A Peaceful, Rainy Day

[wlotus]

I'm spending the afternoon sitting at the window with my laptop on the windowsill, so I can look out at my wet neighborhood. Earlier this afternoon I had been knitting as I took notes of our weekly conference call. I'm an account executive on the financial services team of People's Financial Network, and we meet each week by 'phone to exchange information and ideas.

In my past jobs, I hated meetings. Most of them felt like a waste of time, and many were full of useless propaganda, either for the company or for someone's personal agenda. (We weren't supposed to notice, though.) But I've sat in on several conference calls with the financial services team as we've gone through our various permutations, and all of them are full of useful information. It helps me to touch base with the others, especially since I work from home. So, I don't mind calling in each week. (It also helps that Verizon Wireless recently started their own Friends & Family program, so I can use my minutes for business calls, rather than using my minutes to call my 5 most-used personal numbers.)

Yesterday I got a serious case of cabin fever. The weather was warm and sunny through the morning and early afternoon. I went out at noon to move my car for alternate side parking, and the spring bug bit me. Though I had no particular place to go or errands to run, I needed to get outside rightnowthissecondorIwouldgonuts. 90 minutes later I headed to the subway, camera in hand. After a short walk through Bryant Park, I met T when she got off work and hung out with her. The time out saved my sanity, I do declare! If I had woken up to today's rain after staying indoors all day yesterday, I would probably be pacing the ceiling right now.


Bryant Park is becoming a place to hang out, again.

Oh, and the next time I go into Manhattan, would someone please keep me OUT of the Fossil store? I bought a watch band from them yesterday, though T and I had only gone in there to "look". Granted, I needed a new watch band, as my other one was in bad shape. (I wore the new band home and had the store discard the old one.) Okay, I'll allow myself the spontaneous purchase, this time. :-) But I need someone to save me from myself, as I have been looking for a new watch for a long time and found a couple in there that I like a lot. I own four wristwatches, one which is only for VERY special occasions and one which needs serious repair before it can keep time. The watch I bought the new band for (which I wear most of the time, as it has features I like) was bought for me by my ex-fiance'. For the relative newcomers to my blog, he and I split up nearly FOURTEEN years ago and have not been in touch for 13 years.

You know what? Scratch that request. Here is a new one: the next time I am in Manhattan, would someone drag me bodily to the Fossil store and demand I buy a watch to replace that relic from a long-past (thank the good lord) life?!? Thank you.

Here's a Tweet from lilrongal that made my day: the Iowa high court unanimously legalized gay marriage, today!!!! Another state has gotten it right. It is heartening to see lawmakers and judicial systems around the country slowly acknowledge that exclusion is wrong and should go the way of the south's Jim Crow laws.

Comments

[faerie-spark.livejournal.com]

I love the image of you pacing the ceiling, especially since you didn't actually have to do it.
And hurrah for Iowa. They did indeed get it right!

[shutterbug.livejournal.com]

Stereotyping, however...

I can't believe Iowa figured it out before California. Maybe a move to the Midwest is a good thing for more than just me, myself and I. Something I stand for might actually thrive as well!

[untied.livejournal.com]

california should be shamed.
and how wonderful for those in iowa who can wake up in the morning feeling validated as a citizen and individual.

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

I'm blurry on the timeline and am not going to look up the details right now, but I think CA figured it out first in the same way: Supreme Court ruling. But opponents in CA took it to the next step and took it to a public vote to have the constitution changed. (I could very well be wrong about the order of events, so corrections are welcome.) That is what opponents in Iowa are looking to do, though the state majority leader doesn't seem interested in bringing that up this session or the next.

[balmofgilead.livejournal.com]

California['s courts] figured it out, but California has a strange constitution in that it allows voters to add stuff to the state constitution by simple plebiscite, hence Proposition 8. (I think that ability mostly gets used for suitably liberal things, like the recent proposition requiring more space for caged farm animals, but in Prop 8 it got used to outlaw same-sex marriage.) Iowa's constitution would require a law like Prop 8 to go through legislature (possibly with more than a simple majority there) in addition as being put to popular vote, and that's less likely to happen. Fortunately.

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

Thank you for clearing that up for us. I'm relieved.

[balmofgilead.livejournal.com]

I hope that *did* clarify it...it's so complicated that I wasn't sure what I said would make sense.

I'm also still holding out hope that the CA Supreme Court will strike down Prop 8, although sadly, it doesn't look great at this point. The decision has to be handed down by June 6th, so we'll see.