leftovers

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is in two days! This year has really flown by. I guess we get to a point in life where we say that every year. Does it ever slow back down, even in retirement? At least I still remember long ago when a year seemed like such a long time. I'm glad that I am keeping this blog because it does help me keep track of just where the days go. Sometimes it's surreal though, reading back over past entries and realizing the actuality of the chronology of my life... certain events seem to have happened before others despite what my blog says, and some days seem so much more recent than they actually were. There are days in life that, although mundane, have burned themselves into memory like they were yesterday. It's weird and I always get a chill when something reminds me of one of those days. One of them I remember a lot is a day when I was a kid, I had spent the night at my cousin's house in Paradise, and my dad came to pick me up in the...

No, I don't actually have two fathers. I have a father and a mother, who have been married since 1974 - three years before I, their eldest child, was born. But, in the midst of all this commotion about same-gender marriage, I was reminded of the late '80's sitcom, "My Two Dads". I can't say I was some huge fan of the show, but I remember watching it often back when it was on television during my middle school days. For those of you who don't remember or were too young, it was a show where this girl's mom dies and a judge subsequently awards custody of the girl to the two men who had been competing for the late mother's affections. The comedy was provided by the fact that the girl, played by Staci Keenan, lived in a house with her two "fathers" (played by Paul Reiser and Greg Evigan ) who were an updated odd couple. Reiser's Michael was the straight-laced, by-the-books/suit-and-tie type of fellow, while Evigan's Joey was th...

I was baptized and confirmed into the Methodist Church, so it touched my heart the other day when I was driving down Highland Avenue in Hollywood and saw this sign at the Hollywood United Methodist Church. I no longer identify as a Methodist, as I no longer consider myself a Christian, but I believe in that old saying, "Never say Never".

As very few people know, I have been slaving away in my spare time on a collection of songs that I have written myself in the hopes of some day releasing a "solo album". I started writing songs when I was very young. My parents bought a piano, at what age I was I don't recall, and my mom and I began taking lessons from our neighbor, Peggy Anschutz , who lived on the farm just north of ours. I didn't always enjoy having to practice, but I did like playing the piano and inventing my own songs, so at my first recital Peggy let me play a song that I had written. It didn't have words except for in my head; I was always much too shy and scared to ever think of playing and singing at the same time throughout most of my childhood. It was only recently, in the past few years, that I finally started working on that. Despite that, I have been writing songs in my head for most of my life, some of them had made it to the point where I would sing them to myself when I was ...

Gays are now protesting and taking our fight for equal rights to the streets. It's getting loud, and it's getting messy. But there is HOPE. Today, gays began getting married legally, in Connecticut of all places! It's another step forward after the devastating backwards movement last week in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida and even here in California. But there is HOPE. We've learned that for the most part there is no point in arguing. People who don't want gays to be able to marry feel this way because they are uneducated. They believe that gays choose the gay lifestyle, and therefore must influence more people into becoming gay. They don't understand that gays are born that way. They believe that they are morally allowed, in fact obligated to demonize gays and discriminate against us. Most of them feel this way because they have never had an experience that expanded their minds the way that gays and our allies have had. Gays have gone through the process kno...

I am torn. Last night I witnessed such a powerful, happy, hopeful moment as Barack Obama was elected President of the United States of America. I am so thankful to have been able to share in that moment. I was almost unable to. After work yesterday, I went home and turned on the TV to watch the election coverage, alternating between CNN and MSNBC . In order to also keep updated about the battle against Proposition 8, I also had my laptop on the coffee table. My cell phone sat nearby, buzzing with text messages every few minutes. And then... darkness! The power had gone out in my whole neighborhood. I waited and waited, but it did not come back on. Finally, I took my laptop and went to Starbucks. I had heard they were giving away free coffee to people who voted so I figured I could sit there and at least watch the coverage online with my headphones. I did get free coffee, but was irked to discover that the Starbucks nearest my apartment doesn't offer WiFi ; they insisted th...

I had a really, really fun Halloween this year! It started, for the most part, on Thursday evening when my friend Ben and I volunteered at the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce's Foundation Fundraiser party at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. This is a party that I have volunteered at several times before because it is so fun, it's for a great cause, and I'm too cheap to actually pay to get in (ha ha)! I arrived at the cemetery around 2:30 to help set up for the party, which started at 5:30pm. My task for the evening was to hide in the cemetery, in costume, and scare groups of people on walking tours of the "haunted lake". I was so happy to find out that my friend Scott, of Dearly Departed Tours, was one of the two tour guides for the night! I had a lot of fun roaming around the cemetery, hiding behind trees and jumping out to scare people. The party was fun and I saw a lot of people there that I knew through work. Friday of course was the main event, though! I g...