I (Don't) Wanna Be Sedated

So I went to the oral surgeon yesterday and we discussed my options:

Option 1: No surgery, but I have to have a full head X-ray every 2 years to make sure that nothing is infected and the tooth on the bottom left isn't hitting a major nerve.

Option 2: Have surgery, take a xanex prior to surgery (to "put me in a good place" as the Dr. put it), no food or non-clear liquids past midnight the night before, have nitrus oxide and novacane during surgery and intense pain killers after.

Option 3: Have surgery, have an IV, nitrus oxide and novacane.

Option 4: Have surgery, go to hospital and go completely under, monitored by an anesthesiologist.

I want option one, but after discussing it with mum and the oral surgeon we decided upon option 2. I told her I'm a psychology major and I am morally opposed to drugs like xanex (if I weren't I would be pre-med right now going into psychiatry) and she said she'd be more than willing to do the surgery with just novacane, but my mother seemed to think that was insane (and I'm inclined to think it is too) so we're getting the insurance quote with all of the bells and whistles.

My surgery date is December 22 at 9 am, two days after my return from London, two days before Christmas, and a week and two days before I move into the new apartment with Hillary. Hopefully I'll be able to con some of my friends in to helping us move into the new place because I have a feeling that, although I am going to put on a brave (albeit swollen) face, I am going to be borderline useless in moving heavy furniture or doing much besides complaining. Good times will surely be had by all this coming Christmas and New Years.


This is me holding my new baby niece for the first time *heart swells with joy.* I like to call it "Safe in Auntie Rachel's Pasty White Arms in the Dead of Summer," it has a real ring to it.


This is Hill holding the new baby for the first time :) loveee the gay shirt Hill. Should get a onesie for the new kid "I <3 my two Aunties" next time we're in P-Town.

And to give any of you who don't reside in New England (more specifically Connecticut and Massachusetts because I'm relatively unfamiliar with the weather patterns in the other N.E. states) an indication of what we've been dealing with lately in terms of weather, this is what mother nature was giving us while it was raining, right after it had stopped torentially downpouring, right after it had been a foggy evening, right after it had been a beautiful sunny skied afternoon right after it had been a misty overcast morning:


Let's hope for warmth and sun so Auntie Rachel can go swimming and start working on that farmer's tan. That sunset is very deceptive, though. Almost makes you want to like the place :P

June

Didn't realize this but I totally missed the one year anniversary of blogging, yay. It's been a great year, pretty eventful, a complete learning experience, but that's what life is all about. I hope you've had a good year too.

So we're back in June. June is probably my favourite month (though it's quickly becoming my least favourite month due to the fact that I somehow magically age one year every June... fml) because it's the start of summer and it's glorious. The pool is opened and we started hanging out outside more often and I'm free from the confines of the classroom (save for this summer... another fml).

This will be my first year of truly taking part in any pride events (besides starting and running the GSA and all that entails, going to Disney for gay days, going to P-Town on the regs, prop 8 rallies, etc.) because this year I'm going to Hartford Pride (next Saturday) and Boston Pride (June 13, the day after my birthday!). Hartford should be a good time because it's close to home so I don't have to drive a long distance, it should be small enough that I won't feel overwhelmed, and it will be a good opportunity for me to get a feel for real pride events.

Boston Pride is going to be huge, overwhelming, and probably a little scary, but it will be totally awesome because I love Boston and I haven't been out there in a few weeks. Boston Pride is one of the major pride parades so it should be really... insightful. Oh, and Melissa Etheridge is the celebrity marshal for Boston Pride 2009!?!?!?! Well, I don't think that means that she'll be there, but she's pretty freakin swell and I'd do basically anything for her so I'll totally be at Boston Pride.

Hope everyone is having a productive Monday thus far! Happy June!!

Valentine's Day

Since Valentine's Day happened to fall on the long weekend this year, and I had big plans for Saturday, I decided Hillary and I would go home to Connecticut for the weekend. So right now I'm sitting in my green chair in my living room after having held my rabbit and played with my dog. I miss those things so much at school, it's going to be heartbreaking to leave tomorrow. But I'll start from the beginning of the weekend, it's mainly adorable so if you don't appreciate adorable things you should avert your eyes.

Friday night Hillary called me to come over to her dorm around 5, as she was making me dinner and she was lonely in the kitchen all by herself. But I was explicitly told to not go into her room. So we hung out in the kitchen while she cooked me my Valentine's dinner (which was a surprise up until that point). Now, Hillary is no cook mind you, so this was a HUGE deal. She made pasta alfredo with chicken, and the alfredo sauce was home made (by Hillary!). She did an amazing job and it was probably the best pasta alfredo I've had in my entire life, without exaggeration.

Then we hung out and nursed our food babies for about an hour and Hillary went to the fridge and brought out a plate full of strawberries dipped in chocolate that she had made a few hours earlier. It was so sweet because when we go grocery shopping she knows that I immediately go to the berries and get strawberries and raspberries (my absolute fave!). She told me she almost got raspberries to dip in the chocolate but that she was advised that they wouldn't be conducive to being covered in chocolate. It was so cute, and they were absolutely amazing, and it was especially appreciated because Hillary doesn't eat chocolate (it makes her sick or something or she is revolted by it, I dunno she's just weird) so she made them entirely for me.



We spent the rest of the evening watching Chocolat, which was SUPERB! We loved that movie and definitely recommend it.

Saturday morning we got up early and drove to the destination of my part of the Valentine's Day planning. Over Thanksgiving when I told Hillary I was going to the National Zoo she told me that she loves zoos but she hadn't been to one in a very long time. I love zoos and the Roger Williams Zoo in Providence is probably my favourite zoo ever (for sentimental reasons). I hadn't been there in a year or two (my parents had been taking me to that zoo basically from birth) and I figured she would enjoy it too. So I took her to the zoo, which was about an hour from school and two hours from home, and we had an fantastic time. A baby giraffe was born there in late December, so the little guy was still very little and sooo cute.



And we saw the gibbons, who I always sort of gravitate too every time I go to Roger Williams. They had a jouvenile male who was so active, such a crazy. He kept running up to his dad and hitting him and trying to get him to play, but dad was having none of it. I got a really good picture of the boy and his dad together.



After we were done at the zoo we went to the merry-go-round in the park. There was basically no one there, and a ride on the merry-go-round only cost a dollar. It was a lot of fun, we really enjoyed ourselves and it was by far the best Valentine's Day I've ever had.



We had dinner at Cracker Barrel and took the long drive home. When we got home we hung out with my mother and Naveen for the rest of the evening, playing Monopoly and drinking. Eventually we stopped playing and started chatting and we talked until 2 am. We talked about everything from our uncertainty over the fate of our college, the economy, the inequities between the genders, etc. We finally went to bed after a fun filled two days of awesome, and were woken up this morning to cinnabuns and tea because my mother loves us dearly.

I really love Hillary. I love her because she's sitting in the same room with me right now, on her lap top, and we can be contented to just do our own thing for a little while. I love her because she sneaks up behind me when I'm brushing my hair and wraps her arms around me. I love her because she lets me sleep in while she showers (and doesn't hold it against me when I tell her I'm just going to be that kid who doesn't bother to shower). She's the best, and like I told her last night, she's my best friend and such a great love. I'm so happy.

Happy Thanksgiving Canada!

Today is Canadian Thanksgiving, and tomorrow they elect their new leaders.

I can't say as though I'm up to date on Canadian politics, but from what I understand the great white north isn't doing much better than we in the States are right now.

In any event, it's Thanksgiving and there is so so so much to be thankful for. Great family, good food, a roof over our heads, the ability to see each other, to know we love each other.

I am looking forward to getting back to school though, despite all the work that is growing in huge piles all around me. It was very nice to get away from the chaos for a while, but I'm ready to go back.

I'm kind of sad because I don't know when the next time I'll be going home is. My best friend called me about a week ago asking when I was going home so she could plan accordingly and I had to tell her honestly I don't know. The next time might be as far away as winter break. I'll be in D.C. for our Thanksgiving holiday, and all the weekends between now and winter break seem to be filling themselves with concerts and day trips and work work work.

I do miss home, as much as I'm used to the dorm and have re-adjusted to the chaos of college life. There is no cat to curl up on my chest, and no dog to lay at my feet. And the novelty of same-sex marriage has warn off in Massachusetts, I wish I were in Connecticut to see how all this is playing out. I wish soooo badly that I had been there last Friday. But at least I can say I'm from Connecticut, one of the free states.

Green Places

Happy national coming out day!

National coming out day isn't very much fun when you're not in the States. But I'm out, so woo yay for outness. Although I still refuse to let my mother into my dorm room, for fear that she will have a coronary. I feel like she's okay with the fact that I'm gay, but she probably won't be okay with the fact that I really truly like women, and I don't hide that fact (if that makes any sense).

I'm still basking in the glow of CT's decision to legalise same sex marriage.

Today was basically uneventful, except for the fact that I had my first (and then second) ever legal drink (in Canada). I ordered something called a paralyser, and it was delicious, sort of like a mudslide only much less thick, maybe more like kalua. And then I had two glasses of Australian white wine. And then I teetered out the door. And they never even carded me! The meal was very good also, but the conversation was the best part of the dinner (and although the trip isn't done, I am going to go out on a limb here and say it will be the best part of this holiday).

My favorite story tonight was probably when my uncle was telling me about being in the army in '69. His platoon was told to go out on the base and clean up anything bigger than a cigarette butt, so they did. But as they were picking up litter, they also picked daises and wild flowers and stuck them in their uniforms. The sixties.

Monday is Thanksgiving but we're celebrating tomorrow, which will be nice. Good food is ALWAYS a welcome change from the standard food at school. And I've been eating nothing but good food since I hopped in the car Thursday night, and that is DEFINITELY something to be thankful for. I'm reading Amazing Grace by Kozol right now and it's incredible and very eye opening. If you're familiar with anything by Kozol you've probably been moved to tears and or made physically ill. I was reading the past I'm about to quote when I had a free minute at work the other day and, luckily for me, there was no one around because I need to maintain my tough facade, but I literally started crying.

"I ask them, 'Is this a good country?'
'No,' says Chevonne.
'Somewhere,' says Kimberly.
'Where?' I ask.
'Maybe in Connecticut,' she says.
'Why Connecticut?'
'It's quiet there,' she says. 'They have green places.'"

I take for granted the quiet and the green. I wish I could scoop all these children up in my arms and save them from the country that doesn't give a damn about them, save them from the world that wouldn't even notice if they were gone. I don't know what to do, I don't know where to begin. I think that's why I want to be a psychologist, and why I want to work with adolescents. I don't want my hands to be clean. If you have the ability you should take full advantage of the opportunity to help, and this world, this country, these people, they need our help.

O... Connecticut???

Okay everything needs to slow down and freeze for a hot second.

THE CONNECTICUT SUPREME COURT RULED IN FAVOUR OF LEGALISING SAME SEX MARRIAGE TODAY!!!

oH MY GOD

I was taking a nap in the hotel room in St. John's, Newfoundland this afternoon when I was awoken to my mother saying "Oh my gosh Rachel! Did you hear?"

To which I could only mumble "Uhm, no, I am asleep."

And then she told me that our state, the place I called home for most of my life, where I was born and raised, has come to the conclusion that "love is all you need."

Connecticut has never made me feel insignificant in any way, as a state, or as the town I live in, or the public school system I attended or the jobs I've had or the church I go to. I've always felt that I mattered, that I was a contributing member of society in my own way, just like everyone else I interacted with (or didn't). I feel that everyone matters, and by golly today Connecticut confirmed that conviction.

I wish I were in Hartford right now, so so so bad. If I weren't here for Thanksgiving I would be in Hartford right now decked out in rainbow glory and being riotously loud. All I can say is that Connecticut, you picked a terrible time to do this. Why couldn't you do this when I am home? Alas.

As an aside, Newfoundland is awesome. I'm having a great time, even though local time is a little after 12:30, and I've been up since 4:30 yesterday morning.

The weather was great today, and I went to my favourite spot in St. John's for a bit and then back to my uncle's house for good food and great conversation.

My favourite quote on the evening: On why my Newfie friend should be McCain's VP:
"Forget Palin, we can see fucking Ireland from here!"