Domestic Bliss...

Starting in late December last year, my sweet Boo and I went, in short-order, from "talking about" moving in together to spending every Sunday going to open houses, to finding a realtor, to looking at a ton of garbage, to finding the home of our dreams, to getting approved for a mortgage, to settling, to packing, to painting, to moving in together.

How did this happen?  And how did it happen so quickly?

Simple.

I stopped saying "NO" to life and started saying "yes."  Or at least, "maybe."  And just like that, my life unfolded, quickly, in ways I never knew could be possible.

That little place you see up there is a beast.  OUR beast.  3 bedrooms.  1 full and 2 half-baths.  LR, DR, home office, kitchen, breakfast nook, media room, laundry room, garage and beautifully landscaped front and backyards.  And it's ours.  Well, ours and JPMorgan Chases.  But mostly ours.

I have never been so consistently happy in my life.  I can't believe my good luck.

And you know what?  I deserve it.  Yes, I do.  And so does my partner.

And all I had to do was to quit whining, sober up, face facts and leave myself open to "the possible."

You should do the same.

Politics and Religion

Our political life has always had a cozy relationship with religion, based primarily upon appeasement.  After all, we were founded by a bunch of religious fanatics [Puritans] who found life a little too fast and loose back home in jolly olde England.  They wanted to live someplace where they could strictly control each other, using the KJV to bash each other into submission.  So they came here.  Followed, in short order, by other religious nuts and flim-flam artists, often both the same.

As the nation grew, and post-revolutionary America centered its political life in the Federal District, we found ourselves becoming a behemoth of wealth and power, still shackled to our religious, snake-oil salesman past.  Our laws reflected that alliance with fanaticism, especially our laws pertaining to tax exemption for religious organizations and morality.  We caved to the religious nuts and granted them total exemption from taxation in exchange for which they were "supposed" to keep their mouths shut about politics.  As we all know, that never worked.  We also legislated the hell out of "morality" as defined in that same "bible" upon which the Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded, again simply to appease the radical religious right.

That exemption from taxation was tantamount to a public subsidy of religion.  And the morality laws were little more than enshrinement of old testament zealotry and evangelism in everyday American life.

Politicians, never eager to do the right thing but always eager to be re-elected, had no problem in pandering to the religiosos and happily jumped on the [Irish/Italian/black/Jew/gay] bashing bandwagon whenever it would suit their needs.  When publicly called upon their bigotry they would act astonished, as though things that happen inside the beltway happen in some mysterious vacuum that doesn't have an effect on real life.

Politicians at the Federal level are the worst kinds of human beings.  Ignorant, intolerant, self-centered and self-serving.

It's time to put an end to professional politics and subsidized bigotry.  It's time to tax religious institutions without exemption; and it's time to enact strict term limits to every elected office in the land.

That's what I think.

2012 in Review

I don't ordinarily do memes, but my friend Bev found a good one.  Here's my take on it:

Note:  for the sake of clarity when I refer to my "husband", below, it is in the romantic and not in the legal sense.  Yet.

1. Was 2012 a good year for you?

            Excellent!

2. What was your favorite moment(s) of the year?

a.         spending 2 weeks in the UK with a bunch of friends, most of whom I hadn’t seen in 19 years.

b.         every moment I spent with my husband.

3. What was your least favorite moment(s) of the year?

            I can’t think of any.

4. What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before?

Fell head over heels in love.

5. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Resolutions are like New Years’ Eve.  Strictly for amateurs.

6. Where were you when 2012 began?

Home alone.  In bed by 12:05 a.m.

7. Who were you with?

See: 6, above.  Alone.

8. Where will you be when 2012 ends?

I *was* out to dinner with my husband at the Lambertville Inn, overlooking the Delaware River, near New Hope, PA.  At midnight we were home in our jammie-jams watching the ball drop in Times Square.

9. Who will you be with when 2012 ends?

See: 8, above.  With my sweet Boo.

10. Did anyone close to you give birth?

My niece.  To a sweet little grand-nephew.  He’s a doll.

11. Did you lose anybody close to you in 2012?

             No.  Unlike the previous 3 years.

12. Who did you miss?

My dad.  My friend Merrell.  My friend Craig who took good care of me in early sobriety.  My English friends Tom and Robin.

13. Who was the best new person you met in 2012?

            OMG, THAT'S A NO-BRAINER... my husband.

14. What was your favorite month of 2012?

            Two.  May and June.  I’ll never forget either.

15. Did you travel outside of the US in 2012?

            Yes.  England and Wales.

16. How many different states did you travel to in 2012?

            Four.

17. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?

            A house and a dog.

18. What date from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

            June 9^th.  My husband and I had our first date.  Dinner at a diner and a movie (“Snow White and the Huntsman”).

19. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

            Finishing my 9^th Step and landing a husband.  It was a banner year!

20. What was your biggest failure?

            Didn’t have any.

21. Did you suffer illness or injury?

            Not in 2012.  Knock wood.

22. What was the best thing you bought?

            iPhone 5.

23. Whose behavior merited celebration?

            Mine.

24. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

In the words of my old buddy Bev, Congress.  Hands down.

25. Where did most of your money go?

I wish I knew, although my husband is frugal and is proving to be a good influence on me.

26. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

            Christmas!

27. Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2012?

Bwahahahahahahahahahahah.  No.

28. Did you do a lot of drugs in 2012?

Bwahahahahahahahahahahah.  No.

29. Did you treat somebody badly in 2012?

            Probably and for that I’m truly sorry.

30. Did somebody treat you badly in 2012?

Not that I recall.

32. What do you wish you'd done more of in 2012?

            Not a thing.

33. What do you wish you'd done less of?

Sitting around.

35. What was your favorite TV program(s)?

            Shameless.

36. What song will always remind you of 2012?

            We are Young by FUN.

37. How many stage shows did you see in 2012?

1.  Avenue Q.  Still funny has hell.

38. Did you have a favorite stage show in 2012?

            No.

39. What was your greatest musical discovery?

            See: 36, above.  FUN.

40. What was the best book you read?

            Books.  Plural.  I’ve started reading the Wheel of Time series of fantasy fiction novels.  I’ve finished 3.  There are 13 (I think).

41. What was your favorite film of this year?

            I’m not allowed to pubicly espouse favorites.  The Screen Actors Guild frowns on it.

42. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

            Not much.  64.

43. What did you want and get?

There’s an age beyond which people should get over the fact that everyone forgets their birthdays.  And that age is 7.

44. What did you want and not get?

            See: 43, above.

45. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

            I can’t think of a single thing.  My life is immeasurably satisfying just the way it is.

46. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?

            Lands’ End meets Brooks Bros.  It used to be the other way around.

47. What kept you sane?

Work, surprisingly enough.

48. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Oh, Lindsay Lohan, of course.  She’s the most fascinating trainwreck of the millenium.  So far.

49. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012.

“Life can change in a minute, when you least expect it.”  That’s not mine.  It’s Bev talking.  And she nailed it right on the head.  That’s exactly what happened to me on June 9^, 2012.

50. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

         No single lyric would cover it.  My heart is full of song these days.

I am blessed.