The Long Haul

My company is one of those that recognizes Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as an official holiday, so to me, it marks the end of the multi-holiday season. Thanksgiving (and the day after), Christmas, New Year's, and MLK all come in rapid succession. It's almost as if the four-day week were the norm, with a few longish five-day weeks interspersed.

That illusion ends now, as those of you who don't get MLK off (and if you're not a government-related employee — isn't there, like, a day a month at least?).

For us, the next company-wide day off is Memorial Day. That's 18 weeks away.

Or, put differently, 125 days — that's over 1/3 of the year from now!

At least it's only 88 more work days, after today.

Hang in there!

The Honeymoon's Over Before It Began

Five days out from Inauguration Day, and I just heard the folks on the Today Show discussing a new poll: whether the President-elect has handled his transition well. Does that really matter? Is it really news?

In any case, I figured that kind of question might wait until, I don't know, he actually is done with the transition and is President. Maybe that's just me.

Sweet Jesus

On my drive to work, the road skirts a couple of tornado magnets trailer parks. One manufactured home unit, I realized last week, has a somewhat unique holiday display. It's subtle … sort of. They have a set of the plastic, lit-from-within creche scene with Joseph, Mary and manger, surrounded — one might even say "guarded" — by …

… a bunch of multi-colored, lit candy canes.

Movie-ing Through The Holidays

Our dog, Maya, has no idea what hit her. We've been gushing over her and spoiling her (more than usual) for nearly a week.

This, in and of itself, is ironic. I grew up afraid — no, terrified — of dogs. Not spurred on by any specific incident that I can recall. They were just potentially aggressive and unpredictable. But when I moved in with Todd, a dog came as part of the package. And she quickly found her way into my heart, and has me wrapped around her paw. I absolutely adore her.

So what got us all mushy anew? Marley & Me. We went to see it on Christmas Day.

And cried. No, SOBBED. If you are a dog owner, were a dog owner, or are in general a pet-lover, bring the Kleenex. Seriously, we weren't quite right for a day or two after.

I'm not saying the film is depressing — it's largely comedy, but also real-life — but it was definitely a cathartic experience that I highly recommend.

(It's worth noting that we did not enjoy Benjamin Button. At. All. OK, that's a bit extreme — there was a great sequence somewhere in the middle of those nearly three hours. But we were expecting something far and away, completely different … and better. But your mileage may vary.)

Newsworthy?

Now, I know there are exceptions to this (namely my home quadrant-of-the-country), but isn't icy, snowy weather with lots of airport delays the norm for Christmas week? I mean, seriously. I travelled for Christmas once — ONCE — and found the experience to be stressful. Whole movies have been based off this concept. So why, oh why, is it news that travelers are facing crowded airports, cranky co-passengers and extensive weather-based delays?

Green Christmas

Well, OK, there is the fact that it's supposed to be high 70s — maybe even 80° — here on Christmas Day. And while I'd like it to feel a bit cooler (today's 60° was glorious!), I am in no way envious of the weather back home. But really, I'm thinking more of the "greening" of Christmas.

The artificial tree is OK, I suppose. The real ones, while having the right texture and scent, are a bit much to maintain. And I'm totally hooked on the pre-lit-ness of our tree.

Of course, this is "the year" of the LED lights. Seems most of the homes on our street have them. And I know they're energy-efficient and long-lasting (the CFL bulb of the Christmas-light world) … but they're just a bit too, well, insistent. "LOOK AT ME! Over here! Bright! Bright!" I'd want to wrap them in something to dull them out a bit and warm up the feeling. Cozy-fire look, not laser-beam-from-outer-space look. But as our outdoor lights begin to fail, I'm sure replacing them with the new-and-"improved" verson is inevitable.

About the only major thing to do to "green" up our Christmas would be to stop sending real-paper Christmas cards …

On A December Evening

OK, so this video is old news, I know:



BUT — and maybe this is old news to you — did you know they released a CD this year? (On iTunes: Straight No Chaser: Holiday Spirits.)

All hail the glory of men's a capella holiday music.

Might As Well … The Stupid Thirty-Three

Mike did it, and I'm sitting here at the car dealer (thank goodness for free Wifi) killing time, so …

1. When was the last time you cried? Probably a week ago. Grey's Anatomy has been doing that lately.
2. Were you named after anyone? No.
3. Why are you so fickle when it comes to women? Because I can be … I don't date them.
4. What is your favorite lunchmeat? Turkey.
5. Do you have kids? Not the human kind.
6. If you were another person would you be friends with you? I hope so!
7. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Oh, never. (</sarcasm>)
8. Do you still have your tonsils? Yes.
9. Would you bungee jump? No, never.
10. What is your favorite cereal? Whatever is on sale.
11. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Not usually.
12. Do you think you are strong enough to be with me? Huh?
13. What is your favorite ice cream? Ben & Jerry's Phish Food
14. What is the first thing you notice about people? Eyes.
15. Red or pink? Red.
16. What is your least favorite thing about yourself? Right now, the newlywed weight.
17. Who do you mess with the most? Jorge.
18. What was the last thing you ate? A bowl of cereal (see #10).
19. What are you listening to right now? Combination of car-dealer background music and American Morning on CNN.
20. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? My partner.
21. Why aren’t you married? Because Florida is as backward as they come, and we're not going to bother doing it somewhere else … yet. That, and we can't afford the reception. (Scott & Keifer set the bar too high.)
22. Last movie you watched? Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium thanks to the glorious combination of HBO and DVR.
23. What did you dream about last night? There was something about getting a free annual pass to a local theme park, but the context escapes me.
24. What book are you reading? I'm part-way through a few books but none have been actively opened in the last month.
25. Summer or winter? Summer in the Northwest, winter here.
26. Hugs or kisses? Hugs AND kisses
27. Do you have any special talents? Besides remembering useless things, and forgetting useful things?
28. What are they? See last question.
29. What did you watch on TV last? Grey's Anatomy last night. Through my fingers at times. Too much blood.
30. What is your favorite sound? Waterfalls and wind through trees.
31. Rolling Stones or The Beatles? Neither.
32. Most likely to respond to this meme? Don’t care.
33. Least likely to respond? Ditto.

Fascinating

Google Flu Trends (via New York Times)

(And now I'm wondering if I can hold out until the shots come to my office at the end of next week.)

Win Some …

I generally avoided election coverage last night, only switching over around 10 p.m. I could see no reason to watch wall-to-wall coverage starting two hours before the earliest poll closings. And while it was good to see Obama winning before I headed off to bed, any joy I might have felt was wiped out by the stomach-turning results on Florida's Amendment 2. And while our neighbors were outside whooping it up and celebrating with fireworks at 11, I tried to drift to sleep under a deep-set feeling of sorrow.

I never expected a majority to vote against Amendment 2. I figured at least half the people would vote for it. I did, however, hope that the 60% hurdle was too high to cross. I even thought it might be close to an even split.

I was wrong. And this morning I woke to find that in the final tally, less than a third* of Florida's citizenry turn out to be fair-minded people. The rest were easily swayed by rhetoric, were blinded by hate and fear, or were apathetic. And to undo what was done, it will take 60% voting in the opposite direction — a doubling of support from today. Looking around me, I don't see that happening anytime soon. Hope given by one vote, and taken away by another; change put in doubt through a declaration of second-class citizenry.

Contrary to what the ad campaign was contrived to convey, Amendment 2 did more than define "marriage." That was but the first phrase of a single sentence. This vindictive language also delimited the rights available to anything resembling marriage. To whit:

Inasmuch as marriage is the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife, no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.

So marriage, which was already illegal and unattainable by Florida law, has been officially re-made illegal and unattainable by the Florida Constitution — and it's taken down the possibility of domestic-partner registrations and civil unions (the substitute terminology used elsewhere to appease) with it. It will undoubtedly take taxpayer-expensive court cases to decide what else might constitute a "substantial equivalent." And beyond that, whether those rulings will extend to the policies of corporations, Florida-based or otherwise, in recognizing or defining "equivalents," or granting benefits.

(Amendment 2 didn't, however, define a "family" as four people, though the proponents' campaign icon might have led one to think so.)

I found myself in California a couple of months back, in a state where marriage could have been a real possibility (at the time), 2500 miles from my partner, on our anniversary, faced with the possibility that our mutually-agreed-upon anniversary date could have been forever a wedding anniversary date. And now that I'm with someone where eternity seems like an opportunity and not a sentence, the possibility was soul-warming in a way I never imagined.

The root of my sorrow doesn't lie in whether marriage is or ever will be legal, or not. It's not like it would have been possible in Florida any time soon, in any instance. Nor are we interested in traveling somewhere we don't live to seek out legal recognition that won't be recognized back home. We may, or may not, have a commitment ceremony someday, to celebrate with family and with friends (though friends in the local area are forewarned that if we do this, it will be nowhere near the example recently set by others — would a potluck reception dinner be too gauche?). And to us, it will carry all the meaning to which we assign it; the lack of legal significance merely another reminder of a society and a government that does not respect, nor adequately represent, us.

And that's the core: that yesterday so many people — the equivalent of four floors of my six-floor office building — were, intentionally or not, mean. Mean to me, mean to my family, mean to my friends. Rather than play fair, they took their ball and went home just because we wanted to play, too.

There was an episode of the American Queer as Folk series where the character Michael was faced with the possibility of marrying his boyfriend while in Canada. His comment — that marriage was never something he envisioned as even being a possible part of his life's story — has always stuck with me. This has only been part of the conversation for a mere blip in time. But it's one thing to never have imagined it, to never have had the conversation to begin with. Now, it's like peeking at a present too early and then having the lid snapped shut on your fingers, with a promise to feign surprise at the appropriate moment. It's awfully hard to stuff this one back in the box now.

*Yes, a shade more than 33% voted against Amendment 2. I'm accounting for people who did not vote and therefore to me fall in the "apathetic" category.

And It Was A Penny Less Last Night

New stuff

So the Powers That Be finally wised up and blocked all things "blogger" and "blogspot" at work. (Oddly, though, no such prohibitions on all things "wordpress." Yet.) Fine, since I wasn't really blogging at work (or, um, at home) that much.

What I can do, though, is share Google Reader items. So there's a new gadget thingy over there on the left right side of my blog home page that has the last five Reader items I shared. Click the "read more" link at the bottom and you can see if I made comments. I wish those comments showed up here … maybe that's an upcoming feature. And, as a bonus, I've got those items popping into Facebook, to boot.

Of course, if you're following by RSS feed, you won't see the Reader stuff. Yet.

Just Voted

... And it took longer to park than to get in. That's right: no line, no waiting. In fact, at least half the stations were empty. Makes me wonder if all the long-line media drama is just an Orlando thing?

Data Spin

From an Orlando Sentinel article, "Early voters crowd polls in Orlando area as registration swells":

McCain officials say they're winning the absentee vote, with about 295,000 Republicans requesting absentee ballots statewide, compared with 199,000 Democrats.

Question: If more Republicans than Democrats are requesting absentee ballots, which of the following is true?

A) The Republican nominee is winning, since all Republicans will vote the party line, as will all Democrats.
B) Democrats tend to work where they can get time off to vote (either early or on Election Day) or have shifts outside the traditional "work day" of 9-5. More Republicans need to vote absentee because they can't make it to the polls during the work day.
C) Republicans are rich and can afford to travel more, and therefore need absentee ballots because they'll actually be absent.
D) The final tally on Election Day won't be the final tally, as the high number of absentee ballots will necessitate holding off on a final declaration until they've all been accounted for.

At the end of the day, most data can be made to say whatever you want, with the right spin.

How To Ensure I Won't Vote For You

It?s simple, really. Call my cell phone during the work day from a blocked number, and leave a prerecorded voicemail message telling me what a great candidate you are.

Fortunately for you, I have no idea who you are. Your message auto-played before my greeting finished, so all I didn?t catch your name. All I got was how important my vote was to you.

1 E-mail, 9 TXTs … 3 Friends and an Ex

So, the place I once called my "reset button," the place I've written about numerous times, the place I saw going slowly into decline … that place is finally gone.

And I really don't mind. Really. It was getting too sad, and honestly, our last visit as a month before The End.

Of course, since I was so much a regular for so much of my life, many people I knew figured I'd be there celebrating/mourning along with the crowds. In the last week the club was open, friends made sure I was aware … and were surprised I wasn't there. Even my ex, who notified me by late-night TXT first that it was the last Thursday, then the last day.

And shock of shocks: though that club was an integral part of my life for years, and though I met friends there then that I hold dear now, moving past my ex led me to move past going to the club.

All too often I was drinking and dancing the pain away. Spin louder, dance harder, plug into the music to lose myself in the moment. And now, I don't need that. I miss socializing with friends as much as I did, but I'm creating new ways to do that. And I don't need the dark, buzzy world of the club to fool myself into thinking I feel happy. It actually feels strange, and foreign, to go out to a club now and drink — like a relic from a me I used to be.

I'm happy. For real. Without an artificially induced high or a fantasy disco to get me there.

What Kind Of Dog Breed Are You?

For the record, until I moved into a dog (and cat) household, I thought I was a cat person. Maya has proven me SO wrong.



(What, not a Husky?)

Best. T-shirt. Ever

Spotted on my trip to Seattle earlier this month.

Worst Fortune Cookie Ever

Received Monday, while prepping for the then-unknown of Fay:

There appear to be many clouds; but they quickly pass.

I don't think I've ever had a fortune-cookie fortune that, when taken literally, was so completely wrong.

The Politics of Prognostication

I stumbled across this comment over at the National Hurricane Center's page this morning:

(From Tropical Storm Fay Forecast Discussion #7, 5:00 a.m. EDT Aug. 17)
THE CENTER OF FAY IS TOO CLOSE TO THE COAST OF CUBA TO BE ACCESSIBLE TO THE AIR FORCE HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT...SO THERE ARE NO DIRECT MEASUREMENTS OF CENTRAL PRESSURE OR PRECISE POSITIONING OF THE SURFACE CENTER.

(Sorry, they write everything in ALL CAPS.)

So, the storm's center is in Cuban airspace, so a US aircraft can't fly in to get a good read on the data. Oy.