#55: My Eyes Adored You

[liney23]

cindi... LOVE that new banner!!! And, he's in Minn. with Reed... that just melts my heart. I wonder if Jaymes and Parker are in Vancouver, so Clay will go there or if Raleigh and family will win the "where to go for the holidays" war this year.

LOL..yep..sounds like one more thing Clay won't be doing bwah. So it's one more thing I can bypass.

Happy Friday everyone.

I was in a mood last night -- one that called for heavy dossage of Good News. I think I listened to it like 20 times in a row LOL. As usual, did the trick. Don't know what it is about that song.

Couchie... I feel the same about AIW... repeated playing has lifted my mood more than once.

Annise Parker becomes mayor of Houston!

Parker's win makes Houston the largest U.S. city ever to have an openly gay mayor.

merrieeee... :04: I just read People about Meredith Baxter coming out as gay. The more "normal" it becomes the better. I just want no one to care. That may never happen, but it can and should get better and better and that would be good enough, I guess.

Maybe just maybe when a person who is gay wins an election it won't be big news. On the other hand it does bring awareness. She seems like a low key, intelligent person from the few news snippets I saw on CNN. Here's hoping she can do her job without every move she makes getting judged by the media and/or those who may be haters.

Congratulations to the residents of Houston.

It wasn't a big issue for most of the campaign. It was only toward the end when some groups started getting into it in a rather nasty way.

And it is newsworthy/historical because it's this first time with one of the largest cities (houston is 4th in the country). nyc, sfo, la haven't accomplished this yet.

Scarlett... wasn't that Milk guy/Sean Penn that got killed the mayor of San Francisco??? Not a good advertisement for being a gay mayor, tho.

I'm back from my vacation, but I have so much to do that it makes me almost regret having gone... Argh!!!

It was very nice to be greeted by the new banner and the Caro blog that is certainly putting me in the holiday mood.

10 days... Eeeeek! I have done nothing. Well, money always works... LOL

[KAndre]

No, Harvey Milk was a city supervisor, which I think is like a councilman.

[keepingfaith]

Bopping in to say that my home computer has bitten the dust. I've been working with it for weeks now and thought last week that it was okay, but now it has to go because it has just about made me crazy. I'm not going to buy a new computer until after the Holidays, so during my two-week Christmas vacation it may be difficult for me to check in, what with my son and granddaughter hogging the other one. The "other one" is 10 years old and works like a charm. It is a Sony Vaio. The one in my bedroom is a 4 year old Dell, and apparently a POS.

Soo, ehpeeps, if there's breaking news in the next couple of weeks, and you haven't seen me on the board, help a girl out with a text message, please.

Regarding Annise Parker, my mother called me last week and asked if I had heard that Annise is gay. I told her, yeah, I've known it since she was first elected to City Council about 12 years ago representing The Montrose. After 3 terms on council and being term limited she was elected City Controller. After 3 terms as Controller and being term limited, she ran for mayor this year. The field in the general election included (1) an openly gay woman, (2) an openly black man, (3) an openly old white man, and (4) an openly hispanic man. And the old white man was probably the most liberal of the four, although all four are Democrats. Contrary to conventional thought, Houston is a Democratic city, having never elected a Republican mayor in it's history. Occasionally a Republican will give it a shot, but has never been successful. Actually candidates don't run according to party affiliation in Houston, but people know who they are. So we elect Democrats and have already had our first woman mayor, our first black mayor, and although it wasn't public knowledge, we had an in-the-closet gay man elected two terms as mayor in the 1970's.

I got put-out with Gene Locke in the final days of the run-off when he accepted the endorsement of the Steve Hotze group (Hotze heads up the local Republican gay-haters club, the kind of group that would be simpatico with the current school board in Raleigh). THEY made it a news story here by distributing homophobic-themed flyers. Yet even after it was blasted about at the last minute, people here have known Annise Parker for years and it had little to no effect on the election. There was some, "Did you know that?", "I didn't know that," and little else that I heard.

Now, my mother is 87, and a Southern Baptist, and she was fine with the whole thing. She told me that Annise opened her victory speech Saturday night by saying, "Let's get this out of the way right at the beginning, in case anyone hasn't heard .. I will be the first mayor of Houston who is a graduate of Rice University." Mother thought that was clever and said, "You know, I think I've only known three lesbians in my life, Annise Parker, Rachel Maddow, and (a lawyer from the little East Texas town where she was born), and they are all smart women." I love that my mother is still evolving at 87. I know the little town she grew up in was (and remains) racist as all get out, but she is one of President Obama's biggest fan (and has been since Hillary dropped out last year). She stopped subscribing to the little newspaper in that town because they "said ugly things" about President Obama. She LOVES him. Almost as much as I do.

So, it may be a big deal elsewhere, but here in Houston we've known Annise Parker for years, and her sexual orientation was not an issue in any of the previous 6 city elections she won; and it wasn't an issue in the mayoral general election this year, and only became talked about in the waning days of the run-off. But then, Houston has never been a hotbed of anything except maybe frying eggs on the sidewalks. It's just too diverse and friendly a place for all that controversy crap.

(FYI, just because Old Man Bush and Bar live in Houston shouldn't cast aspersions on the city. Houston voted for Al Gore in 2000, and John Kerry in 2004, voting against Junior both times -- and Obama carried the city lst year.)

And on a personal note, I'm extremely excited that my daughter is coming home for Christmas this year -- it's been since 2005 since she was here. My sweet Noelle.

[soulsista4clay]

Of course, if you were really channeling me, the gorgeous new banner would feature a little holiday tongue along with the lovely lipbite.

LOL! It's bad enough he's eyef*cking whilst singing about baby jeezus - flaunting the tongue is sure to get us all a big lump of coal in our errr.....stockings.

Thanks for the banner love, all. And soulsista, the font is called Frosty.

Thank you! Gonna download it now! It's just so cute.

[djs111]

Florida's governor, Republican Charlie Crist (he wants to be a senator next) is widely assumed to be gay - but no one actually cares. They care more about the crap he is doing to Florida. When Crist was running for governor, what usually happened was sort of like "I heard Charlie is GAY", which was always answered with "So what?".

Too bad he has basically brought Florida to its knees, though - but his campaign promises sounded good, I guess.

In reality, I think his last little gift to Florida will be letting insurers be completely free of any regulations whatsoever.

And oil rigs dotting the horizon, with big billboards on them.

I expect that since Jebbie is backing someone else for that senator spot (Rubio), people who can vote in the primary will be hearing more about his suspected orientation.

Should be interesting.

The comments after this article about a movie that purports to "out" politicians, sum up how much anyone cares if Crist is gay - which is not much, he is just a lousy governor.

"Outrage" the Movie

[Scarlett]

So, it may be a big deal elsewhere, but here in Houston we've known Annise Parker for years, and her sexual orientation was not an issue in any of the previous 6 city elections she won; and it wasn't an issue in the mayoral general election this year, and only became talked about in the waning days of the run-off. But then, Houston has never been a hotbed of anything except maybe frying eggs on the sidewalks. It's just too diverse and friendly a place for all that controversy crap.

(FYI, just because Old Man Bush and Bar live in Houston shouldn't cast aspersions on the city. Houston voted for Al Gore in 2000, and John Kerry in 2004, voting against Junior both times -- and Obama carried the city lst year.)

And on a personal note, I'm extremely excited that my daughter is coming home for Christmas this year -- it's been since 2005 since she was here. My sweet Noelle.

ITA with just about everything you and K have said except for the bolded part -- because there were 3 separate occasions, the last one on July 6, 2007 when Houston seemed extra, super, fiery hot to me. Don't you agree?

And yay for your DD coming home for Christmas!!!

[Desertrose]

On Houston's new mayor - believe it or not, especially in the initial election, Annise's orientation wasn't a biggie because frankly she's been in politics here forever and she's a perfectly boring accountant and will be a perfectly adequate mayor - just like Gene Locke was a perfectly boring lawyer, and Brown (hell, I can't even remember his first name) was a perfectly boring architect and would have probably been perfectly adequate mayors. I think our "alternative" paper, the Houston Press called them dull, duller and dullest. It sounds paranoid, but external interests did try and stir up some sturm und drang but went about it in the wrong way - they should have said she was for the Ashby High Rise or wanted to put MetroRail on Richmond or thought Bill White sucked. Frankly, Houston tends to like accountants better than lawyers in running the city because we tend to elect our comptroller (and honestly, Brown just appeared to be super old and wanted to be Mayor before he died). The turnout was incredible pitiful - and I heard about two of Locke's supported sending out flyers against "teh ghey" - but nobody I know got them (and frankly, my mother probably would have been the target audience). She knows Annise is married to some woman and has been for years and thinks it's a little strange and knows disapproving is not right but says she's working on it, but Annise being gay isn't why she didn't vote for her - she's 70 and frankly just votes for black candidates when she can (although she loves Bill White). She would have voted for Annise if Gene wasn't in it because women candidates are her second choice.

I started up the MWCL and AIW rotation this weekend (people, I can't get into Christmas too early...no, no, no, no, no!)

I got the flyers, and this is the first time that I have ever gotten anything like that. I was really surprised. One had a picture of Parker with her partner as she was being sworn in as city controller. The heading said, "Is This The Image You Want to Project for Houston?" in big bold black letters. It went on to spout religious dogma and state that the sender did not hate homosexuals, just their choice of lifestyle, that in fact he had friends and relatives that had homosexual children. Then he went on to say that voting for Parker would just be encouraging this type of behavior and lead to homosexual marriages. It read like it was a choice and a deviant lifestyle. It went on and on like that, and it never addressed the issue of Parker qualifications or lack of qualifications. It also said being a lesbian does not qualify Parker to be mayor.

The second flyer, I did not bother reading because the first one made me mad. I just tossed it into the recycle bin. I asked my son if he had gotten one, he said no. I asked him if he had voted in the first election. He said no. I asked a couple of neighbors, and they had not voted and had not gotten flyers either. Then I read in the newspaper that only those who had voted in the Mayors election were being targeted. The flyers were not sent out until the run-off election when it had been narrowed down to a "gay" woman and an American of African descent.

I was also bombarded with phone calls. I vote in every election and they reward me by sending me this trash?

[jazzgirl]

<snip> But then, Houston has never been a hotbed of anything except maybe frying eggs on the sidewalks. It's just too diverse and friendly a place for all that controversy crap.

on frying eggs on the sidewalk. I think the heat makes people really friendly too. *g* People are too busy trying to stay warm where it's cold to talk to each other.

[Scarlett]

Still at work and extremely nervous about that training I'm going to give the next 3 days -- first time in a huge training center, wearing a pack, etc. I'm sure I'm going to do something crazy like forget to switch it off and then head to the ladies room...

On topic: Clay helped me win a "Best Tabletopics Speaker" ribbon at my last Toastmaster's meeting. It's an impromptu speech situation where you're given a question or topic and there and then you should start talking about the subject for up to 3 minutes. My question was: Have you accomplished your New Year's Resolution for 2009? That was so easy to answer after listening to the DSIAFCD banter every year... *I so miss the JNT*

[jazzgirl]

Still at work and extremely nervous about that training I'm going to give the next 3 days -- first time in a huge training center, wearing a pack, etc. I'm sure I'm going to do something crazy like forget to switch it off and then head to the ladies room...

Good luck! I think it sounds like fun. And if you forget to turn it off, you won't be the first one (*remembers reporter at CNN*)

[Scarlett]

Still at work and extremely nervous about that training I'm going to give the next 3 days -- first time in a huge training center, wearing a pack, etc. I'm sure I'm going to do something crazy like forget to switch it off and then head to the ladies room...

Good luck! I think it sounds like fun. And if you forget to turn it off, you won't be the first one (*remembers reporter at CNN*)

Well if only I can get home soon and wake up in time to do it!

*I hate how I can't view photobucket here at the office*

[luckiest1]

I saw a commercial last night on a Canadian station and I think....I think....it might have portrayed a gay couple as one of a series of everyday people who used health care. I generally ignore commercials but I heard them say something like "Tom and John rolled their car and went to the emergency" so I glanced up. I don't watch a lot of Canadian TV (except Food Network, hee) so I've never seen it before, but it gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling to think that maybe, just maybe it was true....next time it comes on I'll pay a bit more attention.

I have a job interview tomorrow for the position that I've been after for 5 years (in my own company). Heck, I wouldn't even have to switch desks! There are 3 spots open and 4 applicants being interviewed. The other 3 are graduates from the local 3 year college program...the same one I graduated from 7 years ago. When I graduated, I was one of only 3 women out of a class of 140. Interestingly, 2 of the 3 who are coming in for the interviews are apparently women over 40.

Wish me luck!

[FearofH2O]

Good morning FCA! I really need a coffee emoticon this morning.

Luckiest, the very best thoughts and wishes for you in getting that job. Your experience and being right there should be an advantage to you over the other interviewees.

Scarlett, good wishes to you also. I bet you are great at whatever you do. Talking about bringing the mic into the bathroom, it reminds me of a gig my son's ex alt country band had at a local coffee shop. My husband and I attended as it was one of the few places he had played that we fit into. They had a wild bass player who had a tiger striped bass and dressed differently than the rest. During one of their songs he had to go to the bathroom and since it was close to where they were playing, he walked into it while still playing the bass part. He didn't miss a note. Fortunately he didn't sing so he didn't have a mic, only the bass did.

Off to work and then a little wrapping tonight. Have a great day all.

[Scarlett]

luckiest1, I hope your id carries the day! Have a great day, Fear, and thanks for the encouragement!!!

Would love to be here instead, but I guess I need to go do what I must. *fingers crossed* Have a great day all!

[aikim]

47 Days until GFI!

Happy Birthday to all celebrating!

Everyone have a great day!

Kim

[ldyjocelyn]

Good luck to both luckiest1 and Scarlett today!

My work has taken another turn for the crazy. We had a full time librarian (who worked nights and weekends, mostly), quit at the beginning of the semester. We have someone hired, but we're also going to be rearranging schedules so that the night/weekend thing is distributed equally. This is fun when people are totally used to having both nights and weekends off. Then, another librarian (at a different branch, who also works nights and weekends) quit yesterday. While he is working until the first week of January, and we do have someone in mind already, I've got to go through the same thing with THAT branch. AAAAAGH!

Only 7 more working days until a break, only 7 more working days until a break...

Topic: I hope Clay enjoys HIS work, and also HIS break...

[goldarngirl]

I saw a commercial last night on a Canadian station and I think....I think....it might have portrayed a gay couple as one of a series of everyday people who used health care. I generally ignore commercials but I heard them say something like "Tom and John rolled their car and went to the emergency" so I glanced up. I don't watch a lot of Canadian TV (except Food Network, hee) so I've never seen it before, but it gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling to think that maybe, just maybe it was true....next time it comes on I'll pay a bit more attention.

I have a job interview tomorrow for the position that I've been after for 5 years (in my own company). Heck, I wouldn't even have to switch desks! There are 3 spots open and 4 applicants being interviewed. The other 3 are graduates from the local 3 year college program...the same one I graduated from 7 years ago. When I graduated, I was one of only 3 women out of a class of 140. Interestingly, 2 of the 3 who are coming in for the interviews are apparently women over 40.

Wish me luck!

Will be thinking about you. Good Luck.

[heinz]

Good luck Luckiest1!!!

You were correct in how you saw that commercial. I've seen it a few times, and did a double take and watched more carefully the next time and it is a gay couple. It is nice to see.

[claylove]

Wishing you good luck Luckiest1! I hope you get the job :-)

I have been super swamped at my new job and with WFI. Will post a bit after I get through this week and weekend.

Scarlett, I think you will do great!

[preden]

I saw a commercial last night on a Canadian station and I think....I think....it might have portrayed a gay couple as one of a series of everyday people who used health care. I generally ignore commercials but I heard them say something like "Tom and John rolled their car and went to the emergency" so I glanced up. I don't watch a lot of Canadian TV (except Food Network, hee) so I've never seen it before, but it gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling to think that maybe, just maybe it was true....next time it comes on I'll pay a bit more attention.

I have a job interview tomorrow for the position that I've been after for 5 years (in my own company). Heck, I wouldn't even have to switch desks! There are 3 spots open and 4 applicants being interviewed. The other 3 are graduates from the local 3 year college program...the same one I graduated from 7 years ago. When I graduated, I was one of only 3 women out of a class of 140. Interestingly, 2 of the 3 who are coming in for the interviews are apparently women over 40.

Wish me luck!

Good luck and best wishes!

[preden]

Just downloaded some clack from the JNT 04, he sounded fantastic! I had never watched clack from those concerts before.

[KAndre]

Good luck and go get 'em tigers for all!

[lilyshine]

Good luck to both luckiest1 and Scarlett today!

My work has taken another turn for the crazy. We had a full time librarian (who worked nights and weekends, mostly), quit at the beginning of the semester. We have someone hired, but we're also going to be rearranging schedules so that the night/weekend thing is distributed equally. This is fun when people are totally used to having both nights and weekends off. Then, another librarian (at a different branch, who also works nights and weekends) quit yesterday. While he is working until the first week of January, and we do have someone in mind already, I've got to go through the same thing with THAT branch. AAAAAGH!

Only 7 more working days until a break, only 7 more working days until a break...

Topic: I hope Clay enjoys HIS work, and also HIS break...

I may be weird, but I loved working Friday nights at the library. It gave me Wed. am off when I could shop without hassles plus on Fridays, the library was almost empty so I could actually get some work done without interruptions. If you stress some of the advantages of working a few "off" hours, you may find that some people really enjoy them.

The only thing I didn't like was walking home down Broadway at midnight!

[jmh123]

I have a job interview tomorrow for the position that I've been after for 5 years (in my own company). Heck, I wouldn't even have to switch desks! There are 3 spots open and 4 applicants being interviewed. The other 3 are graduates from the local 3 year college program...the same one I graduated from 7 years ago. When I graduated, I was one of only 3 women out of a class of 140. Interestingly, 2 of the 3 who are coming in for the interviews are apparently women over 40.

Wish me luck!

Best of luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cindilu2]

Is it redundant to wish someone named luckiest1 good luck?

Let's do it anyway.

Good luck!!!