Dr. Who Is A Tory?

Hello Shahidah this is Seth the guy from the elevator.

I have a very small office and I consider myself to be a master of emotion that I didn’t scream like a seventh grade school girl when I heard his voice on my voice-mail Monday morning. He called me back. Is it possible to hear a wink in someones voice over the phone? Insert Big Smile here.

Because the seventh grade Shahidah still lives within me I checked the date and time he left his message, Friday, same day as I left him my message, but  hours later at 9 pm. Seventh grade Shahidah would  not let me delete the message as she will probably listen to it several times this week.I knew he was a lawyer from his card and considering his firm is one of the biggest in Boston I was not surprised he was in the office so late. I didn’t call him back immediately I made sure to go to the ladies room so I could silently scream away some of the excitement in my voice.

He invited me to lunch. I accepted. Maybe I should have played it cool and said I was busy and asked if we could meet later in the week but I’m not that cool and I hate dating games. I panicked only because I really knew nothing about the man except he looked like Dr. Who and loved the Celtics. How long could I fake that I cared about Doc Rivers game plans?

My morning was quite unproductive as I obsessed over what we would talk about for an hour. We met in the lobby and yes, it felt like a French movie as I walked towards him. I forced my mouth not to break into an open smile and play it nonchalant like my friends warned me. As we walked to Legal Seafood I could feel us flirting with each other with our words, eyes and smiles. It felt good to be looked at in that way men do when they are interested in you. It makes me feel all warm and tingly. He complimented me on my dress which wasn’t entirely by accident, since he handed me his card that day I had been wearing my best dresses just in case of another four-minute elevator date. I was very interested in him.

He said I had the prettiest smile and always seemed happy when he saw me on the elevator. I confessed that I only smiled because he smiled at me first. He argued that I definitely smiled at him first. Oh well, who cares? Our conversation is polite and casual.

He has very soulful and kind eyes. I wonder if I should tell him that. There are so many things I could compliment him on but I honestly cannot remember from my non-existent date play book if men like compliments like that. He seems more serious than playful and I wonder if I seem more playful than serious and if that is a good thing. Uggghh! Do I bring up books I read or discuss the economy?

I don’t know when we broke the carnal sin for dating  but it happened about halfway through my fisherman platter, I didn’t go the salad route. I don’t know what sparked it but before I knew it were talking about Rachel Maddow and politics. GASP!

We disagreed on just about everything. He didn’t like Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow while I considered them best friends in my head. I totally see myself becoming Rachel’s BFF one day. I know its going to happen and he didn’t like  her. How could he not like my BFF? And yes, I know I am probably the only other than his wife that wants to go on a date night with Chris Matthews.  I forgot about being nervous, I forgot that it was our first date, and I forgot about being self-conscious. We debated like old office cronies. Good thing, right?

As the waiter put the check on the table I put my hands over my faces. “I can’t believe you are Republican. Dr. Who is not a Tory I’m sure.”

“Dr. Who?’

“You know Dr. Who.”

“Yeah, I know the show but I never watched it. Seems really silly?”

There is a wink in his voice. I smile.

“I’m a republican who does not watch Dr. Who, does that mean you won’t have dinner with me?”

I roll my eyes at this Republican.

“Okay.”

Silly Me, French Movies, and Nathalie Baye

I don’t believe the hype that French women have the lock on style. I read somewhere that a Parisian woman would never be caught in the streets with a pair of sneakers, trainers, athletic shoes or whatever you call a pair of Converse Chucks and Nike. Bullshit.  I do, however believe the hype that Parisian women know how to age gracefully and with style, thus making them sexy over forty and/or over sixty.

As I leap into the dating pool my mind keeps bringing me back to a French movie I posted on a few years ago une-liaison-pornographique or the American title, An Affair of Love. Even if you don’t speak or read French you can clearly make out that the title is NOT An Affair of Love. Nathalie Baye is in her forties when she makes this film, about the same age as myself. I admire her coolness and even her bravado to seek out a relationship based on her terms. She is  sexy and confident, kinda how I’m feeling about myself as of late.Pretty damn sexy. Not bragging but acknowledging that at forty-five I have aged well and with some damn style. I feel so French. I feel so free. I feel like I want a silly romantic French love affair minus the horrible ending.

A woman is closest to being naked when she is well-dressed.

A woman has the age she deserves.

Coco Chanel

Second Part of The One from the Elevator coming up. Interesting Date

 

Boston Rainbows

A few weeks ago it rained in Boston, that heavy pounding cold rain that comes out of nowhere and blankets the city with thick dark grey clouds. Rain that heavy and sudden never seems to last for long and just as suddenly as it came it stopped and this beautiful rainbow stretched from one part of the city to the other. I don’t think I have seen a rainbow as big and as clear as that rainbow from my office window that day.

Today we mourn those lost in that horrific bombing. We’re sad, distraught, and puzzled but we will find our strength in each other. This thick dark heavy cloud will break and we will have a rainbow again.

Transgender @ Four

I think it is fair to say that most of you who have hung in here with my blog are probably liked minded folk who get a couple of change.org sign petitions request in your email box like me. Most of them I sign even though I’m not big on petitions but I’ve seen that they sometimes work so I don’t mind offering my support through my signature. Every once in a while there is one or two that I have to give the side-eye and just delete. I got one of those a few weeks ago. Take a look.

Shahidah -

Our daughter, Coy, is a beautiful, happy, friendly, 6-year-old girl. But her school is treating her differently from the other kids — just because she happens to be transgender.

We have five kids, and Coy is one of three triplets. When she was little, we used to dress her like her brother, but that made her really unhappy. She would be excited to go to the playground, but when we laid out boys’ clothes for her, she would get sad and ask if she could stay home.

When Coy was 4, she told us something was wrong with her body. She asked us when she could go the doctor to become a girl. We took her to a psychologist, who said that Coy is transgender and we should support her and let her be who she is. As soon as we let Coy grow her hair out and wear girls’ clothes, it was like someone turned on a light. She was happy all the time.

Coy’s school, Eagleside Elementary, was initially supportive, too — until this past December, when they abruptly told us Coy couldn’t use the girls’ bathroom anymore. Now we need your support.

We started a petition on Change.org to ask the school to stop discriminating against our daughter. Will you click here to sign it?

When Coy started at Eagleside last September, her teachers and classmates accepted her for who she was. They referred to her using female pronouns, and she used the girls’ bathroom for months with no problems. Then, all of a sudden, the principal told us Coy would have to use the boys’ room, the staff bathroom for adults, or the bathroom for sick children in the nurse’s office. Our daughter is not a boy, she’s not an adult, and she’s not sick. 

Our state, Colorado, is one of 16 states where it’s illegal for public schools to discriminate against kids like Coy. Eagleside had an opportunity to teach kids to celebrate each other’s differences, but instead they set our daughter up for harassment and bullying. Coy doesn’t understand why she can’t be treated the same as all the other little girls.

We are grateful to have the support of LGBT advocates, thanks to the work of Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF) and GLAAD. We also know that lots of other schools have done the right thing for LGBT students (such as allowing Gay-Straight Alliances) after being petitioned to do so on Change.org. We hope that if enough people sign our petition, Eagleside Elementary will comply with the law and treat our daughter with equality and respect.

Click here to sign our petition demanding that Eagleside Elementary allow our daughter, Coy, to use the girls’ bathroom.

Thank you,

Kathryn and Jeremy Mathis
Fountain, Colorado

 

Now, I have a real problem with signing this one but I have not deleted it. Her parents say that when she was four she expressed unhappiness over her body, and a psychologist determined she was transgender. I’ve been pretty speechless about this since I got this email on March 6 but I have thought about it pretty much everyday. Can a four-year old child really be transgender? I think of my daughter at four who wanted to be a  boy like her brothers and was often caught outside with no shirt on with her Osh Kosh B’Gosh overalls. She displayed strong tomboyish ways all the way up to the sixth grade. I went with it. Same with my son’s. I didn’t freak out when my boys carried my purse or slipped into a pair of my shoes and I don’t understand parents who do. I did not encourage my daughter to act or dress like a boy a four nor did I encourage my boys to act or dress like girls just because they liked a pair of pumps in my closet. I know not all  children grow ‘out’ of their desire to be the other sex but should a parent go this far and should other children and parents be subjected to it at a six-year-old level? I just find this story very disturbing, not because of the little ‘girl’ but the parents who clearly made this decision for her. I feel bad for the parents who  feel like they are bad people because they don’t want to confuse their own children with this new transgender issue.

The parents say their son was very unhappy until they started dressing him as a girl. I would never want my children to be miserable so I understand the parents but only up to a point. I think they went to far. What if at nine the girls decides she wants to be a boy after all? This is not a childish whim, I know, but how much indulgence should a parent give?

This is more of a what do you think post because I have no answers and my only opinion is that I do believe that something as drastic as changing the child’s gender identity should be put on hold for a few years.

It’s one of those things IMO that falls into the category just because something can be done does not mean it should.

What say you?

 

 

The Year of Foolishness

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Charles Dickens

I don’t believe anything is more fitting to describe the last year in America than this opening from Tale of Two Cities. It was the incredulous year that brought us Romney vs. Obama, Conservatives vs. Liberals, Teabaggers vs. Government, Sanity vs. Insanity, Fox vs. MSNBC, Rich vs. Poor and the Angry White Christian Male vs. Women/Blacks/Latinos/Asians/Gays etc. It has been a year of hateful buffoonery.

Hate was a cultural theme throughout the year as we headed towards November elections. America 1 wanted to bring us back to an era lost, the wonderful golden age when Black Americans were second class citizens, women possessed little rights in the workplace or home, Latinos were obsolete in the polls, and white men were the only men who could call the White House home. America 1 does not want your sick, your tired or poor or huddled masses that yearn to breathe free. America 1 wants you to die of a heart attack if you can not afford healthcare and freedom is subjective.

America 2 wants to pilot us into a better future, care for the sick, the poor and personal freedoms. America 2 grew in numbers that restored a lot of my personal faith in humanity. America 2 fought hard and long against the racism, the sexism and for the equality of all people, not just a chosen few.

America 2 gave us Barak Obama while America 1 gave us pathological liar/robot Mitt Romney. America 1 gave us voter suppression, long voting lines, and lie after lie about socialism, entitlements, welfare, and who saved the auto industry. America 2 stood in lines for up to seven hours, knocked on doors, went toe to toe with Citizens United, and sent Tagg Romney a clear message: America does NOT want your dad.

America 1 spewed lies via Fox News and its elected officials. America 2 gave us MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart.

America 1 gave us Rush ‘Jabba the Fatass’ Limbaugh, Glen ‘American Terrorist Bastard’ Beck, Michelle ‘Batshit Crazy’ Bachman, and Sarah ‘STFU’ Palin, repeatedly, like irremovable cysts in our ass. Their audience is the most uninformed and least educated electorate ever. They shun education; remember when Rick Santorum uttered this gem; President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college, what a snob. America 2 said What an idiot, yet America 1 cheered this kind of rhetoric; Anti-Obama, Anti-Education and very Pro-Stupidity world. America 2 gave everyone the right to affordable college tuition/loans/grants.

It would be nice to say that after November the two Americas would come together and stand united but the shootings in Newtown, CT has even proven to divide us. Very sad that such a tragedy only invoked more bitterness from America 1 with the intent of keeping guns instead of regulating laws to keep them out of the hands of people who clearly do not need them.

Onward to 2013 we go. The fight will continue…

As A Parent…

My heart bleeds for the loss of those babies who are loved and cherished by their families.

 

 

RIP Mr. Hagman

Who didn’t love to hate JR. Ewing but loved Larry Hagman? I know I did. I never seen an interview with him where he was not gracious, funny, and charming. His co-stars regularly said he was as stand up guy. May he rest in peace.

 

Dear Mitt,

I was one of those Democrats that when you announced you were running for President was really interested in what you a moderate Republican would say. I have voted for moderate Republicans, I am from Massachusetts although I was absent from the state while  you were governor. I knew how torn the country was over President Obama’s race, yes, I have stop deluding myself that the majority of the GOP just didn’t like his policies, so I thought if he were to be replaced, why not a moderate Republican. WHEW, what a difference actually listening to you made. You courted the ignorance and divisiveness and the racial ignorance. You Did That.

Well, it’s a new day and after all your assholicism, all of  your lies, your GOP manipulations…really, voter suppression in 2012? Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and women, we don’t matter, really Mit?  Well, Tuesday we all got to say goodnight Mr. Romney but I just wanted to leave you and your dear Ann a song that really describes how I feel about saying goodbye to you.

Signed,

All those Americans you didn’t even try to include in your Presidency. What kind of BS is that?

What goes around…

Assholic Mitt Romney

For a couple of months now a video has been circulating on YouTube of a fundraiser of Mitt the Twit and his billionaire friends. In the video Romney dismisses Obama’s supporters as people who take no responsibility for their livelihoods and who think they are entitled to government handouts. And the uproar begins. Now it’s front page news and will be dissected by every political pundit for the rest of the week. I hope it is another nail in the coffin of this imbecile.

But seriously , what makes this clandestine confession amongst his friends new business? Romney has shown from the beginning what he feels about anyone not on his income level. He has shown via his no-details campaign that he does not need to explain himself as why he should be president. It’s his right you stupid people!

Mitt is an assholic. He’s been drinking his own urine far too long to get off of it and at this point an intervention wouldn’t help. His whiteness gives him entitlement to the White House and by any means he will try to infect all of us with his assholic-ness. You, people who vote for Obama are welfare, social security, union loving waste of space says Romney. Get used to being the abused girlfriend America but don’t look for an apology after Mitt slaps the isht out of you. Real men don’t apologize after they whoop your ass. Remember that Nov 6

Makes you Wonder