Too Little, Too Late, But Still Touching

I saw the following video clip on one of my email listservs.  It’s a speech given by the REPUBLICAN mayor of San Diego.

Again, it’s too little, too late (although it was published on November 1, 2008, just not sure why it didn’t get any air time), but I take some solace in seeing an elected official who ran for mayor with the position that gays and lesbians should not be allowed to marry present such a touching and heartfelt retraction and restatement of his beliefs.

As I sit in our home with our son, almost afraid to go out, reading the online commentaries about what will happen to the legal status of my marriage, I have to wonder how it is that a majority of Californians can support the rights of chickens to have more room in their coops (Prop 2, which was passed 63% to 37%!) but they cannot find it in their hearts to believe that my partner, my son, and myself deserve the same protections afforded by marriage as heterosexuals.

So as I search for some sort of sense and meaning, watching this video really did give me a little bit of hope.  If not for today, then for tomorrow…

They Can’t Take It Away From Us

I’m sitting here with a perpetual upset stomach over this election and Prop 8. Tears are very near the surface whether they be tears of joy in seeing this constitutional amendment fail or tears of sadness at seeing it pass and having our marriage taken away by the State of California.

Regardless of what happens, life will obviously go on. And I am very lucky to have a life that includes an amazingly kind, generous, funny, and handsome husband and an equally amazing son.

On Sunday Oliver decided he’d had enough of the awkward walking he’d been doing up until then and just started going full throttle. Yesterday I got a bit of video of it.

And then this morning he and I played some catch together.

Finally, this afternoon we finally got a call from the social worker telling us the results of the hearing that was held on Thursday (!!!!) October 30: parental rights have been terminated! We can now proceed with the paperwork and the adoption.

And finally, I think I succeeded in creating a video of our wedding day.  It’s hosted at my Mac address, so I’m not sure how it’s going to be to watch it (like it may take forever!) but here it is

They can’t take any of that away from us, regardless of the results of this stupid election!

I’m A Married Man!

Well, it’s official, WE’RE MARRIED! (he says with trepidation with the impending election tomorrow when it could all be stripped away).

I wish I could say the day went off without a hitch (well, except for our getting hitched), but that just would be good blog fodder, now would it?

We spent all morning on Saturday cleaning the back yard, setting up tables and chairs, stringing lights, creating a beautiful little area for our ceremony to be held. It actually went rather smoothly. So we laid down around 2ish to try to get in a quick nap before the festivities began.

At 2:30 I heard Laurent jump out of bed and mumble something about rain. Then I heard him cursing.

Yes, although it never rains in California in November, it was indeed raining all over the tables and chairs and benches.

It wasn’t a downpour, more like a heavy sprinkle. And by the time we got downstairs it had stopped and the sky lightened up.

As we were standing there dumbstruck not sure of what to do, it started to sprinkle heavily again. Then it stopped.

Finally Laurent said we may have to move everything inside the house. Seating for 45 inside our fully-furnished house within hours before guests were supposed to arrive. I wasn’t looking forward to it
nor could I envision it honestly.

So in a last ditch effort I told him to run to the party rental place just a couple of blocks from our house to see if they rented tents.

While he was gone I jumped into the shower, mostly because I didn’t know what else to do with myself.

By the time he got back our friend Louise was over and they were looking at the hour-by-hour weather and it predicted scattered sprinkles for the rest of the evening.

So we started moving three rooms of furniture into our guest room and replacing it with wet tables and chairs.

Surprisingly it took us less than an hour to get everything set up and ready for guests. Marguerite and Louise finally left a few minutes after 4 to go home to get ready. I gave Oliver a bath and got him dressed and then finally got dressed myself.

Our officiant, Faith, was the first to arrive (while I was half-dressed and Laurent was running around upstairs nekkid!).

Because of the rain many of our guests were late, which ended up being for the better. We finally started the ceremony at 5:30. And as one of my friends said, it was magical! I have video of it but I think it may be too big for YouTube, but I’ll try to see (after I drop off our marriage license at the court house!).

Until then, there are many photos here. Enjoy!