Gay Marriage in Minnesota

Filed under Events, Minnesota, politics by on May 13, 2013 at 10:25 am {one comment}

Minnesota legalizes gay marriage, freedom to marry in Minnesota, marriage equality in Minnesota

Today the Minnesota Senate votes on whether or not gay people can legally marry someone of the same sex. It’s expected to pass and  Governor Dayton has said he will sign the bill if it lands on his desk tomorrow.

It’s about time.

If it passes same – sex marriages can begin August 1st, 2013. Minnesota would be the 12th state to legalize gay marriage.

Currently same-sex marriage is legal in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, Maine, Maryland, Washington, the District of Columbia.

I’m thrilled that Minnesota is going to become a state that recognizes marriage equality and am hopeful that the domino effect will take hold and all other states will follow suit.

While views have evolved over the years about gay marriage, there are still many who would prefer to ban gay marriage. I’ll never understand the belief that gays shouldn’t be allowed to marry someone whom they love and who happens to be of the same sex. I don’t understand it because gays can get married, they can only marry someone of the opposite sex which makes for a very  difficult and confusing marriage.

I know because I grew up in one them.

Gay people have been getting married since forever so banning gay marriage does nothing but force gay people to marry someone of the opposite sex, someone they may love but ultimately may find difficult to remain committed.

The argument that same-sex marriage erodes traditional marriage is the biggest crock of shit I have ever heard. Straight people have been eroding marriage just fine without the help of gay people. I know I’ve done my part having two marriages – so far.

I can attest to the fact that growing up in a mixed orientation marriage is confusing, shameful, loud and just downright hell. I think most people would agree that growing up with parents who love and respect one another is preferred to one where lying, arguing and sadness are the rule.

I expect this bill to pass, as do many who are opposed to it. The best thing about this issue is that sooner, rather than later, it will simply age out. The people who fear gays will die out. The kids coming up, the ones who will rule this world very soon, don’t care a bit if someone is gay. And that is incredibly refreshing.

Today will be an historic day in Minnesota. Today is the day we vote for the family, for equality and for freedom.

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Christmas Lights In April Are Offensive

Filed under All of the Other Stuff, Dumb Shit I Do, Minnesota, Winter, WTF? by on April 19, 2013 at 12:56 pm {3 comments}

Who’d have thought that posting a picture of lit Christmas lights in April would set off such a heated argument?

snow in April in Minnesota, Christmas lights in April, Minnesnowta

It snowed last night. It snowed quite a bit and frankly I’m pretty sick of the snow. We’ve had snow on the ground since Thanksgiving. I know this because my ex husband took me on a motorcycle ride on Thanksgiving and it started to snow right as we returned home.

We’ve had snow on the ground ever since. It’s come close to melting but there has been visible snow for the past 5 months.

It’s okay, I live in Minnesota and we’re used to snow here. Lots of snow.

Spring snowstorms aren’t unheard of here but usually they happen in March.

It’s April. May is only a week and some odd days away.

I’ve had it with snow but there is nothing I can do about it. There is no one who can do anything about it. I could be like one of my neighbors and yell and scream about it but that doesn’t make it go away and it doesn’t make it easier to handle. Is does scare children and pets, however.

No, as much as I like to complain it doesn’t help so last night I embraced the snow and turned on my Christmas lights that I hadn’t taken down from two years ago.

I was going to last summer when I was thinking about painting the window trim but I never got to it so they remained up. Getting them up was a lot of work and I see no point in taking them down so I can put them back up again. Yeah, my neighbor thinks they look “ghetto” but it’s not like I turn them on after New Years.

I mentioned that I had turned on my Christmas lights on Facebook. One of my friends suggested that I post a picture so I did.

And then all hell broke loose.

You can check out my timeline on Facebook to see the conversation. If you aren’t friends with me you will need to friend me first. While you’re friending and fiddling with Facebook be sure to like my book Minnesota Nice.

I’m always amazed at what offends people. At first I thought she was joking but it soon became clear that she wasn’t. People rush to judgement all the time and bad things happen because of it. I get it, that’s just life. But this was deeper than that. I can’t really wrap my head around what was so offensive about the lights. Religion got brought into it and the conversation quickly devolved to crazy talk. 86 comments later and we were discussing The Onion and Stephen Fry. There might have even been a quote from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

Life is too short to do a lot of things. Rushing to judgement is one of them as is being so easily offended by someone’s choice in home decor. It is my home and if I want to leave my lights up all year and even light them I will. I won’t, I think they look stupid, but I have the right to do whatever I want and telling me to do one thing only makes me want to do the other, even if I don’t really care.

So, are you offended by Christmas lights left up long after the holiday season is over?

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I Hate Winter

Filed under Minnesota, Winter by on April 14, 2013 at 7:38 pm {no comments}

I hate winter, especially when it happens to be spring.

fuck winter

It’s officially been spring for almost a month. And for a while it looked like we were climbing out of this horrible, god forsaken, winter. The snow had almost melted, the grass gave signs that it was going to turn green again at any moment. The birds were singing and the ice was thinking about going out on the lakes.

There were signs of spring… followed by summer… in the air.

You could smell it and you could hear it.

And now it’s gone.

We got 4 or 5 inches of snow the other day. I’m not even sure when it happened and I’m not going to look it up because I really don’t want to acknowledge it.

If I acknowledge the snow, the return of winter, it might never go away.

And it needs to go away because I am pretty sure I can’t stand it any longer. It’s the middle of APRIL for CRYING OUT LOUD. It’s not supposed to look like this outside.

Sure, we are a hardy stock in Minnesota. We are accustomed to snow in the spring months. According to Wikipedia the latest recorded snowfall was June, 4th 1935. I recall going to a John Cougar Mellencamp concert at the Orpheum on May 7th and being surprised by the snow that was falling that night. The difference was it didn’t stick around like snow has.

When we got those five inches last I didn’t get too upset because I really thought it would melt by the end of the week. I didn’t bother shoveling my back walk, the one that goes from the house to the garage. Now it’s frozen and it’s like a scene from Little House on the Prairie to get out to the garage.

I’ll weather this weather. This is not my first Minnesota winter and it won’t be my last. But I’ve spent a good part of my time searching for ways to get out of this state. Whether moving permanently or just to get out for a few weeks…it doesn’t really matter because no matter what happens, the snow will melt and within a week of that it’ll be 90 degrees with 80% humidity.

 

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