on families, mispronunciation, gays, bad luck, and planetary action

families:

i attended my third birth on wednesday, august 4th. this one was extra special to me because the new baby has two mamas. everything went smoothly. birth mama had an epidural, so she and her partner napped for a few hours while i ate cupcakes and read trashy celebrity magazines. then she woke up and popped out a 9 lbs. baby girl like it ain't no thang. they were all beautiful. another little leo in the world, making a grand entrance with cocorosie playing in the background. they brought a little magazine clipping about these gay penguins at a zoo who wanted to parent so badly, they kept stealing everyone else's eggs. finally, the zoo gave them some abandoned eggs to hatched and they turned out to be the best penguin parents in the whole zoo.

this past week my family came to visit. we are a much different family than the one described above. this was the first time i've seen them in over a year and i remember why i don't visit them more often (as if i could forget). they still lecture me about everything, like that time i was 13 and didn't finish my antibitotics. (sorry, okay! sorry! i can't still be sorry 12 years later...sorry, world for the super germs and everything...).

we hold hands and pray before every meal. in public. i just keep my eyes open and sigh. they tell god what they won't tell me. "let becca now that we are proud of her and that we love her..." why don't they just let me know? why is it god's job? my dad pronounces the "l" in salmon. this is very embarassing because it's a word you say a lot in seattle. he will not be corrected.

i kept them busy. i tried to be positive. we had a bbq at the park and all my friends came to meet the family. "you're family's so adorable!" "oh they were really nice!" is what my friends said. i was hyper aware of every f-bomb dropped and worried about whether i should tell them that they're socializing with somone i'm kind of dating...

gays:

the day the lesbians had their baby was the day the court rules prop 8 unconstitutional. i know we have a long way to go, but it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside, and two gay victories made it an extra special day.

my little sister and i talked about my coming out letter for the first time. i told her everything and she was so impressively open and non-judgmental. she said, "i'm glad you told us. i think you did the right thing." she's smart. she's too smart for her high school and for our town. here, we went to youth readings and art walks and outdoor movies and restaurants together. i want to rescue her from ohio.

bad luck:

my purse got stolen last week from a bar. at first, i tried to have faith in humanity and thought that perhaps someone had taken it by mistake. then they started using my cards and my phone. then i got really cynical and told everyone, even the lady who cut my hair. i wanted the world to pity me. who does that? how to such shitty people exist? people who make multiple $50 purchases at the chevron in renton?

planetary action:

the day the lesbians had their baby was the day that saturn, venus, and mars are all visible together in the sky. i haven't seen them yet. the night before, there were solar flares the reflected in such a way that you were supposed to be able to see the northern lights from seattle. we were already in bed, but we made ourselves get up and drive around to look for them. all we saw was weird lightning in the east. maybe it was the solar flares?

this week the persiads peaked. i didn't see them. it's too light in the city and i was too tired to stay up past 11pm. but on our way home the other night, claudia, idil, and i stopped in a park and found some people looking through a high-powered telescope. they were looking at jupiter and its moons. we could see four of the moons. jupiter has at least 63 moons.

brush with fame

okay, before i forget, things i will make when i live in a kitchen i can use:

• pickles
• bread
• cheese
• granola
• ketchup
• salad dressing
• hummus
• eggs (and by that i mean get chickens!)
• a garden

i'm in major house crushdom right now. this morning i looked at this charming, adorable 'lil house right in the neighborhood where i want to be with hardwood floors and a big island in the kitchen and a deck and a backyard with so many green things and even a tiny itty bitty pond. we'll see if they offer it to us, but even so, fantasizing about becca, the super diy homemaker, are making my heart flutter. giving up all of my extra-curriculars to stay home and make shit. delicious shit that i can eat...mmm...stay tuned for updates.

so on monday i was walking down the street and i saw a penny heads up. i'm not as superstitious as you probably think, but i like to pretend i believe...usually i see the penny, pause to evaluate, decide whether i'm happy with my life, and act accordingly. if nothing else, it's a good exercise in counting my blessings. generally, i decide to leave the penny for someone less fortunate than i, and hopefully in exchange for a bit of good karma (which i also don't believe in as much as you probably think...*ahem*).

but monday, i picked the penny up, 'cause that's how things have been going and i can use all the help i can get. and then i kept finding pennies this week.

four pennies! heads up!

i took them all and tried not to feel greedy.

not that i'm saying there's a definite relationship between the pennies and my life, but my week did get more interesting.

first, i met ben affleck. well, i use the term "met" loosely. we exchanged pleasantries and i chuckled at a joke he made that i've heard before. he came to the factory for a meeting re: his non-profit organization in eastern congo. unfortunately, i didn't get the opportunity to discuss his work in the pbs mini-series voyage of the mimi, starring very young ben.

ah, memories of sixth grade. memories of learning about evolution for the very first time because the mimi crew went to the smithsonian and showed me how similar whale bone structure and bird bone structure are. fascinating! i couldn't believe no one had told me about this! of course, my mom wasn't too thrilled with my newfound knowledge when i told her, so we had a little bible study about creationism and how the devil speaks through science, etc. in my bedroom that evening. i felt horrible for being tricked and prayed about it a lot...but still ended up being an anthropology major. and i think it started, albeit a bit indirectly, with ben affleck. so you see, we would have had a lot to talk about. maybe next time.

on wednesday, i was on the local morning news for national milk chocolate day! this meant being at work at 4:30am and hanging out with the news crew for four whole hours. it meant standing at the bus stop with a tray of chocolate and trying not to think about the dozens of invisible viewers on the other side of the camera lens while i smiled awkwardly. it was a growing experience. more things i'd like to discuss with ben affleck: how to not be camera-shy. i won't post that link here 'cause it's embarrassing, but i'm sure you can find it if you want.

and yesterday, i finally redeemed my birthday gift certificate for ROLLER SKATES!!!!!!

that's right: real skates.

skates that i can skate outside in.

or in a rink.

or, someday, in....derby.

i took them out to green lake immediately and practiced, which means i found a tiny ten-foot unoccupied patch of sidewalk by the men's restroom and went back and forth at .0005 mph. the thing that's different about skating outside vs. inside is that, as previously mentioned, the only way i know how to brake is by running into wall. there is much too learn, but it's more fun to learn when you're giddy! tehehehehe!

other accomplishments this week: getting a changing table for the bathroom at work, going swimming twice even though seattle isn't giving me a proper summer, not breaking up with someone, playing music on the beach by a fire, changing my bike tire all by mahself, and helping tk exercise like i said i would.

thank you, goddesses of the lucky penny.