New Traditions..

I have had the best 4th of July weekend EVER.

On Friday, Mic got a call from our friends Becky and Nora and they were down at the lakefront in Milwaukee-- they were there early in the morning and set up camp- and wanted to know if we would like to join them.

I panicked.


Literally.

How would we get there? There are HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE. What if I had a poogency (a poop emergency)??? Where would we park? What if we got robbed? Was it going to be loud? Were we going to be the oldest ones there? What if the bus is too full and we couldn't get back home? Do I bring drinks? Do I need to feed people? What if there is no toilet paper?

I am REALLY GOOD at going into this crazy "holy crap the world is going to end" mode if I am put in a situation that I don't know anything about- and that I don't have time to prepare for.

I took a breath, gathered my pansy ass up off the floor, and asked myself.. WWKG(pdi)D? Uh.. What Would Kate Gosslin (pre-divorce insanity) Do? She would get all those damn kids and just GO.

So. We did. We paid Rebecca 5 dollars to haul us down there so we could get let off near the art museum (the photo on my home page), met Becky, and went to their camp. I literally have never EVER seen anything like this. There were SO MANY PEOPLE (because on top of the fireworks, Milwaukee is right in the middle of the largest music festival in the country, Summerfest). And...weird... every family (or group) had their own "space". Apparently, people go down there before creation, and set out ropes, strings, caution tape, fence, flags, whatever they had on hand to stake out territory. Kind of like the historical land claim that happened in the western part of this county. EXCEPTIONS: no one was on horseback. .... I don't think in the land claim there were quite as many brats being grilled after being soaked in beer all day...or blenders hooked up to generators to make margaritas.

Anyways-- turns out that people go down, set up their crap... and LEAVE. Come back after work or whenever... and all their crap is still there .. UNTOUCHED. WHAT? I am cereal. There were tents, disco balls, volleyball courts... you name it. People were grilling, riding bikes, flying kites, just having a ton of fun.

(notice the string being used to claim our plot)

WE HAD SO MUCH FUN!!!! The fireworks were on TOP of us...and the show lasted about 45 minutes. We have already begun to plan next year. This is our new tradition. We have a name for our site.. and we are going to DO IT UP and invite everyone we know. I love traditions. I love having our own traditions.(Mic, Nora and Becky intensely enjoying)

Another tradition is that we go out to my Aunt Sharon's every 4th of July... they live on a little lake in Lake Country (west of Milwaukee) and the whole fam-damnly gathers. This time was super special as we turned it into a wedding shower for my cousin and his fiance, Mandy. She is a baby catcher, is totally awesome, and makes my cousin so crappin' happy. They rock. We had a cupcake decorating competition, and I made a lovey dovey one for Mic-- she ate it before we got a picture of it.. Mandy was the judge... she didn't seem to think that I made the grade, but she chose my niece.... she had a big old rainbow (total pride flag) and she won for "best diversity"...

(I am pouting... she ate it)

oh. this is my 150th post.

New Day.

I have been feeling really negative lately. This isn't like me.

There really isn't a reason why as there is so much to celebrate.

New day.

My Ode to Direct TV

Hey.. you.. DirectTV


You suck ass.


Take your "verbal contract" and shove it.

______

*snap*snap* *snap*

Wisconsin Domestic Partnership

So, over a year ago now, Wisconsin went through the whole vote banning the idea of there ever being a possibility of Equal Marriage (the straights didn't really understand at the time, they were also throwing in there any rights that straights get with a common law marriage- they voted against themselves. dumb asses) In actuality, they did some pretty crazy things by combining both gay domestic partnerships, gay marriage, and common law marriage all on one option (or anything resembling a domestic partnership/marriage). It was all or nothing. There is actually a lawsuit brewing about THAT by a father of a lesbian-- we should be hearing about that sometime this year.

Anywho-- Gov. Doyle just signed the budget- and in the budget he snuck in some Domestic Partnership laws for us homos! There isn't a LOT-- but it is something.. and even more exciting is that this happened with the laws on the books saying we can never have anything LIKE this. It seems to have been snuck in-- and it goes in effect in 30 days.... and you better believe that Mic and I are going to be at the clerk's office that same day. As a community we HAVE to file- we HAVe to show that we NEED these rights-- and, this is one stepping stone closer to equality!

So- in 30 days.. I will be DP'd. (I know that you can all insert your own little dirty joke here.)

okay fine.

The pictures I have are for shit. I am hoping that others got better ones then I did.. apparently I was very busy talking and drinking sangria. So sue me.

This one is of my sister (in blue) laughing at a stinger of a toast that she is giving Mic (wearing
the birthday hat my nephew brought for "him" and then made "him" return it when my nephew left.. as that is the only one he has) (he is very young.. and thinks only boys have short hair)The next is said nephew on the slip and slide in the front yard.. it cost $3.00 and the kids LOVED it.



































This was the sign I had hanging in the front yard.. again, not a good pic.. but it was cute..

















Okay- Yeah. I am really going to have to send an email out looking for some good pics... sorry to let you down, peeps. All the other ones are half blurry shots of karaoke or people taking pictures of themselves or goddess knows what, when I would leave my camera on a table or something. Funny to me-- but not to the stranger.

Tonight we went out for a fun Mexican dinner with friends.. a tradition for b-days. Good times were had. We sat and laughed and talked for 4 hours.

Oh- awesome news... a friend of a friend got "the call" yesterday. They were signed up to do foster/adopt... and they now are the daddies of a brand new baby boy. And, blessing upon blessing-- he was a "Safe Haven" baby.. the parent is already TPR'd.. and they are able to adopt within 6 months. There are more details, but those are too special to share when I don't have permission. Let me just say that it gives me hope for the future of our family. I understand we are looking at very low risk children... and we are going to have to wait (once the process begins) but that it WILL happen!!!

We are filling out paperwork.... but, seeing as we have rented out a room in our home... I don't know that we can even go much further until Rebecca's lease is up.

I am half wanting to go through that initial class again-- just because I don't even remember what applications are for what. I need to talk to Anne. I feel confused.

My feet are swollen. I wish AF would show up already!

40th Birthday Party (check)

Success! I can honestly say that the party was worth every ounce of work that went into it. Mic had a great time- and so did everyone else. It was a BEAUTIFUL day up until we started singing, and apparently Mother Nature had and issue with that- and opened the clouds. It was okay. We are lesbians.. we were prepared. We moved the karaoke machines into the garage, we had two tents in the drive way and everyone made themselves comfy and laughed and sang until 11:30 when it stopped raining and we took the party out to the campfire in the backyard.

Awesome things that happened: There were so many people here.. everywhere I went, people were laughing, meeting, hugging, sharing stories and creating memories. My friend Anne's son said "Hi Auntie Casey" (awesome!) and then sang his first song.. "Happy Birthday".. the kids were completely entertained by the slip and slide, the kiddie pool, the sidewalk chalk, squirt guns and water balloons which allowed their parents time to entertain themselves. My brother came. My parents came. We had the whole house and yard (front and back), garage and drive cleaned by 10:30am... it is down to 78 degrees with lots of cool wind coming off Lake Michigan, so we turned off the air, opened the windows, and I took a five hour nap.

I absolutely LOVE having people over- hearing people laugh and talk and enjoying themselves in our home. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that people feel comfortable in our home... and WANT to be here.

I am SO THANKFUL for all of the help my friends could give me. If it weren't for Rebecca, Patty and Pat... I would have been walking around in some sort of adult ADD, shandy (a drink popular here in Wisconsin during the summer) induced panic attack.

Now I wish I had a week off.

When you open

yourself up to good things..... good things happen. Michelle was offered a job this morning!!!!

Down side: I have to start doing laundry and cleaning again. boooooooo. :)