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-- MDCIII --

So, today is election day. And to my mind, by far the most important thing hanging in the balance is Referendum 71, which, if approved, will retain the law already passed by our state legislature granting same-sex partners all the same state-level privilege of marriage without actually using the word itself. Conservative fuckwits (sorry, am I alienating anyone with that term? deal!) gathered enough signatures to put the change up to a general public vote. The bright side is that it sounds likely to pass. The dark side is that it got put on the ballot to begin with.

But such are the ways of liberal and conservative politics in this country right now. Shobhit has told me several times that I should talk to my family and convince them to vote to approve this measure. I haven't had a single discussion about it with any family member whom I think might even possibly vote against it -- including Dad and Sherri. (Mom and Bill are moot in this particular conversation; they live in Idaho.) Shobhit likely disagrees with this tack, but I prefer not to create unnecessary tensions with people whose minds are almost certainly incapable of being changed to begin with.

That said, I think it's entirely possible Dad and Sherri will actually vote to pass it. I honestly don't know for sure. But since it seems likely to pass regardless, I don't really see what difference it makes. For reasons I can't remember now, Gail (Danielle's mom) came up in conversation on Sunday morning before Dad and Sherri went to work, and Shobhit made the comment, "She made me very unhappy this last time." Dad and Sherri both wisely declined to take the obvious bait there, which was so they would find out Shobhit didn't like Gail's declaration that she only votes for presidents and wouldn't be bothering to vote in this election -- and thus would not be weighing in on Referendum 71. I just looked at him and said, "Well--" . . . and then I just left it at that.

I also thought about Referendum 71 when I had lunch with Auntie Rose the week before last, and that Shobhit likely would have liked me to try convincing her to vote to pass Referendum 71 as well. I knew too well that that would be a lost cause; there's no way in hell Auntie Rose is going to vote in approval of anything even remotely like same-sex marriage. I would only be inviting tension and conflict by even bringing it up. (Incidentally, it did recently occurred to me that, while she seemed to totally "get it" when I gave all the reasons I had for not following Shobhit should he move to New York, it may be more because she doesn't regard our relationship as having the same magnitude as, say, any of the straight people she knows who are married. On the other hand, she has always appeared to regard Shobhit as a genuine member of my family, so she should at least be given her due credit for that.)

There is also, of course, Christopher. If pressed I'd say I'm pretty convinced he'll be voting against Referendum 71, although I suppose you never know. (Katina is probably at least somewhat more likely to vote to approve it.) Christopher's and my relationship as brothers has definitely improved in more recent years, but not to the point of genuine closeness; calling him to convince him to approve this measure would likely rub him the wrong way to the same degree as a cold-caller trying to convince him.

In short, I just never felt it was worth the effort, and truly believe it would yield little to no desirable result, for me to go out of my way to convince opposing (or even possibly fence-sitting) family members on this issue.

The best I can do is hope there are more people voting who are like Patrick, Danielle's husband. When we went down to Renton for Rylee's first birthday party (the same day Gail made Shobhit so "unhappy"), Patrick said he would be voting to approve it. "It has nothing to do with me, so why should it matter to me?" he said. He clearly has no passionate point of view on the subject, but instead of saying, "Why should we give them these rights?", he says, "Why not?" A perfectly respectable and pragmatic approach, I'd say.

As to the rest of the ballot: All I can say is that anything Tim Eyman is behind (in this case, I-1033) gets a "no" vote from me. That guy is a putz if ever there was one. As for the mayor, neither one particularly excites me, but I voted for McGinn. I think either one will be a striking, if totally bland, improvement over the current mayor.

-- MDCIII --



-- MDCIII --

I just had lunch with Karen, across the street at Portage Bay Café as usual. We normally meet for lunch on the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month, but due to scheduling conflicts on Karen's part, for November it's the first and third Tuesday, and in December it'll be the first and fourth Tuesday.

I had breakfast for lunch today -- two pancakes, with fruit and syrup. Yummy! A bit more than I probably should have eaten, but oh well; at least I haven't been snacking between meals. Hooray for me. Well, I suppose I should confess that I had a little bit extra for dinner last night: Shobhit had a veggie wrap boxed lunch from work that he never ate and brought home. He let me eat that, as he knew I wouldn't want the cauliflower dish he was making for himself. (Because I think cauliflower is some of the nastiest shit on the planet. It trails only slightly behind broccoli on the disgust-o-meter.) Anyway, the box included both a bag of potato chips and a chocolate chip cookie.

Even though I did have some of both, I'm still pretty proud of myself. When Shobhit ate the bag of potato chips and offered me some, I took about four or five of them, but that’s it. And we split the cookie, which was possibly one of the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had -- it was exactly the thickness (but not too thick!) and soft (but not too soft!) consistency that I prefer.

Anyway, that's the Food Report for today. Otherwise at lunch Karen and I chatted comfortably like always.

-- MDCIII --

And aside from doing laundry (it was Monday evening, after all!), I spent the evening last night either continuing with my iTunes playlists -- I'm finally almost done with them! -- or watching TV with Shobhit. We watched Ugly Betty, which we hadn't been able to watch since it originally aired on Thursday last week; and we watched Sunday night's episode of Brothers & Sisters, which I continue to love.

I just have to make a couple observations about Ugly Betty here. The show is now in its fourth season, and even though all signs are blatantly pointing toward Betty and Daniel, the guy who hired her as his assistant during the first season, eventually ending up together, I'm actually liking the direction in which things are headed. (Well, except for this season's Wilhelmina plot covering up for her daughter murdering a boyfriend, which I don't find at all compelling.)

A couple of seasons ago, I bemoaned the possibility of Daniel and Betty ending up together, because it was just too much of a cliché to have the executive sleeping with his secretary, no matter how it came into being. What I didn't realize then was the very smart move they made at the end of last season: Daniel is no longer her boss! They still work together, but Betty was promoted to Associate Editor at the end of last season, and Daniel now has to get a new assistant of his own. This is allowing Daniel and Betty to develop a genuine friendship that is totally outside the confines of a boss-employee relationship, and now that she's been removed as his immediate subordinate, I feel much more comfortable with the clear eventuality of their ending up a couple.

The other issue, which always rubbed me the wrong way, is Betty's gradual "prettification." It's subtle, but definitely underway, as evidenced by Sachin hearing the title of the show when I attempted to watch it when he was over on Sunday night, and then saying, "She doesn't look that ugly." Indeed, Betty's fashions this season aren't quite as garish -- but, to my definite satisfaction, they are still very much Betty; she's not wearing supermodel-caliber outfits by any stretch. I don't know how far they'll stretch this -- she has already gotten new frames for her glasses -- but I do hope they don't go too far with it. Naturally she'll finally be rid of her stupid braces by the end of the series (I keep wondering if that will coincide with the end of this season, which, if I think about it, would be a comfortable point at which to end it; four seasons is good, as they have to be very careful with a fifth season not to let things get too tired), but hopefully she won't have this ridiculously magical transformation at the end. So far, I'm digging the very gradual and subtle process.

In any case, I still love the show. It had a totally unique, quirky fabulousness (yes, I said "fabulousness"! deal!) its first season that is currently matched or even surpassed by the likes of 30 Rock and even Glee, but its spirit remains constant, and that's what I continue to love about it.

-- MDCIII --


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Current Music: "The Siamese Cat Song" from Lady and the Tramp