Val-isms

Couples Meme

Stolen from Sassy Femme:

1. How long have you been together?     A little over 3 years.

2. Who pursued who? I pursued her, though she didn't run very fast.

3. Do you wear any type of wedding/commitment ring? If so, which hand? Yes.  I wear the ring she gave me when we had our own private commitment ceremony in July 2005 and she wears the engagement ring I gave her on November 1st, 2006.  We both wear these on our ring finger on our left hands.

4. What was the hardest thing about learning to live together? Realizing my analness needs to remain MY issue and if I wanted something done or done a certain way, discussions were necessary, but she was pretty agreeable to most things.

5. Who takes longer to get ready in the morning? She does.

6. Do you usually eat breakfast together? Only sometimes on the weekend.  We're not big breakfast eaters.  I'll usually just have a granola bar, juice & coffee.  LOTS of coffee!  Linda is fine with just a cup of coffee kind of person.

7. Do you ever share clothes? Um...er.. uh, NO!  She's 5'0" and under 100lbs and I'm 5'9" and over 150, so she'd either resemble the kid in "BIG" at the end, walking into the house with that suit swimming on him and I'd look like the Incredible Hulk busting out of his clothes, but more hideous despite not even being green!  On a side note, my daughter has 'borrowed' t-shirts of Linda's to sleep in!  (She's 7!)

8. Who does most of the cooking? We share the responsibility, but Linda is a better cook.

9. Who usually takes out the trash? me. 

10. If you have pets who usually does litter box or poop patrol? Both, but mostly her.

11. Which one of you is more likely to answer the phone when it rings? Being that we don't have a land phone, mine rings more, and I MUST answer it.  Hers can ring and she won't even look at it unless she's in the mood.  She hates talking on the phone.

12. Who's in charge of the remote if you're watching TV together?

Me.  Hands down.  My channel surfing makes her INSANE.

13. Who usually drives when you go out together? Me, but I'm trying to become a better passenger but it's hard!

14. Which one of you takes care of spiders and bugs that get into the house? Mostly me, but she can do it, if she has to.  Sidenote:  she puts the worms on the hooks when we go fishing!  I can't touch those slimey things!!!

15. Facing the bed, who sleeps on which side? If you're standing at the foot of the bed, looking at the head of the bed, I'm on the right, Linda's on the left. This is non-negotiable.  I canNOT sleep on the left side of the bed.

16. Who usually checks the (postal) mailbox? Mostly it's Linda, as she gets home before me and she walks right by the row of mailboxes.

17. If something breaks or goes wrong in the house, which one of you is more likely to either fix it or call someone to fix it? Neither of us are real fixers, but I'll be the one to call someone.

18. Who is generally the neater of you? We're kind of split on this, each of us neater about some things than the other. Linda is neater when it comes to not having clutter on the table or the counters, or not leaving crap around the house. I'm a finatic anal about putting things back exactly where they came from.

19. Who handles the checkbook/pays the bills? I do.

20. What was your last fight/disagreement about? Fight?  us?  Um, ok... who can remember?!!!  Linda reminding me (rather firmly) to remove my shoes when inside, as she had just finished cleaning the floors.

21. When you slow dance together, who leads? Me

22. What do you love the most about your other half? Lots of things which put together make her completely irresistable.  To name a few: her smile, her haircut, her hands, her dedication to the goals she sets for herself, the way she looks at me across a crowded room, her body, her laugh and how she makes me laugh.

A Dad giving birth

To be the first to do anything is pretty special.  To be the first to do something that is hard to imagine being even possible, is challenging and forces people to face their own prejudices.

Watching Oprah today (yay for DVR'ing!), and hearing Thomas Beatie's story on being the first man to become pregnant was truly inspiring.

I'd read the article and was moved by all that he and his wife have gone thru leading up to this miracle pregnancy.  But it was also hard to read about the many doctors that wouldn't treat him and how even within the GBLT community, people were having a hard time dealing with and understanding this.

What we, as gays and lesbians, expect from people who don't understand our relationships, we should in return, expect from ourselves when confronted with different types of relationships within our own community.  Compassion and the ability to acknowledge that as long as it doesn't affect anyone else, so be it.  Live and let live.

There are many questions about this situation and Oprah asked alot of them, including what types of surgery Thomas has had, what he has or doesn't have (he did have his breasts removed, but did not have reconstructive surgery in the genital area, and kept his female reproductive organs).  Both Thomas and Nancy were very open and honest in their responses, as well as very articulate.

It was interesting hearing from his wife Nancy's 2 grown daughters that they respect their Mom & Thomas and use them as role models in their own relationships.  One of them even said that they were a tad bit jealous as this expected baby girl is lucky to be brought up by such a great couple.

After reading about this couple, watching the show and hearing their story, and taking some time to think about it all, it struck me that this really was something that should be a non-issue.  Here are 2 people in a stable relationship (together for 10, married for 5), financially responsible, wanting to have a family.  Nancy couldn't have any more children, as she'd had to have a hysterectomy years ago.

As Thomas states: "Wanting to have a biological child is neither a male nor female desire, but a human desire."

I wish them the best and hope people give them the respect that they deserve.

Shabbat Shalom.

Whew!

UCONN sure made us sweat last night.  But they pulled it out in the end, LITERALLY!  Whew!  Tampa, here we come!

On a totally different note:

On the drive home from school yesterday, I was telling Sophie about my noon time dog rescue.  After listening to the story, she said very excitedly, "Mommy, you did a Matzo!"

There was a slight pause and then I burst out laughing.  I looked in the rear view mirrow at her confused and puzzled face.

I said, "Soph, don't you mean, MITZVAH?!!!"

Then we both were hysterical laughing for most of the ride home.  It's tough to be 7 and not always get Jewish terminology correct! 

An after lunch rescue...

On my way back to work from meeting the garage door guy on my lunch hour (everything is working quite lovely now!), I decided to stop at a gas station to check my oil.  I was going to go to a gas station near the condo, but it wasn't really on the way, so I figured I'd just go an extra exit on the highway and get to work using an alternate route.

When I got to the end of the exit, where I would normally take a left, I saw a beautiful German Sheppard pacing on the grass on the side of the road, trying to negotiate crossing the rather busy intersection.

I looked around to see if there was anyone with the dog and didn't see anyone.  I also noted that no one was coming behind me off the highway, so I turned the wheel and pulled over the corner and stopped to look at the dog, who looked at me, as well.   I opened the window and whistled and she tentatively came towards the car and put her head in see what was going on.

I got out of the car to see if I could get close enough to read the tags that were on her collar and found out her name and as soon as I said her name, she wagged her tail and jumped on the car as if to say, "open the door, it's drizzling out here"!!  I saw an address, but am not familiar with this town except to get to my office.  I dialed the phone number on the tag, but no one was home.

So I opened the car door and in she jumped and promptly sat very nicely and watched me walk around to the driver side and get in.  I started driving figuring I'd call my co-worker to Google how to get the street the dog lived on, but before I could do that, the first street I came to was hers!

As we turned in and proceeded down it, the dog looked around.  We pulled into the driveway and we both got out and walked up to the front door.  Rang the bell.  No one was home.

Just as I was wondering what my next step was, I heard the dog's name being called and then saw a car driving with a woman leaning out of it who was doing the calling.  I waved to them, but they didn't see me (as the driveway ended up a hill next to the house).  On their way back down the street, they saw me and drove up to me, asking me where I had found her.  They both jumped out of the car and were obviously relieved to have her back and very quickly put her in the house.

They followed me out of their street and as they passed me on their way to the highway entrance, they honked, waved and mouthed "Thanks, again."

Now, if I hadn't needed to check my oil, I wonder what would've happened?  I'd like to think I'm not the only one who would have stopped, but some people are afraid of big dogs.

Luckily for this dog, I grew up with large dogs, so the urge to protect was greater than the risk of being bitten.

Fool's Day

I have nothing creative for this day of Fools.  Sorry.

My mind is on one track.  UCONN basketball and not falling asleep at my desk!

The garage door opener will be fixed at noon today.  Yay.  It will be nice to be able to pull into it in the rain later today when I return home after work, without having to get out of the car to open the door.

The first game last night between LSU & North Carolina had to be the most boring game EVER played.  Could Sylvia have worn an uglier outfit?  Jeeesh.  Glad we won't have to see any more of her outfits in the very near future.  Now if C. Vivian would do something with her hair and teach her team to play nicely and respectively, things would be good.  But we know that's asking too much.

Let's just hope that Stanford 'peaked' last night and used ALL their energy and showboating shooting talents up on Maryland.  Most teams have a defense and apparently Maryland decided not to use any.  How else could Candice (with an I!) get 41 points????!!!

Anyway... GO UCONN!