It’s Election Day here in the Tar Heel state. Greyson and I sat on the couch and sadly watched the results come in, showing the majority of eligible voters butcher our State Constitution with bigotry. ::sigh:: I’m still proud of the fight against Amendment One.
I’m even more proud of my husband’s Facebook status today. Take a look…
I told you of all the songs we regale our child with, particularly in the car. I’m getting a little concerned about her hearing as she applauds these efforts. Well, maybe she’s just applauding her desperate parents’ efforts. She is a sweetheart.
This weekend Greyson belted out a new one I’d like to share with you all here. It was sort of to the tune of “Oh, Mr. Sun.”
“Mr. Moon, Moon, bright and shiny Moon, hiding behind that tree.
There’s a bear over there and he’s got a gun.
He’s gonna shoot you, so you better run.”
Me (smirking): “Uh, what are you singing to our child?”
Him: “Oh, that’s a song my family used to sing.”
Me: “No, the song is “Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun…” (I went on to sing that totally normal song that we all know.)
Him: “No, it’s Mr. Moon.” (He goes on to repeat this insane song.)
Me: “Why is there a bear and why does it have a gun?”
Him: “I dunno! That’s just the song my family sang.” (smirking) “It’s an old German folk-song.”
I threw my head back laughing as I pictured his family wearing lederhosen and singing about sharpshooting bears. I assume it was a salute to the Motherland and a tribute to a fictional Great Uncle Wolfgang.
We did find a song called “Oh Mr. Moon” online, but it has an owl in it. No bear. I think he’s full of scheiße.
This was us seven years ago tonight…
April 23, 2005 my groom dipped me while we danced. We fed each other cake after rambling, tearful toasts. My grandma said the music was too loud and my friends drank too much. A bridesmaid may or may not have made out with the bartender. I stand by the cliche that it was one of the “happiest days of my life.”
I’m using the occasion of our wedding anniversary to speak out about an issue I feel very strongly about. Two weeks from tomorrow North Carolinians will go to the polls to vote for or against Amendment One. Same Sex Marriage is already illegal in my home state. This amendment would define marriage in the state constitution as a union between one man and one woman, and would ban any other type of “domestic legal union” such as civil unions and domestic partnerships.
I really have no reason to be against Amendment 1. I’m straight. I had the privilege of marrying whomever I chose. Actually I’ve been pretty lucky when it comes to discrimination. Let’s face it. I’m an able-bodied, middle-class, educated, straight, white woman. I think all women have felt the pangs of discrimination somewhat, even white women. But, I’ll never know what it’s like to be discriminated against based on my race or sexual preference. So why should it matter to me if this Amendment gets put into the State Constitution?
It matters because it’s wrong.
If the people of North Carolina vote for Amendment One it would ban domestic partnership benefits including health care for public employees and children receiving domestic partner benefits. I honestly don’t understand why anyone would be against gay marriage anyway. It in no way threatens my straight marriage. If someone told me I didn’t have the right to marry Greyson I would fight until I did.
Worst of all, this Amendment hurts someone I love. It pains me to think that he already can’t marry the person he loves and our home state would never recognize any union he chose to enter in to.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” This is the Civil Rights issue of our generation. Gen X and Gen Y in North Carolina, I plead with you to educate yourself about Amendment One.
Charlotte loves her crayons from the Easter Bunny. She squealed and I thought she might explode when I pulled them out along with her Elmo coloring book yesterday.
I ignored Crayola’s “age 24 months and up” warning on the box because I assumed my kid must be an artistic prodigy and these crayons would somehow awake the creative beast within.
She grabbed one out of the box and happily scribbled Elmo’s face a brilliant, albeit incorrect, turquoise. This was short lived. I had started showing her how to color Elmo’s fur red when I looked and she was happily gnawing on the Blue/Green crayon. She grinned as I scooped wax bits out of her mouth. When I took away the Blue/Green that little bugger had the Blue/Violet in the other hand! Before I could stop her she snapped off the end of that one with a look like, “Ha, ha, Mama!” Bits of purple wax covered her teeth.
After rinsing her mouth I had forgotten all about this until about 10:000am today.
It smelled like any other dirty diaper, but OH MY GOD! I thought, “When did she eat the remanents of a blue-green-purple Play-Doh experiment gone wrong?!” I made Greyson come look at what our creative beast had produced.
The other day I made the Rookie Mom mistake of leaving my bag from the drugstore in the backseat next to Charlotte’s car seat. When she grew tired of her toys, naturally her toddler curiosity got the better of her and she grabbed something from the bag. I heard her ripping and tearing paper and said in my newly acquired Mom-Warning-Voice, “Charlotte! What are you doing?” At the stoplight I glanced back to see what she had and stifled my laughs.
From the passenger seat Greyson says, “What does she have?” “Tampons,” I reply.
He asked with male revulsion, “What!? Can that hurt her?!” I assured him cardboard and cotton was not as harmful as other pharmaceuticals that could be in that bag.
Greyson is not the type of man to be fearful of feminine hygiene products and would pick up a box if I needed them, but his baby girl playing with tampons was just too much for him. I laughed and said, “Yep Charlotte. You probably won’t need those for another 11 or 12 years.” Greyson shook his head and said, “Oh God! I don’t even want to think about it.”
As I giggled and removed cotton tufts from her clothes I took a moment to relish toddlerhood because everyone says puberty will be here before we know it.
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