Ponderings and Musings

As an American that was raised in the 70s and 80s, like most of my contemporaries I have had a sense of duty instilled in my very existence since a very young age. The morning routine was simple; the buzzer would sound at 9:10, indicating the beginning of the school day, and we stood, placed our hands over our hearts and recited the “Pledge of Allegiance”, as led by a booming voice over the PA system. I am proud that I did that every morning, and even led the high school through the exercise in my junior and senior year, so don’t think that this is some anti-pledge or anti-American rant. Because it’s not.

As we make our way through our school years, we learn about the history of our country, how it affects us today and the importance of keeping abreast of current events and the like. It’s important to know where we have been, where we are and where we are going. This is the reason that I try to keep on top of current events; I have a stake in the future and I want to be part of it. There are many things worth fighting for to further the foundation of our country: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

But, gosh, it is getting harder and harder to listen to the news without kicking in the face of a radio.

In the past 72 hours I have listened to endless coverage of the Iowa Straw Poll. Honestly, the relevance of this exercise escapes me and based on the explanations I heard on the news channels over the weekend, there’s something about passing out tickets, corn dogs, fried butter, a rogue bus with a rogue woman who’s not a candidate, a seal tent with air conditioning and folks dropping out of a race that really shouldn’t have even started yet, as we honestly have more important things to do than to make our elected leader look bad and stupid but saying idiotic things about him when he’s just trying to sort through a mess that just keeps bigger and bigger.

And speaking of idiotic things, here are some nuggets I heard during this coverage. These paraphrased snippets are from folks that were pulling the straws:

* The United States is the oldest country and government in the history of mankind.
* It is more than apparent that Jesus Christ was a Christian and that’s why we should all be Christians.
* The democrats are evil because they don’t support trade unions.
* In Canada you have to wait six months for a chance to go to the emergency room at the hospital because of their “socialist health care”.

This is the stuff that makes me crazy. It’s the perpetuation of the babblings from the ignorant, misinformed and downright stupid. This perpetuation somehow cements it as gospel. It’s like repeating a lie over and over again, say it enough times and it’ll become the truth, because everyone, including yourself, will believe it. Kind of like telling the world you’re a straight man trying to save the world from the gay when you sit in an airport stall tapping your foot for a little lick lick from someone that’s in the same bathroom as you.

I feel it is my duty as an American to know what’s going on and to listen to the news. Last fall when I served jury duty it blew me away that I was the only one on the jury that had any inkling as to current events in our area, and we don’t even watch the local news (the local news channel doesn’t believe in sharing over the satellite systems like the rest of the country). When they were doing the jury selection they mentioned the case that was involved and the name was instantly recognizable because it’s been talked about in our local media for the past 20 years and I was the only one that had heard of it! How can people stumble through life in such a cloud of ignorance and then be trusted to make a sane decision when we elect our next leader? How is this fair?

One of the newscasts I listen to in the morning makes a point of saying how long President Obama has been in office and how many days until the next election. I believe it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 462 days until we elect (or re-elect) our next president, and if the Iowa Straw Poll with corn dogs on a stick and suggestive pictures of consumption of such are indication, it is going to be a very long and dismal 462 days.

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Okay, this just made my day. As I may have mentioned once or twice through Foursquare and Twitter, I go to the Dunkin’ Donuts closest to work during my lunch hour on a daily basis. More order is predictable; I get a large, unsweetened iced-tea with lemon and if I’m feeling especially daring, I might add a cookie (but no more than once a week on the cookie).

I have been in conference calls all morning, so when I was able to escape for my lunch break I arrived at the DD and immediately had to use the wash room. When I came out of the wash room I went up to the counter like I always do. Already waiting for me was my large, unsweetened iced-tea with lemon. I didn’t have to ask for it. The cashier had a large, sly smile as she handed it to me before I ordered it.

Now, I know this is a really small thing but it’s that little extra effort in service that makes me smile and aids in my restoration of faith in the American populace in general. I added my weekly cookie to the order and gave the cashier an appropriate gratuity. She thanked me.

It’s the little things that count.

 

“Do you think the Blue Angels are available to do an airshow?”

“No.”

“A fly over?”

“No.”

“Perhaps a Cessna 150 with a really small horn?”

Glare.

“Can we get a bouncy house for the kids and the kids at heart?”

Eye roll.

“I suppose chips in dog bowls would be tacky.”

“Really?”

These are the questions and responses that are being aired about as Earl and I discuss our wedding plans. There was quite an outpouring of love when we changed our Facebook statuses from “In A Relationship” to “Engaged”. We notified each other of our status changes via Facebook, even though we were sitting across the table from one another.

Slowly but surely plans are coming together. Dates are being set. Thoughts are being aired and budgets are being checked. People from all over are sending wonderful words of love and support in our direction. Quite frankly I still can’t believe that somehow, in some manner, the State of New York has deemed it legally possible for me to marry the man that makes me see fireworks every time he walks into a room. I was talking about the vacation time with the Director of the group I work in and I actually got a little teary eyed. I read about and hear on the news that “Conservatives” oppose same sex marriage. Honestly, I think that’s a bit of hogwash. It’s actually right-wing extremists and nut jobs that oppose same sex marriage. I know a lot of conservative people¹. Many have voiced their support. The others have kept their mouths shut and not said a word. I know who fits into which camp. I’m not bothered by it. I figure they’ll figure it out when they pass on to the next existence and figure out how silly they have been.

We know a few couples that have been together for more than 30 years. One in particular are still quite obviously very much in love and yet they are not allowed to get married in the state of Wyoming. We’ve asked them to come visit us so they can breathe a little bit of open minded air. It might do them so good. Another couple that has been together just as long don’t seem interested in getting married even though they can now. I don’t find this sad, it’s not my business to make that judgement. They can do what they need to do to find happiness just like everyone else in the world. I know straight couples that opt out of marriage and they seem quite happy.

I just know that I never thought marriage would be in the cards but now that it is, I am very excited and even more blissfully happy.

Happiness. There needs to be more of this.

¹ Actually, I consider myself a middle of the road, financially somewhat conservative libertarian more than anything else.

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Back in MY day (my goodness I’m getting old), summertime on television used to mean that we got to watch reruns. I remember one particular summer where we got to see Farrah Fawcett be an angel after watching Cheryl Ladd do the honors the whole season before. That same summer Laverne and Shirley’s landlady hadn’t married yet and they called her Mrs. Babish, even though we now knew her to Frank’s wife. Reruns were what we got in the summer and though it was brain candy, it was good.

Today we get reality shows.

Now, I don’t think one should be watching a lot of television in the summertime. In these parts it’s the one time of the year where you can actually get outside and do something without having to wear a snowmobile suit, so I like to keep busy in some manner. But once in a while you want to escape and be a couch potato. Enter, the Reality Shows.

Earl is good at flicking the remote through the various offerings we get on the satellite. I’m not much for channel surfing anymore. I’d rather just think of something to watch and download it, cutting the cable completely and controlling our own schedule, but if you’ve been raised in the era of channel surfing it’s hard to break the habit. Yesterday he was watching some reality show called “Millionaire Blind Date” or something like that.

What a waste of technology.

First of all, I don’t know where to begin. I’m probably going to sound like an offensive, judgmental prick, but the woman who’s running this millionaire dating service thing is one of the most screeching, obnoxious women I think I’ve ever witnessed. Her lips are so plumped up she looks like she’s been stung by a bee. I will set aside her grating downstate accent because I’m nice like that, but her attitude towards her clients is unbelievably awful. I don’t know why anyone with any sort of self respect would go to this woman for dating assistance, especially since she can’t be doing a really good job if she needs to fund her business through appearing on a reality show. Not since The Beast¹ appeared on “Love Cruise” and “Paradise Hotel” has such an awful woman appeared on a reality show. I blame that thing they call Snooki (and for the life of me, I still haven’t figured out what a Snooki is). If this is the best that the greater New York metropolitan area can offer than Houston we have a problem.

I think I should be ashamed that I know about these reality show people I have just mentioned.

Now I haven’t watched “Big Brother” since BB3, I have seen what sort of damage Survivor can do by releasing people like Elizabeth Hasselbeck onto the masses and I have absolutely no desire to eat a bug, but when is this reality show ‘fad’ going to end? Why can’t we go back to things like “Password Plus” or “Match Game”? At least on those shows we knew the celebrities that were appearing and we had the entertainment of watching them whilst under the influence.

I think I need to convince Earl to dial it back to TV Land and watch a rerun of “Alf” or something.

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I am officially halfway through the work week and this makes me feel quite good. In a way it’s like wishing your life away, but there is just something that is rather satisfying about knowing that the weekend is closer to reality than it was a few days ago. We don’t have any particularly huge plans for the weekend but nevertheless it’s good to think about sleeping in and the like.

The seagulls that are usually present at the other shopping center I occasionally frequent at lunchtime have made their way to this one, further from the lake I suspect they haunt. They are loud. It seems that they are attracted to Burger King, as they like to circle the fast food restaurant at both locations. They seem to ignore McDonalds. Perhaps they don’t like apple slices in their Happy Meals. I don’t know why people go to McDonalds expecting healthy choices. When I was a kid we knew better. I still know better. I saw “Super Size Me”. It’s not a myth and it’s not like the Happy Meal apple slices are grown on a tree hanging over the drive thru speaker. You know what you’re getting when you go to McDonalds. Grow up.

A good friend from high school found the grave site of one of our high school English teachers and shared a photo of the site on Facebook. I found this kind of touching, especially since this English teacher was notoriously difficult in his ways. He was pretty good at making you feel like crap if you didn’t meet his expectations. He retired halfway through my senior year of high school. The final week of that semester he admitted to the class that he enjoyed “an older gentleman with a touch of gray around his sideburns.” His eyes were wistful when he said that. Since the class had only three students in it, not many were able to hear this. I giggle when I see others post on Facebook that he was after the girls. I didn’t need the gaydar back then (though it was working) to know better. He seemed too upstanding to make sexual advances at anyone at school, especially students. He was too lost in his literature.

I have just corrected the sentence structure in that previous paragraph three times because I guess the ghost of this teacher still scares the bejeebus out of me.

The drive thru line at Dunkin’ Donuts was about six cars deep. I don’t use the drive thru anymore, even when it’s raining. Whenever I walk inside for my unsweetened iced tea the place is empty. “No lines, no waiting” as I used to say on the PA speaker at Hills when I opened up my register. If people walked inside the store instead of barreling through the drive thru, there might be a slight reduction in carbon emissions and some extra calories might be burned. I haven’t had a chocolate chunk cookie treat at lunch time at all this month. That, along with some other modifications to my eating habits, have resulted in a five pound weight loss since my birthday. This makes me happy.

Lots of people are asking when Earl and I are getting married, now that our Facebook statuses indicate that we are engaged. I smile just thinking about it. Earl quips that he’s a bridezilla but he really isn’t. Neither am I. We are just two guys who love each other unconditionally. 60s sitcoms used to talk about typical weddings. I can’t think of any wedding that was typical. Everyone does their own thing and we’ll do the same.

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Alec Baldwin was answering random questions for a while this morning on Twitter. I usually don’t participate in this sort of thing because I think it’s really weird when a person says “OMG SAY MY NAME ON TWITTER SO I CAN BE GIDDY” and then the celebrity complies. There is usually a squeal from Ms. Caps Lock after this time-stopping deed has been completed. But since Mr. Baldwin is a political activist of sorts I decided to ask a completely random question.

This is not entirely out of character for me to ask and honestly, I don’t find it all that odd. As a man that is obsessed with facial hair (lord knows I love me some furry faces) I am also equally obsessed with the removal of the scruff. I believe the way a man chooses to remove his naturally growing fur speaks a lot about him as a person, especially in the United States. (I’ve never been able to test my theories in other parts of the world).

I blame my father. My father has been clean shaven for as long as I have been alive and as far as I know, every morning he went into the bathroom and used a can of shaving cream and a razor to shave. My father is one of the most upstanding, honest men I know and therefore I equate this method of grooming with guys that give a damn about themselves, the world and are generally good citizens. There are exceptions to every rule of course, but my casual, completely unscientific observations over the years since making this personal determination have fit these assumptions about 90-95% of the time. Men that choose the use electric razors fling themselves through life working at putting on a quick façade to fit the situation at hand and then move on to the next situation to be whoever they need to be there, grinding away at their chin with a miniaturized lawn mower in between appearances. I see those guys as politicians, CEOs and men that own places like “Carl Tucker’s Used Cars”.¹ By the way, back in my wild, single years, I dumped a few guys, even a very rich one, because of this theory. My hunches proved to be right.

I have been doing a lot of listening of talk radio during my commute this week, simply because I want to wrap my head around the debt ceiling crisis and listen to all sides of the story. The new Jeep has satellite radio, so I have had the opportunity to listen to channels dubbed telling names like “Left”, “Right”, “Patriot” and “Power”. The arguments on both sides of the fence are interesting. I listened to Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson speak about his thoughts and I think I agreed with him. He is a proponent of a “consumption tax” versus an “income tax”. Anything consumed/purchased/etc is taxed 23%. Buy a banana for $1.00 and it costs $1.23, with $0.23 going to the government. Flat tax across the board for all citizens regardless of economic status. Spend more, pay more. Spend nothing (damn near impossible in today’s world), pay nothing. No income tax. No grave tax. No exemptions. No loopholes. Just a consumption tax.

Makes perfect sense to me.

I would wager that Gary is a blade man. He seems sensible in his libertarian ways. New Mexico re-elected him as a governor and they don’t seem worse for the wear.

The one nitpick I have is that everyone likes to pervert the word “Armageddon” to describe everything. They’re saying that on the 2nd of August, when the debt ceiling apparently will explode, that it’ll be Armageddon for the United States. Social Security payments will stop. By the way, that’s absolutely horrible and I think that anyone that paid into Social Security should absolutely get Social Security; perhaps we should lighten our foreign aid and take care of the people here in the U.S. until we get our ducks back in a row, but I could go on about that forever. Back to the Armageddon thing – please stop using that word to describe everything. 10 inches of snow is not Snowmageddon. The 405 being closed is not Carmageddon. A lack of venti cups at Starbucks is not Cappageddon. People, calm down with the “geddons”.

Anyways, I’m betting that most politicians currently in D.C. are electric razor users — grinding away at their chins twice a day so they look good for the public. Perhaps they should take their time and groom themselves properly in the morning so they can put their best face forward all day without having to sneak into the shadows to get ready for their next appearance.

And by the way, Alec never answered my question.

¹ Bonus points to the person who picks up on the relatively obscure pop culture reference.

² None of this refers to those that choose to be scruffy in any manner. That’s a whole separate topic in my world.

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Today is the 25th of July. That means that five months today people all over the world will be celebrating Christmas. The vast majority of them will be celebrating with family and friends in some manner.

This past weekend Earl and I made our way to a couple of family gatherings. Appropriately, we had a gathering on each side of my family. It was good to get together with my relatives. It was a nice reminder as to the good side of the world; there was much discussion about New York State’s new Marriage Equality law that went into effect yesterday. There were many questions as to when Earl and I would be taking the big step of legalizing our union. It still boggles my mind in a way that we are even talking about this. Perhaps I have been too cynical over the years.

The best thing about seeing the family over the weekend was the connecting aspect of it. If ever asked what I am thankful for, I will have a very long list to relate and one of the top five would be that I am a lucky man, for I have a family that really does love me.

I wish every family would show the warmth and acceptance that Earl and I enjoy from our families to their gay family members. Perhaps if we got beyond that little hurdle the world would be well on it’s way to becoming a much better place.

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