12 August 2008

Just found out that one of my former interns is now starring in a DC-based reality series on Lifetime. Hoo boy!

12 August 2008

Highlights of our recent trip to the Jersey shore:

1) Spending lots of time with my amazing spousal equivalent. (It was also great seeing my mother-in-law equivalent and her gentleman friend.)

2) Laziness. Big time. Like, sleeping late nearly every day...and not feeling the least bit guilty.

3) Excessive Wii playing. I'm now a "pro" in tennis, golf, and bowling, thankyouverymuch.

4) Water ice at Junior's on the Bay.

5) A long morning bike ride on the boardwalk in Ventnor/Atlantic City. Just glorious.(That was the one morning I actually woke up early--at least on purpose!)


VENTOR BOARDWALK

6) Breakfasts at Down Beach Deli. (Which we affectionately call D.B.D.)

7) Reading on the beach. Swimming in the ocean. Soaking up the rays. (Of course, I was wearing SPF 55!)

8) Walks through downtown Stone Harbor and eating Kohr Brothers custard. (LOVE the chocolate and peanut butter twist!)


STONE HARBOR

9) Crossing the bridge into Margate and getting that first whiff of sea/marsh air.

10) Drinking Coronas on the front porch of the shore house with my girl's high school skating friends. (I caught the tail end of girl's weekend!)

25 July 2008

I think we need a new transcription service. Here's a "rushed" transcript from last weekend's Beltway Boys.

KONDRACKE: The rest of the world is not paying attention, Fred, but it was 10 years ago this very day that television history was made. "The Beltway Boys" were launched upon the scene. And we could not have made it without our wonderful producer, Michelle Rumbalard (ph), who was with us for the entire way.

Oh well.

28 July 2008

So, the girl and I are officially members of Facebook.

It's kind of crazy how addictive it is...already!

By the way, be my friend please.

21 July 2008

I said goodbye to my friend and former colleague Tony Snow last week. A write-up of the funeral is here. Tony and I weren't particularly close, but we worked together for years, we shared a lot of laughs(we had the same goofy sense of humor), we both loved music, and he always sought me out for hugs. Even when he was at the White House and would stop by the office, he'd make a beeline to me (even if it was during a live show!). He'd joke that I "was the best hugger in the business." He reminded me a lot of my brother, which made me feel extra close to him.

Funerals are strange to begin with, but it was a especially weird to be at a service with some 2,000 people...including the President, who was sitting 15 feet away from me. The service was long and emotional and I half expected Bush to get up and leave at some point, sneaking away in a crowd of Secret Service agents. Every now and then I'd crane my neck to see if he was still there. He was. It was strange to be steps away from a huge picture of Tony with his joyful smile beaming back at me...right next to an urn containing his ashes. It was heartbreaking to see the wife and three kids Tony left behind. I lost my dad, but I was an adult. I still grieve for him and I could burst out crying at any moment thinking about it--but to be 7 or 8 and losing a parent must be devastating.

But I left the church feeling we'd given Tony a good send-off. That gave me comfort. And I took away some lessons on life that Tony gave all of us--through the eulogies of his brother and close friends. His message: Live Boldly. Cherish your family. Be a good friend. And have fun.

There were many emotional moments during the service, but I was particularly moved by a song sung by a choir that Tony's daughter performs in. It's called "Sing Me To Heaven." Tony was a master at words. And there were many words spoken during the funeral that made it clear how devastating a loss this is for everyone who knew him. But it was this song that broke me up the most.

Here are the words:

In my heart's sequestered chambers lie truths stripped of poets' gloss
Words alone are vain and vacant, and my heart is mute
In response to aching silence, memory summons half-heard voices
And my soul finds primal eloquence, and wraps me in song

If you would comfort me, sing me a lullaby
If you would win my heart, sing me a love song
If you would mourn me and bring me to God,
sing me a requiem, sing me to Heaven

Touch in me all love and passion, pain and pleasure
Touch in me grief and comfort, love and passion, pain and pleasure
Sing me a lullaby, a love song, a requiem
Love me, comfort me, bring me to God

Sing me a love song, sing me to Heaven


NOTE: this picture of Tony captures him perfectly--he loved music and playing with his band "Beats Workin'." Tony said he'd rather the band be called "Nine Inch Nosehairs" since the bandmembers were all over 50. It still makes me laugh thinking about it.

16 July 2008

After 9 beautiful years, I have severed my relationship with my beloved Mustang. Sold it the other night to a nice man in my neighborhood (who apparently is going through a mid-life crisis.) I have a great new car that I love (it's a sporty sedan that gets MUCH better gas milage!) but still, I'm a little wistful of the days and nights when I would zip around down with the top down and the radio blasting.

Good bye, old friend.

16 July 2008

So, the lead singer of the Barenaked Ladies was arrested on drug charges while in my hometown of Syracuse...actually in Fayetteville, an eastern suburb which is a stone's throw from where I grew up in E. Syracuse. The story is HERE. There in the 'Cuse to perform an impromptu concert at Syracuse University for VH1.

Kind of strange.

11 July 2008

In case you didn't know, I have a very rare medical condition that I like to call "musical tourette's." Whenever I hear a song or even a lyric (even when it's just spoken), I latch onto it and immediately start singing the song outloud.

Well, for two days now I've been singing Crowded House's "Something So Strong." What's REALLY strange is I haven't heard the song or heard any of the lyrics at any point during the past two days. It just popped into my head.

Very strange.

30 June 2008

The usual postings on our neighborhood listserv usually have to do with notices about upcoming meetings, folks looking for recommendations on painters, plumbers, etc.

Then there was THIS one from the other day:


"Seen today in Sligo Creek Park, near Dale and Hartford, location
shooting for the 2009 film "the Manson Girls!"

For those interested in the legacy of the legendary Manson Family, the
announcement of the film 'The Manson Girls', may peak your interest.

Billed as the true story of Charles Manson as seen through the eyes of
Brenda, Sadie and Squeaky; girls from ostensibly normal families who
grew to become some of his most loyal followers.

Evidently, Park Hills and Sligo Creek Park is a lot like California..."

Yipes. This was going on right down the street from me.

As a former long-time resident of Capitol Hill --my first apartment was within sight of the actual Capitol building--I'm used to people shooting movies close to where I live. (Scenes from "Wag the Dog" and "Mercury Rising" were actually shot within steps from the walk-up where I used to live.)

But a movie about followers of Charles Manson...that's a little creepy.

16 June 2008

One of my neighbors has published some photos on Flickr of a tree that fell across Dale Drive a couple of weeks ago in a wicked storm that blew through our area. It not only disrupted traffic on a busy street--it disrupted power to our neighborhood for about 2 and a half days.

I didn't mind not having lights and TV...it was actually a nice change of pace to light candles and open the windows and just...talk. What really got to me was the heat. The upstairs of our 30s era Cape Cod is normally hotter than other parts of the house anyway..but it was downright unbearable with temps in the 90s during the day and the 80s at night. The girl was fine up there, but I got too hot so I took to our livingroom couch. It's right next to a window and it cooled off pretty well, but by 5:30 in the morning, seemingly every bird in America was outside that window squaking their little hearts out. Needless to say, I was a little cranky those couple of days.

Thank goodness for our neighborhood listserv. Neighbors kept in touch throughput the day with updates on what was happening--or more like it, NOT happening--when it came to the County removing the tree. Folks called County council people, the Dept of Public Works, and other various governmental agencies to apply a little pressure.

We were ready to go to a hotel the third night, but when we came home from work we met at "the tree" to see if there was any movement. Alas, the County sent a truck and it was being mulched and chopped up before our eyes. I was still a bit skeptical they could get the power back on after that (the girl seemed to think it would be on almost immediately after the tree was removed)... so we decided to grab a bite to eat and see what happens after that. At the end of our meal, the girl decided to call home and see if we could get our answering machine to pick up. Well, it did...and we enjoyed a blissful evening in our AC and computer and television....

16 June 2008

Happy Wedding Day, Phyllis and Del.

Lesbian couple of 55 years ready to say 'I do' By LISA LEFF, Associated Press Writer
8 minutes ago



Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin fell in love at a time when lesbians risked being arrested, fired from their jobs and sent to electroshock treatment.

On Monday afternoon, more than a half-century after they became a couple, Lyon and Martin plan to become the first same-sex couples to legally exchange marriage vows in San Francisco and among the first in the state.

"It was something you wanted to know, 'Is it really going to happen?' And now it's happened, and maybe it can continue to happen," Lyon said.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom plans to officiate at the private ceremony in his City Hall office before 50 invited guests. He picked Martin, 87, and Lyon, 84, for the front of the line in recognition of their long relationship and their status as pioneers of the gay rights movement.

Along with six other women, they founded a San Francisco social club for lesbians in 1955 called the Daughters of Bilitis. Under their leadership, it evolved into the nation's first lesbian advocacy organization. They have the FBI files to prove it.

Their ceremony Monday will, in fact, be a marriage do-over.

In February 2004, San Francisco's new mayor decided to challenge California's marriage laws by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. His advisers and gay rights activists knew right away which couple would put the most compelling human face on the issue: Martin and Lyon.

Back then, the couple planned to celebrate their 51st anniversary as live-in lovers on Valentine's Day. Because of their work with the Daughters, they also were icons in the gay community.

"Four years ago, when they agreed to be married, it was in equal parts to support the mayor and to support the idea that lesbians and gay people formed committed relationships and should have those relationships respected," says Kate Kendell, a close friend and executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

Lyon and Martin vividly recall the excitement of being secretly swept into the clerk's office, saying "I do" in front of a tiny group of city staff members and friends, and then being rushed out of the building. There were no corsages, no bottles of champagne. Afterward they went to lunch, just the two of them, at a restaurant run as a job training program for participants in a substance abuse program.

"Of course, nobody down there knew, so we were left to be by ourselves like we wanted to be," said Martin, the less gregarious of the two. "Then we came home."

"And watched TV," added Lyon.

The privacy was short-lived. Their wedding portrait, showing the couple cradling each other in pastel-colored pantsuits with their foreheads tenderly touching, drew worldwide attention.

Same-sex marriage would become legal in Massachusetts in another three months, but San Francisco's calculated act of civil disobedience drove the debate.

In the month that followed, more than 4,000 other couples followed Martin and Lyon down the aisle before a judge acting on petitions brought by gay marriage opponents halted the city's spree.

The state Supreme Court ultimately voided the unions, but the women were among the two dozen couples who served as plaintiffs in the lawsuits that led the same court last month to overturn California's ban on gay marriage.

They were having their morning coffee when Lyon heard the news on the radio. She rushed across the house to embrace Martin. Not long after, Newsom called to offer congratulations and to ask if they would be willing to be at the forefront yet again.

"Sure," was the answer they gave.

The couple, who live in the same San Francisco house they bought in 1956, do not get out much now. Martin needs a wheelchair to get around. Although they plan to briefly greet well-wishers at City Hall after the ceremony, they are having a private reception for friends and family.

"It's so endearing because they do seem excited and a little bit nervous," Kendell said. "It's like the classic feelings anyone has as their wedding day approaches."

Because a few other clerk's offices agreed to stay open until the court's decision becomes final at 5 p.m. PDT, other couples planning late afternoon weddings may already have tied the knot before the mayor pronounces Lyon and Martin "spouses for life."

They don't mind. They know they already are.

"We get along well," Lyon said. "And we love each other."

"I love you, too," Martin said.