Of Chicken and Men

A few things regarding the whole Dan Cathy/Chik-Fil-A debate:

1. I will not eat at Chik-Fil-A today, which has been deemed as "Chik-Fil-A Appreciation Day". Why not? I think it's great that a company, no matter what they believe, stands for what they believe in, whether it be traditional marriage, gay rights, the right to raise llamas in your backyard, whatever. Not only that, but it's Dan Cathy's right as an American to say and believe and support whatever he wants. The intent of this appreciation day is to say that it's perfectly okay for businesses and organizations on the political right to stand up for what they believe in, and you know what? It is. But I believe that this Chik-Fil-A appreciation day would only serve to fuel the divide between the Christian and LGBT communities. Personally, I have Christian values and have many Christian friends whom I love dearly. But I also have many friends in the LGBT community whom I love no more or less than my Christian ones. It seems to me that if I want to affirm a company/organization/person's right to say what they want, I don't need a special, emotionally charged day to show my support. 

2. I will, however, still eat at Chik-Fil-A occasionally. Why? Because I like their chicken sandwiches. Personally, I don't have time to nit pick every company that I put every dollar into and not buy from those that don't support what I believe in. It's exhausting. Plus, I'm not one for boycotting. So I will watch The Muppets while eating my Chik-Fil-A sandwich and waffle fries chased with an Oreo milkshake and be perfectly content.  *See Edit

3. I am disappointed at the reactions from both sides of the debate. Aren't Christians called to love one another? And by "one another", it's not meant to mean just other Christians. So how is judging people in the LGBT community loving them? Christians are called to be the "hands and feet of Christ", and Jesus was one to reach out and love on those that religious zealots deemed as "unclean" or "sinners", so why aren't those so outspoken on the issue more focused on creating personal relationships with those on the other side of the fence?

And shouldn't those who support LGBT rights and demand equality and want people to "treat others how they would want to be treated" do the same even with those who disagree with them? So how is setting up and participating in a "kiss-in" treating others how you would want to be treated? If you were dining at a restaurant that supported gay marriage, would you want to have a bunch of heterosexual couples start making out in front of that restaurant to prove a point? I know when I'm out dining with my family and small child, I don't want to be subject to abundant PDA, regardless of whether the couple is gay/lesbian or heterosexual.

It seems to me that if people would just practice what they preached, we'd all live in a happier place.

Love and Equality for all, even those who don't believe in the same things I do.


EDIT: Admittedly, I hadn't done much research on the subject when I made this post. After reading up some more on the issue, I have decided that until Chik-Fil-A stops donating money to organizations that are working to make being gay a crime, I will not be eating there, and will encourage others to do the same. A company that truly operates on "biblical principles" would reflects Christ's heart with their pocketbook as well as with words. There are plenty of Christian organizations out there that don't actively encourage hating groups of people.

EDIT 2: A friend of mine just linked Wayne Self's blog post on Facebook. I thought it was very inspiring and well-thought out as well. Take a gander.

Freakin' out, man.

Okay, so something seriously creepy happened last night and I am freakin' out just a little bit.

So Nate fell asleep in my bed last night. He didn't take his afternoon nap and had been awake for 7 hours (which is Alot) so I didn't think he'd be waking up during the night. I picked him up, put him in his crib, skyped with Boyfran for a while and then went to bed. I didn't turn the monitor on because I figured he'd be sleeping the whole night.

Well, around 5 a.m., I'm woken up by him shrieking and crying. I get out of bed and go to his room, but he's not in his crib! My heart jumps in my throat and I start to panic. I rush out of his room and into the living area, look around and see him in the kitchen. He's in there by himself, crying, and totally barefoot when I know for a fact that he had socks on when he went to bed because it was supposed to be a chilly night and, well, he just always has socks on.

So of course I sweep him up and start comforting him. He eventually calms down, and I take him back to my room and he falls asleep against me again, but this time I just let him sleep cuddled up next to me. 

Then it's time to wake up and get ready for work, at which point I picked him up and put him in his crib. I got ready and left, and noticed that the front door wasn't even locked. Then I start really freaking out. WHAT IF SOME PSYCHOPATH WAS IN MY HOUSE LAST NIGHT WITH MY CHILD?!

Of course, it's probably just a coincidence, but still. I've been going over and over this in my head trying to figure it out. I called my mom to ask if maybe she had him, but she said that she didn't, that she heard him crying "when I took him to the kitchen to get his bottle." But of course, I didn't take him to the kitchen and he didn't have a bottle. 

So this leaves me with very few explanations.

EXPLANATION 1:

Nate woke up and somehow ninja'd his way down his crib, crawled out of his door and to the kitchen, where he realized, "oh, man, it's kind of dark and nobody's around WAAAAA COME GET ME MAMA!"

EXPLANATION THE SECOND:

Nate sleepcrawled and didn't start crying until he inexplicably woke up in the kitchen in the dark.

EXPLANATION PART TRES:

Some pyschopath was in our house and took Nate out of his crib to take him away, but Nate woke up and started crying and scared him/her away.

EXPLANATION IV:

My brother got him and left him maybe on the sofa or something? But this is even less likely than a psychopath coming to the house.

And NONE OF THOSE explain how his socks just disappeared. I talked to my mom and she didn't notice his socks in his crib. 

What freaks me out most is that, since I don't know what happened, I don't know how to prevent it from happening again. What if he really did sleep crawl? What if next time he ends up somewhere he could get seriously hurt? What if a psycho really was in the house? What if they plan on coming back and really taking him next time? Uuuugh I hate this. It makes my head and tummy and heart hurt.

Catching up

AHMAHGAH, I AM SO BEHIND!

I've got so many things to write about: a trip to Canada, a trip to AlaBAMa, and the Indian food experience. Actually, I might have to do the Indian food experience again because the pictures I took have magically distappeared.

AND!

I need new things to try! I haven't even thought about what my next experiences should be. It's getting close to wintertime, so maybe they could be winter-related foods/movies/experiences? Again, nothing that would require spending all the money because I am poor.

WAIT!

I totally forgot I still have to watch The Godfather. Which I can totally do this weekend because it's Veteran's Day on Friday and I will have the day OFF, bitches! Hell yeah! But I still need suggestions so we can move right on along after that.

Gah, I feel like I need to write about all the things that have happened, but I don't even know where to begin.
Okay, let me 'splain. No, is too much. Let me sum up:

-trip to Canada
-moved offices and am adjusting because this new position keeps my bizzay.
-orchestra concert
-trip to AlaBAM!a
-grandma admitted to emergency room because of heart failure, freaked out, but she's okay now.
-stupid car troubles
-NATE TOOK HIS FIRST STEPS ON SATURDAY *supermegaflail*
-He also apparently has a slight lazy eye, so he needs to see some doctor so we can work on fixing it

Oh, and I am no longer single! I can hear the collective gasps and sobs from the long queue of suitors waiting outside my door right now (only not really because I had no suitors other than Boy. At least, none that I'm aware of.). But don't worry! It's a long-distance relationship, and we already had our time for each other each day pretty much set, so nothing has changed in my day-to-day life, which means that there won't be yet another thing to keep me away from my adoring fans. All 12 of you. *hears the relieved sighs*

That's pretty much the big things for now. Just a quick update to let you know I'm not dead yet!

I leave you with this picture of Nate to make up for my long absence. Isn't he the cutest?

Dear Brent

That's my Sharpie, bitch!

Love,
Me

I'm just THAT good.

I know I haven't posted in a while, and I totally have my Indian food post and a post about my vacation to put up, but this little gem was so good I had to put it up right away.

So the office I work in had this pot luck party at one of my coworkers's house. I signed up to bring up barbecue meatballs. Why? you ask. Because it's the simplest thing to make! Seriously, throw a bag of frozen meatballs and equal parts of barbecue sauce and grape jelly in a crock pot, set it on low before you go to bed and they are ready when you wake up. Easy peasey.

ANYWAY.

So we don't really use the crock pot much. Hardly ever, actually. My mom isn't much of a cook, and I've just started earning my kitchen wings. This means that we don't really have a way of carrying a crock pot to and from locations except by hand. I figure it won't be too bad, and I put one of those heavy duty trash bags underneath it should any sloshing happen. Great. I get everything situated on the floor on the passenger side of my car (that thing was HEAVY, by the way), and I'm off to work. I took it out and up to my office because you just don't leave food in your car for hours, and then when it came time to go to my coworker's house I took it back to my car and loaded it up, then of course had to unload it when I got there.

All of this loading and unloading, and it only sloshed a little bit, and it landed on to the bag. Sweet. So we get there, and there is TONS of food. Barely half (if that) of the meatballs were eaten, but that was sort of expected. So I had to load them back in my car on the way out.

Now, the house we were at was HUGE. I mean...whoa. And it had a huge circular driveway, which I conveniently parked at the end of. Now there was a smooth, cement part of the driveway that ran straight and to the back, and then the rest of the circle part was gravel. I parked on the end of the gravel. I loaded the meatballs back onto the garbage bag, got in the car, and started to reverse so I could back out onto the smooth cement part, then drive out (there were cars in front of me so I couldn't just drive forward).

I pushed gently on the accelerator, because I could see a Jeep somewhat close-ish in my rear view mirror and the last thing I need is to back into a parked car in front of my coworker's house, y'know? There was a little ledge I had to get over to get onto the cement, and that little bit of gas I gave didn't push the car over. So I pushed the gas pedal just a leeeeetle bit harder, still not enough. Finally, I gave it a nice tap, but the car SHOT back. I panicked because I thought the Jeep was super close and slammed on the brakes. In doing so, the crock pot heaved and meatballs and barbecue sauce flew out. (Turns out, the Jeep was still like 15 feet away. Go figure)

I saw the whole thing in slow motion. The lid bounced up and a tidal wave of sauce and meatballs poured out of the front, splashing the side panel, and getting all over the floor of my car. The bag couldn't save it. There was nothing I could do to stop it either, nothing but sit there and gape at the mess and think "....great." After about 10 seconds of staring at the pool of barbecue sauce, I quietly changed gears to "Drive" and went back to work, shaking my head the entire way back.

I parked, got out and went around to my passenger side and opened the door. It looked even worse from that angle. Sauce was dripping on the bottom of the door, even. I realized just how hopeless it was, cursed myself, grabbed my stuff, closed the door and trudged back to work.

Nina Knows Naught About: Indian food

To clarify, I mean Indian, like, from India. Not Native Americans.

So yeah, I figured I'd keep the momentum going. I don't want this thing to slow down so I'm going to do up this post and make myself go get Indian food sometime this week.

I don't really have any idea what Indian food tastes like. I kinda made naan once, on accident (I was trying to make tortillas but failed). The big impression in my head is that Indian food stinks. I used to work with this girl who would bring Indian food to work, and when she'd heat it up in the microwave at lunch time it would leave this god-awful stench that permeated that entire corner of the building and the surrounding offices. Seriously gagarrific. So that has just helped me to stay far, far away from Indian food restaurants.

Okay, now what I really need from you guys is suggestions. What do I order? I don't think there are any readers in the greater Houston area that could suggest places for me to go, so I'll just have to Google it. Or ask my brother's girlfriend. She likes Indian food. She may even go with me. But yeah, suggestions would be fantastic.

A Game of Thrones

FINALLY!

Okay, so now I've read the book, and let me tell you, there's actually other stuff besides sex! A lot of other stuff! I don't know why nobody ever mentions the other stuff because that stuff is way more interesting than the sex.

Yes, there is incest, and a 13-yr-old girl getting sexed, and rape, but when taken into context of the story it's not that bad. Also, the author does not mince words. A whore is a whore and a bastard is a bastard.

The story is told in the point of view of the characters. It's like a whole bunch of different individual stories woven together seamlessly to tell the bigger story. I like this style, because I get to know more about the main characters and it somehow makes it all the more personal, I guess.

Gah, I want to talk about ALL THE THINGS, but I am going to restrain myself. Just suffice it to say, it's a REALLY GOOD book! There are so many elements to it: knights and kings and queens and lords and ladies,  honor, loyalty, deceit, betrayal, seduction, lust, love, family, bravery, cowardice, war. And there are dream motifs (look at me and my literary terms!), animal/nature symbolism... I truly believe there's a little something in here that most people will enjoy reading about.

OH! But it's not a story that you want to read to your child under 13, unless you're ready for questions like, "Mama, what does 'cunt' mean?"