Holidays, Grrrrrrr

Christmas...stressful as always. Though, I haven't cried so far- though I've come close. (It seems that it's just never properly Christmas around here until Renee bawls her eyes out abouyt something.)

Had dinner at my sister's place last night, that was largely a headache....I'll probably elaborate more when I get back to Maryland next week. Though, it seems I picked the right present for Samantha- I got her the -Ologies Mythology book- apparently, she's been wanting some of those. I got the same book for Ashlyn, hope she likes it too, but I won't be seeing her, sadly...she's not going to be here until Saturday, I'm leaving tomorrow for Massachusetts. She was somewhat obsessed with the golden oak leaves that were included as part of the bit on the oracle of Zeus at Dodona, and she kept tossing them in the air and asking silly questions. She also loved the feather pen and the little pieces of note paper that were included in the end, she started copying some of the pieces of information in the book onto them. What was especially amusing was that she didn't even seem to notice the little box of candy that I gave her- it sat abandoned on the coffee table all night, though the little pack of candy-flavored lip balms that I gave her were a hit too- apparently, she'd just finished up another pack of the same ones but they just weren't nearly as cool as the book. Other than that, she seemed especially taken with the pages on Athena and Artemis, and kept asking about how Artemis hunted and protected animals at the same time, and how Athena could have been born from Zeus's head. *sly grin*

The whole thing kinda reminded me of when she came to visit in Baltimore a couple of years ago and we were on a bus going to Towson, and she wanted me to read to her...the only book I had in my backpack at the time was the Homeric Hymns- she didn't care, as long as they were stories, she just sat there wide-eyed listening as I started reading the long hymn to Apollo, and every now and then would just say "Wow!" and "I like that, read more!"

Good times.

(no subject)

This is just a fragment...not sure if I'm going to add to it or no, I kinda like it as-is...I started writing more to it, but it ended up not working out as I thought it would.

Bleed me dry,
I am damaged again.
Oh God of My Nightmares,
This time you've done it-
ripped the pain out. Painfully.

Hmmmmm....This is interesting.

Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melissa-etheridge/the-choice-is-ours-now_b_152947.html

I told my manager to reach out to Pastor Warren and say "In the spirit of unity I would like to talk to him." They gave him my phone number. On the day of the conference I received a call from Pastor Rick, and before I could say anything, he told me what a fan he was. He had most of my albums from the very first one. What? This didn't sound like a gay hater, much less a preacher. He explained in very thoughtful words that as a Christian he believed in equal rights for everyone. He believed every loving relationship should have equal protection. He struggled with proposition 8 because he didn't want to see marriage redefined as anything other than between a man and a woman. He said he regretted his choice of words in his video message to his congregation about proposition 8 when he mentioned pedophiles and those who commit incest. He said that in no way, is that how he thought about gays. He invited me to his church, I invited him to my home to meet my wife and kids. He told me of his wife's struggle with breast cancer just a year before mine.

Not sure what to think. I'd like to believe it, that it's more than a make-nice thing. Buuuut...well, my inner realist is laughing its ass off. We'll see what happens I guess.