Ok, today I'm going to show you pictures of my mom's upstairs bathroom. I am sure you are asking yourself why in god's name do I want to see your mom's bathroom? Well, I'll tell ya, the oddest thing happened in there the other morning and I'm using the pics to illustrate. The picture below shows the area in question. The toilet and right across from it is a nice little table with a scented candle and potpourri around it. Nice, right? I entered the bathroom, closed the door and sat down to meditate.
Now this is the part where it begins to get a little weird. This shot below is the view from the seat of the toilet. A little pamphlet to browse, the potpourri and candle to appreciate. But I notice something off. I'm still not very awake but I see something WEIRD. I see a weird old dude staring at me. And another guy staring at me too. At least the dog isn't staring at me as well. These odd little items are apparently called Homies and Nina, Blair and their friend Brianna got a bunch of them out of a vending machine at a Taco Bell in Chicago. Dude, it's very ODD to be sitting on the toilet first thing in the morning and notice a creepy old dude with sunglasses sitting there staring at you, even if it is a little plastic figure. The guy standing down in the potpourri wasn't as bad cause he didn't stand out so much. Apparently my daughter put these there as a joke. I told her later on it was an awesome joke. It was kind of creepy in a weird way at first but it's gotten funnier and funnier the past few days. And yes, I know I need to go get a life. :P

Ok, I'm pissed off again. Did you read this? http://apnews.excite.com/article/20061109/D8L9NREO1.html
I was appalled. Totally sickened. Being bisexual and living in the bible belt, I am discreet about my orientation. I don't want to deal with harassment or gay bashing. But in reading this article, I felt ashamed. For some reason, I feel like the gay community should be better than this. The reaction to threats of sodomy against the couple and their children is sick. I fully understand and condone the actions of the gay couple in this article who were taken aback by the notification that the business wouldn't meet with them because they won't work for homosexuals. If it happened to me I would do the same thing, e-mail everyone I know and tell them not to patronize the business. But for other people who heard about the incident and began with threats against the couple and their kids, that's just wrong. The gay community has called themselves "family" for a long time. Your gay friends sometimes become your only family when you come out because of the intolerance of straight people. Once I came out I've never denied what I was. Sometimes I don't announce it but I have never denied it. I have always felt that the gay community was always more tolerant of differences because of what it's members have had to endure on a personally level. So imagine how shocked and horrified I was to read about this response by some of the members of the community. Kind of leaves me with the feeling that maybe there's too many of us who are no better than the straights.

I've been really depressed the past few days so I'm reading my back issues of Bizarre News. If you haven't ever subscribed to it, you should. It's hilarious. Most of the time anyway. The url to subscribe is: http://af3.gophercentral.com/sub/classic-bizarre.html Go subscribe, then if you don't like it, blame me. This is a sample of the kind of news you will find there:

NEW ZEALAND - Bras are being used for a different kind of
support by a farmer in New Zealand. John Lee started putting bras on the
fence of his farm as a joke, but the 66-year-old says he is now receiving
undergarments from all over the world. Passing female motorists have even been
known to get out of their cars, strip off their tops and adorn his famous fence
with their bras. But thieves raided the bra fence three times in 10 days leaving
him virtually bra-less. He is now securing his bras to the fence using
rabbit netting. He had 165 undergarments at the last count. "If these ladies
keep sending me their bras I feel honor-bound to put them on the fence," Lee
concluded.

Now if you don't find that amusing enough to at least make you crack a smile,
then why are you reading my blog???!!! Seriously. If the thing about the bra isn't amusing to you at all, then nothing I say is either. Can't be. No way.

Yeah, I know, I've been slacking off in blogging. I've been having technical difficulties tho. Not with my computer but with my life. Things are just really complicated and upsetting right now. My daughter Nina doesn't seem to want to spend any time with me, although I'm thinking she does still like me but detests her dad. I spent the weekend installing a water heater for my ex-girlfriend. Yes, I said ex-girlfriend. We are friends. She lost her job and is trying to get thru this semester of school and try to find a new job so things are hectic for her right now. I found her a new water heater for $20 (new to her that is) and I installed it. Took 2 days because the idiot who had redone the plumbing in her trailer was insane. Three different size fittings on the ends of the copper piping. I finally gave up trying to match it and cut the suckers off and sweated new ends on so I could connect them to the PVC going out of the water heater. Problem now is that she didn't pressure test till today and she's got a couple of small leaks (just the PVC tho, my copper sweats were all good) and I have to go over tomorrow to fix that. And I also have to figure out why she now has no water at all in her kitchen. Which, of course, might mean having to tear out all the copper piping in the kitchen and replace it with PVC if it's got a bunch of crud in it like the pipes me and a friend replaced for her this spring. I have a sneaking suspicion that the crud was from her old water heater burning up then sitting there till the guy sold her the trailer. I could be wrong tho. I doubt it, but I could be. And with all this going on I'm selling parts of my old computer on eBay. That's worrisome for me. I worry that I won't get bids on stuff and then still owe the fees. I hate that. I'll have to get over it tho cause I need to begin to pay my dad back. I've given him some money but not enough yet. Not even CLOSE to enough. So I've got all that on my mind. And of course I hadn't mentioned Blair yet. Blair is my daughter that I gave up for adoption when she was born. Her dad died while I was pregnant with her and I kind of fell apart when that happened. It was an open adoption tho, which means that she grew up knowing me and my family, knowing that I was her birth mom. It hasn't been easy sometimes, cause there's always that part of me that felt I should have kept her. I don't know that her life would have been better or worse. Probably worse in some ways better in others. She feels that she's odd and we just accept her as one of the family. I think she feels more comfortable around us sometimes. But I digress. She's 17 and a senior in high school now. And a few weeks ago she e-mailed me to let me know she's pregnant. Yup. She thought I was going to hate her. I made sure she knew that I didn't hate her and that no matter what I would always love her cause she's my daughter. I told her that I would not go to Arizona yet if she didn't want me to and she said she would like me around till the baby is born. Now she lives about an hour and a half north of here but I will stay in the area till then. She had an ultrasound on Friday and found out it's a girl and she's due April 13th. I have to say I'm excited, upset, sad, frustrated... And maybe half a dozen other things. Excited cause it's a baby!!! Upset because I can't be a physical source of emotional support, no daily hugs, can't hold her hand when she's crying for no reason, etc. Sad cause I wish she was older and didn't have to give up the baby and also that it's going to interrupt her senior year but at least she will go on to university. Oh, and I forgot really FREAKED OUT that I'm 38 and gonna be a GRANDMA!!! Oh, and Blair, if you read this, just remember that if necessary I will kick that boy's scrawny little butt if need be. Just so you know.