the world is your acorn

I can’t tell if this is really sad, really cute, or really freaky.

Frankly, the whole celebrity phenomenon makes me slightly uncomfortable. At the same time, there are people out there whom I really admire for whatever it is that they do that makes them famous. Generally I think it’s fun to have celebrity sightings and to talk about it. I’m not, however, the kind of person who goes out of her way to meet celebs. That’s why I was so uncomfortable the other night when we were at City Hall for the Brandi Carlile show, and we noticed Amy Ray in the crowd. I’m a huge Indigo Girls Fan, and have been pretty much since I started owning CDs. Their music got me through my brooding in-the-closet angsty teen years (and even many embarrassingly angsty adult years).

Well, one of our New Little Buddies spotted her standing a little in front of us during the concert, but she slipped away through the crowd after a few songs. I figured that she’d gone backstage (and hoped that Brandi would get her to come up and sing), but when the lights came up I saw her walking toward the back of the venue. So she was practically standing right by the door as we walked out, and The Little Red Haired Girl insisted that I go say hello. I didn’t want to, because I knew I’d just feel stupid about it later. At the same time, I knew (as did The Little Red Haired Girl) that I would regrett letting the chance go by. So I went over, waited my turn (at this point there were three or four others who wanted to say hello to her), and shook her hand. I said something totally inane like, “I really love your music,” and walked away. I’m really glad that I approached her, but at the same time I feel a little cringe-y about it. She was totally nice and greeted everyone with a lot of patience and grace, but it is just such a weird thing. Is there ever actually a good way to approach a celebrity?

Anyway, I’m glad The Little Red Haired Girl pushed me to do it. Otherwise this would have been a very different post, wouldn’t it?

I have more work to do than there is time in the day right now. Well, time in my day, since my day is also filled with classes, meetings, and a Brandi Carlisle concert tonight. It’s the concert that’s really putting me under, so I can’t complain. Work hard and play hard, right?

I guess I’m supposed to call it “alleged” anti-gay assault. That’s fine, I guess. The main gist of the story is that a Vandy student and a recent graduate were physically assaulted on campus last weekend by a freshman and a non-student friend. There were words exchanaged in a Quiznos, and when the student and recent graduate walked out of the building, they were jumped. It sounds like there were no serious physical injuries, and the attackers have been identified.

I’m interested to hear what will come of this. Is it the kind of news story that 6 of us who care about anti-gay hate crimes will read, become enraged about, then be forgotten about a week later? Is it the kind of thing that will spark some sort of action, either on the part of students, the administration, or both? I’m not yet sure how personally I feel about it. Does it make me scared for my own safety? Relieved that it was a freshman and not a senior who did it? Am I angry that shit like this happens in the first place? Sad that there are still supposedly educated people in the world who are capable of doing this? I guess there is a little of all of that floating around in me right now. I hope something happens because of this, but I hate admit that I’m not optimistic that if anything does happen that it’ll be much in the way of progress for queer rights.

“Students attacked in alleged anti-gay hate crime” [via insidevandy]

Last Thursday night The Little Red Haired Girl and I flew to Boston to do some wedding planning. We had 3 and a half days to see as many venues and caterers as we could, and we definitely packed them in. Well, it was worth it because we found a venue and nailed down a date! The place we chose is a historic house in the suburbs on a gorgeous piece of land. If the weather cooperates we’ll have an outdoor ceremony, then cocktails/apps in the house and on the porch, and dinner under an attached tent. I’m most excited about the apps and dinner. We haven’t picked a caterer yet, but they all seem like they can make some deliciousness for us, and their sample menus all look great. It’s weird that this thing is still a year off, because we are already so excited for it.

The Little Red Haired Girl and I are in the Manchester, NH airport. It is lovely here. The TSA people are nice, it’s not over crowded, no one is in a huge hurry, it’s clean, and above all, free wifi. You gotta love that. We’re never flying into craptastic Logan again.

I got up early this morning to make breakfast and lunch, since I have an 11 hour day at school today. Yesterday’s idea of having Doritos for lunch is not going to get me through today. So there I am at 6:30, all ready to cook, when I realize there is a trail of ants parading from the window over the kitchen sink down onto the countertop and back. I’d like to say that I’m shocked and I have no idea how such a thing could possibly happen to us, that we are the pinnacle of cleanliness and the ants had no good reason to have found their way into our house. Sadly, that has not been true this past week. We have both been going non-stop either for work or social reasons. I know, I’m not complaining, we haven’t had a terrible time, just busy. So, there is a possibility that things like dishwashing and countertop wiping have been neglected. Well, luckily the ants seem to have just recently found their way in so it wasn’t too awful yet, and we nipped it quickly in the bud (knock wood). While I did manage to frantically throw some lunch together, I clearly didn’t learn my lesson because I left behind another pile of dirty dishes.