tickled pink (alternate title: signs of life)

tomorrow would have marked two entire months since my last post... i wonder if anyone even checks in for updates anymore?!?

i'm on vacation from work right now (which means waking up at o'dark hundred every morning to answer my bottomless emails and shovel around passengers as if i care) so i can take 3 summer courses to make up for time lost last summer- immigration law (handy, though noitceably unthrilling), intercultural management (pretty good overall) and another on racism. the racism course was the last one i picked for this summer, and admittedly, it was ultimately chosen because it required the least number of days off from work. i would have never imagined it would turn into the experience it was. everything i thought i knew about the topic got spattered around the microwave like a certain ex-roomate's penchant for annihilating sticks of margarine in the name of baking. every once in a while you run into someone that's a true teacher- someone inspired and passionate... someone that teaches from lived experience and doesn't insist on an all you can eat buffet of half-cooked wordymumbojumbotheorypie. i feel incredibly grateful for all of this and have had so much to think about and question. at the risk of taking us all down hallmark boulevard, i'll stop crapping on and just say it was a moving experience on every level imaginable... one that is gonna be with me for the long-haul.

speaking of long-hauls... j.mo and i are about to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary on monday. it sounds kinda funny to say it's our first wedding anniversary since we've been together for seven years now, but it will soon indeed be one year ago that we were sticking two plastic grooms in a cake and getting all teary-eyed.

and what a lovely way to celebrate:

'A proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage was swiftly defeated today by a joint session of the Legislature by a vote of 45 to 151, eliminating any chance of getting it on the ballot in November 2008. The measure needed at least 50 votes to advance.... "We’re proud of our state today, and we applaud the legislature for showing that Massachusetts is strongly behind fairness," said Lee Swislow, executive director Advocates & Defenders. "The vote today was the triumph of time, experience, and understanding over fear and prejudice."

I too am proud of my state today. After a difficult and uncomfortable week of questioning so much about what I thought I knew about racism, identity and living in the US... And seriously wondering what (if any) impact I can have after all this time and energy spent learning about intercultural relations, I'm feeling a little bit better that maybe things can change. That maybe we really will have a chance to be parents and raise kids in a place that respects our family.

As I heard all week long-

learn, unlearn, relearn