the flipflop fed: January 2009

31 January 2009

liking the ones you love

i was watching a movie and it ended with this quote from rilke -

For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.

my first thought was - wow! that's really deep. i wish i could come up with stuff like this! then i thought - i'm a 21st century bureaucrat, not a 20th century european existentialist, so it's okay that i don't come up with this. then i really started to think ...

my thought is that rilke only had it half right. loving someone is a difficult task, but i would submit that always LIKING the ones that you love is really the last test and proof and a more difficult task.

november is NOT february

i've been bitten by the facebook bug and recently decided to finally participate in one of the "get to know me" activities that seem to have gone viral lately -- 25 random things about me (the list is at the bottom of this post in case you're interested. and leave your list as a comment because i would love to read them.) i give you this background because one of the items - the one that highlights the supposed most important day of my 37 years - is not true! it's not that the sentiment is not true, it's that the date is completely wrong! you'd think that i'd remember the exact date of the most important day of my life. and you would be right to criticize if this mistake was not the result of my well documented case of "november february syndrome."

you see, i always mix up november and february. i actually have to stop and think really hard about which month is which and often even have to recite the months to get it correct. i'm baffled as to the source of this syndrome - they don't sound the same, the spellings not close, they're separated by two other months, they even have a different number of days. and still i can't get them straight.

so, the 21st random thing you should know about me --

i've had an amazing life since being born in 1971 - fantastic travel since i was little, a great mom and dad, educational opportunity, great friends - but i consider NOVEMBER 9, 2001 as the day when my LIFE really began.

perhaps this public proclamation was just the cure that i needed?

25. i like the idea of going from 25 to 1.
24. i'm very concerned that i won't be able to come up with 25 random facts.
23. i totally agree with obama that washingtonians are generally pussies when it comes to the weather - 2 snow days for less than an inch of snow and ice that melted by 10:00am? absolutely ridiculous.
22. i usually only write in lower case and it drives my boss crazy.
21. i've had an amazing life since being born in 1971 - fantastic travel since i was little, a great mom and dad, educational opportunity, great friends - but i consider February 9, 2001 as the day when my LIFE really began.
20. i appreciate the fact that my relationship with my parents has only gotten deeper and more solid as the years go on.
19. my maternal grandmother was my biggest influence - particularly when it came to education - and best friend , but also the source of two of my biggest disappointments - she never saw me graduate from college or grad school and i never came out to her.
18. i am totally a "glass is 3/4 full" person.
17. i take great pride in the fact that i can charm even the nastiest, most pessimistic person.
16. i love me some kristin sampson.
15. i know that some day kristin will finally accept that i was NOT on a date with annie on the night we met.
14. i can't wait to add kids - real kids, not cats that we call kids - to our family.
13. i generally think that everyone is gay until they prove otherwise (it's my rage against a heterocentric world view).
12. i take great joy in the life that kristin and i continue to build.
11. i love being known throughout the neighborhood as "the two white lesbians that live on the corner."
10. i truly believe that i have made a difference in the world, but am very aware that i can do so much more.
9. i miss the places that i've lived - san francisco and boston - on a regular basis and sometimes wonder if we should go back.
8. i wish that my dad would get back his joy.
7. i am in awe of my mom.
6. i wish that kristin didn't travel so much, but am grateful that i get to tag along to such interesting places.
5. i'm wondering what the hell i'm doing up at 11:30 on a work night when i usually am in bed by 9:00.
4. i'm grateful for my church family.
3. i got my first tattoo last year - flip flops on my shoulder.
2. i can't wait to retire at the beach.
1. i LOVE being a bureaucrat and it's not a joke.

30 January 2009

HUBERT!

IT'S HUBERT!!! he peed right on the floor just as i hit "publish." unbelievable! (for those of you who are thinking that you now never want to come to casa lesbiana - no worries! we have hardwoods and the smell doesn't stick around. besides - read the previous post! cat pee will not beat me!)

cat pee vs. me - a mennonite at war

i am a pacifist. no combat for me - there's got to be another way to solve a conflict. at least that's what i believed until about four days ago when i was forced to declare war ... on cat pee. our beautiful sagwa is an anxious little bugger and his preferred method of dealing with his anxiety is emptying his bladder the moment he feels stressed. now i'm not yet ready to consider parting with sagwa so i was forced to compromise my strongly held convictions, channel george w. and proclaim -

BRING IT ON!

here's the problem - that was probably the wrong warrior to channel. george w. shouted "bring it on" and it got broughten ... two failed wars; an economy in shambles; undereducated, overtested kids ...

in four days, i've been through 1 1/2 gallons of nature's miracle only to still have the nightmare. guaranteed to permanently eliminate odors my ass! but, now it's really on - i bought the blacklight!!!! that's right pesky pernicious piss, it's been broughten!

25 January 2009

leave it to the capitol police ...

... to fuck it all up and crush the dreams of 10s of thousands!

a study in contrast

last wednesday -- obam-era +1 -- i traveled from dc to syracuse because my mom was having surgery on thursday. i booked the flight far in advance and got a great fare. i thought i was "da bomb!" - low fare, non-stop flight, get to see the inauguration AND be home in time for my mom's operation. it never occurred to me that half of the free world would also be leaving from national that wednesday. seriously, there must have been 50,000 people at the airport when i arrived at 2:00 pm. there were people in line who had been waiting to check a bag since 9:30 am!! fortunately, i was one of the lucky ones who already had a boarding pass and didn't need to check a bag. i breezed through security only to find that there were just as many people waiting for flights as there were waiting to check a bag - no place to sit, nothing to eat, and people magazine was all sold out.

cut to today -- obam-era + 5 -- i'm in the syracuse airport and i can count the people on one hand! they even have free wireless!

one last example of contrast - unlike the last three months of 2008, 2009 will be the year of the flipflop fed. i plan to blog like never before. stay tuned.

p.s. - the mouse count's up to eight!!

21 January 2009

just one more

can't take credit for this one - my friend adam braved the crowd in the middle of the mall. he took this picture just as the sun was rising at 7 am. thanks adam!

20 January 2009

more inaugurating

too tired to write and a little disappointed that barack and michelle decided to get out of the car just one block after they passed our seats (but did get pictures of them in the car) - but what a privilege to witness history.