Common everyday toxins

I'm the good kid this week, and I have to say, I'm not liking it. Of my mother's two children, I am the only one who bothered to give her a gift and card this Mother's Day. So lucky me, I've been hearing her b&c about my brother, the Dorkfish. She also talked about how ungrateful we've both been at times and how in the past, I wasn't so great about gifts all the time, either. "So I learned from my mistakes, as you can see," I said. She can just trample over my feelings like a rhino sometimes, though. I keep telling Dorkfish, please do something to make up for it!

I think we're in a cosmic time that's tough on relationships. I hope it's not affecting you, dear reader. But I've read complaints and stories of breakups online all morning. Paul McCartney and Heather Mills are divorcing. Dorkfish and his wife are finding out that married life isn't all bliss. They're really going to have to work some problems out, including things that should really have been discussed before they bought the license. My friend Mona's getting cold feet about her wedding. (No, no, no, don't! He's great! We wanna go witness the happy occasion in France!, I wanted to scream, but didn't. She'll be okay anyhow. :-) My mom fought with her man.

And then there's the argument L'Ailee and I had on Monday night, right in a grocery store. Because, of course, the conservative-looking femme and the beautiful bald borderline-butch holding hands and laughing *never* get stared at enough in grocery stores. I eat mostly-veggie for health reasons, but ever since I learned what rennet in cheese is usually made from, I've gotten more careful about how I buy cheese. I look for "suitable for vegetarians" or "plant rennet" or "microbial rennet." She thinks that's extreme, and accused me of trying to force these choices onto her. (Sound familiar?) I'm *not*. I honestly and sincerely don't *care* if she orders herself moo shu pork or gets a turkey sub or whatever! I'll even cook it for her sometimes! I just don't feel good about eating something that someone has to kill a newborn calf to get if alternatives are available, and since I'm the one who does most of the cooking and shopping and I pay for at least half of it anyway, I'm going to choose carefully and she can eat or not eat it! But most of it came from price (even though I shop carefully) and the fact that she's constantly subjected to discussions about someone or other's extreme and overly trendy diet at work. It wasn't a good feeling, and I slammed pans and doors as I tried to cook fajitas. I burnt the peppers, overseasoned, etc.--it came out really bad. It turns out that even though I cook very differently from my female relatives, I invest just as much pride and emotion in my cooking as any of them ever have, and you don't mess with it. I was as surprised by that as L'Ailee. We're made up now, but it was very emotional.

I wish there was a link to this article in the new Curve that I found utterly hilarious. Usually I don't like Michele Fisher's column, but this time, she's talking about how lesbians need to let their bridezilla tendencies come out! L'Ailee and I tried to be bridezillas, but our wedding came much closer to the overly sweet and tasteful lesbian weddings she mocks. (Even our male friends who walked us down the aisle were exes!) I just have to say, if you're interested in that sort of thing, do get the wedding issue--it has Shane from the L-Word on the cover, which I am not all that excited about. There is a lot of interesting stuff, and even the very thought of a lesbian magazine having a wedding issue makes me smile and think that we live in okay times after all.

Got some other stuff to read--surprised? ;-)

Left Behind--The Video Game! Why let your kids' morals be compromised by Grand Theft Auto, when they can pretend to kill millions of "unbelievers"?

Will popularity make the word "organic" mean less?

Kimberly Locke on American Idol, being a strong woman, and Mandisa's homophobia

Wanna really scare yourself? Take this quiz to see how toxic your lifestyle is! I'm average, but that's not good.

And to end on a good note, Georgia's anti-SSM amendment got overturned!!!!!! WOOT!!!!