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Nov. 16th, 2008
Explaining EPIC WIN.
Nov. 16th, 2008 01:46 pmI have to laugh at how a short and cryptic post generates more replies than anything else. Really folks, it's rather intimidating. There's a big part of me going, "Oh, well, gee, I mean, it was in my terms, but not necessarily for anybody else..."
Anyways, to explain. Part 1 of EPIC WIN = I woke up yesterday morning at a bit after 8am, and a fair number of you know that I consider waking that early on a Saturday just short of blasphemy. ;) But I couldn't get back to sleep, I was too eager for my plans for the day. Showered, dressed, headed out to get breakfast, and called Dianthus around 9am. We'd made tentative plans for going to the Seattle Join the Impact/Fight the H8 rally. Picked her up from her place, and grabbed breakfast for her at Starbucks and then went over to Ben Franklin's for sign-making materials.
I'd woken up that morning with a sign idea that just wouldn't leave me alone. "Male symbol + male symbol & female symbol + female symbol = FAMILY" This was mainly inspired by a post that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shadesong had linked to by tablesaw. In my mind, this fight is about everyone having the right to form a family in the ways that feel right to them. Queer people should be able to commit to each other, and have that commitment recognized, honored, and given the same legal rights as straight people. I considered also adding an "& female symbol + male symbol", but decided that for the purposes of what I wanted to say, which was that gay couples and lesbian couples are families damnit, including the hetero pairing was not necessary and took away from that statement.
Putting the signs together took longer than expected, so Dianthus and I decided to drive down to Westlake Center, and then take a bus over to Volunteer Park. *wry smile* My laughable abilities with bus navigation ended up delaying us even further. Took a while, and calling Metro, til Dianthus was able to steer us over to the correct stop.
I'll be the first to admit that there are many things I am generally ignorant about, and I had one of those driven home very hard for me that early afternoon. I identify as bisexual, and I've heard of "heterosexual privilege", and how bi's can take advantage of that. But I'd never really recognized what that meant, until I was wandering around downtown with Dianthus, holding these signs while far away from the concentration of like-minded people that we wanted to meet up with. Suddenly, I was scared of what might happen if someone took exception to what we were holding. I was very aware of the anti-protesters, few in number though they were at that point they outnumbered us in Westlake, as they were waiting for the main group from the rally to arrive.
We had finally gotten on the correct bus and were heading for Volunteer Park, when the two girls sitting across from us asked if we were heading for the rally. We agreed, and they told us the march had already started, and that their friends had already made it to Broadway and Johns(?) street. Of course, that was the point at which instead of stopping every block, the bus went for about 4 blocks til the next requested stop. *sigh*
We followed the two girls, and Dianthus and I were both reminded that neither of us is in as great a shape as we want to be, though once we hit the downhill part it went easier. At one point she asked me where the girls had gone, she'd lost sight of them. I looked further ahead, and chuckled that they'd probably merged into that huge group of people carrying signs and chanting.
It was such a contrast, the anxiety of being alone and worried at how the people around us would react, to the exhilaration and joy at being in a huge group of like-minded folks, cheering and chanting and holding up signs. I can't think of a time in my life before where I've been part of a tide of people all moving forward with joy and hope and defiance. My hope is that we touched some of the observers out there. Encouraged the ones who are living with this discrimination, reminded them that they are not alone, that there are people who do care, who want to see their lives and loves celebrated and respected. I hope that we helped change the minds of some who are on the fence, swayed them with this demonstration and our words carried for all to see.
At the same time, I was rather bemused by some of the things that I saw. There were signs that shouted of beauty and love and hope. People holding hands, and holding signs proclaiming their wedding dates. There were also signs proclaiming rage and defiance, and yes counter-hate which saddened me. I don't feel that there was anything wrong with folks expressing their anger, their disappointment. It just didn't feel as productive as the positive messages.
Then there were a couple of people who were occasionally shouting messages that seemed, well, not part of the focus of the rally. Yes, there are a lot of other things that are worthy of outrage and outreach and change, but that wasn't the purpose of these people coming together today. I just shook my head and walked away from the folks doing that, because I felt they were exploiting the people who were here for LGBTQ equality, by dragging in their other pet issues.
We finally reached Westlake, and I felt a little sorry for the anti-protesters. They'd gone from being kinda scary to me, to being just swarmed with people waving signs in their faces and chanting at them. I have a modicum of respect for how they held their ground, despite disagreeing with their purposes.
Dianthus and I tried to find a spot where we could hear more of what was being said from the main stage, but that proved difficult with the number of people there. After a bit, I started to feel a little overwhelmed by the crowd, and we decided to head back to my car and figure out what we were going to do for food.
Part 2 of EPIC WIN = I ended up giving in to whim, and asked Dianthus if she wanted to go to The Melting Pot with me. I hadn't been there in ages, and sure enough we were able to get a reservation for 4pm. We got there a bit early, and I tried a Pomegranate Kazi. Tasty, though I didn't finish it. We ended up having The Big Night Out. Started with their regular Cheddar Cheese Fondue, then opted for Fondue Fusion with Coq au Vin as our cooking style. Dianthus had the House salad, while I chose their California salad. Finished off with their dark chocolate fondue with Grand Marnier added to it. Absolute feast that still makes me purr to think about it. =) While I realize this was definitely using up all of my freebie points for the week, as well as all the exercise points I'd earned that day and then some, it was *so* worth it.
In addition to marvelous food, Dianthus was wonderful company at dinner. It's been a while since we've sat and let the conversation ramble where'er it will for quite that long a time period.
Part 3 of EPIC WIN = After dinner, we headed back to Dianthus' place so she could feed kitties and get changed, and so walked in a bit late for the Tricky Pixie concert. On the plus side, they hadn't started yet due to technical difficulties. On the minus side, really no seats available. Though we both did get to sit down a little bit when other friends were up and dancing or wandering around. Despite all the walking earlier, I was really in a mood to dance, and ended up dancing through darn near the whole concert. It has been a while since I've felt that moved. The concert did start off a little slowly, with Sooj making jokes about how different and cool it was to be singing to an audience again, instead of simply to microphones and unforgiving recording machinery. Still, they got really into it, and by the end it was definitely one of their top performances.
Two highlights spring immediately to mind. I have heard Alex perform He of the Sidhe a couple of different times before this, and while they've been good, this performance not only blew the previous ones out of the water, it ranked up there with the best performance of Faerie Queen that I ever heard Heather play. He has come so far with his confidence in his performances, and this one was just wild. =) By the time the song was done, it looked like he had barely any strands still remaining on his bow. Loose strands were everywhere, hanging off of either end in great puffs like cornsilk.
The other highlight was a performance of The Dryad's Lament. I *want* Sar to hear this song, because I think he would also appreciate it greatly. The degree of haunting beauty took another amazing leap with last night's performance though. Tricky Pixie invited Vixy to join them on stage for that song. ...There are no words for the dimension and depth that Vixy's vocals added, but I was not surprised by the number of people who came up to her afterwards to praise her.
Part 4 of EPIC WIN = Instead of heading home right after the concert, Dianthus and I were hanging out and talking with various people, and ended up getting invited along to an after-concert gathering at Red Robin. I'm still smiling at all the different crazy conversations. Everything from hearing about the additions made to one person's tattoo, to plans for world domination (with sprinkles!), to jokes about Gaselli doing laundry leading into a chorus of half the table singing "Laundry Day" from Dr. Horrible. Too many delightful moments and bits and pieces that all added up to me feeling kinda dazed and just plain delighted by the number of incredibly shiny people it is my joy and privilege to know.
The night ended with a round of many wonderful hugs from various people, and my taking Dianthus back to her place, followed by me collapsing in a small heap after making my cryptic post last night.
So that, ladies and gentlemen, is what equals a day of EPIC WIN for me.
Anyways, to explain. Part 1 of EPIC WIN = I woke up yesterday morning at a bit after 8am, and a fair number of you know that I consider waking that early on a Saturday just short of blasphemy. ;) But I couldn't get back to sleep, I was too eager for my plans for the day. Showered, dressed, headed out to get breakfast, and called Dianthus around 9am. We'd made tentative plans for going to the Seattle Join the Impact/Fight the H8 rally. Picked her up from her place, and grabbed breakfast for her at Starbucks and then went over to Ben Franklin's for sign-making materials.
I'd woken up that morning with a sign idea that just wouldn't leave me alone. "Male symbol + male symbol & female symbol + female symbol = FAMILY" This was mainly inspired by a post that
shadesong had linked to by tablesaw. In my mind, this fight is about everyone having the right to form a family in the ways that feel right to them. Queer people should be able to commit to each other, and have that commitment recognized, honored, and given the same legal rights as straight people. I considered also adding an "& female symbol + male symbol", but decided that for the purposes of what I wanted to say, which was that gay couples and lesbian couples are families damnit, including the hetero pairing was not necessary and took away from that statement.Putting the signs together took longer than expected, so Dianthus and I decided to drive down to Westlake Center, and then take a bus over to Volunteer Park. *wry smile* My laughable abilities with bus navigation ended up delaying us even further. Took a while, and calling Metro, til Dianthus was able to steer us over to the correct stop.
I'll be the first to admit that there are many things I am generally ignorant about, and I had one of those driven home very hard for me that early afternoon. I identify as bisexual, and I've heard of "heterosexual privilege", and how bi's can take advantage of that. But I'd never really recognized what that meant, until I was wandering around downtown with Dianthus, holding these signs while far away from the concentration of like-minded people that we wanted to meet up with. Suddenly, I was scared of what might happen if someone took exception to what we were holding. I was very aware of the anti-protesters, few in number though they were at that point they outnumbered us in Westlake, as they were waiting for the main group from the rally to arrive.
We had finally gotten on the correct bus and were heading for Volunteer Park, when the two girls sitting across from us asked if we were heading for the rally. We agreed, and they told us the march had already started, and that their friends had already made it to Broadway and Johns(?) street. Of course, that was the point at which instead of stopping every block, the bus went for about 4 blocks til the next requested stop. *sigh*
We followed the two girls, and Dianthus and I were both reminded that neither of us is in as great a shape as we want to be, though once we hit the downhill part it went easier. At one point she asked me where the girls had gone, she'd lost sight of them. I looked further ahead, and chuckled that they'd probably merged into that huge group of people carrying signs and chanting.
It was such a contrast, the anxiety of being alone and worried at how the people around us would react, to the exhilaration and joy at being in a huge group of like-minded folks, cheering and chanting and holding up signs. I can't think of a time in my life before where I've been part of a tide of people all moving forward with joy and hope and defiance. My hope is that we touched some of the observers out there. Encouraged the ones who are living with this discrimination, reminded them that they are not alone, that there are people who do care, who want to see their lives and loves celebrated and respected. I hope that we helped change the minds of some who are on the fence, swayed them with this demonstration and our words carried for all to see.
At the same time, I was rather bemused by some of the things that I saw. There were signs that shouted of beauty and love and hope. People holding hands, and holding signs proclaiming their wedding dates. There were also signs proclaiming rage and defiance, and yes counter-hate which saddened me. I don't feel that there was anything wrong with folks expressing their anger, their disappointment. It just didn't feel as productive as the positive messages.
Then there were a couple of people who were occasionally shouting messages that seemed, well, not part of the focus of the rally. Yes, there are a lot of other things that are worthy of outrage and outreach and change, but that wasn't the purpose of these people coming together today. I just shook my head and walked away from the folks doing that, because I felt they were exploiting the people who were here for LGBTQ equality, by dragging in their other pet issues.
We finally reached Westlake, and I felt a little sorry for the anti-protesters. They'd gone from being kinda scary to me, to being just swarmed with people waving signs in their faces and chanting at them. I have a modicum of respect for how they held their ground, despite disagreeing with their purposes.
Dianthus and I tried to find a spot where we could hear more of what was being said from the main stage, but that proved difficult with the number of people there. After a bit, I started to feel a little overwhelmed by the crowd, and we decided to head back to my car and figure out what we were going to do for food.
Part 2 of EPIC WIN = I ended up giving in to whim, and asked Dianthus if she wanted to go to The Melting Pot with me. I hadn't been there in ages, and sure enough we were able to get a reservation for 4pm. We got there a bit early, and I tried a Pomegranate Kazi. Tasty, though I didn't finish it. We ended up having The Big Night Out. Started with their regular Cheddar Cheese Fondue, then opted for Fondue Fusion with Coq au Vin as our cooking style. Dianthus had the House salad, while I chose their California salad. Finished off with their dark chocolate fondue with Grand Marnier added to it. Absolute feast that still makes me purr to think about it. =) While I realize this was definitely using up all of my freebie points for the week, as well as all the exercise points I'd earned that day and then some, it was *so* worth it.
In addition to marvelous food, Dianthus was wonderful company at dinner. It's been a while since we've sat and let the conversation ramble where'er it will for quite that long a time period.
Part 3 of EPIC WIN = After dinner, we headed back to Dianthus' place so she could feed kitties and get changed, and so walked in a bit late for the Tricky Pixie concert. On the plus side, they hadn't started yet due to technical difficulties. On the minus side, really no seats available. Though we both did get to sit down a little bit when other friends were up and dancing or wandering around. Despite all the walking earlier, I was really in a mood to dance, and ended up dancing through darn near the whole concert. It has been a while since I've felt that moved. The concert did start off a little slowly, with Sooj making jokes about how different and cool it was to be singing to an audience again, instead of simply to microphones and unforgiving recording machinery. Still, they got really into it, and by the end it was definitely one of their top performances.
Two highlights spring immediately to mind. I have heard Alex perform He of the Sidhe a couple of different times before this, and while they've been good, this performance not only blew the previous ones out of the water, it ranked up there with the best performance of Faerie Queen that I ever heard Heather play. He has come so far with his confidence in his performances, and this one was just wild. =) By the time the song was done, it looked like he had barely any strands still remaining on his bow. Loose strands were everywhere, hanging off of either end in great puffs like cornsilk.
The other highlight was a performance of The Dryad's Lament. I *want* Sar to hear this song, because I think he would also appreciate it greatly. The degree of haunting beauty took another amazing leap with last night's performance though. Tricky Pixie invited Vixy to join them on stage for that song. ...There are no words for the dimension and depth that Vixy's vocals added, but I was not surprised by the number of people who came up to her afterwards to praise her.
Part 4 of EPIC WIN = Instead of heading home right after the concert, Dianthus and I were hanging out and talking with various people, and ended up getting invited along to an after-concert gathering at Red Robin. I'm still smiling at all the different crazy conversations. Everything from hearing about the additions made to one person's tattoo, to plans for world domination (with sprinkles!), to jokes about Gaselli doing laundry leading into a chorus of half the table singing "Laundry Day" from Dr. Horrible. Too many delightful moments and bits and pieces that all added up to me feeling kinda dazed and just plain delighted by the number of incredibly shiny people it is my joy and privilege to know.
The night ended with a round of many wonderful hugs from various people, and my taking Dianthus back to her place, followed by me collapsing in a small heap after making my cryptic post last night.
So that, ladies and gentlemen, is what equals a day of EPIC WIN for me.
