30
End of an Era
I've had the pleasure of working with one of my best friends for the past six months. Keith, whom I have known for four-and-a-half years now, since he was a freshman and I was a junior, has been my co-worker since August and tomorrow is his last day as such. His temporary position officially ends, and he heads off to Oakland, CA sometime next month for bigger and better things.
Needless to say, tomorrow will be a strange, sad day. Though he's not leaving Vermont quite yet, and though I'll see him a few times before he leaves, it's still a very meaningful occasion. He's done, and I've just realized that I'm going to desperately miss him.
Keith has been a "little brother" of sorts over the years. When I met him, he was just a scared closeted kid and I helped him come out. He heard "It's Raining Men" for the first time in my dorm room and it was all downhill from there. Since then I've seen him grow into a confident gay man and a strong leader. That is -- more or less, certainly less Weathergirls -- what I write about him when he asks for letters of reference, and its what I'll write here because, well, it's the truth. Our friendship has gone various intervals, with times of intense closeness and times of cool, temporary distance, but this is the first time he'll be gone -- not in Vermont, and not coming back. I wish him all the best, but I am totally bummed.
Keith's departure will essentially mark the last of my close college friends to leave Vermont -- an exodus that began en masse when I graduated in 2003. Since then, I've often felt like the last person left here in Burlington and, after tomorrow, that will pretty much be true. Faced with this reality, I'm starting to think that my own desire to leave town isn't based upon a yearning for adventure, but for the sense of friendship, support, and community that's been lacking in my life since graduation. I don't miss college that much, but I do miss having many of my friends close by. And I think that has less to do with being a twenty-something in Vermont, and more to do with being a twenty-something period. All part of that wacky quarter-life crisis...
Best of luck, Keith. May you find friendship, support, and community in California in addition to adventure. You will be missed here in Vermont!
Posted on 01/30/06 at 8:44 PM | Comments (1)Tagged: Quarter Life Crisis
26
VT Gay Marriage *ahem* "Round-Up"
While there hasn't been a whirlwind of coverage on Vermont's planned same-sex marriage bill that I mentioned yesterday, there is some, and most of it (from my Googling, anyway) appears to be local.
A quick round-up finds articles at Burlington Free Press.com, The Barre Montpelier Times Argus, Boston.com (The Boston Globe), and 365gay.com.
Don't bother clicking through any of those links, though. Each article is exactly the same (yay AP!). And each article includes that horrible and defeating first paragraph:
A Burlington lawmaker has drafted a bill to expand marriage to same-sex couples and plans to introduce it Thursday, although neither he nor advocates believe it will be debated or adopted this year.
As I understand it, it's unlikely for any bill to be "debated or adopted" in its first year, so unlikely that it's pretty much assumed for any new bill. The mention of this "fact" in the first paragraph of each article, in my opinion, is pretty biased and smacks of homophobia. But, hey, maybe I'm just biased myself. I obviously have an agenda for civil rights for me and mine -- but that's OK, because I'm not a journalist like Ross Sneyd of the Associated Press.
Also? I found no mention of the story on some Vermont "news media" sites, such as "The Champlain Channel" (our NBC affiliate, WPTZ) -- which features a top story headline of "Neighbors Irate Over B&B 'Swingers' Parties" yet no mention of this bill -- or, more disappointingly, my hometown's Rutland Herald -- which won a Pulitzer in 2001 because of its editorials on gay marriage/civil unions. I guess everybody in our little state is so focused on that Cashman controversy to pay much attention.
I'm certainly a long way from my old political and activist days, and I'm not very savvy when it comes to journalism, particularly online stuff, these days -- I haven't had a class on journalistic ethics since '99 -- so I'm sure someone will weigh in to correct me if any of this is wrong.
But I am entitled to my non-journalistic, pro-gay opinion, and it is simple:
that paragraph=biased
same-sex marriage=good
this bill=a big deal
Tagged: Gay Rights , Vermont
25
Same-Sex Marriage Bill to be Introduced in VT
Lawmaker plans bill expanding marriage to same-sex couplesA small step towards history? Or a small step towards nothing? Either way, that's a pretty defeatist first paragraph... You can read the rest of the story here or you can visit the Vermont Freedom to Marry website. Posted on 01/25/06 at 4:27 PM | Comments (0)
MONTPELIER, Vt. -- A Burlington lawmaker has drafted a bill to expand marriage to same-sex couples and plans to introduce it Thursday, although neither he nor advocates believe it will be debated or adopted this year. [ full article ]
Tagged: Gay Rights , Vermont
Fraternity
I also noticed for the first time that, despite our ten year age difference, we have the same eyes, from the pale blue color to the eyebrows, which we share with our mother. I suppose we have the same nose, too.
Ah, genetics... Just you wait until the beer gut comes in college, bro.
Posted on 01/25/06 at 1:35 PM | Comments (4)Tagged: Family
23
In Bed With Berkus
Anyway, I went to Linens & Things the other day, shopping around for a new comforter, and there I was confronted with THE NATE BERKUS COLLECTION. So the dude is hot -- kinda looks like the dad from Gilmore Girls, who was in that gay movie with that guy from Melrose Place -- and his picture is all over the place. And then it turns out his stuff isn't so bad.
In fact, one thing in particular was so not bad that I obsessed about it for a few days. A "coverlet" -- whatever that means -- in "Rust" (looks orange to me). Said "Rust coverlet" had been in my thoughts since Saturday, so today I took a trip back to LnT and picked up this "Queen Coverlet":
Yelli, my bed is orange now. When are you coming back to Vermont so you can sleep in it?
Tagged: Gay Stuff , Hot Guys , Life, Etc.