RIP: Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and my cat Drakk

It's been a rough week as far as people/animals dying. I can truly appreciate death. I have had more friggin' people die in my life than your average bear. Doesn't mean it's easy... however, it happens. Everyone knows that celebrities die in 3's so let's start with that. Ed McMahon 2 days ago. Then of course, Farrah Fawcett this morning and maybe David Carradine could have been the 1st of 3 but what? What? Michael Jackson! Who'da thunk it? It's bizarre as was he. Whacko-Jacko as he was often called in British tabloids. He may have been a friggin' kook but he was loved and cherished. His ridiculous controversy was a sick and sad thing and I hope that it's not totally true of his alleged pedophilia. I can't comment on that... maybe I choose not to. I would have never allowed my children near him just in case but still, parents did. Not any one's fault but his. The thing is what we want to remember. The time in our lives that he was incredible. I bought Gotta be startin' somethin' and PYT for my record player, I had a poster of him on my wall, I played Thriller out my bedroom window with my little speakers on Halloween, and of course... I learned the moonwalk. To this day, I will request Michael Jackson at weddings so I can show off my moves. I loved him. He's being compared to Elvis and The Beatles. It's a good comparison. No matter what the boomers might say, he was "our" Elvis and "our" Beatles. But, yes, if he was guilty of hurting children, that is bad, really bad. I'm not even going to talk about his nose... I want to though... I'll respect his facial features. Like Pamela Anderson and Ashlee Simpson Wentz, shoulda just kept the snout that God handed out. The world is at a loss without Michael Jackson. It's dramatic but it's true. He was an Icon and a really, really talented entertainer. That is indisputable. He will be missed.
Farrah... she was also iconic. I'm too young, (I love being able to say that), to have had that classic red bathing suit poster on my wall but... if I was a little older, I would have. Well, maybe not, my mother would have shit a brick if I had a pretty chick on my wall... gay looking black dude she could handle, pretty girl... that might have been a bit too much. Anyway, I think my brother had that picture up as did all teen boys in the 70's right? She was really something. I did watch Charlie's Angels, saw The Burning Bed and followed her reality show (the one before the cancer diagnosis), she was a brave woman and thank God that she reconnected with Ryan O'neal. He is a great guy, despite their drugs and weird relationship things... (I'm a big fan of The Main Event and What's up Doc so I love this man), we all have our shit to deal with, but they both came to each other and the love and support cannot be matched in Hollywood from what I have seen. God Bless Farrah and Ryan and hopefully they are not too pissed that Michael Jackson stole their thunder (that sounds mean but celebrities like their attention).
I haven't much to say about Ed McMahon and David Carradine. Sorry, knowledge of their greatness but not too much of an expert. Know Ed from Bloopers and Johnny Carson... Alpo too. And someone will want to slap me but I didn't watch Kung Fu. I did see Kill Bill, love you in that David. Sorry you died getting off... at least you had a smile. Too early for that?
Now, for the hardest of all for me to talk about... Drakk. This is my black cat. Her full name is Drakkar. She was named after the cologne because she is pure black like a bottle of Drakkar. I got her in 1990 and that was the cologne I wore at the time. She was mean, like Dracula, piercing teeth and claws so Drakk fit her perfectly. She didn't start out mean, she was mistreated by the stupid boys that used to come over to my house for random parties that I always had. I got her when I moved into my first apartment. I didn't know of these mean boys until much later. A few of them tried to tell me years later of the fun they had screwing with my cat and I shamed them to hell by explaining how mean she became. I'm not exaggerating when I say she was mean. She hated men and would give out this low guttural growl whenever a man was around. Even homo's, plumber, landlord, mail man, ups guy, whoever. She was mean. Someone would be sitting on the couch and she would leap across the room to attack them. She's left scars, bite marks, scratches and fear in and on all of the guests of my life. She lived with me in the Volkswagen van for 3 months and when we woke up together at 2 in the afternoon I would look at her, she would look at me, we would yawn, say what's up? (she'd meow, I'd actually talk), and go back to sleep. I talked to her in Spanish and she answered (she understood Spanish, didn't speak it real well). She turned 19 years old on June 10th of 2009. She got skinny and mellow and didn't attack like we are used to. She could still jump up on things and ate a lot and drank too. In her later years, she would sit on my chest in the middle of the night and sleep so close to my face that my lungs are probably filled with cat hair (that's a nice image right..), she would meow in my face every morning at 5 am for food. Occasionally she would give out a meow that lasted like 2 minutes and we would stop and look at her. She'd shake it off and walk away from us like we were fools. I love her. I loved that she was mean and I used to laugh uncomfortably whenever she bit or scratched someone for no reason. That's not nice but even now, I laugh. It's the reaction people give, they say "oh she's beautiful, can I pet her?" I say "No, she's mean." They say "Cats love me." I say "Maybe they do, but she's not a normal cat." Then, whammo!! Scratch, hiss, bite... "told ya...". So, she walked away Saturday morning as we left to go to Las Vegas for 4 days and she's never returned. Everyone keeps telling me she went somewhere that was comfortable to die so I shouldn't worry, but it's hard. I didn't get to say goodbye. 19 years is a long time to love something... she wasn't mean to me, she was my baby. She was cute and funny and gave me a lot of joy. I had a beware of cat sign on my van and she left an impression on everyone she met, or a scar, whichever the case may be. All my friends hated her but I didn't hate her. I will miss you Drakk and I hope wherever you are, your scratching and biting the a-holes who say "Cats love me"... see ya in the after life little puss.

American Voices

I’m thinking that the terrorists have won!! They have accomplished one of their big goals. They have Americans so afraid of them that people won’t even listen to reason about having the Guantanamo Bay prisoners brought to this country. And the terrorists just have to sit back and watch while American citizens like Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh and the Fox network do all the work for them. Planting all those seeds of fear. What happened to the American Spirit!?! What happened to our resolve to not to let the terrorists win!?! We already have terrorist prisoners in our jails. And they were tried right here in the United States justice system. So I’m guessing that these fear mongers don’t trust our courts. They must be worried about all those “activist judges”.
But what about our home grown terrorists?? This Von Brunn who killed the guard at the Holocaust Museum yesterday, is a terrorist! This Roeder, who killed Dr. Tiller is also a terrorist. Are we going to ship them out to Guantanamo Bay?? I think not! The process will happen here where the crimes were committed. With judges and jurors elected or appointed by Democrats and Republicans.
There are radical voices out there that just keep ginning up the hatred. They come from both sides, but I think the right has more established, more powerful voices. People who have a vested interest in keeping up the chatter. They stir up the hatred towards “illegal” aliens, aka Latinos, and towards gays, and towards Muslims, and the most insidious of all, our President. There’s radical groups out there that still believe our President is not a citizen! They still believe he is a Muslim! They hate that he’s a black man! They call him a socialist. They compare him to Hitler, Putin, Terrorists. Remember the right accusing the Democrats of being unpatriotic and un-american when they dared to question George W’s policies?? When the left questioned the need for the Patriot Act, you’d have thought the sky was falling. I guess it’s back to “tit for tat”. But I think the divide is getting even wider and even meaner. It’s bringing out the nuts! And the nuts are dangerous. It never ceases to amaze me how two groups of people can see the same event so differently! I guess it’s just human nature. And that’s the scary part. There are humans out there with a natural bent to prove their point at any cost. They actually believe they deserve a pat on the back for their deeds. And there are people out there who will give it to them. They listen to the voices. They need the voices. Let’s hope the voices quiet down. The voices need to quiet down.

They've pissed me off again

Alright it's on! I am innocently on the computer when the news breaks about the crazy mo fo that went to the Holocaust Museum and shot his rifle randomly killing a security guard. It's a very bad thing. Horrible. Another angry person who can't vent his frustration in a safer way than violence and decides to make a bold statement. Dr. Tiller's murder was 11 days ago and that too, another angry, crazy person who probably feels that there is no other choice than killing. These people are dangerous and unrecognizable sometimes. The key word here is sometimes. This guy though, he already had some trouble with the law in regard to racism and extremist behavior. I hate the word extremist, it's overused at times. My point is that this guy has a friggin' book called "Kill the Best Gentiles". Could that have been a red flag? I worry about things too much, I realize that but I have a couple things at stake here. My family, my freedom, my country. I'm sure that this guy (I don't really want to use his name, he doesn't deserve it) feels like I do. He thinks that his country is in danger and that his freedom is being challenged. The difference between my emotions and his are that I'm not wanting to kill Bill O'reilly or Glenn Beck. I just hate their stupid guts. I don't plan out ways to end their rhetoric through violence. They are never going to take any responsibility for these people that do this shit, they are never going to acknowledge that they spread hate when they talk so much bull about Obama or the democratic party. You don't see democrats picking up guns and driving over to white supremacist meetings or picking off abortion protesters that are holding signs that read "baby killer". But, Bill O'reilly can call Dr. Tiller, on national radio and T.V., "baby killer Tiller" and that's not a problem. When the guy is killed by a crazy ass "Factor Premium Member", or an Ann "crazy ass" Coulter book reader, no Fox "news" reporter is going to report that part of it.
This whole post really started with the comments Glenn Beck and his guest said on his show yesterday. They said, and I'm paraphrasing here, that Hitler was a left winger. I'm watching these little clips here and there and then, because sound bytes are sometimes edited and taken out of context, I decide to watch the entire thing and sure enough. Sure enough they, being Glenn Beck and his ignorant guest, spin this thing into being Obama's fault. I mean, come on! Report on it, talk about it, state the obvious, that it was a horrible thing but don't use it as an accelerate for an already raging fire of anger. On the left, it's not a whole lot better at times. But, I will tell you, left wing bloggers have to be searched out. Their blogs are not on a news channel or a radio show. I hear this stuff everywhere. I'm tired of it. Ignorance without accountability. We always say: "it's not true, it's b.s. so don't worry about it, people know better." My response is always the same, I wish that everyone in America could tell the difference between truth and hate speech but truthfully, they can't. It scares me. But I'm not about to go to Fox News and shoot the place up. I'll vent my anger here. I don't blame the right wing talking heads for this guys behavior yesterday, but I do want them to start telling the truth and to really pay attention to what they are saying to the public. Glenn Beck is just as bad as the kid at school that has taught my son all the bad words he uses. My son will learn through my parenting that those words are bad but Glenn Beck's mom is not going to teach him to stop saying them. He needs his mouth washed out with soap.

Obama's Speech

We have the classiest President ever! What a wonderful speech he gave this morning. He hit every mark dead on. He said things that have needed to be said for so long. I’m so proud that he represents our country. He actually looks like a true world leader. Unlike his predecessor, he likes to make friends instead of enemies. I had begun to worry a little about how much he may actually get done. But I think he’s going to do alright. He will have to battle the Republicans about everything he tries to do. They have no clue what they’re up against. Isn’t it great! Prick Cheney thinks he can ruin him. But when you put them side by side in todays world, there’s no comparison. Cheney just looks like the petty fear monger that he is. He needs to go away now. His time is over.
Dare I say this!?! I think “W” has shown some class by keeping his mouth shut. There, it is. Wow, that wasn’t easy. But you gotta give credit where credit is due. Weird!
And how about that Michelle Obama! Is she a great First Lady! So easy going and natural. She’s really out there making her mark. I’ve already forgotten what Laura Bush looked like! She had really high poll ratings, but I guess compared to her husband, anyone looks good. But back to the Prez. I think his speech will be picked apart for days, maybe weeks. But that could be a good thing. It means people will a least be talking about his ideas. Actually probably arguing about his ideas. Politics as usual? Maybe. But I think he already took it to another level. A step up. The balls in their court now. Like I said, he’s a classy guy.

Domestic Partnership?

We decided to do it. I mistakenly stated on twitter (yes, I'm all about it now thank you very much. That's another post later) that we were doing the paper signing and notarizing this weekend, neglecting to tell my "future domestic partner" of my plans. I thought she knew and I thought her parents knew. They all knew but didn't have the same concept of this weekend that I had. So, once again, I'm making plans in my own mind, not sharing with anyone. Dumb ass! Anyway, I got excited when we downloaded the forms and it had a place where you can change your name. What? That's when it's official right? That's when my "fear of commitment" kicks in. Then, everyone knows: a) that your a homo and b) that your a homo with a partner. Hyphenated even. I'm not at all worried about it being known that I'm a homo or that I have a partner. It's just so final. So real. So serious. I haven't been serious ever in my entire life. Even at funerals I crack jokes and make fun of dead people. True sacrilege right? I just feel lucky right now though. Lucky to have such a fantastic person to share my life with, lucky to have two beautiful children that actually like me most of the time, lucky to know my partners family and to feel welcome since the minute they met me (of course why wouldn't they, I'm really fantastic), lucky to even be able to sign forms like these and have our state recognize this partnership and lucky to be free to write and speak about this big gay life I have. It would be great if we could actually get "married" and have the state recognize that but I'm not ready to move to Iowa just yet and my Prop 8 posts are already on here enough. I am excited to sign these papers. We will be able to put Amy on my insurance and both kids. It will make our lives a little easier while acknowledging to both my girlfriend and my kids that we are a true family. We will all have the same last name instead of 3 different names on our wooden sign from Disneyland: Welcome to the Jones, Smith, Gonzales house. Those wood sign making guys are thinking: "friggin multi family tourists'" (do they get paid by the letter?).
So, we are doing it. I will change my name by adding a hyphen and adding her last name to mine and she will put my last name in front of hers with a hyphen. Then, we will pay to change the kids last names too. I never cared about having the same last name because I grew up having a totally different name then my older siblings and my mom so it never really mattered but I think it's important for my children, they have enough to deal with already having homo parents.
We did not go this weekend. Too much going on with Cinderella (I will have an update about that later this week) and all that so, we will do it probably Wednesday, I'll tell the in laws first and depending on my mood, my partner will also be informed.