Sunday, October 25, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
FEBURARY 21, 2009
For those of you have asked if you’ve been taken off the blog list and that’s why you haven’t been receiving notices of postings, no worries; there just haven’t been any new additions. I’ll change that now, just shy of ten months since April 24, 2008. So much has happened in those months too. Though I haven’t written about them, I thought about them and that must count for something. So here is a recap, a brief run-through of things I might have written about and may someday …or not.
June
Obama won the primary in Montana! Happy day! I celebrated with other jubilant Helenans at a local bar, Miller’s Crossing. Visiting Montana for a few days were a group of foreign journalists who the U.S. State Department had invited over to witness the democratic process. I talked with a few representing various news outlets, one with a Samoan news station, another from Papua New Guinea, and another with the BBC out of Niger. They were all surprised by what they called the “race revolution” happening in this country, that an African American could be a contender for president of the U.S. of A. They expressed a mix of shock and excitement, which I too toasted. I’ve since heard back from IDY Baraou, the BBC reporter from Niamey, Niger, and I hope to write more about his observations now that Obama is in office.
July
Summer brought visits with family, my mother in June, and in July my brother Curtis, sis-n-law/fun Kelly, and niece Lexi. Picture four tall (some might say there were a couple of large ones) floating slowly down the Missouri and passing the take-out place by a few miles. And there was my last trip out of Montana (but who’s ancy) to my niece Sallie’s wedding in College Station, Texas, home of Texas A&M University. I am a former student of TAMU –note we are not alums, just former students, there are a lot of traditions like these. It’s been many years since I was there, and unlike most other former students, I have not kept the school passion.
They call us “2 percenters.” At one point at the reception all the Aggies were called out to do the fight song, a fervent song done with movements and much verve. I thought that I would stand by my niece in a kind of school-spirit niece-aunt bonding moment. This was after my Texas Tech Red Raider brother Paul had pushed me out onto the dance floor. What I hadn’t thought through is that I no longer remembered the words to the song nor that being next to the bride, I would be on the vide tape in perpetuity. My lip sync was about three words off and when we got to the movements, I had to let the side-to-sides of my neighbors carry me. At least I remember where the arms went. All this was met with glee by Paul, the family’s variousTexas Longhorns, and a cousin from California that said seeing me out there was worth the trip. Thanks so much.
August
Another home project was begun.
This time nephew Max and his girlfriend Kate came from Arizona to scrape, scrape, and more scrape the old paint off. Too bad they didn’t get to apply any paint during their two weeks. The project continued on into November when the last storm window was put back up. Joy, Andrea, and Jesus did the excellent work. 
Buuzdo the cat moved in just after Thanksgiving from the Chicken Ranch that was starting to be the Cat Ranch. Formally spelled Buuzdeaux, he is named after the term my friend Brandy’s Serbian grandfather called boys that visited the house. This was in place of having to remember their names. Emma is underwhelmed.
Moving on, eleven days later I went under the scalpel and came out with a shorter but still American colon. My sister came from Texas to stay with me and take pictures when the surgical nurse put one of those hair net things on me before being wheeled down to the OR. I refused to put one on when I was four for a tonsillectomy so this was something she felt she needed to document for the rest of the family. I would have done the same thing if the hospital gurnies were turned. What followed was 6 days in the hospital where I had a new take on Eat, Pray, Love; Pray, Pass Gas, Eat. Though it goes against my sense of politeness to talk so easily about bodily functions especially the digestive tract, after the nurses asked for the umpteenth time if I’d passed gas, I got used to scat-talk. The surgeon asked if I’d passed gas out my bottom, which had me wondering where else that would be. Medical school must have taught her something extra.
To share my fortune, here are a few hospital tips I came up with on my last stay:
1) You can change the channel on the TV in the ER waiting room without anyone
However, lest we think that the fight for the rights of LGBT persons is over, we can look at the passing of Prop. 8 in California. This, thirty years after the same state led the country in legalizing protection of LGBT civil rights. Or just this past week the Montana Legislature House Judiciary Committee voted “no” on a bill on a party line tie vote against HB 252 brought by Rep. Margaret Campbell (D-Poplar) that would have added sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, to Montana's Human Rights Act and outlaw discrimination against LGBT and Two Spirit Montanans.
Some of the opposition’s opposition sounded stupidly familiar:
JuneObama won the primary in Montana! Happy day! I celebrated with other jubilant Helenans at a local bar, Miller’s Crossing. Visiting Montana for a few days were a group of foreign journalists who the U.S. State Department had invited over to witness the democratic process. I talked with a few representing various news outlets, one with a Samoan news station, another from Papua New Guinea, and another with the BBC out of Niger. They were all surprised by what they called the “race revolution” happening in this country, that an African American could be a contender for president of the U.S. of A. They expressed a mix of shock and excitement, which I too toasted. I’ve since heard back from IDY Baraou, the BBC reporter from Niamey, Niger, and I hope to write more about his observations now that Obama is in office.
July
Summer brought visits with family, my mother in June, and in July my brother Curtis, sis-n-law/fun Kelly, and niece Lexi. Picture four tall (some might say there were a couple of large ones) floating slowly down the Missouri and passing the take-out place by a few miles. And there was my last trip out of Montana (but who’s ancy) to my niece Sallie’s wedding in College Station, Texas, home of Texas A&M University. I am a former student of TAMU –note we are not alums, just former students, there are a lot of traditions like these. It’s been many years since I was there, and unlike most other former students, I have not kept the school passion.
They call us “2 percenters.” At one point at the reception all the Aggies were called out to do the fight song, a fervent song done with movements and much verve. I thought that I would stand by my niece in a kind of school-spirit niece-aunt bonding moment. This was after my Texas Tech Red Raider brother Paul had pushed me out onto the dance floor. What I hadn’t thought through is that I no longer remembered the words to the song nor that being next to the bride, I would be on the vide tape in perpetuity. My lip sync was about three words off and when we got to the movements, I had to let the side-to-sides of my neighbors carry me. At least I remember where the arms went. All this was met with glee by Paul, the family’s variousTexas Longhorns, and a cousin from California that said seeing me out there was worth the trip. Thanks so much.August
Another home project was begun.
This time nephew Max and his girlfriend Kate came from Arizona to scrape, scrape, and more scrape the old paint off. Too bad they didn’t get to apply any paint during their two weeks. The project continued on into November when the last storm window was put back up. Joy, Andrea, and Jesus did the excellent work. 
Other happenings turned the backyard animal king/queendom upside down. One being the bird feeder turned cat feeder that went up. There was a frenzy of feline focus, crouching and lunging, with a few feathers flying. I don’t think that is what my avid bird-watching mother intended when she gave me the feeder.
Fall
Then there were the Obama over McCain days. I went through 4 “Obama for President” yard signs as they kept being stolen. The fourth one I surrounded with dog poop to at least give the thieves something else to take away with the sign. It made it until the day after the election when it was swiped. My high school informant said that she heard guys boasting they had taken signs. She thought that was stupid, especially the gloating part.
November
Fall Art Walk at the Rodney Street Laundry
Two fabric artists displayed their work and all I could think about was the time during my heterosexual union that we bought a Bernina sewing machine because the husband thought I should sew. I even went to one class but the frustration of bobbin problems proved once again how much I was not cut out for sewing (this was in no way a disappointment to me). He got the machine in the divorce settlement.
Then there were the Obama over McCain days. I went through 4 “Obama for President” yard signs as they kept being stolen. The fourth one I surrounded with dog poop to at least give the thieves something else to take away with the sign. It made it until the day after the election when it was swiped. My high school informant said that she heard guys boasting they had taken signs. She thought that was stupid, especially the gloating part.
November
Fall Art Walk at the Rodney Street Laundry
Two fabric artists displayed their work and all I could think about was the time during my heterosexual union that we bought a Bernina sewing machine because the husband thought I should sew. I even went to one class but the frustration of bobbin problems proved once again how much I was not cut out for sewing (this was in no way a disappointment to me). He got the machine in the divorce settlement.
A new sign goes up at the Laundry with the direction of the Black Hand, White Pinkie of God.
Plus a new bakery, Vanilla Bean, has moved in across the street from the Laundry 
where the pawn shop used to be. Yum. 
I recommend the cupcakes, orange croissants, cinnamon rolls, ham and cheese scone, BBQ sandwich, and the coffee though not all in one sitting.
I recommend the cupcakes, orange croissants, cinnamon rolls, ham and cheese scone, BBQ sandwich, and the coffee though not all in one sitting.
Buuzdo the cat moved in just after Thanksgiving from the Chicken Ranch that was starting to be the Cat Ranch. Formally spelled Buuzdeaux, he is named after the term my friend Brandy’s Serbian grandfather called boys that visited the house. This was in place of having to remember their names. Emma is underwhelmed.I entered the Facebook world kind of by mistake and have embraced the reality that I suck at it. For example, I accidentally named a sewage plant after my sister, but it was in a response to a poke so she had it coming. And with all the people that have found me from my childhood, let me just say that Facebook is not something you join if you’re in the witness protection program.
Ah, December and January
Early in December a surgeon told me after a colonoscopy that I had tumors that were this close (imagine an inch between thumb and index finger) to cancer. I wondered if that was to scale or what. She said that I needed to have part of my colon taken out –who says that kind of thing? She also informed me that Americans have the longest colons and you don’t need all your colon. I was in shock over the news about the colon but not enough to not consider that was an odd bit of information, so I asked if other races or, rather, country’s citizens had shorter colons. Come to find out Africans and Asians are shorter because they eat less processed foods, but the closer an Asian gets to living in America (by way of Hawaii to the mainland for instance), the increase in colon disease. My friend and doctor Michael confirmed this.
Ah, December and January
Early in December a surgeon told me after a colonoscopy that I had tumors that were this close (imagine an inch between thumb and index finger) to cancer. I wondered if that was to scale or what. She said that I needed to have part of my colon taken out –who says that kind of thing? She also informed me that Americans have the longest colons and you don’t need all your colon. I was in shock over the news about the colon but not enough to not consider that was an odd bit of information, so I asked if other races or, rather, country’s citizens had shorter colons. Come to find out Africans and Asians are shorter because they eat less processed foods, but the closer an Asian gets to living in America (by way of Hawaii to the mainland for instance), the increase in colon disease. My friend and doctor Michael confirmed this.
Moving on, eleven days later I went under the scalpel and came out with a shorter but still American colon. My sister came from Texas to stay with me and take pictures when the surgical nurse put one of those hair net things on me before being wheeled down to the OR. I refused to put one on when I was four for a tonsillectomy so this was something she felt she needed to document for the rest of the family. I would have done the same thing if the hospital gurnies were turned. What followed was 6 days in the hospital where I had a new take on Eat, Pray, Love; Pray, Pass Gas, Eat. Though it goes against my sense of politeness to talk so easily about bodily functions especially the digestive tract, after the nurses asked for the umpteenth time if I’d passed gas, I got used to scat-talk. The surgeon asked if I’d passed gas out my bottom, which had me wondering where else that would be. Medical school must have taught her something extra.
There were complications during surgery that required cutting me open (ouch) rather than just the laproscopic method that we’d planned. This then set up another problem. After I got home, an infection developed under the incision area and I was back to the hospital on Christmas night for another 4 days. It required the surgeon to re-open the incision, clean out the bad stuff, and left it open for me to I pack and unpack for 4 weeks in order for it to heal from the inside out. One should not have to see the inside of one’s gut. It’s just not right. I felt that I was in the Wild West but without the whisky poured into the gaping hole and a bullet to bite on during the marinating.
I don’t recommend any of this unless, of course, you need it. Finally though the gaping wound came back together, and I’m feeling much, much better!
The great benefit is that I got to spend a lot of time with friends and family in person, by phone, thru email, under anesthesia, and in la-la land. (To those reading this, thanks to all the many ways you offered support!) All and all, contrary to the ER doctor who diagnosed that I was "unlucky" and needed some good luck (no prescription written), I feel very fortunate.
The great benefit is that I got to spend a lot of time with friends and family in person, by phone, thru email, under anesthesia, and in la-la land. (To those reading this, thanks to all the many ways you offered support!) All and all, contrary to the ER doctor who diagnosed that I was "unlucky" and needed some good luck (no prescription written), I feel very fortunate.
To share my fortune, here are a few hospital tips I came up with on my last stay:
1) You can change the channel on the TV in the ER waiting room without anyone
hurting you even if others are enjoying A Redneck Christmas (and I thought Fox
News was bad.)
2) You get help faster if you pull the chain the in the bathroom than if you push the
button on the hospital bed.
3) Even if you are a smart alec with the food staff like...staff, "You're back." me, "Yeah, I missed the food." They, bless 'em, take it as a compliment.
4) When the beeper keeps going off because the IV tube is bent anytime you breathe
b/c of where it was placed in the arm, it's better to let the nurses come and turn off
the beeper every two minutes rather than resetting it yourself. They decide much
more quickly to move the IV to the top of the hand, a place with less constriction
with every move.
5) The housekeeping staff are gems and know which floors have chocolate ice cream.
6a)Watching Loretta Young playing a nun in a hospital on Christmas Eve trying to get
Billy a bicycle is not entertaining when you are in a hospital on Christmas night.
6b) Always find a nurse that knows where the tv remote is that is separate from
the one attached to the bed. Otherwise, you can only go one direction when
channel surfing. It wears on you, and you end up with Loretta.
7)The fewer the years a nurse has been in practice, the bigger the bag put over the IV
channel surfing. It wears on you, and you end up with Loretta.
7)The fewer the years a nurse has been in practice, the bigger the bag put over the IV
to keep it dry during a shower. One junior nurse (I had her during 3 of her first 4
days at the hospital, her first nursing job) used a full size trash bag. The seasoned
nurses would whip in with a small bag, tape, and once even a netted glove.
Now to February, 2009
The movie Milk is playing at the Myrna Loy Center where I work. It is the story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to a major public office in America, as one of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. It portrays the start of his activism, his ability to unify and empower a community, and, tragically, his assassination 30 years ago.
Now to February, 2009
The movie Milk is playing at the Myrna Loy Center where I work. It is the story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to a major public office in America, as one of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. It portrays the start of his activism, his ability to unify and empower a community, and, tragically, his assassination 30 years ago.
I was very moved by the film and what seemed like his zest for life. It also made me glad for the work I’ve done in the LGBT movement. My most recent activist life while I was living in Chicago left me pretty worn out. But as Milk and the gay right movement unfolded, I was reminded of earlier times and work that I had been involved in that felt like I had made a difference --work with LGBT youth, National Coming Out Day activities in Dallas, and organizing a group for gay and lesbian employees at SMU. Those were days when there were still many risks in coming out. We had to be organized in order to fight for anti-discrimination protection in schools, places of employment, health care, and in our faith communities, to name a few.
As I watched clips of Anita Bryant in the movie and her religion-wrapped bigotry, I thought of how I was at one time convinced that if we could influence the religious communities to dismantle their discriminatory practices or at least educate people, that it would bring greater change in our society because we were going to the source of so much ignorance and fear. But I learned, as my friend and fellow writer Gil Caldwell often says, “On justice issues, the church is more often the tail lights than the headlights .” It follows behind change and not out in front showing the way. True enough because the church by and large remains a place of exclusion while society continues to change.
However, lest we think that the fight for the rights of LGBT persons is over, we can look at the passing of Prop. 8 in California. This, thirty years after the same state led the country in legalizing protection of LGBT civil rights. Or just this past week the Montana Legislature House Judiciary Committee voted “no” on a bill on a party line tie vote against HB 252 brought by Rep. Margaret Campbell (D-Poplar) that would have added sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, to Montana's Human Rights Act and outlaw discrimination against LGBT and Two Spirit Montanans.
Some of the opposition’s opposition sounded stupidly familiar:
Dallas Erickson, described the 30 sexual orientations and 5 genders (each needing a separate bathroom), that would be affected by this law.
<my thought: only 30? Can’t we at least keep up with Baskin & Robbins’ 32?>
Jeanette Zentgraff from Concerned Women for America, explained that if schools cannot discriminate in hiring, "It is difficult to remove teachers who are flirting with students."
["HB 252] would force us to hire these people, and once in, are very militant." Harris Himes, Hamilton
Another line comes to mind, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."
Another line comes to mind, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."
Linda Gryczan at Equality Project of the Montana Human Rights Network (equality@mhrn.org) has promised that there is a YouTube clip coming that shows the 30 flavors testimony.
CHANGE OF BLOG SITE
I’ll soon be moving my blog to a new web site. I write that news to you so I’ll be motivated to finish the web site… and write again before 10 months are up.
I’ll soon be moving my blog to a new web site. I write that news to you so I’ll be motivated to finish the web site… and write again before 10 months are up.
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