Of budgets, menus, and a new year

So it is finally New Year's Eve.  When did that happen?  How has this year just flown by?  Holy cow!  I remember my grandmother telling me when I was young "Don't wish your life away.  As you get older you start wishing for it to slow down, but it's too late.  Enjoy it."  And I understand what she meant now. 

So on this New Year's Eve I am sitting here taking stock of things in my life and things I have to do still.  I am sitting on the couch surrounded by those I love and those that love me and it is amazing.  My partner is sleeping on the couch next to me.  Between us is our cuddle dog.  On the stairs in front of me is our not so cuddle dog.  He is passed out on his back, feet running in the air as he dreams of the next rabbit he will chase.  Today we also have a visiting doggie and she is sacked out on the floor.  And I am so content with life.  It is nice.

While everyone else is sleeping in the house, I am working on things needed to start 2015 off right.  First on that list is our budget.  I hate budgeting.  I hate it with a passion.  But when you live on one income, it is vitally important.  I am making the preliminary budget based off our last year budget.  We didn't get a raise this year, so it's going to end up being less extra money this year.  We do a modified envelope system, making it work for us.  We put everything on our credit card and pay it off every month.  So instead of pulling money out of our bank account, we use play money.  It works well for us.  We keep the envelopes in the kitchen and pull money out each week to match our budget. 

The second important thing is our menu.  I am trying so hard to create fun and exciting menus for the new year.  I am struggling for some reason.  When you change your eating habits sometimes it's hard to make a menu but it shouldn't be, and I know this.  There are tons of resources online which I think might be my problem.  I am finding too much stuff and my brain isn't able to make it all work.  Ahhhhhh.

I am also trying to make a blogging schedule so I can keep this thing going and make everyone happy.  This is proving nearly impossible.  

Tonight we have plans to go to a friend's house and celebrate quietly.  No raucous parties, no drinking till you are sloshed.  Just a bon fire, some good eats, and great friends.  May your new year be ever better than before.  

So this new year's eve I am spending my time preparing for the new year as best I can.  What are you doing?

Shake it off...

Oh how I wish it was so easy to shake off sickness or extra weight.  That would make life so much easier!

I am still sick.  Finally went to the doctor, well the nurse at the clinic, who told me it's basically a horrible virus that is kicking my ass.  She did give me some cough syrup so I can sleep and some nasal decongestant.  She gave me a script for antibiotics as well because the fluid in my ears is on the borderline of sinus infection.  But I have strict instructions to wait till January 3rd or later to take those, and only if I am still feeling bad.  She is hoping that getting me to sleep and taking down the sinus swelling will prevent an actual infection.  I am happy with her decision, though I wish she had a magic pill to make it better. 

My In-laws also just left today.  I really do like them, but I also like that they do short visits up here.  We did all sorts of fun things that revolved around food and alcohol, my two favorite things so far.  We really had a lot of fun, despite me being sick.  Bourbon did make me feel better, though!

The next couple weeks is going to be all about getting used to be up early and moving around for the bulk of the day.  School starts soon! 

Until Next Time!

On the day after Christmas, the universe gave to me

sickness.  Fucking sickness.  Stupid sickness. 

I'm going to go back and cuddle under my blankets now.  Hopefully the universe was better to you. 

And we'll get back to regularly scheduled posts after my in-laws leave on the 30th!

Happy Festivus!!!

Happy Festivus for the rest of us!! 

Today has been full of boring togetherness with my partner.  He actually got off work early, which is rare treat now a days, and we went out for lunch.  And let me tell you, traffic.  Traffic.  Fucking traffic.  All season I have been saying over and over how little traffic there has been in a major shopping area we visit frequently.  Well now I am eating my words.  Today was insane for traffic and of course we had mundane things to do, like get dog food, that couldn't wait because stores will be closing up tomorrow afternoon. 

I think the weather has something to do with it, actually.  The traffic is insane because it's freakin' 60 degrees(f) outside!  It is winter, officially, and it is warmer now than it was on both Halloween and Thanksgiving.  Insane.  But when the weather gets warmer, people decide they want to be out and shopping.  Which leads us to traffic issues.  Although, the weatherman just told us all that tomorrow it is probably going to snow.  Mwahahahhaha.

Now we are sitting, watching the early evening news, and my partner is sleeping on the couch.  We are old boring people.  I do need to get up and start a pot of chili, but other than that, we have nothing to do tonight.  Perhaps we'll give the dogs their Christmas presents early but more than likely we will do nothing and then fall asleep on the couch watching the 11 o'clock news (on the same channel).  Doesn't that sound exciting?!

Until Next Time!

Patience? What patience?

So I was that kid.  Oh you know the one... the one who you can't leave unattended with presents under the tree.  The reason you have locks on closet doors.  The one who can't leave well enough alone.  Yeah that's me. 

I am not a big fan of surprises... I never have been and probably never will be.  As a child, my parents seriously thought they were pulling something by hiding Christmas presents in the top of their closet.  I was very good at pretending to be surprised, despite knowing every single thing I was going to get.  And I never minded.  I much preferred knowing what I was getting so I could prepare myself. 

Which brings me to now, as a 29 year old adult.  I am a damn adult and do you know how hard it is to not rip open the presents my partner just put under the tree for me?  I know what they are, but still, presents!  I am home, alone, all day and those gifts are taunting me.  The struggle is real. 

As I sit here, drinking a flavored malt beverage while waiting for my bourbon pork chops to come out of the oven, I can't help but wonder if I can convince my partner to let us open our gifts on Festivus instead of Christmas.  I feel that it won't work, but in my head I'm scheming ways to try to convince him that it really is okay.  I just can't keep looking at them! 

Are you a surprise person or do you prefer to know?

Until Next Time!

I did things today

So one of the things I say often is that my life is boring.  Woah boring to be exact.  But today was not nearly as boring as typical!  We went out and did things today.  Not anything too exciting, but actual things. 

We went to lunch, mailed a package, returned library books (and paid a subsequent fine because reading dates is not my strong suit, but whatever, I apologized and paid my fine), then went to the grocery store.  See, excitement!!!  

And in reality, that is all I wanted to say on here!   Isn't that sad?  But in my boring life, today we spent quite a bit of time outside of the home and it was nice.  We are getting ready to go find supper (Yes, two meals out in one day!  We are rebels this weekend!) and then come home and probably fall asleep in front of the TV. 

Too much excitement for one day.

Until Next Time!

Thinking about changes

So I am pretty computer dumb.  I swear, I am at the right age to get computers, but in reality I don't know how to make computers work well.  And to that end, while I can code HTML if I HAVE to, I am stumped on coding for the template of my blog.  So please bear with me as I play around with the blogging template and all that jazz. 

I want my blog to be fun, yet still reflect my personality and my love for writing.  Why is this so hard?!  (Please note that was a joke, I promise, a joke.)

Anyway, between now and the new year I am going to work on giving the blog a facelift.  Why?  Because I want to.

This all started because I wanted to change coding for the time stamp on my entries to actually be the date and not time.  Apparently I don't know how to do that!  I found the code line, played with the meta tag, and yet here is still stands that it shows the time and not the date.  So because I can't fix that, I am having to toy with a whole new layout.  All because time vs date.  Insane! 

We will make this blogging thing work, we will!

Until Next Time!

Looking ahead to 2015

I don't do New Years Resolutions.  Let's be honest, no one keeps those anyway.  I know I never have in the past.

So this year I am trying something  new.  I am creating a plan, a plan to make 2015 my year.  More my year than what I hope happens outside of my control.  So the last couple of days I have been sitting down to map out my 2015, logically.  This is what I have come up with so far.

Outside of my control:

Adopt a baby, hopefully.  We have been trying for 4 years already to start a family.  We have gone several different routes, including attempting to adopt from foster care, and so far we have been thwarted at every turn.  2015 we are renewing our hopes of starting a family and bringing a baby into our household.  This is mostly outside of our control, though, so while we can only do so much we are still hoping 2015 is our year to start our family.  In the beginning of the year we are going to finish our homestudy update.  That is pretty much where our ability to control the situation ends, haha.  We have selected a new placing agency and hopefully we will be picked and things will get moving in the right direction.

Inside my control:

Get good grades.  I start back in school to finish my bachelors in January and I am excited and terrified at the same time.  Because of some mix ups with my associates degree, I have to retake a course which puts my Spring semester hours up to 17.  That includes two sciences with labs and one of them happens to be Chemistry.  I am not a big fan of chemistry, not at all.  So I hope to be able to have enough in me to make 17 hours quick work and make good grades.

Lose weight.  Losing weight is the bane of my existence but it is a requirement.  I have a horribly high BMI, and while I will never fit into the perfect box for my BMI, my doctor has explained that if I can get my numbers down by about 10% I can come off medications for my blood pressure.  My goal is to lose around 25% of my body weight in 2015, and it is doable.

Medication free 2015.  Hand in hand with my weight loss goals is my want to get off my medication.  I am lucky enough to only take one medication for my blood pressure, and it is directly related to my weight.  So I have to lose 10% to get rid of the pills and that is a huge goal in 2015.

Mindful meditation.  Most of my adult life I have done a practice of mindful meditation.  In 2014 that has fallen by the wayside for a number of reasons.  In 2015 I am bringing that back.  I am such a nicer person when I get some time for me to just sit and breathe and accept life's woes and triumphs.

Write more.  I love to write, so every year I make a goal to write more.  2015 will be my year to write more!

So those are the main goals of 2015.  The difference in setting goals is I'm not waiting till Jan 1 to put some of those into play.  Grades and homestudy and adoption all have to wait, but I'm slowly working myself into the other three.  Part of my hatred for New Years resolutions is the shock to the system that seems to happen while you give up everything you deem bad for you.  It's unsustainable.  So I have already started on weight loss and meditation.  Those are another post though.

What are your goals for 2015?  Do you do New Years Resolutions or just decide throughout the year?

Until Next Time!

Hello out there

Bet you thought this blog went the way of the dodo, didn't you?  Yeah, so did I, honestly.  BUT, a big but there, I have decided that I really want to write and this is the best place to do this.  Now, why have I stopped writing here?  Because I totally made this a thing.  I made this blog into something that I don't want it to be anymore.  I hate making something into a thing, so I'm claiming back the blog. 

I wanted this blog to be about my writing, but that just isn't my life.  I mean, I love to write but the best time I had on this blog was during pride month, when I merely wrote what I wanted to write and just kept to a theme.  So I think I am going to come back and do things like this. 

Just what the internets need, another blogger who talks about their boring life.  Sorrynotsorry, but I just want to write about my boring life. 2015 is setting up to me my year, to be our year, and so I just want to write about all that. 

So here we are, a newness to an old blog.  And hopefully a chance for me to write more and write about fun things! 

Until Next Time!

FINISHED

Sometimes you just have to power through and finish, and I have.  53,122 words later, I have reached my 50K word goal.  And very little of it was on one project.  I think I have 4 going at the moment, and that's just the best way for my brain to work.

Now I am going to take a power nap. 

Yay new ideas!

So it is the weekend, which means my brain is kind of in slumber mode.  The weekend is the only time my partner and I get to spend together without having to worry about work and cooking and working out and all the other things that we worry about during the week.  So I don't do a lot of writing or planning, normally.

This weekend however I have had a of brain mojo!  Outlining a new idea, spending time on an old idea, and even working on my current novel.  I haven't much touched the idea for NaNo this weekend, but I have touched just about everything else!  Despite writing so much, I have also been cleaning like crazy.  Got our guest room cleaned up and have one other room to work on.  Our bedroom also needs some work, but it's more just dusting and vacuuming in there than actually cleaning. 

I hope you have been having a great weekend.

Until Next Time!

Shaking things up a bit!

So, I am shaking things up a bit.  Basically I took pretty pictures of my stir fry the other night and decided I would put it on the blog!  Aren't you excited?  (Okay, yeah, no one is nearly as excited as I am about food.)  But these are, in my humble opinion, very pretty pictures.  I am not a professional photographer, nor do I play one on the Internet.  These are merely some joe-schmoe's supper pictures.  I think you can appreciate that!

So I made stir fry the other night.  It was delicious.  I'll give you a mark up of the recipe, but understand that I really don't measure, unless I'm baking.  So please taste everything and adjust as needed.  Also, we are attempting to be primal in our eating.  This is basically paleo light.  We have cut out most grains from our diet.  So everything we use is gluten free, but I'm pretty sure it'll work with everything.  We are not purists, this recipe has soy sauce in it (I can hear people gasping!) and you know what?  It was good.

Key:
T = Tablespoon
t = teaspoon


Ingredients:
1.5 T  Tamari (gluten free soy sauce)
1.5 T  Rice wine vinegar
1 T  Hoisen Sauce
2 t  Mirin
2 t  Sweet red chili sauce
1 T  Honey
2 pound flank steak (or skirt steak, or whatever steak, or even chicken)
a couple heads of broccoli
2 Carrots matchsticked
half a green pepper, matchsticked
half an orange pepper, matchsticked
half a yellow pepper, matchsticked
any other veggies you want to throw in (seriously, snap pears would probably be delicious!  We've also added water chestnuts as well for crunch!)

Isn't that broccoli pretty?

Recipe:
Mix all the sauces together.  Take 1/3 of the sauce and reserve it for later use. 
Cut the flank steak into strips, thinner is better than thicker. 
Place the cut up steak into the 2/3 remaining sauce, allow to marinate in the fridge for an hour (or less, or more, up to about 8 hours I would think.  The longer you can marinate the yummier it is!)
Heat a wok or large pan on the stove to a nice medium high.
Please a couple tablespoons oil of choice into the wok
Put meat into the wok and brown on all sides.
Remove meat and put in a bit more oil and the veggies
Once veggies are cooked to your liking (we like a little snap, but not much), put the meat back in and pour over the reserved sauce.
Heat till everything is warm.
Serve

The pretty stir fry.. and the picture that started this whole post!

Until Next Time

First glimpse at NaNo 2014

So this year I am doing something different with NaNo and putting it all here for all to see!  This is the first glimpse into the NaNo this year.  This is unedited, straight from my head.  Don't judge too harshly! 

Word count: 2027
Enjoy!!

Start:

William looked around and got excited. Today was the first day of the school year and he knew this was going to be an excellent year. The performing arts school finally accepted him into the ranks and he was going to make it big. Oh to walk the hallowed halls that the greats have walked. The world is my oyster today he thought to himself. Stepping off the train, he slowly made his way uptown. Standing in front of the building that the man himself had studied at filled him with trepidation as well as an overwhelming feeling of completion.

For the last two years he had been trying to make it in this school. His dream of standing on stage, singing his heart out, performing, allowed him to do nothing less. He was going to make it, he had no other option. Broadway was his dream. Cabaret, Phantom of the Opera, Newsies, he didn't care. The goal was to be on that stage and this school was his first step.

With his schedule clutched in his hand, William took his first steps inside of the building as a student. His first class was rather mundane, English. He knew it was important to be well spoken, but he also knew that English was not his major. Classroom 113, west side of the school. Looking down at his map, he figured out where he was and then slowly made his way towards the classroom. Stepping into the classroom, he looked around. There was a vast diversity to the students standing around the room, some new some returning students. At 15, William was one of the older kids who stepped foot into the classroom for the first time. He knew this and became determined to make new friends. He would make friends.

Aisha took a deep breath. The first day of school in a new country. Slowly getting up from bed, she knew today would be the first day of the rest of her life, and she hated it. “Aisha, downstairs, breakfast” her mother barked at her. Slowly moving, Aisha put her bathrobe over her pajamas and made her way downstairs.

“What's for breakfast?” She asked, looking across the table at her family.

“Big breakfast for the first day of school!” Her little brother, Zahid, answered her, obviously full of excitement. He is always way too cheery to go back to school Aisha thought to herself as she sat down to the table.

“Are you excited for the performing school?” Her mother asked her, passing a plate of eggs towards her.

“Yes, mama, I am excited. I guess.”

Aisha hated school, she always had. She knew she was lucky to be educated, so many girls weren't, but school was not something she enjoyed. This year, while she had gotten into the performing arts school, she found herself even less excited. It was hard to move across the world. It was hard to leave all her friends, and now she had to deal with a new country and trying to make new friends.

Stepping off the train, Aisha looked up at the school building before her. She was excited to learn more about the performing arts. Being an actress was her dream, though her father was not too keen on the idea. He always wanted her to go on and become something important, like a doctor or a lawyer, but that was way too much school for Aisha. She had her own dreams. Getting a script from her agent, memorizing her lines, stepping into hair and makeup, finally looking at the camera, knowing she was going to perform and that camera was going to broadcast it across the world. Famous. Famous.

Looking down at her schedule, Aisha saw her first class was English, room 113. She knew where that room was, having walked her schedule just a couple days before with her father and brother. Looking around to get her bearings, she quickly made her way to the classroom. The room 113, with it's number illuminated against the darker hallway, loomed in front of her. Adjusting the scarf on her head, she walked into the room. There weren't many people in the room just yet and Aisha spotted a desk in the back corner. Moving towards the desk, Aisha smiled at the students staring at her. This was going to be a long class.

Grace moved towards the train with the confidence only a 15 year old young woman can possess. She was moving towards her element, her school. Stepping down into the subway, she found the whole place disgusting. I can't believe people enjoy taking the subway she thought to herself. This whole place is so dirty and dingy. And this light does nothing for me. Scanning her metro pass, Grace stepped through the turnstyle, trying to touch as little as possible. She would not let the dirty wheel ruin her outfit.

Putting her bag on the floor in front of her seat, Grace looked down at her book. No, she wasn't going to actually read, but she had heard that people left you alone if you pretended to be busy on the subway. This was important, because the last thing she wanted to do was talk to these people.

Life here sure was different from where she came from, and Grace loved it so much. There weren't people here who thought wrestling a pig was a fun activity. Any time she had mentioned her hometown to people before, she always felt like she was being judged by their country ways. No one took her seriously because they all thought she knew how to rope a cow or ride a horse. Sure, she did know how to do those things, but only because her father had made her learn so she could help on the farm. She hated every minute of it, and she was sure to let people know.

Looking up momentarily from her book, Grace caught site of what she thought was a homeless boy sitting across from her. She felt sad for him for a second, but then he took out an apple from his bag and began eating it. Gross, she thought, who would eat on this train? Loser. Grace had very little tolerance for people like him. It wasn't hard to better yourself and she just couldn't understand why this boy wasn't trying to be better.

Stepping up to the school, Grace felt at home. She was home. Today was the first day of her third year at the performing arts school and this would be her year. She was sure to be voted best in her class, and this was also the year that she would start focusing more on her craft, rather than the pesky school stuff of the last two years. She was bound to become the queen of the choir and ready to take her place in the schools hierarchy that gave students a chance to be on stage in real productions. She was going to be a star this year.

Looking down at her schedule, Grace groaned at her first period. English with Mr. Hasher. She had heard such horrible things about him as a teacher. She didn't understand why she had to continue taking stupid English, she'd been speaking it her whole life. Not only that, she didn't understand why a man like Mr. Haser was still teaching. He hadn't been in a production in ages, and he was a freaking dinosaur in the business. Slowly Grace made her way towards room 113.

Moving in the hallway was exciting. People remembered her, of course, and greeted her. She knew if she kept talking to everyone she would be late, but she also knew that it was more important to make friends of future stars than it was to sit in English class. As the first tones began to ring out in the school house she slid into Mr. Hashers class. He greeted her with a contempt in his eyes, but she had made it, so there was nothing he could do to her anyway. Sitting in the middle row, Grace took out her notebook and began to doodle. This was going to be a long first period.

Gregory rolled out of bed before the sun was up. Blinking at the small alarm clock, he quickly turned to wake his little brother so he could make up the bed. “Jason, come on. First day of school.” Nudging his brother, moving on towards the shower and hoping his brother would be up when he got out.

“Gregory,” his mother called from the other room, “the hot water is out again. I have to go in for a double shift. Can you make sure Lilly and Jason get to school? And that Alan and Daisy get to daycare? I'll take Peter with me.” Leaving no room for him to decent, his mother was out the door before Gregory even processed what she was saying.

Great, another cold shower and I have to get everyone to school? Gregory silently cursed under his breath as he turned the water all way over to hot, praying his mother was wrong. She wasn't. The cold shower left him little time to think about anything but washing up. Today was the first day of school. He couldn't be late.

Moving to the kitchen, Gregory saw that his little sister was already cooking breakfast. “Good morning” he greeted her, hoping his voice was happier than his cold shower mood.

Lilly just threw a hand over her shoulder and continued to scramble some eggs. “Dad didn't send any money this week. The gas was turned off.” Lilly didn't hide her contempt for this fact. Gregory nodded at the back of her head. “Everyone is up, will you get them in here?”

Gregory rounded everyone up into the kitchen as Lilly doled out the eggs. There weren't enough, there never was, so Gregory quickly split his eggs among the younger kids. He tucked a couple apples into his bag, they would just have to do. “Come on everyone, we have to get moving.”

Settling down on the train after dropping off the youngest kids to daycare, Gregory realized how hungry he was. Taking an apple from his bag, he began to think about his day. He was in his third year at the performing arts school, despite being a year younger than most people in his class, and he was excited. Yeah, he knew he wasn't going to get fame this year, but maybe he would get on the chorus line of a musical. That was his goal. Biting into his apple he noticed Grace sitting down the car from him. He knew who she was, but only because she was the biggest diva in the school.

Getting off the train at school meant he was home. This was one place where he wasn't all that different from everyone else, maybe even a little better than them. His mom worked hard to make sure he could go here and he wasn't going to blow it for anything. As he stepped into the building he made his way towards the front office. Caroline, the office attendant, often had some baked goodies on the first day and he was hoping to score a muffin or biscuit.

“Good morning Gregory,” Caroline greeted him. “I saved you a blueberry muffin, your favorite.” Handing him his prize he saw the genuine worry that he knew Caroline felt for him.

“Thanks!” he exclaimed, trying not to scarf down the muffin in front of her. “You make the best muffins.” Waving as he made his way out of the office and towards first period, English with Mr. Hasher. A tough teacher, so he had heard, but it was English and that was one class, outside of performing, that Gregory loved. Stopping at the door of class 113, Gregory wiped his mouth one last time, crumb checking of course. He stepped into the room, excited for the beginning of the school year, and hopefully the best year of his life.

End

Until Next Time!

Heart to Heart

I hate election day.  I especially hate the day after election day.  One side always loses and the other gloats.  It doesn't matter what party you belong to, it's true.  Don't even try to deny it, you can't.  My side lost last night, and I feel hung over.  Or better what I imagine being hung over feels like, I wouldn't know.  And now I have to deal with all my friends being quiet and the other side gloating like they won the superbowl.  It's a crappy, rainy day here. 

I think we all just need a moment to have a heart to heart.  Do I honestly think the world is going to shift because of this election?  No.  I worry about what policies are going to try to be rammed through.  Who isn't when they aren't on top?  I worry because I see who won in Florida and I know where they stand on the "gay marriage debate".  I worry because our Supreme Court Justices are getting older and it will be harder to have a court that goes in my favor if, heaven forbid, someone were to die or retire. 

Other than that?  Nothing will change.  Nothing ever changes.  Sure, a few things change here or there, but the total output is exactly the same (nothing).  Elections leave me with a feeling of excitement and a feeling of dread, at the exact same time.  It is quite an interesting feeling, to be honest.

So, election season is over for now.  I am excited to not see smear ads all over the TV at all times.  Today I am lounging lazily with my puppies inside our extremely cold house, curled up with a blanket, drinking some nice hot tea.  The world didn't end, my life is still exactly the same.

Until Next Time.

Today

Today, 1500 words later, I hate everything I've written!  Much like everyone I know, NaNo is not coming quickly this year.  NaNo is not coming easy.  The last thing I want to do when I get done writing on my novel is come here and write, but at the same time this is exactly what I want to do. 

So for today's blog post I'm not going to write anything exciting. 

Today has been full of the business.  I have a few Christmas gifts I am trying to buy and I am just struck with dilemma after dilemma.  I want to order a couple personalized gifts, but am struck on what we call the kids vs their real names.  The parents named them something different from what they are called, yet their names are important to their parents.  It makes for ordering personalized gifts difficult. 

My writing is going okay.  I have a children's book in the works that I am pretty excited about.  It's about dinosaurs and a purple bunny that is a scientist.  It's turning out a bit cute.  I also have a sci fi novel in the works and I am pretty excited with how the last chapter turned out.  I am not sure where the heck the book is going, but I have an overall feeling of how I want it to end.  Plus I have what I am writing for NaNo and woah, I am tired.  But I am getting in so much writing practice. 

I love writing sometimes just for writings sake.  I think that is what I do ninety percent of the time anyway, which makes writing a novel hard!  That is what my plan is though. 

Until Next Time!

The cast of characters

So as NaNo is coming closer, I have decided on my characters.

There will be four and they will be diverse.  Why?  Because that gives me a better chance to expand my writing chops and learn about new things.  You have to push your knowledge to grow!

The Characters:

William Riley -
William is a 15 year old male from a big city.  He hasn't lived an overly privileged life, so to speak, but his life hasn't been difficult with regards to money. He is African American, has brown eyes, brown hair.  He stands 5'9", has a slender build, and lives in jeans and teeshirts.

Aisha Lian -
Aisha is a 15 year old female who just moved to the big city from another country.  She is taking in all the amazing aspects of her new city, including going to school and meeting new friends.  She is Egyptian but did not grow up in Egypt.  She stands 5'2", has a small frame and build, and wears mostly skirts.  She is also a hijabi. 

Gregory Townsed -
Gregory is 14 and hates living in the city.  His family is poor, the city is dirty, and he spends hours on subway every day trying to get to and from his school.  He's made a few friends in the city from school and likes that, but other than that, he cannot wait to get old enough to move to the beach.  He is downright skinny, gangly even.  He is 5'6" and owns nothing but jeans and teeshirts.

Grace Alora -
Grace is your typical "mean girl" type.  She is 15, popular, and completely sure she is going to make it in this world.  Her family moved her to the city so she could attend the popular fine arts school.  She has a few friends there, but she tries to keep that part separate from her "real" life of hanging out with rich people.  She appears shallow on the surface, but deep down inside she truly would rather spend all her time with her fellow thespians.  She is 5'4", rather "normally" built. 


Tomorrow we start our NaNo adventures with these four friends! 

Until Next Time!

Hanging out there

So I am trying really hard to get back into a writing swing of things, so I think I am going to do a series a short stories for NaNoWriMo.  A series of stories you say?  Well, yes, but they will all belong to one "book". 

How will that work?  Well I am going to create 4 characters.  And each day, to hit my word count, I am going to write about an adventure these 4 heroes go on.  Then, I will write the same adventure from each character's view point.  Seems repetitive right?  Yeah, it kind of does to me as well.  But it gives me a chance to get to know my characters better, to see how they will experience the same thing, but through their own lens on life. 

So for the next few days, gearing up to NaNo, I am going to create my characters.  Join me on my adventure of creating characters!  Have suggestions?  Feel free to throw them out there. 

As an aside, I am going to take this time to remind you of my copyright policy.  At the top of the blog you can see the link to the policy, please click through and read that policy. 

Until Next Time!

October and the smell of NaNoWriMo

I am hoping the kick in the ass I need is a writing challenge!  So I am going to try to do NaNo plus blogging daily.  I am excited to get back to blogging, I just need something to blog about.  I am struggling to come up with something I feel is exciting enough to share.

With NaNo coming up though, I am hoping to share writing snippets and NaNo tips I have come up with over the years.  I have also decided to stop worrying about writing to an audience and merely writing.  Writing writing writing.  It's all I need to do and it's what I will do, from here on out. 

Until Next Time

More world building!

I am stuck on world building.  It is taking up so much time right now that I feel like I have forgotten what my own world looks like.  I have actually taken to drawing the world where my characters live and I am not an artist.  My partner typically looks at my drawings and just nods and smiles.  I repeat I am not an artist. 

So today I spent some time editing some photos I took a while ago of some train tracks in my state's capital.  I am no photographer either, but I like to take pictures of objects that I can work into my stories.  No, this set of tracks isn't going to make it into the current novel, but it did give me the opportunity to play around with my world. 

There isn't much else going on related to writing.  My story is kinda stalled, but my world is wonderfully written!

Until Next Time.

World Building

As I sit here avoid my novel, I wonder if I were writing what would I be writing about.  That is easy, however, as right now is all about world building!  For my current novel I have to crate a whole new world, unseen before to human eyes.  However, this world has to be close enough to our current world that it is believable.  There is only so much a reader can suspend reality in order to enjoy a book.  Or at least I find there is only so much I can suspend reality.

Right now I am building a planet, not unlike our own, that will support humanity.  It is amazing how easy this can be with the internet.  It is also amazing how difficult this can be because everyone can now search for the information in your book to see if it's real.  (Oh yes, I've done a quick search to see if it's plausible!)

So right now I am finding myself consumed with my new world.  How do my characters see the colors?  How do they move around the hills and the mountains?  What does that butterfly like creature look like?  Are there fish in the seas?  So many questions, which require a lot of floral thinking.  This takes so much time, and 90% of it will never make the final edit.  However, it is important.

Why?

Because it is!

I know, that's a crappy answer.  It is important because how people react to their environment is important.  Think about how you describe things.  When you give people directions do you say "You will turn left at Laren Avenue, the house is 1111" or do you say "You'll turn left at Laren Avenue, it's the 4th street on the right after you get off the highway.  The house is 1111, it's got blue siding and a basketball goal on the front.  It's at the end of the court, on the right!"

The second one is probably closer to how you give directions to your house because you want to explain at much as you can, especially to someone coming for the first time.  The more you know about the area, the easier it is to find the place.  I am finding that it is basically the same thing when it comes to writing.

So there you have it!  Building a new world takes time.  

I am opinionated

And that is okay!  That doesn't always mean my opinions are correct, or valid, but they are mine.

Just needed to get that off my chest.  I have sat here looking at this blog for the better part of a month hoping the words would just spontaneously appear and suddenly I would have an active writing space again.  Well, they did not and I am truly disappointed in that!  Why can't I have a writing fairy come write all the things in my head out for me?  Hrumph!

Anyway, I am back, and hopefully better than ever.  I have ideas, I have ideas, and I have more ideas.  Now to see if those ideas actually pan out into wonderful blogs.  I think I am going to fuse my love of writing, my ongoing experience writing a novel and a children's book, as well as the fact that my life is every bit as boring as it sounds together to write diverse blog posts!  That sounds good doesn't it?  haha.

So now we begin again to try to build a blog base.  And away we go!!!

Well that didn't work right...

So my partner and I just got back from an amazing vacation!  I came on here expecting to see how my last couple posts in the series went over, only to find that they didn't post.  I am so sorry.  I had a few posts that were supposed to post during the last week and apparently I didn't do that so well.  So the rest of this week I'll try to figure out what went wrong and get those posts posted. 

I hope you all have had a great couple of weeks. 

Until Next Time.

Unexpected blogging break

Well that was an unexpected week long break.  Life kind of happened and it wasn't a good, wanna tell the world kind of happen, so the blog sat silent.  I apologize to my 8 readers, ;) .

All that said, I plan to finish up my writing series.  I really do, I promise.  I am trying to think of other things to write about and trying to plan posts ahead so that when I am in a talkative mood I can write a bunch of posts!  Hopefully we'll get back to a semblance of normality in the next month or so. 

Please, please stay with me.  I don't have a lot of readers, but I value each and every one of you. 

Until Next Time. 

Writing Space

Next to my notebook of awesomeness, I have to have a clean and nice writing space.  This one is pretty self explanatory, but I'll show you mine and give you a brief explanation. 

Here is an overview of the entire space.

If you click to enlarge, you will see a few notes I put on there about different things on my desk. 

What's that you say?  I write at a desktop?!  Why, yes, most of the time I do write at that desk with my desktop.  I am so out of style, it's okay.  Not only is that a desktop, it's a 10 year old desktop!  Yes, I would love a new desktop, but unfortunately I am not rolling in the money, so I keep my 10 year old desktop.  I also do some writing on my laptop, when I want to go out and about.  My laptop is also nothing fancy.  It is a 2 year old laptop that I got for 150 bucks at a big box store. 

So as you can see, my writing space is not all that fancy.  Neither are my writing gadgets or even my process for writing.  I would write on a typewriter if I owned one! 

Another big part of my writing space is the walls you see all around.  They are purposefully blank.  Why?  Because 9 times out of 10 you will see sheets from the sticky pad up on the wall holding information for characters or outlines.  Like so:

characters on my wall!

I use this method for writing because it lays everything out for me.  I love to have everything at a glance, and this is the best way I have found to do this.  This way if I'm brainstorming a new idea for a new novel I can just use my color coded sticky pads and just outline it and stick it to the wall.  Eventually this will be transferred to my notebook of awesomeness, but at this point it's just hanging out on my wall. 

I try to keep my writing space clean and clutter free, but that doesn't always work.  I don't live in a bubble, and with another person in the house sometimes my desk is the best place to put things.  I do find that when I take the time to keep the desk clear, I write more.  Isn't it funny how that works.

So there is the writing space and my outdated technology!

Until Next Time

Notebook of Awesomeness

Have you ever kept a notebook next to you to write down everything you think of a specific novel or short story?  Then you, my friend, have kept a notebook of awesomeness.

Years ago I bought a composition notebook for 50 cents at the dollar store.  Inside that notebook I composed my first novel.  It was poorly written and had the spelling errors and lack of depth you would expect of a 9 year old, but boy was I so proud!  And thus the idea of the notebook of awesomeness was born.

So what all do you put in the notebook?  Anything and everything related to your story.  And each story gets it's own notebook, so you don't confused ideas. 
 
 Inside my current novel notebook I have pages dedicated for each of the 3 main characters, then a page for scenery, a page that explains small things about the new planet they are on, a page that outlines the entire story, a page that I just write scrap ideas, and a page that gives the moral of the story.  Everything has a page so that I can easily find scrap ideas and expand on them as well as make minor changes to my characters while still keeping everything centrally located.

Random page in my notebook

It also gives me a chance to write down an idea and then scrap it later.  In the above picture you'll see a but of NO written around the page.  Those were ideas that I threw around in my head and wanted to write out, but once I got them down on paper I didn't like the ideas all that much, so I abandoned them.  I never scratch them out, however, so I can always remember that those ideas didn't really work.  Alternatively, it gives me a chance to revisit these ideas later if I need to spice things up a little. 

Character sketch from the notebook

I love having everything centrally located.  It saves me from having to pull up my file on the my computer in order to remember how old one of my character is or where they were born.  It makes the quick writing I do that much quicker.  It also allows me to write down any information I want to explore about that character. 

I love my notebook of awesomeness!

Until Next Time

Essential writing components for me

So I am getting ready tow rite out a series of posts on what I consider essential to my writing experience.  Yes, I am unpublished, no I am not a professional, but that doesn't mean that I cannot write tips and tricks that help me stay organized.  That way when I am a famous author, you can say you saw my tips and tricks way back when!  Lol.

That said, Each of these are going to get their own post.  This is more just to introduce you to the different components of my writing.  This series will cover:

The Notebook of Awesome
The come-together binder
The writing space
The backups of backups
The end results

Those 5 things are what I consider essential to my writing success.  Look this week for these tips and tricks!

until next time.

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Word Crimes

So I found this really funny and completely appropriate for a writing blog.  Please watch and learn.  And laugh, because this is all true, but really for a laugh. 

Until Next Time.

Today I wrote a prologue

In the writing world there are people of all types.  And each one of those peeps likes to give you advice.  One of the writing peeps in my world has a piece of advice she is famous for, "Don't write prologues.  No one cares."  Seriously, if you lived here and asked who was a local writer who said that, everyone would point to her.  She's not mean about it or anything, that is just how she feels. 

I, however, do not feel the same way.

I love opening a book and seeing what is written before the story starts.  Prologues to me should be short, but they tell me if I'm going to get sucked in to reading this book.  I feel like when I find a great prologue, I can't wait to get to the part of the story that the prologue is foreshadowing.

So today, I wrote a prologue for my current sci fi young adult novel.  I feel like we have had so much going on in our lives lately, that I hope to share on this blog someday.  I also feel like I have neglected my story in the worst way possible.  So today, this morning to be exact, I sat down before my shower and set out to write 250 words.  What I ended up writing was my prologue. 

And I am proud of it!  I hope to share it some day soon, and I will, but right now it's just sitting in my first edits binder waiting for the rest of the story to get as far.  I have 3 of my planned 9 chapters in that binder, I need to get cracking.

I do have a plan to do a post about my first edit binder, giving away a secret of mine, and on story planning.  After today, I hope to get to gettin' on these posts!

Do you enjoy prologues? 

Until Next Time.

Diverse characters in literature

One of things I pay attention to as a writer is the diversity of the characters in novels I read.  I write young adult and children, so I mostly ready young adult and children.  But even branching out to the adult literature I've read, I've noticed a stunning thing.  There isn't much diversity in the main/leading characters.  And that astonishes me at the same time that it doesn't.

photo credit: Photosightfaces via photopin cc

One thing, as a writer, I have always tried to do is make sure all my characters are diverse.  I never thought about it as a requirement, but more that I wanted my characters to be as different, yet similar, as humanly possible.  I grew up in a poorer, diverse rural area and I just wrote that into my story.  As an adult I see now how it is really needed to have some diversity in each book.

photo credit: Sailing "Footprints: Real to Reel" (Ronn ashore) via photopin cc

I started a goal a few years ago to pick up diverse books for my hopefully future family.  I wanted to make sure there was a set number of books containing diverse characters that were in the lead role in the book.  And I was incredibly disappointed by what I could find.  There are children with white skin tone all over the place in children's picture books, but I have a handful of books with children of other ethnicity.  The most diverse book I have is actually a Norwegian children's book!  This still, to this day, astonishes me.  I went out to find the most diverse books I could, and I was thoroughly disappointed in the results.

photo credit: Dietmar Temps via photopin cc

As a writer, I want to help fix this problem.  I want to make sure that children of all colors, nationalities, genders, sexual orientation, gender identity, and ethnicity have the ability to find books about themselves out on the shelves.  All kids deserve to see themselves in a character who solves a mystery, becomes a doctor, challenges the leaders and wins, and in general gets to do all the amazing things you see happen in novels.  As a writer, I am always aware that I can't fix the world, not even one novel at a time.

photo credit: thejbird via photopin cc

So what can I do?  Make sure everyone out there knows that there is a market for diversity in literature, especially children's literature.  Have you ever wanted to write a story?  Do it!  Not only can you do it, you can make sure that your diversity is written into the words on every page.  Children, especially, need to know that there are people like them out in the world.  They need to be able to pick up a book and know that it will apply to them, that they will see themselves in every character.  My goal, with the children's series I am working on, is to make sure each book has as many diverse characters as possible.  To make sure that they appeal across the board to a broad number of children.  In hopes that they can see themselves solving the mysteries and learning the lessons.  This is our future people, embrace them and let them learn!

photo credit: Julie70 via photopin cc

So what are your favorite books for kids?  Have you had success with diverse literature for children?

Until Next Time!

Writing

So an update on where I am in writing my novel plus the children's series. 

I am in the exact same place. 

Yeah, I haven't written a lick in the last month on the novel and I'm sad about that.  I always had great intentions.  I set up times to write, created my little writing nook, even got back out my notebook of awesome... and then promptly stared at the screen then played a Facebook game.  It was easier. 

But July is my month.  My goal is to write the first book for the children's series, just to see how that kind of goes, and then spend at least 10 hours a week on my novel.  I am only trying to get the rough draft out there on paper.  I have grand plans of sending out feelers by the first week in November.  That's the grand plan though, so we shall see what happens. 

How is your week going?  Have you written anything lately?

Until Next Time.

Straight to the heart...

So now that pride is over I am struggling to decide what content to put here on the blog.  I don't want to make this blog all about being gay 100% of the time.  That was not my intention when I started writing here.  However, I have had quite a few new readers to the blog who have come, often I'm sure, mainly for the fact that there was a blog about gay.  Or at least that's what my brain is telling me. 

This blog, however, was a place for me to write, and write often.  A place for me to constantly stretch my brain muscles and use my words to paint pictures and invite readers on adventures.  And I think I like that aspect.  But then I did just do a whole month of pride. 

So I am working quickly to try to fuse the two topics.  Perhaps keep up with current GLBTQ news as well as using this space as intended, to write. 

I am so looking forward to this next chapter of the blog and how it's going to all work out.  I am also so encouraged that people may actually want to explore this next chapter with me. 

So moving forward we are going to talk about a combination of writing and current events. 

Until Next Time.

Pride month wrap up

Holy cannoli!  What a wild ride this month as been.  It is astonishing to me that it's been an entire month of pride and that it is now over.  I have a bit to catch up on, so we'll start with Saturday and the second pride I attended and we'll end with a bit of a wrap up of the whole month, okay?  Okay!

Welcome to pride in our city!  It's not much.  We don't have a parade or anything exciting like that, but we do have a street we shut down for a few hours!  Woohoo!

I found this queen interesting.  The sign basically was against a local food chain and this queen was all about being friendly, chatting it up, and being all excited about being at pride.  The outfit made my day!

The best part of our pride, and really the reason everyone goes, is because of the Drag Show!  We know how to put on a show here.  This was my favorite queen of the entire night.  I know the picture is kinda awful, but she was seriously awesome.

This was my warm fuzzy drag king.  We don't have many kings around here, but we actually had 2 king performances this year.  This one was YMCA (did the outfits give it away?) and not only did it have 2 kings on the stage together, the military man is the father of the police officer.  It is awesome to see parents encouraging their children.  They were also a fun performance.

This was a personal love of this performance.  The only queen to bring an interpreter up on stage with her!  And he did a kick ass job.  I loved it!  Absolutely loved it.

And of course, the reason I know our little pride is becoming something, protesters!  This is the first year we've had people come out and protest...

LOOK people holding signs!

And our way of dealing with protestors here?

Pride flags and chanting for them to go home.

So that wraps up our pride.  Small but awesome!


So to wrap up this month, Pride is important.  From George Takei to drag queens, safe sex, and even remembering that when our children come out you just need to breathe, Pride is important. Pride reminds us that it is okay to exist and there are other people out there who are just like you.  What more can you ask for in life than to know that you are not alone? 

In case that needs to be repeated... you are not alone. 

Until Next Time.

Compromises and other fun things

So today is the last Finish the Sentence Friday (FTSF) of Pride month!  Today's topic is The one thing I'll never compromise on is...  and this is a good one for pride!

So I started going through the list in my head of things that I really won't compromise on and that happened to also be about pride.  I realized that the most important aspect is the one I won't compromise on.  So my FTSF answer:

The one thing I'll never compromise on is being who I am.

photo credit: Photochiel via photopin cc

I have found, in my life time, that there is no reason to compromise who you are.  It is never worth it and in the end you always lose.  Just you, no one else.

I am not beautiful, I am not handsome, I am not rich, I am not super smart, but I am me.  And I am the only me that will exist in today's world.  Isn't that awesome?

I tried to hide myself when I was younger, merely out of a need to survive.  I needed to stay in the good graces of my religious family in order to make sure I had food to eat and the ability to freely move around.  I learned early on in life that you sometimes have to play by other people's rules, if nothing else than for survival.  During this time of growing up, I was not being who I was truly.  I was compromising myself in order to survive.

Fast forward a few years and suddenly I am compromising on the other side in order to have and keep friends.  I didn't realize at that time that friendship wasn't all give and no take, it was supposed to be a bit of give and a bit of take and a whole lot of really enjoying each other.  Instead I found myself pretending to hate straight people, pretending to be ultra femme, pretending to like this music or that.  Pretending to enjoy staying up all night and then having to go to work the next day.   So I was, once again, compromising who I was.

Then I met my partner and things started changing.  He didn't care about my past, nor my "friends", nor the bad habits I had picked up.  He let me just be when we were together, and I noticed a marked change in my behavior and the way I acted in general.  No more did I find that I was having to change who I was to fit in, to be friends with someone, to be romantic.  And it was nice.

Then I saw how he was with his friends, and suddenly it clicked.  With his friends, he came out to them pretty effortlessly.  Yeah, there was a bit of a worry, but he still did it.  He doesn't have a lot of contact with them anymore (because a lot of them have turned in to assholes) but he didn't worry about losing friendships.  He told his parents about a year and half into our relationship that we were together.  His mom was like "And water's wet, what's your point" and that was that.  It was amazing!  To see someone just be themselves, it was amazing.  It was also the reason I decided I couldn't compromise on who I was any longer.

Today there is a bit of a glitch in my plan to just be who I am.  While in reality I can be whomever I choose to be, my partner has a bit of a problem.  Damn living in a conservative state!  He has to compromise in order to keep his job.  But me?  I don't have to compromise any longer, and it's nice.  I am living the good life and a lot of it is because I don't have to hide who I am or who I love.
(editing to add that my Partner doesn't have to worry about being fired to us being together, as it's pretty obvious we have insurance together and his company knows.  He has to hide it because it's the bosses who make decisions and can get people fired.  His boss is a conservative, independent fundamentalist Baptist who proselytizes to people at work pretty constantly.   We don't like the game, but we play by the rules... at least until we can move!)

What will you not compromise on in your life?

Until Next Time.

And we keep marching on

People all over the united states are fighting the good fight to continue the momentum we have in gaining rights to marry.  Just today I learned of two more fallen bans!

Source

Congratulations to the people of Indiana.  It was decreed that they were to immediately allow marriage and in Indianapolis the county clerk was issuing marriage licenses within a couple hours.  I am so excited for the people up there who get to celebrate this pride month with a marriage!

Source

The other marriage news is kinda big, especially because it comes from a higher court.  The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Utah cannot ban same sex marriage.  using the 14th amendment as their basis for the ruling, Utah's same sex marriage ban was struck down.  however, the justices immediately put the ruling on hold so that it could be appealed.  But this is the case that is thought to be going to the Supreme Court as the big marriage case.

And this is huge.  HUGE I tell you.  The fact that these cases are falling left and right makes you hope that the Supreme court will see the rulings and the reasoning used in the lower courts to see the truth of the matter.



According to the 14th amendment of the United States of America:

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Basically you cannot deny someone in America something based on the fact that you find it icky or gross.  You cannot say that 2 consenting adults cannot get married simply because your God says they shouldn't be allowed.

So two more cases, two more victories.

Happy day!!!

Until Next Time!

Interesting quote

Happy Tuesday!

My Partner and I are trying to start our family, and have been for quite a while.  We have had very little luck in this department for a few years now, but we haven't given up.  Kids are important to us and we want quite a few in the end.

A while ago I was watching an interview (old interview!) of David Burtka and Neil Patrick Harris on Oprah's next chapter.  One of the things that was said in the interview has really stuck with me through the years and very much comforted me, and it's rather odd.  The quote was along the lines of "if you think about it, gay parents WANT their children.  They want them so much they are willing to do what they have to.." and then the person speaking got interrupted. Oprah had her AHA! Moment on that reality and it stands true.

When someone works so hard to have a child, they want that child.  They want to parent that child.

Anyway, this was my pride ramblings for today. 

Until Next Time!

Happy Pride!!

So Saturday, we attended a pride parade up in Columbus, OH.  It was Takei's pride and it was pretty damn awesome!  It was the first time my partner and I had been to an actual pride parade.  Our city just has a festival, not so much a parade.  The 2.5 hour parade was so diverse and so awesome!  It's amazing to see so many people who are just out there to live and let live!

I took quite a few pictures, but below I'll show just a few highlights from everything!

 

What is pride without hot men and drag queens?  This float was all about safe sex and remembering that you can be safe and still have fun!

 This was probably my favorite demonstration.  A nun riding a motorcycle with Jesus on the back.  I think my partner and I laughed for way too long after this demonstration went through.  It just sets to remind everyone that Jesus said nothing about gay people.  His only two commandments were "Love the Lord your God" and "Love thy neighbor as thyself". 

 This was pretty cool.  Unfortunately, I'm unsure what exactly these people were supporting, but the float people were attached in such a way that as the puppeteer moved, so did every part of the puppet.  It was awesome to see them all dance down the street!

I included this picture because I thought it was a unique advertisement.  The drag queen is holding the product, showing off that not only are they gay friendly but that they are here and willing to sell to you.  It stuck me as such a great idea to drum up business!

Of course with pride comes protesters.  What is an exciting event in a gays life without someone there shouting about how they are going to hell?

These assholes hung out at the corner where we were standing.  There was a lady who kept trying to get involved in the parade or stand across the street near us that was constantly being told that she could not be in the crowd.  She was not happy, but she kept going back over there.

This was at the end of the parade.  I'm pretty sure the city had to let them march, and thus they put them at the end.  The last float that went past kinda signaled that the crowd should follow him.  We hung back a bit, because one person in our group has a history of annoying protesters so he jumped at the chance to live up to his image.  He lived up to said image.

All in all pride was awesome!  Good people, good times, and hilarious entertainment.  We went to pride village after the parade but of course my phone died so I got no pictures there. We did get swag, which is always nice. 

The last picture from our pride experience.  Pretty fitting if you ask me!  (and yes, that is a real street sign, it was not created for pride or anything!)

Until Next Time!

Gearing up

So this whole month is about pride, and tonight I start the gear up towards the prides I'm going to, and I'm pretty excited!

Tomorrow we head out bright and early to attend a Pride with a few friends.  Pride here in our home city is next weekend, and then it's over.

I am really posting today to say that I probably won't post much tomorrow, but will hopefully catch you all up on the fun pride times on Sunday!!  I didn't want to let two days go by without a post.  I long gave up on posting every day, simply because life is a bit unpredictable at the moment and we are dealing with a lot on the home front.  But I still love this blog and all the writing it's afforded me.

So that said, tomorrow there will probably not be a post, but Sunday hopefully there will be a post AND pictures from pride!

Until Next Time!

Today's edition of why pride is needed

In today's edition of Why we still need pride, we focus of children of gay parents.  What rights and protections do you realize you have everyday with your own children?  Now imagine not knowing what is going to happen at any given moment because you have none of those rights.  That is the reality of being gay and a parent.

The story I read today was of Jason Hanna and Joe Riggs.  These men biologically fathered twins (one boy for each man).  These men want the surrogate's name removed from their child's birth certificate (with her blessing of course) and their spouses named placed on the cert.  They are legally married in Washington D.C, but because Texas has ruled they don't have to legally recognize marriages outside of their state these men are not recognized in the state of their residence.  The problem with this scenario is that they are in a scary legal spot, especially if something were happen to them while they are appealing the courts decision.

I don't think people understand this reality of gay marriage not being legal or recognized.  These men, while the legal father of one of the twins each, are not the legal father of the other.  While they can take steps to make sure their wills are updated, signed, and ready to go if anything were to happen, why should they have to?  Why should they have to take extra steps to ensure that their children can stay together if something were to happen to them?  Not only that, wills can be challenged by the biologically father's family.  And in Texas?  Those grandparents, aunts, or uncles might actually win. 

This is one more reason why we need to remember that pride is important.  Coming out and making sure you fight for your rights is important.  These men should not be worried about their children's future if something were to happen to them.  Very rarely, if ever, do you hear a straight couple talking about the steps they need to take to make sure if the mother dies, the father is able to keep the children together.  Even if those children are adopted OR from a surrogate.  Married parents are the default for the children if one of the spouses died.

This is just one more reason we need to keep fighting the good fight.  This is one more reason we need to keep the conversation going.  Parents don't need to have this worry added to their first few days of their children's lives.  Parents shouldn't have to make sure that their wills are updated the minute their children are born.  Instead of loving on their child every minute when they bring them home, the new parents have to worry that nothing happens to them between the time the child is born and the time they can get to the lawyers to fill out their new wills.  It's shameful in America.


Please remember that marriage about so much more than love.  Marriage is about protecting families.  Support marriage equality for all.

Until Next Time.