1) finding sand from the beach in my shoulder bag while I'm sitting in the office

2) having my friend buy me an iced coffee treat for no reason, just to be nice and surprise me

3) a sunny, warm, non-humid day

4) a crisp, cold, juicy apple

5) petting a nice, purring cat

It helped a little...

This couple almost got married in Virginia because the "bride" passed for a woman when they applied for their license. When the state found out he was a man, a judge said the marriage was "invalid from the start" and took it out of the public record, as if it had never happened.

Why did they have to be so mean? They just wanted to be together. It makes me sad. I really feel like this is nothing more than singling out gays and picking on them. The religious excuses for it (which I find bogus anyway) shouldn't come into play, because this is a contract through the government.

I just hope more states follow California's lead. Either that or discontinue marriage as a legal institution altogether, since the benefits that come along with it favor married people over singles so heavily it could almost be seen as discrimination.

Breakfast:
a handful of Dots
a glass of juice

Lunch/snacks:
two handfuls of Sour Patch Kids
half a doughnut
at least 10 Club crackers
two Keebler Soft Batch cookies
two medium iced coffees

No wonder I feel nervous, good lord. I've probably consumed the equivalent of 90 teaspoons of sugar. I'm lucky if I don't stroke out.

Also, I've done some traveling lately, and I feel like I haven't told you about it at all. So I think what I'm gonna do is go back over the last year and tell you about my trips and places I would recommend when you go to the same spots. That might give this dumb boring blog some direction.

As I walked onto the metro platform at the Pentagon, a man said good morning to me. I said hello, and he said, "You know, when you walk like that with your head down, you are depriving the rest of the world of your beauty, and I personally take offense to that!" Then he smiled and kept walking. Who is that nice? (Especially since I'm in my glasses today.) I love friendly strangers, that made my day!

And the weather is gorgeous, I'm gonna go listen to jazz in the garden at the National Gallery of Art sculpture garden after work and enjoy it.

And someone brought a huge fruit tart to work to share.

And I've got the whole wonderful weekend ahead of me....

You can read Christoph's post about it if you want to know more, but here's my rundown: the bridal store ruined her dress the day before the wedding, we found out the DJ canceled the morning of, the florist lost the flower order, the liquor store lost the beer order, the water main was broken in her hometown, there was flooding over the roads every time you turned a corner, the wedding venue closed down two days before, the best man's luggage got lost en route, YOU NAME IT.

But can I tell you, everything came together perfectly in the end. The park reopened, so they had their ceremony in this adorable little lodge, and the reception out in the front yard under the trees. Though the ground was wet, the rain stopped for the wedding, and everything was really beautiful and fresh. The dance later on had karaoke, which I love more and more every time I do it, and the bride treated us to a rousing rendition of "Welcome to the Jungle" that I will personally never forget!

The C & C Lo adventure continues...

Oh, one more thing - since we were back at Christina's parents' house, you better believe I got to go shooting again!

I'll post some photos of the wedding party as soon as I get them.

Except I was jealous of a lie. Birds aren't really free, not at all. No animals are free. They have very predictable, instinctual lives that have nothing to do with waking up one morning and just having a silly adventure, or leaving and never coming back. Like my mom said, who knows if they have emotions and questions the way we do - they might! - they do not just fly away from their predestined, instinct-driven lives for no reason. They can't, or at least they never do.

We can, though. We humans are the freest beings on the planet. If we feel shackled or helpless or hopeless, it is the fault of no being but ourselves. We should be jealous of nothing, because we alone are the creatures that have total control over our lives. Any prison we find ourselves in is one of our own making.

More later.

We remember all of you. We're in this together.

We met some really cool people, including my new friend Karen, who let me finish her chicken strips. She knows the way to my heart.

Seriously, what color is my hair, anyway?

When I see pictures like this, I just want to cut it into a frizzy mullet and live like that for awhile. Admit it, it would be kind of fun to have a crew cut business in the front and a frizzy blond party in the back.

Admit it. Especially with those sunglasses.

By the way, here is the man himself in case you thought I was exaggerating our similarities at all. You can plainly see Michael and I share a hair gene.

I thought it was all fine and dandy until a few days later when we were talking to a coworker about singing and I made fun of my voice and how I was always off-key but thought I sounded good. Our coworker said, "Oh, I'm sure it's not that bad." I said, "Pretty bad." Debra decided to chime in, "No, you don't understand. It's REALLY bad." THANK YOU, DEBRA.

What kind of a person steals from a food bank? It's not like they stole from the rich to give to the poor, you know? They stole from the poor to do what, sell off the back of a truck? People disgust me.