It is spring, right?

Last week, I felt like hell from the cold I had, which kept me out of work two days and made me and people around me miserable all week. I hate it when I have to waste a sick day on actually being sick, instead of surfing or something else fun. But I guess that's what it's there for. It could be worse. When I worked in fast food and retail, I didn't get it. I got nonsense from my managers instead. I think that's the stupidest damn thing--people who are making other peoples' food can't stay home sick without losing pay and/or catching hell from their managers, so they end up not only feeling lousy, but making others sick. I don't see the logic. You'd think from the standpoint of lawsuit avoidance alone, the food industry would want to rethink that.

I thought all that was over with for the year. I thought snow was over, too. Boy, I was wrong. I still can't believe we got actual snow on Easter weekend. L'Ailee and I had planned to go to Coney Island! Instead, we stayed in to make sure I was feeling better, with breaks to see The Reaping (rather appropriately released for religious holidays, I thought) and go grocery shopping. I spent most of the Reaping with my face in L'Ailee's shoulder, which isn't bad, especially when I remember to take my glasses off. She had to see Grindhouse with friends, however. It's really weird. She's proud that she herself can watch all kinds of gore and mayhem for entertainment, but she seems to like that I can't, too. Like it's just so cute and sweet that I can't stand gore or something.

I never get guilted into family stuff on Easter, though I do get phone calls. My mom called and said, "So much for global warming." She was serious. I tried to tell her that global warming is supposed to make the weather freak out in many ways, but she wasn't hearing it. She really believes what they say on Faux News. Next week, there will be a race, and the world will be back in order. I hope.

While I was dealing with my cold, I got very fussy. And I couldn't think very hard or talk beyond a squeak. So I posted questions on Yahoo! Answers asking whether I am the only one annoyed by Starbucks, Jeff Gordon, and Melinda Doolittle. It was actually kind of a relief to see that other people are irritated by the things that irritate me, though I did get some name-calling about the Jeff Gordon question. At least it helped wake the NASCAR section up. I'm laughing at myself now.

I really do think Melinda Doolittle on American Idol is annoying, even though she's technically very good. And I'm feeling sorry for Sanjaya Malakar, even though I really don't think he belongs in the competition at this point. That poor kid's only 17 years old, and he's just been getting crapped on continuously for the past month or so, even on news shows. He gets nothing positive at all. Nobody's that bad, and the world won't stop if a less than deserving singer wins AI. At least the kid tries to entertain, which is more than Haley Scarnato does. Sanjaya may use his hair and smile, but Haley uses her legs and other physical "assets", and I think she's got as little talent as Sanjaya or less. He takes it all with more grace than most people twice his age would. I'm almost tempted to give him a sympathy vote!

No, I wouldn't. I'm too busy making sure LaKisha stays--I love her and her voice and the diva she's blooming into. But on the Friday after the Ponyhawk, half of us in my office did have fun by ponyhawking our hair. This was for the benefit of an exec who is very vocal about how stupid AI, and the people who watch it, are. He said he was disappointed in me for doing it, and I told him what I had was a bunhawk, since my hair's too long to stand up straight. He's still shaking his head at me. :-)

Some links, to go with your half-price chocolate:

I missed out on Blog Against Theocracy, what with the hot eyes and barely being able to think and all, but a whole lot of other people didn't. Very, very cool.

BeyondExGay.com is a wonderful new support site founded by two wonderful people, Peterson Toscano and Christine Bakke. As the name suggests, it's for people who went through ex-gay programs and then really had to leave when the self-loathing, lying to spouses, etc. got to be too much. I've been recommending it at Yahoo! Answers, along with ExGayWatch.com, whenever ex-gayness gets sold as a reasonable option in the LGBT and Religion and Spirituality sections, which is entirely too often. (And usually done by straights who, after all, wouldn't be the ones having to be lonely for a while and move out of their homes. Sacrifice is so easy when other people are the ones doing it.) They're going to have a conference this summer!

You can also recommend it to anyone advocating the suggestions at NotOurKids.com. A coalition of 'phobic organizations (including one-person "organizations" like our beloved Stephen Bennett Ministries, but also more serious and larger ones like Concerned Women for America) is responding to the Day of Silence by urging parents to keep their kids home from school on April 18. Because high school kids simply can't be allowed to know that their LGBT classmates exist and sometimes get bothered in school. Because, Gods forbid, they may not be allowed to do any bothering if this keeps up, either! I wonder what they'll do as alternative activities. Maybe go to the zoo? No, there are gay penguins and bisexual koalas and flamingoes, oh my. Of course, the really sad part, as Peterson and Christine above can attest, is that many LGBT people *are* their kids.

Miss Manners offers help to long-haired women. (I had to link to this LiveJournal entry because I couldn't find the particular column online. LiveJournal has both the Longhairs community and the herbaldness community, something for both me and L'Ailee. :-) Anyway, I could have written this letter! I had to switch stylists for this exact reason, too, and wasn't at all graceful about it. Grace leaves the building when you pressure me to cut off one of my few really good features and act like I hate sick little kids if I want to keep it on my head. I think Locks of Love is a great charity, and if I ever cut my hair short, that's where it'll go. Better that than in the dumpster. But my things are *mine* to give away and keep as I see fit. Like the woman who wrote the letter, I don't see those people getting rid of their TVs, cars, and computers because someone else would enjoy them.

Anne Applebaum of Slate finds parallels between precious Knut the polar bear and our precious Tai Shan. They're not all good.

I will never again shop at a Circuit City, EVER, and Barbara Ehrenreich nicely explains why.

And finally, progress of a sort...Walt Disney World is allowing same-gender couples to have "Fairy Tale Weddings"! If only they'd actually be legal, L'Ailee and I would so do it.