Smack

My mom lives in Arlington, TX.  I just got word that a huge tornado blew thru Arlington this afternoon.  I talked with her a short while ago and she said the storm was amazing, but that she was fine and there was no damage anywhere around where she lives.  I was incredibly relieved.

At the time all this was going down I was at a sound studio doing an interview for a radio piece scheduled to air this weekend.

The theme of the interviews is reunions - I'm getting ready for my 35th HS Reunion this summer.  I really enjoyed the recording studio and talking with the guy there.  I'm a total geek for that kind of thing - the microphones, the sound boards, the computers....it gets me all happy.  This was a remote interview and it's crazy cool how the technology of it all works....the woman who was doing the interviewing was in Canada and I was here in SC.  Anyway, they're doing the editing and it's scheduled to be broadcast on Saturday.  I think it went pretty well.....I'll share a link to the audio here when I get it....

It's nice to be back into some semblence of flow back in my life.  I don't plan to go to a gym, or work out, or otherwise stress my body in any way this week.  I suppose injecting my body with fat, carbs, and calories could be defined as "stressful", but the first thing I did yesterday when I landed was stop at Five Guys for lunch.

I mentioned Five Guys earlier.  Well, here's Five Guys.  Or, more specifically, here's a photo of my lunch.  Yummmm....

Man oh man oh man.  Is that good. Maybe it's because I deprived myself for so long, but know that there's not an ounce of guilt here.  And even after that, I still fit in my Size 4 slacks this morning.  :)

The Miss Universe saga continues to burn up the airwaves (latest here).  As I said yesterday, regardless of whether anyone thinks this has received too much attention or not, I don't think that this has finished playing itself out yet.  Jenna held the press conference she planned to hold today, with her attorney (see photo).  I do think Jenna needs to be careful not to lose the amount of sympathetic support that her situation has generated but she hasn't asked me for any advice so I'll just see how it plays out.

In unrelated, but still related, development a Minnesota court ruled that same-sex marriages involving trans-people were still valid (details here).  That's not the thing that connects these two things.  The common connector is the reason that the health insurance company that denied benefits that spawned the case in the first place:

In court, the health fund lawyers argued that Christine was not actually a woman, that she falsified her birth certificate in her home state of Wisconsin and in her resident state of Minnesota, and that her marriage was illegal. They alleged that the Radtkes’ marriage was illegal based on the state’s Defense of Marriage Act.

So, here it is again.  Some organization or entity denying equal access and participation because of some self-imposed right to overrule appropriate legal documentation that they neither understand nor agree with.  Thankfully, in exdpressing his ruling the judge in this case provided the appropriate smack down.

“The Fund’s role was to ascertain Minnesota law,” Davis wrote. “It was not the Fund’s role to impose its own definitions of gender and marriage upon its participants. In this case, the Fund ignored all evidence of the State of Minnesota’s view of Plaintiff’s sex and marital status. The Fund’s decision was not only wrong … it was a flagrant violation of its duty under any standard of review.

“The Fund’s interpretation of Minnesota law was unreasonable and wrong,” Davis continued. “Minnesota law recognizes the Radtkes’ marriage as a marriage between a man and a woman because Minnesota law recognizes Plaintiff’s sex as female. Every piece of evidence related to this Plaintiff that was presented to the Fund supported the conclusion that the State of Minnesota recognized her marriage – from her name change order, to her Goodhue County Court order requiring amendment of her birth certificate, to her marriage license and marriage certificate.” 

Right on.

I wrote something on FB today expressing my displeasure at people who add me to groups without asking first.  I'm generally NOT a group joiner, and whenever someone adds me without asking I'll automatically leave it no matter what it is.  It just rubs me the wrong way. 

Another pet peave: Chat.  I had some guy write to ask me if I'd like to chat sometime.  I sent him a simple response...."No, I don't chat".  And I don't.  I don't even like its evil step-sister, texting.  More often than not I'd rather just talk, but unfortunately people seem to want to text.  Not me.  Anytime a text message strays into the space where (a) voice or (b) email would be more apprioriate I can only remain engaged for so long.  And the politics of Texting can be oppressive...who texted last, do you need to respond in similarly long sentences, what happens when meaning gets misconstrued, and what about simply NOT responding?  It has it's place.  But there's a reason I have limits on my texting plan.  I'm just saying....

I'm headed out for a bite to eat, a well deserved drink, and then home for early bed.  All 3 sound wonderful to me right now.  Time to make it so....