9.28.2012
When it gets personal
I’ve been wanting to have a conversation with Kent about
gay marriage for a long time now, ever since I found out last year about
Chick-Fil-A’s “charitable” contributions to Focus on the Family. We had been regular attendees with friends at
Chick-Fil-A’s family night, scoring a free kid’s meal and fun activities and
generally enjoying the kind employees and kid-friendly atmosphere. I thought Chick-Fil-A was fantastic. And then I found out almost a year ago that
whenever I bought a salad or a milkshake or a fruit cup for my kids, some of my
money was going to organizations that directly oppose one of my most fervent
beliefs, that of the right of two adults in a loving relationship to marry each
other, even if they happen to be of the same gender. This was long before Chick-Fil-A’s owner had
made public statements about his beliefs, spurring a nationwide debate—I was
having my own private boycott long before that.
When the flames leapt up this summer and suddenly *everyone* was talking
about Chick-Fil-A, I felt more than a little vindicated.
My dad was gay, so this is very personal for me. He and a lot of other people I knew boycotted
Cracker Barrel when it became known that the restaurant chain fired any
employee it found to be gay. (Cracker
Barrel reversed its policy several years later and now explicitly forbids
discrimination against gays and lesbians in its restaurants.) He also told me about visiting San Francisco
and not being able to order Coors in any bar because of the company’s anti-gay
policies and contributions. And while I
agree that a company has a right to contribute money to whichever organizations
they want to support, and even that the COO of a company has the right to say
crazy things, I also have the right not to give them any of my money to use in support of their beliefs.
About a month into my boycott, I found myself hungry,
driving past Chick-Fil-A, and I turned into the parking lot thinking, “Well,
maybe I can just get a sandwich anyway.”
But then I thought about my dad.
And I realized that I couldn’t stomach the idea of even one penny of my
money funding a hate group that saw my dad as less deserving of rights because
he wasn’t heterosexual. It was pretty
easy to turn back around and keep driving at that point.
Kent loved Chick-Fil-A, too, and he definitely noticed
that we weren’t going there anymore. But
he was four, and I had no idea how to explain it to him. The issue is just so big, and simultaneously so
personal, that I was afraid I was just going to start spewing vitriol about the
whole corporation if I got started, and I didn’t want it to be like that. So I skirted the issue each time he asked if
we could go there. I’m not so proud of
that. But I was kind of stuck mentally, turning it over in my head and trying to figure out what level he'd be capable of understanding.
The conversation finally began yesterday. I was talking to a friend about how her son Emerson has decided with Kent that they want to live together when they’re older. Emerson and Kent don’t want to get married necessarily,
just live together and possibly marry other people. (I told my friend that this was a relief to
me, since Kent had previously told us he wants to live with us forever and have
Dean move out. She said jokingly that
maybe Emerson was just planning to move in with *us*. Uh. We’ll hammer out the details later.)
In the same conversation, she mentioned that when
marrying someone of the same gender has come up with her kids, she’s explained
that some states just have “bad rules”, so they’d have to go to a different
state if they want to marry someone of their own gender. Bad rules.
Yes. Brilliant. I had my inspiration.
In the car on the way home from school, I begin. First I talk to him about how most men want
to marry women, but some men want to marry men because that’s who they
love. This makes sense to him (because
seriously, why shouldn’t it just MAKE SENSE??).
I say the same is true for women.
Then I say that unfortunately, not everybody believes that men ought to
be able to marry other men, even if that’s who they love, because they think
that if *most* people are a certain way, they think everyone ought to be that
way. I mention that in Virginia, men can’t
marry other men, but I use the word “yet” and convey to him that I think it’ll
eventually be okay in every state. He
asks about Louisiana, and I say no, it’s not okay in Louisiana either. Yet. Kent
seems to think it’s wildly unfair that men can’t marry men if they want to, if
that’s who they love, and I tell him that of course I agree with him. I tell him I think that by the time he’s a
grown-up, it’ll probably be okay everywhere, but it takes a long time for
people to change their minds. Then I
tell him I would be so sad if I was told that I couldn’t marry the person I
love, and then I ask him what if he had to feel that way, or Dean, or one of
their friends or their cousins? He’s
still worked up about it and can’t understand why anyone would want to prevent
marriage between two people who love each other and want to spend their lives
together.
Yes. Exactly.
We’ve been having another interesting issue in our house
lately surrounding the presidential campaign; namely, Kent supports Mitt
Romney. It literally started with me
talking about how I want President Obama to win the election, him asking,
“Who’s the other guy?”, me answering, “Mitt Romney,” and him saying, “Oh, I
like him better.” I have no doubts that
he supports Romney in an attempt to distance himself ideologically from us,
which is okay, but it makes for interesting conversations. Like what kind of yard signs we’re putting
up. And when I got my Obama sticker in
the mail, he asked when he could get a Romney sticker. Hmm. I
don’t want to quash his interest in politics by totally dismissing his
perspective, but I do feel a bit like an old codger, rolling my eyes and
saying, “You know, these kids today are just totally uninformed when it comes
to politics…”
Anyway, back to our conversation about gay marriage: sensing
an opportunity that I don’t want to let pass, I then mention that one of the
reasons I like President Obama so much is that he believes men ought to be able
to marry men if that’s who they love.
Kent asks, “What about Mitt Romney?”
I tell him Romney doesn’t believe men should be able to do that. Kent asks why. I reiterate how some people think everyone
should be the same, even if that’s not the way they feel or who they are
inside. Kent thinks for a minute, then
says, “Then I agree with Obama.”
MAJOR VICTORY AND DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONE ALL IN ONE!
I tell him it’s okay to like a candidate and not agree
with everything he says, so it’s okay if he still likes Mitt Romney, but I’ll
be interested to see where this leads, whether we’ll have more substantive
conversations about policy and politics in the coming weeks. That would be very exciting.
I also mention that there are different kinds of love,
love you have for your friends, and love you feel for a person you want to
marry, and that he might not feel the second kind until he’s a lot older. But I’m pretty sure he didn’t understand that
part at all. Because at the end of the
conversation, he exclaimed, “I’d better hurry up and marry Emerson while Obama
is still the president!”
We haven’t talked about Chick-Fil-A yet. He hardly ever asks anymore anyway, but I
figure if Chick-Fil-A comes up, he’ll already have a framework for understanding
why I won’t eat there anymore. And hey,
maybe Chick-Fil-A will make some progress, not just the hemming and hawing they’re
doing right now, and we might actually eat there again. I did like their salads. I would happily reward them for changing
their minds, because, as is becoming increasingly clear in our national conversation,
it *is* possible to be Christian and pro-gay marriage. I shied away from calling myself a Christian
in high school and college, because I felt like the Religious Right had a
stranglehold on Jesus and there wasn’t any room for me.
Thank God, literally, that that isn’t the case.
Labels: being political, church, Kent, my dad, observations, tying the knot
- posted by erica 9/28/2012 05:46:00 PM
- 7 comments
2.17.2003
Okay, so I go five weeks without posting a thing, and suddenly, everyone is on my case about not updating... geez! I'm just kidding. It's nice to know that people have tried to check here to see how I am, even if I've been lax in posting new information. There isn't a whole lot of excitement, but here goes.
Jack and I told everyone before the wedding that we'd be able to see our wedding pics on the photographer's website, because that's what he told us... well, he was lying. Apparently, back in March when he told us this, he USED to do it, but he doesn't now because he couldn't get the pics to work. He gave us picture CDs, but his software is very strict and there's no way for us to download the pictures or put them on the web at all. This is perfectly understandable, because this guy took the pictures and is making money off of our willingness to buy them, but still... it's a little disappointing that you guys can't at least look at them to see if there's anything you'd want to order. Oh well. We put our order in by email about a week and a half ago, and we have no idea how long our photographer will take to get the prints to us. They're really fun, though... it was hard to narrow down the selection to something affordable!
Many MANY people have been asking how the grad school hunt/wait is going. I'm finally wrapping up my last two applications, to Temple and LSU (Baton Rouge). I'm sending out my last bit of paperwork to them tomorrow, and I'm planning on visiting LSU during my spring break in March. I'm excited, because I don't really know a lot about the individual people there, just the program itself... it should be a lot of fun, especially since it's the South!! In related news, I should hear from Yale in the next two weeks if they have something positive to tell me, and otherwise, it could be several more weeks after that. I have no idea what the timelines at the other schools are, but the people who got into Yale last year heard around this time.
Jack and I had a snow day today, partially due to the 22 or so inches of snow we've had since Sunday morning. 22 inches? I'm from North Carolina. We don't get 22 inches of snow in NC ever. It's been a crazy couple of days, since my friends Nicole and Lauren were in Baltimore visiting my friend Katherine, and they might both still be stranded there (Nicole was supposed to fly back to Tennessee tonight... I have no idea if the airline is even flying yet). There's nothing like having spontanaiety in your travel plans... anyway, the storm has been interesting, and we've watched a lot of the Weather Channel around here. I haven't been out of the apartment since Saturday night, so going back to class tomorrow should be good for my psyche; I'm going a tad stir-crazy.
In other news, Patti is being a very good cat and sleeping all day, except when I pick her up to pet her; then she runs away quickly to another location where I will not pick her up. I think I'm overdoing it... this is my problem with cats. Apparently, you can't just pick them up and expect them to be happy with you. You have to play hard to get. I'm not so good at that in any aspect of my life, so I think Patti should cut me a break every once in a while. Hmph.
Jack and I told everyone before the wedding that we'd be able to see our wedding pics on the photographer's website, because that's what he told us... well, he was lying. Apparently, back in March when he told us this, he USED to do it, but he doesn't now because he couldn't get the pics to work. He gave us picture CDs, but his software is very strict and there's no way for us to download the pictures or put them on the web at all. This is perfectly understandable, because this guy took the pictures and is making money off of our willingness to buy them, but still... it's a little disappointing that you guys can't at least look at them to see if there's anything you'd want to order. Oh well. We put our order in by email about a week and a half ago, and we have no idea how long our photographer will take to get the prints to us. They're really fun, though... it was hard to narrow down the selection to something affordable!
Many MANY people have been asking how the grad school hunt/wait is going. I'm finally wrapping up my last two applications, to Temple and LSU (Baton Rouge). I'm sending out my last bit of paperwork to them tomorrow, and I'm planning on visiting LSU during my spring break in March. I'm excited, because I don't really know a lot about the individual people there, just the program itself... it should be a lot of fun, especially since it's the South!! In related news, I should hear from Yale in the next two weeks if they have something positive to tell me, and otherwise, it could be several more weeks after that. I have no idea what the timelines at the other schools are, but the people who got into Yale last year heard around this time.
Jack and I had a snow day today, partially due to the 22 or so inches of snow we've had since Sunday morning. 22 inches? I'm from North Carolina. We don't get 22 inches of snow in NC ever. It's been a crazy couple of days, since my friends Nicole and Lauren were in Baltimore visiting my friend Katherine, and they might both still be stranded there (Nicole was supposed to fly back to Tennessee tonight... I have no idea if the airline is even flying yet). There's nothing like having spontanaiety in your travel plans... anyway, the storm has been interesting, and we've watched a lot of the Weather Channel around here. I haven't been out of the apartment since Saturday night, so going back to class tomorrow should be good for my psyche; I'm going a tad stir-crazy.
In other news, Patti is being a very good cat and sleeping all day, except when I pick her up to pet her; then she runs away quickly to another location where I will not pick her up. I think I'm overdoing it... this is my problem with cats. Apparently, you can't just pick them up and expect them to be happy with you. You have to play hard to get. I'm not so good at that in any aspect of my life, so I think Patti should cut me a break every once in a while. Hmph.
Labels: felines, friends, school, tying the knot
- posted by erica 2/17/2003 10:13:00 PM
- 0 comments
1.08.2003
Well, we've tied the knot, eaten the cake, had the honeymoon... and now life returns to normal in Philadelphia. Ugh.
Jack is back to work today, and my first day back is Friday. I can't say that we've missed Borders, but it will likely do us good to get back to interacting with others and earning money. Our apartment is full of the presents we've gotten (thanks to everyone... your official notes are being written!!). We got several Bed Bath and Beyond gift cards, so armed with my "20% off any one item" coupon, we bought a bread machine last night. Oh, it's been fun already! We watched the instructional video and made a loaf of bread, and right now, I've got it working on strawberry jam. This is going to be entirely too much fun! I can't wait to use all the new kitchen gadgets we have, like the blender, the ELECTRIC can opener (!), and the kitchen torch for crème brulée. =) If you're in the area, give me a little bit of notice, and I'll whip you up a nice meal... I'm really excited about having people over now. However, we only have a few of our new dishes (more are on the way), so we have to eat off the old dishes that Mom and Bill bought when they got married.
We had a fantastic time at the wedding... and now, we never have to do it again. It was fun, but OH, the stress. If you've had a big wedding, you understand, and if you want to have one, EEK! It's very much worth it, but it's a huge undertaking. =) Mom and I did a great job planning it and carrying it out, if I do say so myself (and Jack helped a little).
Several people have been asking me if it feels different to be married. Well, yes. It does. Jack and I were already thinking in terms of our life together, but to have it be official and legally binding is very neat. =) Also, I'm currently trying to change my name everywhere that's ever had a record of my existence, and I haven't quite gotten used to thinking of myself with my married name. Heck, I don't even know how to sign my new name yet. I'm sure I'll figure it out when I have to sign my driver's license, my new bank records, my Borders records, tax records, et cetera. If anyone has advice on how best to do all this without driving myself nuts, I welcome it. Okay, I need to go check on my jam now and find a container to put it in, so I will bid you all adieu for the time being. Adieu!
Jack is back to work today, and my first day back is Friday. I can't say that we've missed Borders, but it will likely do us good to get back to interacting with others and earning money. Our apartment is full of the presents we've gotten (thanks to everyone... your official notes are being written!!). We got several Bed Bath and Beyond gift cards, so armed with my "20% off any one item" coupon, we bought a bread machine last night. Oh, it's been fun already! We watched the instructional video and made a loaf of bread, and right now, I've got it working on strawberry jam. This is going to be entirely too much fun! I can't wait to use all the new kitchen gadgets we have, like the blender, the ELECTRIC can opener (!), and the kitchen torch for crème brulée. =) If you're in the area, give me a little bit of notice, and I'll whip you up a nice meal... I'm really excited about having people over now. However, we only have a few of our new dishes (more are on the way), so we have to eat off the old dishes that Mom and Bill bought when they got married.
We had a fantastic time at the wedding... and now, we never have to do it again. It was fun, but OH, the stress. If you've had a big wedding, you understand, and if you want to have one, EEK! It's very much worth it, but it's a huge undertaking. =) Mom and I did a great job planning it and carrying it out, if I do say so myself (and Jack helped a little).
Several people have been asking me if it feels different to be married. Well, yes. It does. Jack and I were already thinking in terms of our life together, but to have it be official and legally binding is very neat. =) Also, I'm currently trying to change my name everywhere that's ever had a record of my existence, and I haven't quite gotten used to thinking of myself with my married name. Heck, I don't even know how to sign my new name yet. I'm sure I'll figure it out when I have to sign my driver's license, my new bank records, my Borders records, tax records, et cetera. If anyone has advice on how best to do all this without driving myself nuts, I welcome it. Okay, I need to go check on my jam now and find a container to put it in, so I will bid you all adieu for the time being. Adieu!
Labels: kitchen adventures, tying the knot
- posted by erica 1/08/2003 11:18:00 AM
-
12.05.2002
I'm sure everyone reading this has had snow in the last 24 hours... we sure did, even though it didn't start until the middle of the night last night. That was such a nice way to wake up, though... Jack rolled over, both of us half-asleep, and muttered, "Hey, look out the window." =) Anyway, I took the trolley into the city for class this morning, and 5 out of the 8 people in my class were there! I was surprised that only 3 people didn't come, since we had about 6 inches on the ground and it kept falling into early evening. Anyway, I got home from class just before 2, and Jack and I went and played in the snow with our camera. We even took a couple of pictures with our cat outside, just to be mean (or at least that's what she thought). She wasn't happy, so I took her back inside real quick. Our new digital camera is a bunch of fun, and hopefully tomorrow, on Jack's second day off, he'll put some of our pictures on the site. Hint: Snow angels were made.
Grad school applications and things are creeping along... I'm working on my Rhapsody in Blue paper, and it's a huge assignment, so I feel quite overwhelmed since it's due next Wednesday. I'm also trying to write my own little paper about a Chopin prelude to send to grad schools (a suggestion from one of my Temple profs), so I'm busy. Thankfully, I finished all my work for my other class, and our last meeting is next Tuesday to talk about the exam, which I'm not too apprehensive about. It's just this paper for the other class... but it'll get done. There are just so many books and sources for me to consider! Yipes! However, I'm getting a great sense of what my work load in grad school will be like, so it's good.
Borders is sort of the same, though business has definitely picked up in the last week. Supposedly, in the next two weeks, the store will be so packed that we won't be able to move (this is what we hear from our co-workers), so that should be an adventure. We're already sort of understaffed and we have a lot of new people who aren't comfortable doing everything yet, so at least the time will go quickly while I'm there. =)
Thanks to everyone who's sent a reply card to my mom... if you haven't sent yours in, please do so that we know a number! I think I'm preaching to the choir here, but if you know someone who hasn't sent it in because they have a question or because they've forgotten, please remind them. That's about all I have to say regarding the wedding... I'm looking forward to it, of course, and I'm REALLY looking forward to the vacation Jack and I get to have afterward. It will be needed, I can assure you. Must go... too much computer for one day. ~E
Grad school applications and things are creeping along... I'm working on my Rhapsody in Blue paper, and it's a huge assignment, so I feel quite overwhelmed since it's due next Wednesday. I'm also trying to write my own little paper about a Chopin prelude to send to grad schools (a suggestion from one of my Temple profs), so I'm busy. Thankfully, I finished all my work for my other class, and our last meeting is next Tuesday to talk about the exam, which I'm not too apprehensive about. It's just this paper for the other class... but it'll get done. There are just so many books and sources for me to consider! Yipes! However, I'm getting a great sense of what my work load in grad school will be like, so it's good.
Borders is sort of the same, though business has definitely picked up in the last week. Supposedly, in the next two weeks, the store will be so packed that we won't be able to move (this is what we hear from our co-workers), so that should be an adventure. We're already sort of understaffed and we have a lot of new people who aren't comfortable doing everything yet, so at least the time will go quickly while I'm there. =)
Thanks to everyone who's sent a reply card to my mom... if you haven't sent yours in, please do so that we know a number! I think I'm preaching to the choir here, but if you know someone who hasn't sent it in because they have a question or because they've forgotten, please remind them. That's about all I have to say regarding the wedding... I'm looking forward to it, of course, and I'm REALLY looking forward to the vacation Jack and I get to have afterward. It will be needed, I can assure you. Must go... too much computer for one day. ~E
Labels: bookstore life, Philly, school, tying the knot
- posted by erica 12/05/2002 11:23:00 PM
- 0 comments
11.02.2002
Hi, everybody! Well, life is pretty good... Jack is on his cell phone in the other room catching up with Arun, one of his groomsmen and a friend from Queens, so I decided to come in here and monopolize the other phone line to post one of my all-too-infrequent updates. =) If you haven't been reading Jack's updates, read them... he's just gotten a temporary promotion at work, so he gets to be inventory supervisor for a month at Borders while two of our supervisors are off helping open other stores. He's begun his training, but he still has to learn paperwork, how to open the store, how to take crap from mean customers, etc... that last one will be the hardest for him, I think, but he'll be great. That's what I'm here for... so he can smile at them and do what he can to fix their problem even though he really doesn't want to, and then he can come home and say "You won't BELIEVE the horrible customer I had today!!!!!" And I will listen patiently. =)
Things are looking up for me, particularly since I decided to drop back to part-time hours at work. This sort of sucks for them during Christmas season (you weren't thinking about Christmas, but trust me... we are), but a bunch of newbies were just hired and trained, and I HAD to drop back my hours to get things accomplished in my life. So I'll be working full shifts (mostly with Jack) three days a week instead of five, and I get to spend all my newfound extra time applying to grad schools (Yale is the top-seed right now), doing homework, taking care of my cat and my fiancé, finishing wedding plans (even though it's pretty much planned), and contemplating life. I'll be visiting Yale on November 20-21, meeting with professors and students to see how things run there and see if they might want to let me in so I can learn about all this awesome music stuff I only know a little about right now. =) My classes are so much fun this semester, and I've written compositions for Counterpoint that I actually like, which is more than I can say for the things I wrote at Queens! Anyway, I need to go, but I hope everybody I haven't talked to in a while is doing well. Anyone else out there planning on starting a website like this? You should! It's great, even if you usually forget to update it. That's what fiancés are for. ~E
Things are looking up for me, particularly since I decided to drop back to part-time hours at work. This sort of sucks for them during Christmas season (you weren't thinking about Christmas, but trust me... we are), but a bunch of newbies were just hired and trained, and I HAD to drop back my hours to get things accomplished in my life. So I'll be working full shifts (mostly with Jack) three days a week instead of five, and I get to spend all my newfound extra time applying to grad schools (Yale is the top-seed right now), doing homework, taking care of my cat and my fiancé, finishing wedding plans (even though it's pretty much planned), and contemplating life. I'll be visiting Yale on November 20-21, meeting with professors and students to see how things run there and see if they might want to let me in so I can learn about all this awesome music stuff I only know a little about right now. =) My classes are so much fun this semester, and I've written compositions for Counterpoint that I actually like, which is more than I can say for the things I wrote at Queens! Anyway, I need to go, but I hope everybody I haven't talked to in a while is doing well. Anyone else out there planning on starting a website like this? You should! It's great, even if you usually forget to update it. That's what fiancés are for. ~E
Labels: bookstore life, school, tying the knot
- posted by erica 11/02/2002 11:46:00 PM
- 0 comments
9.17.2002
SORRY! I know it's been over two weeks since I updated anything... I've been in contact with most of you, but for those of you who haven't heard a peep, I'm still alive. My two classes at Temple are keeping me pretty busy when I'm not working 35 hours a week at Borders or finishing planning my wedding. =) I registered for Counterpoint, and I'm a registered "auditor" of the graduate research seminar that was too full for me to take for credit. Of course, I'm paying for it, so I would assume the professor is still going to look at my work, but I'll find out tomorrow when I turn in my first assignment. Borders is still cool, even though one of the guys grates on my nerves a little... Jack and I talk about him when we're at home and how much we dislike working with him. We're bad.
Granny (my dad's mom) is officially online!!! I got a computer for her and my uncle, and he's been showing her how to do email and use a mouse and everything. =) I'm SO proud of her, because even though she knows how to type, it's not easy to learn something like email when you haven't grown up with it, so good for her!
The rest is a copy of what I just put on the wedding portion of our site, but be sure to go there every once in a while for other news. We still haven't had a digital camera come our way to take pictures of our cat and the apartment, but Mom is coming Saturday, so maybe she'll add that to the list of things to bring (hint, hint). Anyway, here's the wedding schpiel:
The wedding planning is coming along swimmingly. We're still waiting on a few important things, like Jack's wedding band and the bridesmaids' dresses, but all those have been ordered and are on the way, at least. Jack and I are trying to get a weekend in October off together so we can come to Winston for various things (mostly visiting Granny and Uncle Mark). I'm still tossing around hair ideas, trying to decide what fun thing I want my hair to do on the big day. I'm thinking of getting it cut short, so I have to decide if I want to do that now or after we get hitched. =) I always have really vague ideas about what to do with my hair, so if you happen to know of a good magazine or website or something I can go to for style ideas, let me know!!!! ~E
Granny (my dad's mom) is officially online!!! I got a computer for her and my uncle, and he's been showing her how to do email and use a mouse and everything. =) I'm SO proud of her, because even though she knows how to type, it's not easy to learn something like email when you haven't grown up with it, so good for her!
The rest is a copy of what I just put on the wedding portion of our site, but be sure to go there every once in a while for other news. We still haven't had a digital camera come our way to take pictures of our cat and the apartment, but Mom is coming Saturday, so maybe she'll add that to the list of things to bring (hint, hint). Anyway, here's the wedding schpiel:
The wedding planning is coming along swimmingly. We're still waiting on a few important things, like Jack's wedding band and the bridesmaids' dresses, but all those have been ordered and are on the way, at least. Jack and I are trying to get a weekend in October off together so we can come to Winston for various things (mostly visiting Granny and Uncle Mark). I'm still tossing around hair ideas, trying to decide what fun thing I want my hair to do on the big day. I'm thinking of getting it cut short, so I have to decide if I want to do that now or after we get hitched. =) I always have really vague ideas about what to do with my hair, so if you happen to know of a good magazine or website or something I can go to for style ideas, let me know!!!! ~E
Labels: family, school, tying the knot
- posted by erica 9/17/2002 11:54:00 PM
- 0 comments
8.27.2002
I'm currently pulling songs off lots of CDs of Jack's and mine to play at our reception, so I'm surrounded by stacks of CD cases and have a million windows open on the computer! It's lots of fun, though... we're trying to come up with a good mix of songs without having anything too horribly generic. We can't do generic at our reception. =) Tonight, I had a very pleasant encounter with the kids who live in our complex. As Jack has said before, we have the BEST kids living here. They play outside all the time, and they talk to each other out of their windows and stuff when one is inside. Anyway, I finally got around to repotting the daisy plant we have, since it had long outgrown its pot and the dirt was too high for us to water it without spilling. I took all the stuff downstairs and sat on the front stoop to do it, and first, a woman came across the courtyard for advice on her jade plant, which I just happen to have experience with. She had it in one of those big insulated coffee mugs and wanted to know if she should repot it. It was healthier than the jade plant I once managed to kill, and it was definitely time for a transplant. =) After she walked back across the courtyard and told her friend/relative what advice I had given her, this little girl, probably 6 years old, came up to me and asked what I was doing. I explained that the plant was too big for its pot so I was putting it into a bigger one. She watched me for a little while, and then a few of her friends came over. One of them asked me why the dirt stuck to the plant after I pulled it out of the first pot, so I told her that the roots grabbed on to the dirt and held it in place. The first little girl, who then introduced herself as Chloe (one of my favorite names, and the name of my new car!), asked me if I did this for a living. I chuckled and said no, I just had a few plants, thinking to myself that she wouldn't have asked that if she knew how many plants I had killed at college. Some professional. =) Her friend told me her name, and then they started pointing at all their other friends and telling me their names too, because the friends had now gathered in our little patch of yard and were running around and dancing. One of the parents was cooking on a little grill outside, so some of them were eating dinner, and it was just a really neat thing to be a part of. You don't think you can have encounters like this when you move to a big city, but it still happens, and it was very refreshing, not to mention highly amusing. My first college roommate, Bev, said that for some reason, she had always wanted to have black children, because she thought they were so awesome and adorable. I can totally understand that now, though our long-term plans for children don't include adoption at the moment. =)
Work has been good still, and I have some semblance of a schedule for the fall. Of course, it all hinges on the supposed classes I may or may not be taking, but I should know that by next Wednesday, and then I'll have a whole semester planned out! I won't know what to do with all the structure. =) I'm planning on taking the bus to class, even though it'll take about an hour, because that way I can read or do homework, and I won't have to pay parking or battle traffic to get into Center City. I'm hoping this works out and that I can get familiar enough with the bus system to use it a lot, because it certainly makes more sense than spending all that money and effort on driving there myself. Jack and I are going to Lancaster, probably Thursday afternoon, since we both have TWO days off in a row!! Incredible!! Anyway, we're hoping to get some actual work done on addressing our invitations with Mom. We might even work on our not-yet-assembled dining room chairs again... those are being handled in very small installments, since they involve a lot of sanding and waiting for stain to dry, etc.
I'm going to go cuddle with my worn-out fiancé for a little bit... this week, our hours are a little off, so I got home 3 hours before him tonight, and he goes in 3 hours before I do tomorrow. This means he gets much less relaxation time today, but I had to get up and go in at 9 every day last week. =) It evens out. That's all for now.
Work has been good still, and I have some semblance of a schedule for the fall. Of course, it all hinges on the supposed classes I may or may not be taking, but I should know that by next Wednesday, and then I'll have a whole semester planned out! I won't know what to do with all the structure. =) I'm planning on taking the bus to class, even though it'll take about an hour, because that way I can read or do homework, and I won't have to pay parking or battle traffic to get into Center City. I'm hoping this works out and that I can get familiar enough with the bus system to use it a lot, because it certainly makes more sense than spending all that money and effort on driving there myself. Jack and I are going to Lancaster, probably Thursday afternoon, since we both have TWO days off in a row!! Incredible!! Anyway, we're hoping to get some actual work done on addressing our invitations with Mom. We might even work on our not-yet-assembled dining room chairs again... those are being handled in very small installments, since they involve a lot of sanding and waiting for stain to dry, etc.
I'm going to go cuddle with my worn-out fiancé for a little bit... this week, our hours are a little off, so I got home 3 hours before him tonight, and he goes in 3 hours before I do tomorrow. This means he gets much less relaxation time today, but I had to get up and go in at 9 every day last week. =) It evens out. That's all for now.
Labels: observations, Philly, tying the knot
- posted by erica 8/27/2002 09:53:00 PM
- 0 comments
8.13.2002
Hi all... I was going to come update the site yesterday evening, but I had some mildly disturbing news and had to take care of it quickly. Basically, the David's Bridal in Charlotte ordered the bridesmaids' dresses I picked that happened to be discontinued, and they actually found the 8 I needed, but then the girl handling our order quit, and so when the dresses came, nobody knew what they were, so they put them out on the floor and SOLD THEM. Anyway, we knew something fishy was going on since they hadn't been delivered to us yet, but Mom called me and told me this last night, so I made a fun trip alone to David's Bridal near where I work and found something else really cool. It's not navy, so the color scheme is slightly shifted, but I'm still going to have lots of white, silver, and different shades of blue (for a sort of wintery/ice castle look with lots of ivy thrown in). Most brides would be more upset by this sort of thing, which I was a little bit, but I'm better now that I've realized there are many worse things that could have happened to me than that. =)
Jack just finished his second day of training at my Borders (in case you haven't been reading his updates, he got hired there as a bookseller). It's kind of fun to be here while he's not here for a few hours a day, especially since the cat plays with me more. I guess when it's a choice between me and sheer boredom, she picks me... I should be flattered, right? Right. Such is my kitten, but I love her. The new car is still fabulous, especially since I'm getting to listen to more of my CDs than I ever thought possible! I got a call this morning from the professor who teaches the grad seminar I want to take this fall, and he said, "well, you have a music degree, and this is a beginning Master's level class, so I think you'll be fine." I was excited to hear that my degree means something to someone there. =) I think things are going to work out fine, but it's been a bit of a rocky start. I'm really looking forward to taking some upper level stuff that will expand my schema of this career path I've chosen here.
Friday, I'm going to State College, PA, to help Lauren move into her new place for grad school. She and Katherine are driving up from Winston-Salem with Lauren's family, and I'm driving over (about 3 hours) to help with the move, hopefully repaying any debts I may have incurred while moving earlier this summer. Hehehe... just kidding. I've gotten to withhold Katherine's birthday present, but now I have to give it to her, and she's actually going to find out what it is instead of my being able to taunt her about getting her a new espresso machine, an array of flavored syrups, chocolate powder, and a set of twelve coffee mugs. Oh, Jack's home... I must run along. ~E
Jack just finished his second day of training at my Borders (in case you haven't been reading his updates, he got hired there as a bookseller). It's kind of fun to be here while he's not here for a few hours a day, especially since the cat plays with me more. I guess when it's a choice between me and sheer boredom, she picks me... I should be flattered, right? Right. Such is my kitten, but I love her. The new car is still fabulous, especially since I'm getting to listen to more of my CDs than I ever thought possible! I got a call this morning from the professor who teaches the grad seminar I want to take this fall, and he said, "well, you have a music degree, and this is a beginning Master's level class, so I think you'll be fine." I was excited to hear that my degree means something to someone there. =) I think things are going to work out fine, but it's been a bit of a rocky start. I'm really looking forward to taking some upper level stuff that will expand my schema of this career path I've chosen here.
Friday, I'm going to State College, PA, to help Lauren move into her new place for grad school. She and Katherine are driving up from Winston-Salem with Lauren's family, and I'm driving over (about 3 hours) to help with the move, hopefully repaying any debts I may have incurred while moving earlier this summer. Hehehe... just kidding. I've gotten to withhold Katherine's birthday present, but now I have to give it to her, and she's actually going to find out what it is instead of my being able to taunt her about getting her a new espresso machine, an array of flavored syrups, chocolate powder, and a set of twelve coffee mugs. Oh, Jack's home... I must run along. ~E
Labels: bookstore life, friends, school, tying the knot
- posted by erica 8/13/2002 11:29:00 PM
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