soapbox- i'm on it.

So, I’d like to admit that I only watched about the last 30 or so minutes of the SOTU last night. In truth I had no doubt that Obama would deliver a great speech. He’s an incredible orator. I’m just at the point that I want actions...I want the change I was promised, not more eloquently spoken words.

I did catch his statement about working with Congress to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. He has made this statement numerous times and to be honest it kinda just ticked me off to hear it again. I am done with the verbal crumbs Obama throws to his GLBT constituents. I want ACTION.

I have discussed my disgust with DADT and this administration's lack of action with a few friends, both straight and gay. Although all agreed the policy should be ended a few (gay and straight) were okay with the lack of an actual timeline. “He is so busy, he has so much on his plate, he can't spare the political capital, he can’t change our nation overnight...”

Listen, I’m not an idiot. I realize all our problems cannot be solved in a matter of a day, a year or 4 years. But, you have to actually start crossing things off the list if you ever hope to accomplish anything. The things that can be tackled should be and DADT is something that could be stopped immediately. With one signature Mr. Obama could stop it. It is completely within his power- no Congress, no lobbyists, no votes- just a signature.

"... the President may suspend any provision of law relating to promotion, retirement, or separation applicable to any member of the armed forces who the President determines is essential to the national security of the United States" Title 10, United States Code, Section 12305(a)

So why doesn’t he?? Why in a time of war does my President do nothing but give lip service about this issue? Why is my President allowing the loss of soldiers at a time when we’re sending surge after surge to the Middle East? Why does my President not end this blatant discrimination?

Because he’s busy is not a valid excuse to me...to save political capital isn’t either. This isn't some outlandish idea- this is exactly how President Truman ended segregation in our armed forces.

Nothing annoyed me more than the way supporters of George W. Bush blindly followed him without criticism. I am now seeing this same kind of thoughtless defense of Obama with the same results to my blood pressure.

Let’s stop making excuses and demand action.

scary

we've been so lucky this year in terms of missing disasters! and in a million other ways.

closing dinner

We had a great time at the closing dinner of the conference last Friday. The theme this year was aCADemy Awards or something cheesy to that effect. Tons of people dressed up as their favorite characters from movies including us...Hannibal and Clarice.

It's always a good thing to have the chance to hang out with everyone one last time before they scattered to the different corners of the world...

i finally got it posted!

be sure to check out the food blog for our night at woodfire!

helloooo midtown, it has been a while

we're all moved into our corporate digs. it's weird being back in midtown after all these years...it's changed a lot since i was 21, but then again i guess i have too. both for the better i hope. thank god.

the trude and i enjoyed a very long walk in piedmont on this sunny (finally!!) and blustery winter day. along the way we stopped to enjoy the view and bark at some geese...

she's baaaaaack

My current life provides me with more “me” time than I’d normally require. I have hours upon hours alone each day to fill in in different ways in various locations. Since leaving Puerto Rico I’ve had none. Zero alone time means no real time to think or reflect, much less write.

I decided to skip breakfast with the girls this morning and try to get a hold on everything that is scattered around this hotel room and my thoughts.

Soooo, home leave in a nutshell:

We came home to Atlanta to spend a few days with friends before heading out to the families. We saw Santaland Diaries and had some great brunches, lunches, dinners and drinks catching up. We headed north and visited my Grams and got to see some long lost fam of mine, which was great. Then we headed south where we ate, ate and ate some more, had a visit from Santa and spent time with the fam and friends in Albany.We then came home and celebrated the new year with dear friends and a great meal…





Then we continued the tour of friends with a trip to Athens, played in the snow, came down with a case of cabin fever and were cured by a 30th birthday and a very cautious cab driver…






A day or so later we moved into the hotel and the conference began. In one night we were sucked back into our other life…friends from all corners of the world that we hadn’t seen in months some in even a year were all together again and since then we’ve yet to really come up for air.

Although we did pull away for our night at Woodfire Grill with my favorite guys and it was AMAZING! I’ll be sure to get up the pics and review on the food blog soon. Until then you can feast on this…



We’ve got one more week of the conference, one more week of living in this weird black hole in Buckhead where we feel a million miles away from Atlanta and all our friends here.

Saturday we move into our corporate apartment in Midtown and relieve Pablo of dog duty because we get to have our little monkey come live with us! It will be sad to say goodbye to friends who we may or may not see this year but thankfully a good handful of them will be here in Atlanta with us.

I’m anxious to introduce and merge these two lives a little over the next 7 weeks, to really catch up with all of you that we’ve missed so much and of course living with this little terror…