Ultramundane.com -- It's Just Not Natural.

Current Playlist

This is my blogchalk:
United States, California, San Francisco, The Mission, English, Spanish, Casey, Male, 31-35.

GeoURL
Who Links Here

Friday, February 20, 2004

A Wednesday Conversation.

"I'm all messed up. I spent all day thinking it was Thursday."
"Funny, and I thought yesterday was Monday."
"Today is my Monday," pipes in someone who took an extra day off after Monday's holiday. She receives a couple glares from the group.
"Today feels more like a Tuesday to me."
"Look, it's Wednesday, all right? Wednesday. And we have about four days worth of work left to do this week. So if we could have un poco menos hablando y un poco más trabajando I'd appreciate it."
People slowly filter back to their desks, shooting bitter looks over their shoulders..

Thank Odd it's Friday.

11:18 AM PST (link)

Sunday, February 15, 2004

An Unmarried Man.

The Boyfriend called me yesterday and told me I should go by city hall and see the line for myself; I mean, I only live a few blocks away from it. He joked about meeting me there in line—with papers in hand. (Well, he was mostly kidding, anyway.) I wandered over to look at the line, which at 3pm, only (!) went around 2 sides of the building. Over the past two days I've seen and heard ever-closer reports of couples I know getting their marriage certificates: various Sisters marrying their longtime partners; various people at work; Matt and Brian; Mark and Rich. And for each time I hear the news, I feel all the more proud and, frankly, emotional.

It was amazing to see: Hundreds of couples. Smiles on so many faces. Supporters in honking cars waving and blowing kisses. Men carrying signs that said "Thank you Gavin Newsom" and women with giant paper lace hearts pinned to their blouses. I couldn't help but smile. I never thought I'd see this, and here I was standing in the middle of it. On the opposite side of the building, newly married couples came out grinning, carrying their licenses. One couple paused on the steps while friends excitedly arranged them for a picture; the looks on their faces was almost indescribable: the pride of doing what we know is right, the love they felt for each other, the joy of being here at this crazy moment in history. They were beautiful. And this door that had just opened for them was even open forme. I never understood before why people cried at weddings, but at that moment I had to turn away before I started to myself.

Tipsy last night at the Local Neighborhood Cabaret, one of Huntington's friends was big on the idea of The Boyfriend and I getting hitched. "You look like the groom on top of a wedding cake," he said. (Um...sure. It was dark, we were drunk.) Well, that sort of reasoning was pretty easy to dismiss. But we did think about it. There are some very convincing arguments for it—that we'd be participating in civil disobedience about an issue we feel strongly about; that if injunctions go through, this might be the only window of opportunity we'd have to marry for possibly years to come; that we'd been together for long enough, why shouldn't it be official?

But we didn't. I won't speak for us both, but I don't think I'm ready to be "married," with the cultural and emotional weight that entails, even if nothing else about our lives was to change. But then, our whole world has been changing faster than we ever imagined possible these past few years, so who knows.

We're running off to a wedding this afternoon. A straight wedding, actually. Yes, they still have them here. I'll try my best not to call out, "Copy-cats!"

And not to get too emotional.

Update: ...and Jase and Michael. And David and Mark. And Sherilyn and Katrina. I'm going to go broke (albeit happily so) when I find out where all these couples are registered.

03:05 PM PST (link)