There’s an article in The Tyee today about a different stance on the same-sex marriage debate. The author Stan Persky puts out the position that it’s not an argument about marriage, it’s an argument about validating (or not) same-sex sex. Because we all know that the most important part of a marriage is the consummation thereof - and the notion of two same-sex partners doing that, is just ick as far as the Conservatives are concerned.

I’ve thought long and hard about this - wanting to respect both those who hold their religious beliefs strongly, and the obvious rights of any person to marry any other person. I posted my comments on the issue at the bottom of the article, but figured that since (at least I think) it seems like a cohesive and well-written stance, I’d post it here as well, and see what y’all think about it.
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The only real solution at this point is to do away with the institution of “marriage” entirely as a legal entity. Civil Unions for all - man/woman/transgendered or any combination thereof - who wish to benefit from the legal contract of such an arragement. And have them performed or endorsed only by a public service employee (such as the JPs who do it now).

Once the church is no longer legally ordained to endorse “civil unions” they’ll no longer have a leg to stand on in their discrimination of those who are born homosexual. This leaves the church entirely outside a position of being able to deny performing a “marriage” for those it chooses to discriminate against.

It’s time to move beyond teaching “tolerance” of those who may be of a different race/sex/orientation/etc. (which is what the Conservative position of Civil Union vs. Marriage is) and move to a society of ACCEPTANCE that everyone is equal, and deserves an equal set of rights that have no basis on anything other than our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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Discuss.

To those who were so concerned in the comments on Sunday - thanks I’m 99% better now. The last 1% is the fact that I’m waiting for the dehydration zits to go away. Water is the only thing that keeps my skin sane - and nearly 24 hours without any really wreaked some havoc on it.

Sunday morning my Mom & Dad came by to take me out for brunch. I’ve been a bit too busy to take a weekend to go visit them lately, so they figured they’d come to me. They’re sweet like that - and a greasy breakfast was exactly what I needed.

And now it’s Monday, the sun is shining, and I just found out that I’ll be getting a very nice bonus at the end of March. The numbers aren’t finalized yet, but I have a narrow range of possibilities, which means my vacation plans for the not-so-distant future are now going to be a reality. As soon as the cheque is in my hot little hands (March 24th) I’m buying plane tickets.

Remind me to NEVER do that again.

I went out with the work crew on Friday night (it is now Sunday morning) starting at about 4:00pm.

Four bars and many, MANY drinks later, I landed in my bed at about 2:30am.

I thought I was just hungover, but I got to contend with a migraine as well. Considering it came on either during the night or during the hangover, I couldn’t take anything for it that would stay down for more than 5 minutes. All I could do was lay down in the dark, alternating between the frozen magic bag and frozen facecloths over my eyes all day, and whimper. I finally got some restful sleep starting at about 9:30, and went right through for 12 hours. Bliss.

Thankfully, I’ve managed to remain vertical for about an hour now, and and have high hopes for solid food today.

Apparently I take my social cues from my belly button.

Richard has posted this before, but today was the first time I took the time to read Caring for your Introvert. It was a bit like being tossed into an episode of This is Your Life.

A couple passages stood out especially for me:

Introverts are not necessarily shy. Shy people are anxious or frightened or self-excoriating in social settings; introverts generally are not [I include myself in this group, definitely not shy]. Introverts are also not misanthropic, though some of us do go along with Sartre as far as to say “Hell is other people at breakfast.” Rather, introverts are people who find other people tiring.

Female introverts, I suspect, must suffer especially. In certain circles, particularly in the Midwest, a man can still sometimes get away with being what they used to call a strong and silent type; introverted women, lacking that alternative, are even more likely than men to be perceived as timid, withdrawn, haughty.

For as long as I remember, I’ve been perceived as “the snob” who is allegedly too good to hang out with the crowd. Not true - I just have no interest in chatting myself into being part of any given group, though am happy to be (and usually fun if) invited to participate. I’m also terrible on a first date, because I have no skill whatsoever with small talk - though if we stumble onto a topic of common interest, the words will flow effortlessly. I like to think I’m a good conversationalist, just not chatty.

I think the Internet has driven a lot of introverts into a common space - simply because it seems tailored to our particular social comfort level. There is no need for small talk most of the time. It’s socially acceptable (and usually preferred) to be direct and to the point in chat rooms and on instant messengers. Email etiquette guides stress dropping colloquialisms from messages, and writing succinctly in memo format.

The Internet is also free from awkward silences. It’s usually assumed that if one is chatting online, they are also watching TV, surfing the web, or working on a project or work task (or perhaps all of the above). The phone may ring, someone may knock on the door - the bottom line is, through the entire conversation the introvert is able to (as Rauch notes) “think before talking, whereas extroverts tend to think by talking.”

I’m assuming the friends I have who know and love me have come to understand that this is the way I am - and are ok with that. Admittedly it was somewhat baffling for a while, becuase I never understood it about myself. I always assumed I needed to be more extroverted in order to have a more satisfying social life. Now I know that’s not true.

Even better, I have a brand new excuse for those poor first dates. “I’m not bored, I’m an Introvert, and you obviously just don’t get it. Perhaps you should check out this article….”

I sat up until 12:45 talking with my brother.

I hope he leaves that girl. I doubt he will. He shares my desire to see the absolute best in people no matter what. Usually to our detriment. Instead of being pro-active, he’s waiting for her to dump him this weekend. I just worry about what will happen when she doesn’t.

He is also a jackass*.

I dragged my sorry ass out of bed extra early so I didn’t mess up the routine of the roommate, and so that my brother had plenty of time to get himself ready for school.

What did the brother do with that time? Continued to sleep. Until about 5 minutes past the very last possible minute.

Result? Jen is all ready to go, and ends up sitting around the house waiting for him to be ready to leave for 15 extra minutes (minutes that could have been spent sleeping!), then is dropped off at an intersection near work, because jackass doesn’t have time to drive me any further or he’ll be late.**

It’s a good thing I have another brother who’s much more considerate (and more fun to drink with), because if I were only left with jackass, I’d feel really ripped off. Perhaps that’s the way it goes when you get 2-for-1 siblings.

*still love brother - just not liking him all that much this morning
**also, I will change from 1st to 3rd person and back again with reckless abandon, because it is my blog, and I like it that way

Who’s the bestest big sister in the world? Yep. That’d be me.

My youngest brother crashes on my couch a night or two a week to save himself a couple hours of sleep on the nights he works at his part-time job downtown. Tonight is one of those nights.

The poor chap is also having woman troubles. Namely, his girlfriend is a selfish cunt who is not to be trusted. And he has asked me specifically if I will wait up for him so we can have a little chat when he gets home and I can offer some advice (which will obviously be Get. Out. Now!). It’s always easier to offer relationship advice when one is bitter and jaded and totally disillusioned with the entire concept of love.

Problem is, he won’t be home until around 11pm, and I. Am. Exhausted.

I’ve had a lingering dry-cough (side effect of the mystery illness) that sets in around bedtime, so I haven’t been sleeping all that well. Today I picked up some Robitussin on the way home, and to ensure I can actually get up at 5:30 in the morning, took it at about 9:00. I am now ready to officially pass right out.

But I suppose it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to want to go to sleep this badly without my brother messing it all up, now would it?

What do you do when the main database at work has to incur an “emergency shutdown” (fancy words for - oh shit, oracle’s broken here…)?

Ok, what do you do after you’ve read every news article, Fark post and RSS feed that holds the tiniest promise of interest?

Then what do you do when you’ve stuffed so many envelopes you don’t just have papercuts, you are a papercut?

You pour over the details of the 50 Most Loathsome People in America!

But seriously, you can skip all that boring stuff I waded through at the top, and just go read it now.

Baby Carrots + Hummus = Perfect 3pm snack.

Why didn’t I discover this years ago?

I’ve been debating over what to write lately - everything I think of seems to be either very mundane, or very whiney. I figure my readers don’t need to hear about either of those - but how about both!

mundanities

I had a pretty quiet weekend. Friday evening was spent out with friends playing Carcassonne - Hunters & Gatherers (obscure board game with no URL, sorry). Saturday I slept in obscenely late (well into the afternoon) and went to bed before midnight. In the 9-10 hours I was awake, I managed to do next to nothing. Last week’s mystery illness made an encore appearance, so I stayed mostly drugged on the couch before I gave up and went back to bed. Today I got a few things done - ran some errands, went grocery shopping, ironed a pile of clothes that had been waiting for it a little too long.

I signed up for Weight Watchers e-tools online today, which (sadly) was the highlight of my weekend. I try not to talk about the whole diet thing on the blog, since I’m usually just innundated with people telling me “you’re not fat,” but it’s something I’ve been rather obsessed with lately, so the online toy is pretty cool.

whining

I am in desperate need of a haircut/colour. I have an appointment for this coming Thursday, but in the meantime, it’s a sad, sad state of affairs on my head. T-minus 4 bad hair days left.

While I was lazing about on Saturday, I accidentally watched a romantic comedy. I say accidentally, because I popped in View From the Top expecting some sort of slapstick monstrosity - and instead was confronted with the mushy mug of Mark Ruffalo getting all sappy with Gwyneth Paltrow for 90 minutes.

I also found out within the past week or so that one couple friend of mine just got engaged, and a strong hint was dropped that another couple will likely be engaged in the very near future. Four years ago I was the girl who had the boyfriend when all her friends were single. Now I’m the only single girl with mostly coupled friends.

And I read Richard’s reference to a post about dating a variety of people, which served well to remind me that I haven’t bothered with any sort of dates since the beginning of December. Even getting into a situation where a date may be possible involves either pimping myself on Lavalife and/or Match.com - neither of which have yielded any sort of promising results in the past - or leaving the house and going out to meet people and do things with what is currently very bad hair.

I could go on, but I suppose you get the gist by now. I’m just feeling a little lonely. The urge has long since passed to run back to the ex, or anywhere else for that matter. I’d love it if I could just sit at home and wait for FedEx to deliver Mr. Wonderful to my doorstep, but I highly doubt that will happen.

Hopefully this is just a side-effect of the winter blues, and it’ll all blow over once the sun shines for a few more hours each day.

Go on, tell me what kind of pirate I am…

What kind of pirate am I? You decide!
You can also view a breakdown of results or put one of these on your own page!
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

Not to freak anyone (or myself) out, but what I had sounds an awful lot like the Mumps (which is a word that, if you say it to yourself enough times, sounds absolutely ridiculous).

I figured this out when I looked at my (still slightly swolen) tongue in the mirror this morning and it looks kinda lumpy along the side. So my stream of consciousness went a little like: hmm… bumps.. bumpy bumps.. bumps bumps mumps… I wonder what mumps looks like…. So I look them up, and find the symptoms. Which include:

- face pain
- swelling of the parotid glands
- fever
- headache
- sore throat
- swelling of the temples or jaw (temporomandibular area)

Thet pretty much describes my experience to a T. Treatment suggestions only offer “get immunized when you’re little” (which I was), and “take anti-inflammatories to reduce pain and fever, and wait it out.” So no trip to the doctor for me. But I’d be interested to know if I actually contracted the mumps.

I suppose I could make a more definitive self-diagnosis if I were a male, since another of the symptoms is accute testicular pain. Yowzah. To any guy friends: hope I didn’t/don’t give it to you!

After a lovely day spent in excruciating pain on my couch, I am actually glad I’m well enough to be at work today.

I’m not exactly sure what the bizarro illness I had was, but here’s a rundown of the symptoms:
-very slight fever (ran between 37.2 and 38C)
-paralysing body aches
-extreme vertigo upon trying to get into any vertical position
-intense glandular swelling, and pressure that made it feel like someone was slowly inserting knitting needles through my ears into my brain
-burning sore throat that also encompassed the rear half of my tongue (which is still a bit swolen today)

Sounds flu-like to me. Strangely though, I didn’t experience any coughing, sneezing, runny nose or gastrointestinal distress - all surefire signs of illness. Instead, the closest thing I can compare this to is coming out of general anisthetic, when your body just isn’t quite ready to cooperate with your brain yet.

Anyone wanna play doctor (not that way, perverts) and try to guess what the hell happened to me yesterday?

From Colene:

50 things to eat before you die

Things on the list I haven’t tried yet:
11. Moreton Bay Bugs
19. Cream Tea
22. Kangaroo
32. Guinea Pig
33. Shark
36. Barramundi
37. Reindeer
42. Durian Fruit
50. Cornish Pasty

And my own additions of things that didn’t make the list, that I’ve eaten, and I think are worth trying:
-Horse
-Rabbit
-Moose
-Pho
-any number of stinky cheeses (my favourites are Gorgonzola & Gouda)

I am officially sick. Achey, flushed, sore throat, fever, headache.

And my brother is here.

He has a knack of showing up whenever I want him not to. Extra tired? Sick? Cranky? It’s almost guaranteed that he’ll be on my couch when I arrive home.

Can’t I just come home and wallow in my misery alone? Sigh.

At least I’ve got supplies for chicken soup, and the brother only stayed long enough to shower and iron and head off to work.

Now all I need to do is get better.