at the Millennium March on Washington, and it was absolutely incredible. We went to the Equality Rocks concert on Saturday evening, and marched on Sunday. We even saw Margarethe Cammermeyer - she came up from the Metro (subway) station while we were waiting to meet our friends. Later we were able to take some pictures of her, and our friend shook her hand and gave her partner a hug.

Since we got home, we've been really anxious to "do something," to not just have enjoyed the party, but forgotten to take the message home, like so many of the speakers warned us about. We've come up with a couple of ideas, but then another one presented itself to us.

Last week, the newspaper that Shrike works for ran a letter to the editor, that was written in response to Deb Price's column on same-sex marriage that they had printed a few days before. The letter was spouting quotes from the Bible and going on about the road to ruination that America was going to be on if we went against "God's laws" and legalized same-sex marriage.

We were furious. You can see the letter we've written in response [in the next post]. We're hoping it will run next week. We're a little nervous about it, because we will be outing ourselves to the entire community, but we're also fairly sure that we're ready to handle any possible fallout.

Wish us luck!

Before the Blog: Happy Easter

Whozat's learned even more about web design in the past few months on the job, and has decided that her plans for the new version of this website sucked, so she started over. This time she's doing a total redesign of the appearance and the content.

Of course, this update is only being "posted" on the new site that's still "in production," so there's no telling when anyone will actually get to see it!

Speaking of Whozat's job, it's going well and she's really enjoying it - something she's not used to.

We dyed Easter eggs with Shrike's family this evening, and we'll be hunting them tomorrow. Whozat hears that there will be prizes and chocolate involved, so she's looking forward to that.

We're going to The Millennium March on Washington, including the Equality Rocks concert in a couple of weeks, and we can't wait!

We're going to spend the week of Memorial Day in Texas, visiting Whozat's family and friends. We had hoped to go in mid-May for Whozat's birthday, but Shrike couldn't get off work that week. This works out better, anyway, though, since the holiday means we can take a whole week off work and get another weekend for the trip. Whozat's looking forward to that; she hasn't been home since Christmas.

There's probably a lot more to tell, but it's about 2 am, and Whozat isn't very coherent, sorry!

Before the Blog: Happy Anniversary

Not much new happening since the last update - Whozat's been too busy with work and with redesigning some websites for her dad to do much on this one, for those of you seeing this on the "old" (current) site. She's working on a redesign, but it may be a while before it sees the light of cyber-day.

In other news, last weekend (Feb 12, to be exact) was Shrike and Whozat's 2nd anniversary. We got all dressed up and went out to a hoity-toity restaurant for dinner. We were planning to go out dancing after, but ended up blowing that off and just coming home. That was more fun that stupid old dancing, anyway! ;-)

Before the Blog: New Year, New Car, New Job!

Oh my, I can't believe it's been over three months since I've updated the web site! So sorry! But, we've been busy, busy, busy.

So, going back to the beginning...

Whozat had a great visit to Texas back in October and got to visit all the friends - and restaurants - that were on her to-do list. When she got home, she continued with the long-term substitute teaching job she had started before the trip. That was, uh, interesting. If nothing else, it confirmed for her, without a doubt, that she is ready leave the teaching field.

Of course the holidays came and went; we stayed very busy before with shopping and decorating, and very busy during, doing the family thing. We even manage, in the middle of all the rush, to buy a car for Whozat.

We spent Thanksgiving with Shrike's family, and then managed to spend Christmas with everybody. We did "Christmas Eve" with Shrike's family on the 23rd, because of various people's work schedules, then Shrike worked the evening of the 24th, so we had our own Christmas at home when she got in around midnight and spent Christmas Day with her family.

Then, on the 26th, way too early in the morning, we flew to Texas, and spent a few days with Whozat's family. Down there we had "Christmas Eve" on the 26th and "Christmas Day" on the 27th. We flew back home on the 30th (before planes started falling out of the sky - oh, wait, that didn't happen, did it?)

New Year's Eve wasn't too exciting, since Shrike had to work, so that if the world had ended, everyone could have read about it in the local paper. But Whozat drove over around midnight, and Shrike came out to the car, so we could at least be together and have a New Year's kiss.

Meanwhile, Whozat was sending out resumes again, hoping to find a web design position, for when the teaching gig ended. And, guess what? She did! She started this Monday, and is starting to feel a little more acclimated and a little less useless, and has actually done some real work the last couple of days.

Other than Whozat's new job, the excitement of this week was the big snow storm we had on Tuesday. Whozat was quite impressed!

As you can tell, Whozat is trying to practice what she's learning on her new job and do a major redesign of the web site. Don't know how long it will take, so this update may be out of date before anyone sees it! I'll try to be better about updating in the future.

Before the Blog: Leavin' On a Jet Plane

It's been a while since the last update, we've been pretty busy lately. Whozat's been spending a lot of time working on some new web sites and she just started a long-term substitute teaching assignment this past week. She did three days, and tomorrow she heads to Texas for her first trip home since we moved to BlueState.

She'll resume the teaching assignment the next week when she gets back. She's really looking forward to this trip, and has a list a mile long of people to visit and restaurants to eat at!

In fact, she should be asleep right now, since she has to pack in the morning and catch at plane around noon, but she's evidently too excited to sleep - so she's updating the web site....

Before the Blog: Wedding Postponed

Well, this weekend we decided that even with Whozat's upcoming long-term assignment, we're just not in a position to be shelling out the kind of money required to put on the wedding we'd like to have, so we've decided to postpone it until we're a little more financially secure.

We're still planning and keeping our eyes open for good ideas, but we're going to wait until we've got the money coming in a little more steadily before we reset the date.

In meantime, we're still working on the plans, keeping our eyes open for good ideas and trying to decide if a "red hearts" theme would look stupid at some other time of the year. Thank God we haven't engrave those toasting glasses yet!

Before the Blog: A Job!

Well, as you might have guessed, Whozat's been pretty busy lately updating the web site, as well as working on a few others.

She started substitute teaching a couple of weeks ago, and doesn't seem to be having any trouble staying busy with that. From the looks of it, she could work every day if she wanted, but probably needs to be home a couple of days to keep working on her web design classes.

More good news on Whozat's job situation - she's lined up for a long-term sub position, covering for a teacher on maternity leave, from mid-October to late January. After 20 days, she'll go to full 1st year teacher salary - which in BlueState is just a couple of dollars less a day than she was making in her ninth year in Texas! It'll be really nice to have that money coming in, especially right at Christmas time.

In other news, Whozat bought her plane ticket this week for a visit to Texas in October - she's really looking forward to that.

Other than that, work and dog-sitting for Shrike's family has been keeping us pretty busy these days. Guess that's about all our excitement for now!