Today is and while I make a pretty concerted effort to maintain the constitutional separation of work and blog, I'll step out of my usual habit of posting recaps of my daily meals and pictures of my dogs to write a line about that nasty constitutional amendment (SB 1250, should you care to contact your Senator) to define marriage as between a man and a woman here in Pennsylvania.
If you know me, then you know that my day job is pretty centered around this issue on the federal level - and more specifically rallying support within organized labor for marriage equality. (Hooray for UNITE-HERE who just passed their resolution this past Tuesday!)
As far as these malicious amendments on the state level - let Michigan be a horrific warning. When the right wing was pushing the state constitutional amendment they swore up and down to the voters that this amendment was strictly about marriage and that they were not interested in going after domestic partner benefits. Of course, once the amendment passed it was used to question the legality of offering DP benefits and a bitter court battle has been raging ever since. Families may lose their benefits, collective bargaining contracts may be rendered void, and the country has seen just how severe the implications of these amendments can be.
Beyond the dollars and cents - which are certainly important, especially to working class folks - there are more reasons than just benefits and tax breaks that couples want to marry. It's really just wrong to deny two people who are in love the right to marry. To quote Evan Wolfson, the executive director of Freedom To Marry (and a Pittsburgh native!), “It's emotional as well as economic, practical as well as personal, tangible as well as intangible.”
You may now return to the regularly scheduled mundane details of my life.
It was a beautiful day in Pittsburgh today. I took the opportunity to work in our "yard". Our only outdoor space is a small patch of concrete enclosed by chain link fence and plywood. It's hideous. I'm actually too embarassed to post "before" pictures - so please, just know that as humble as the after pictures are - it is a huge improvement. This poor little patio has been through so much lately. In addition to the usual job of housing our garbage cans and the puppies' outside time - the contractors working on our house used my flower pots as ashtrays, left garbage everywhere, tore up the plants (dormant trees that just look like sticks - but still!), and generally wreaked havoc. Last summer I had this bright idea - basically I wanted to put a line of cinder blocks all around the house and fill the holes in them with dirt and plant flowers in them - like window boxes, except on the ground...and made of concrete. Well, I got as far as purchasing the cinder blocks and piling them up in our "yard" so that they took up most of the little space we have. So today I moved them - block by block - to make a wall of sorts around part of the perimeter of the yard. It freed up a lot of room and looks so much better. Of course, now that I'm in bed I can feel back starting to hurt and I'm sure I'll really be feeling it tomorrow. Last summer was the summer of ideas I never saw through. In addition to the cinder blocks, I also purchased and old, rusty claw foot tub that I hoped to turn into a planter - but it sat empty over the winter. Well today I sanded it (the best i could), spray painted it (with car paint that Keystone was selling at 3 cans for 99 cents!), and planted the berry plants in it. Bathtub planters kind of walk the line between trashy and shabby chic - but I wanted more than just potted plants. I think it's cute, and it will let me plant things that demand more soil than a 14" pot can offer. Maybe I'll even get some berries out of it!
Last night Hoi Polloi had it's first dose of live music. Kris Kaminsky played a set and it brought in some people that hadn't been in before. It was the most people we've had in the shop at one time - and it was a great trial run for when Edie comes on April 25th - which I gotta say, I'm a little nervous for. Anyway, I haven't been spending as much time in the shop lately, but I came downstairs to listen to the show - and to make coconut macaroons.
Coconut macaroons are a favorite of my father's and always make me think of him. They turned out rather well - but the recipe I used produced a lighter more meringue-y cookie than the dense store bought kind I'm accustomed to. And I upped the coconut content significantly! Still, they taste great and have that moist, sweet middle that make macaroons irresistible. Some other recipes I looked at incorporated condensed milk, which might change the consistency - so I might try one of those next time. In either case, I'll be sure to have my coconut macaroon recipe perfected by the time my Dad comes home.
This past Sunday jb took me to the Grand Concourse for brunch. It's always fun to dress up and when there's all you can eat bacon, well that just makes for the perfect date. The salmon was incredible and the bananas foster was to die for.
While my mom was in town I made her a coconut cream pie. Making meringue with an electric mixer is so much easier than beating it by hand. The pie tasted great, but the meringue deflated overnight in the fridge a bit and the filling separated creating this syrupy liquid which made the crust a little soggy. I'm not really sure how to fix those two things, though :(
Last week I was on a week-long retreat in northern California - the second part of the leadership fellowship I'm participating in. This time the group was comprised of LGBT activists from around the country and it had a distinctly different feel from the last one. The fellowship and the trainings are convened by Rockwood which does training for both the corporate and non-profit fields. The retreat had limited phone and internet access and no television - which is not really my style. Luckily we had 14 hour days to fill our time and the scenery and weather were just gorgeous. The little black dots on the hill are cows - which kept making me think of those happy California cow commercials. Shootings in our neighborhood are escalating. Today was the latest - a man was killed in front of an elementary school in Manchester at 3 pm. Yesterday, a mail carrier was shot on his route at 10:30 am. I lost count of how many shootings we've had since we moved here in May.
Let's agree to disregard the complete lack of transition between topics in this post.
I think I may have really f-ed up my arm pushing the car out of the snow over and over again. I was sore for a few days, but now that the soreness is disappearing - I still can't seem to lift my left arm over my head without whimpering.
Last night jb and I went to Costco to pick up some stuff for the store - but I got distracted by all the gardening inventory. I bought three huge bags of potting soil (hopefully enough to fill the clawfoot tub) and a four pack of plant seedlings - strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. Right now I'm torn on where to put the tub - because it's hella heavy and will have to stay wherever I fill it. On the sidewalk I have a feeling it will get vandalized, but there is very limited space behind our house. I suppose I'm leaning towards leaving it where it is - right outside our back door. I'd love to give it a paint job before I start the garden, but that may be a little ambitious. In other gardening news - I have this plant that I inherited when my grandmother moved. It was really small and sickly looking and planted in one of those disposable foil containers for leftovers. I repotted it, and while it's grown, it's always looked kind of sickly to me. But a couple of days ago I went to water it and it had this beautiful red flower. I didn't even know she could do that! So case closed. I totally have a green thumb.
This morning jb brought me french toast with powdered sugar and fresh strawberries for my breakfast in bed (she brings me breakfast in bed every weekday morning). It was such a nice treat.
Today marks seven years since jb and I met and fell in love. To mark the occasion jb planned a surprise trip and whisked me away to Cleveland yesterday. I should mention that this is the first time jb has been away from the store for more than a couple hours since we opened and the first time she's left PA in over eight months. So from the beginning, jb was a little (read: a lot) nervous about the trip. Still, she had planned this little get away for us, arranged for her brothers to hold down the fort while we were away, and had managed to keep it it all a secret - so there was nothing that could keep us from romantically celebrating our anniversary.
jb and I have an anniversary tradition that involves three elements:
1. Visiting an under-appreciated city 2. Staying in a Bed and Breakfast 3. Disaster
Usually we only have to plan for 1 and 2, and then number 3 will fill itself in. For example, last year we went to Baltimore, stayed in a quaint B&B, enjoyed the aquarium, and then got food poisoning from our anniversary dinner.
So naturally, jb was nervous hearing the weather reports coming in leading up to our trip, she even considered canceling, but then when Saturday rolled around there wasn't much sign of snow - some freezing rain, and a bit of flurries as we were heading out - we figured we'd just take it slow.
The closer we got to Cleveland the worse the weather got - and the worse the roads got. Even on the highway we couldn't see the road - usually only one lane was drivable. Visibility was so bad we kept thinking our windshield needed to be cleaned - but no matter how much we would wipe it we still couldn't see more than a few feet ahead. We passed countless abandoned cars and the few cars that were still driving were going super slow. The two hour drive took us over four hours.
Once we got into Cleveland it was like a ghost town. There were very few cars on the road and we saw a few people walking in the middle of the street. jb tried to stick to her plans and drove us to the Cleveland West Side Market. We turned into the parking lot and promptly got stuck in the snow. Luckily three men with shovels were walking by and they dug around us and then pushed us out of the parking lot. At that point, jb and I figured we should probably just head to the bed and breakfast and bunker down.
We found the b&b, but the snowdrifts were so high that it was impossible to park on the street - and to walk from the road to the door we had to wade through waist high snow. The inn keeper was not expecting us in this weather - obviously. jb borrowed a shovel and managed to dig a space out to park in about a block down the street. At this point - we felt a little ridiculous, but figured there could be worse things than being snowed in together at a bed and breakfast. We began to thaw ourselves out and talked about what kind of food we wanted to order in. Unfortunately, no where we called was open. Not a single place. Our tummies were growling and we weighed our options. Wait until tomorrow morning or brave the weather again.
We bundled back up and headed back out into the storm. The one block to the car felt like miles with the wind and snow whipping at us. We started to drive and managed to get stuck three times in two blocks - and each time I had to get out of the car and push us out. We almost turned around when we saw a Kentucky Fried Chicken - I've never been so glad to see a KFC in my life. They were closing as we got there (because of the weather). We got some food and headed back to the b&b. At this point we were finally able to settle in for the night. We ate KFC, got under the covers and watched episodes of the office on my laptop.
Poor jb. Her romantic plans were derailed because Cleveland was in a state of emergency. Still, it was so nice to have nothing in the world to do for a night but snuggle in bed. The next morning things were looking much better. The snow had stopped. The roads had been plowed. The sun was shining. We headed out and visited the botanical gardens on our way out of town. Once we got back to Pittsburgh we stopped for Sushi and now we are tucked into our own bed and we can officially say we survived another year.
Sorry about the hiatus - Larissa and Nick came to visit last weekend (they are the main reason I write the blog, so no point in filling them in when they are here) and finally got to see the cafe in person. Then, once they left, I was feeling a little under the weather, hence the lack of blogging.
Sidenote on the word hence: One time Nicholas and I were chatting and I said, "You know, Nick, you are my favorite brother." He responded with, "I'm your ONLY brother..." I replied, "Hence, my favorite brother." And Nicholas said, "Wait, who's Hence??"
It was really great to see the kids and for them to see the shop and for us all to spend time together. I miss them so so so so much. I can't wait until they come back and I can get sick of them. I'm already thinking about this summer's camping trips :)
March is a rough month for me - in like a lion out like a lamb - if only the transition were so smooth. We get a taste of a beautiful spring day and then the next thing you know there's freezing rain. Today is rather gloomy, but you can feel spring trying to break through. I've been getting in the mood with some indoor gardening - can't wait to take it outside (and into that damn clawfoot tub I keep saying I'm going make into a garden!)
