Mayor Richard M. Daley says he will have "no problem" with Cook County's issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. But the possibility is not immediately in sight.

Mr. Daley, in response to a journalist's question on Wednesday, went on to defend gay and lesbian couples from accusations that they were trying to undermine marriage.

"Marriage has been undermined by divorce," he said. "So don't tell me about marriage. People should look at their own life and look into their own mirror."

BahahahaHA!

“Marriage has been undermined by divorce”.

Shit, my mother could’ve told you that. But I love it anyway. Hell, I might be able to marry a woman (Scarlett Johansson, here I come! Mmm…) before I can legally marry the S.O. I guess I should explain that one, eh? After the judgment of divorce is given, neither one of them can marry anyone except each other for 60 days. Mind you, they can go ahead and get remarried (again) but being the trusting individual that I am (just don’t make take a polygraph to prove that), I’m going to take his word that it won’t happen. Besides, the divorce papers SAY “there is no possibility of reconciliation between us” but hey, as my mother pointed out, they agreed to that the first time so that means, uh, squat. Besides, the stupid thing also says “we fight about money and schedules “which is either insanely generic or some BS one of them told the lawyer so they wouldn’t have to put “Husband knocked up live in girlfriend then sent her packing and Wife claimed to not care and thought she and Husband could live happily ever after the SECOND time around but once Husband realized girlfriend wasn’t lying and wanted to move closer and take care of baby, Wife decided she did care and didn’t want to move with Husband to be near his offspring and Husband decided he still loved girlfriend and would his baby and needed to be with her and now we need a divorce, damnit”. So going with that, let’s figure out how long it’ll take for that judgment to arrive. Since it seems to be taking forever and a day (he forgot to initial papers, she forgot to bring aforementioned papers to the lawyer, etc… etc…) and based on the time it took the last time they got divorced (anyone else laughing their asses off at the irony and hilarity of this whole mess? Well, that or pitying me for being young and in love. Its okay, my mother does the same thing.), it should be done by about mid to late March. That means I can’t marry him until about June or so, depending what date in March it gets approved. Now don’t go and take all of this out of context. This doesn’t mean I want to marry the S.O., not even a little bit. Of course saying that doesn’t mean I don’t want to marry him either. I just confused myself, ha. I love him, sure, but after a man (or a woman, for that matter… I’m sure the STS is going to have the same problem) has been married and divorced, let alone two or three times, you have to wonder why would you want to jinx it with them? I mean, if you’re happy, healthy, in love and getting by just fine as an unmarried couple, why ruin it? I’m not saying marriage automatically negates any chance at a happy union, I’m sure plenty of people (my parents included) go on and stay married for a really, really long time and live happily ever after. But maybe some people just need to take a break from it and wait a while. Obviously Dumb and Dumber (the affectionate pet name they get when referred to as a couple) didn’t put much thought into their remarriage, if they had they would’ve discussed what would be done about the child I told them I was having. They would’ve discussed what they were going to do with my property. They would’ve discussed the relationship and sought outside assistance in taking things one day at a time. Basically, they would’ve used their brains. So while I can’t do much in regard to her and her relationships, I sure as hell can use MY brain with him and make sure I don’t repeat any of the mistakes I saw them make. The big one, of course, being the marriage itself. Hell, I never saw myself getting married anyway. Sure, I wanted to when I was little and after Steven proposed, I thought I eventually would but we all see how that turned out. I may be infamous at getting proposals but at least I know how to decline or realize it may not be what’s best for me. If more people had that ability there would be a lot less divorce and a lot more living in sin. Okay, actually I’m a little mad about the living in sin bullshit. If we’re living together, we’re in love, we do everything as a couple, why the hell shouldn’t that be acknowledged? Why must I sign on the dotted line and risk losing a wonderful person, risk making the same mistake as the two women before me, and risk giving up my single status on tax forms, surveys and medical charts? Because if I don’t, I won’t get any of the same benefits that married people do. Unless I marry, I will almost always pay more for insurance because I’m still of the dreaded single status. Unless I marry, I will almost always pay more in taxes because I’m still of the dreaded single status. Unless I marry, I will almost always have hell when attempting to purchase a house/car/property because I’m still of the dreaded single status. Unless I marry, I will almost always being unable to adopt a child with or without the S.O. because I’m still of the dreaded single status. Unless I marry, I will have hell if I leave everything in my will to the S.O. and my relatives decide to protest it because I’m still of the dreaded single status.. Unless I marry, the S.O. will have no “survivor rights” if something tragic (accident, murder) should happen to me because I’m still of the dreaded single status. Unless I marry, I will almost always have to find my own benefits because I cannot be claimed on the S.O.’s (or vice versa) because I’m still of the dreaded single status. It’s bullshit, plain and simple. Then again it’s quite possible I may just be rebelling because my parents have officially set the standard way too fucking high when it comes to marriage. Who the hell can beat 30 years and counting? Don’t even get me started on credit. I had excellent credit – that has to count for something, right?

Moving on and away from the marriage thing now. I hate going on and but I just think that the emphasis on marriage should be more about love and commitment and not about “ooh, we’ll get a discount on our car insurance!” ya know? Perhaps if unmarried people (including truly single people, couples living together, homosexuals, single parents and so forth) had the same opportunities and rights as married people do then so many people wouldn’t rush out and marry the first fool that offered just to get the perks of being a spouse. This in turn would reduce the rate of divorce because all these people wouldn’t be getting married in the first place which we all know would promptly end in them running to the first divorce lawyer they see. All the perks in the world aren’t going to make up for being legally attached to someone you cannot stand.

Okay, for real this time, I’m moving on.

I just got back from running to three nursing homes. Two of them had websites but I figure it’s more “professional” to apply in person and besides, maybe if I’m really lucky (who am I kidding?) there might be someone there to interview me on the spot. That hasn’t happened thus far but I shall continue to hold my breath. In case it isn’t apparent by the fact that I’m, oh say, ALIVE, I passed the final. I will receive my certification in two weeks in the mail and sometime in April they will let me know exactly what date I have to go take the IDPH board. I think I need to study for the IDPH because for the skills portion of it, we actually have to show the instructor that we can do it. Ugh. I have the world’s hugest case of stage fright when it comes to shit like that. If it’s something I actually give a shit about (say politics, puppies or pedophiles) then sure, I’m more than willing, in fact I’m one of the first, to jump up and start ranting and raving regardless of how many people are in front of me. But if I’m just put on the spot and asked to perform (kinky…) in a room full of strangers there is no way in hell it’s going to happen. Of course I guess it’ll have to happen but it won’t be fun. Not that state board exams are supposed to be fun but that’s beside the point. I passed the final with an 87% which isn’t bad at all, especially considering I yet again had the highest grade in the class. One person didn’t even pass the exam so that was a real shame (and waste of all that money). Speaking of money, I need to call this other nursing home that I interviewed with last week and see if I can get the broad on the phone versus her voicemail which promptly tells me to get fucked (aka “if you’re called regarding an interview, please do not leave a message, if we are interested in your application we will call YOU. Good bye.”). Not that I listened to her message anyway, I went ahead and left her a message in the least sing-songy non-giddy voice I could:

“I am fully aware of the fact that your message states that I should not leave a message if I’m calling regarding our interview, however I felt obliged to inform you that you can change the status of my Allied Health certification from pending to certified because I graduated from my Allied Health course today and will receive my certification in approximately two weeks. Thank you and have a nice day”

I sounded so nice and professional and yet inside, the little voices were having a ball chanting “we passed the test todaaaaaaaaaaaay! We passed the test todaaaaaaaaaaaaay!” Maybe I’m just overcompensating for the fact that I never graduated high school or maybe this really is worthy of getting fairly happy about. After all this is the first stepping stone to nursing school (actually, in the state of Illinois it’s a required prerequisite to nursing school) and it’s definitely something that will help further my career. Oh, and it proves what we’ve always known – that I’m all smart and shit.

After I finish up here I’m off to my mom’s house so I can cook meals for tomorrow. I went over there yesterday and was originally just going to play around with the dogs and wash my scrubs. But I actually forgot to bring my scrubs with me and I didn’t want a whole day to spent just playing with dogs so I cooked. First I used up some left over turkey breast from Thanksgiving that had been frozen and made soup. Since the S.O. is rather picky in his eating habits (no green peppers, red peppers, orange peppers, yellow peppers, sport peppers, pickled peppers, hot peppers, cooked carrots, cooked cabbage, cooked onions, raw onions, Dijon mustard, yellow mustard, brown mustard, spicy mustard, honey mustard, muenster cheese, sweet pickles, or rye bread) I had to modify the soup and leave out the leeks, carrots and onions. But once I did that I realized it was going to be a rather wimpy soup (just turkey breast, broth, egg noodles) so I ran to the store and picked up some fresh mushrooms and celery and added that in place of the carrots, leeks and onions. I started in a big old stockpot with some olive oil, chopped garlic, fresh ginger, nutmeg, salt, cracked pepper and poultry seasoning and then I realized what I was doing. Yeah, I started cooking something before I even realized what it was. So then I went to the store to pick up the aforementioned foods and also picked up a can of coconut milk having absolutely no idea what I was going to do with that either. Once back home I added the turkey and let it all simmer for a while. Then I started with the Wok. See, that’s the reason I’m going back to my parent’s house to cook. Number one, they have a huge kitchen, number two, they have a gas range stove and I covet it with a passion and number three, they have gadgets and spices that I can only dream of having right now. So I marinated some sliced up chicken breast in a Tupperware container of soy sauce, bead molasses, coconut milk, fresh ginger, ginger powder, cracked pepper, lime juice, blood orange juice, pineapple juice, and a dash of hot mustard (what he doesn’t know won’t kill him) and let that sit for half an hour while Dad talked to me about what he’s going to do when he gets someone to remodel the kitchen. After the half hour was up I threw the chicken into the Wok with some pea pods and bamboo shoots plus half a can more of coconut milk and some pineapple chunks and juice. I let it all cook until it was done, threw it in a container and let it cool. Little did I fucking know that when I popped that first piece of chicken into my mouth that I would be experiencing nirvana. Yes, it was that goddamned good. The best (and worst, I guess) part is that I had no friggin clue what the hell I was doing! That’s right, I had no recipe to go with, I had never used coconut milk in any sort of meal before except for maybe baking cookies and I didn’t even know if I was going to make a curry or a stir fry. Then, because it just tasted so damn good, I thought maybe I was just hungry from not eating and it wasn’t as good as I was making it out to be. So I offered Dad a piece. He chews, makes a face, turns around, “You made this?” “Uh, yes” “it wasn’t from a mix or anything?” “You SAW me cooking!” “no, I fell asleep on the couch watching Springer… anyway, this is good… why don’t you cook for us instead of yourself?”. Okay, so Dad liked it and I liked it. Two votes is good, right? But it’s not great so when Henry comes home and starts demanding food like the typical 17 year old male does, I offer him a small bowl. “I want more”, he demands. I inform him that I only made a certain amount and I have to take it home so I’ll have dinner but I’m glad he enjoyed it. “No, I want MORE”. At this point my Dad intervened and told Henry to stick up his ass and shove it and go find the 90 dollar cell phone they just purchased for him that he has lost already. Finally I brought it home along with some fried rice (didn’t taste as good made with olive oil as it does with sesame oil but eh, minor detail) and let the S.O. have a go at it. “That’s good… that’s real good…” All right, the shit was fucking good. I guess the fact that we were later lying in bed and I got a “That stuff tonight was really good” hours after we’d eaten finally confirmed it. That and the fact that I’m now craving it like you wouldn’t believe. Tonight’s dinner is supposed to be the soup and when I go back over to Mom’s in a little bit, I’ll go ahead and make more for the weekend but damn, I want that stir fry again. Okay, now I’m going to go over there so I can wash my damn scrubs, come home and clean (because I slept until about 8:15 and then realized I wasn’t going to get any sleep so I woke up, ran to the nursing homes and came back) before he gets home and maybe we can gather enough interest to watch “Crime Spree” on DVD, if not it’s going to be “Resident Evil” which is fine with me… I’m all for the hot tiny people in even tinier tank tops battling the big bad aliens. Oh, and here’s the obligatory internet quizzes that provide useless insight into my personality.

You're the Smiths. Like Cure, you're not
technically a goth band, but you're popular
amongst the black clad. Cheer up, darling,
Robert Smith may hate you, but I think you're
gorgeous. Nice boots dear, and I DO mean it.

What Goth Band Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Ha. Just… Ha.

You're a natural born trouble-maker. You hate
authority and do everything you can to get
around the law, or in some cases, break it.
Naturally stubborn, you hardly ever sway once a
decision is made. Your nature is fiery and
courageous, and always out-going. You love
attention and usually have kinky fetishes
you're not afraid to explore. People either
love you or hate you.

What Type of Soul Do You Have ?
brought to you by Quizilla

I guess it’s true. Everyone either loves me or hates me and god knows I’m all about the kinkiness.

You are a PHOENIX in your soul and your
wings make a statement. Huge and born of flame,
they burn with light and power and rebirth.
Ashes fall from your wingtips. You are an
amazingly strong person. You survive, even
flourish in adversity and hardship. A firm
believer in the phrase, 'Whatever doesn't kill
you only makes you stronger,' you rarely fear
failure. You know that any mistake you make
will teach you more about yourself and allow
you to 'rise from the ashes' as a still greater
being. Because of this, you rarely make the
same mistake twice, and are not among the most
forgiving people. You're extremely powerful and
wise, and are capable of fierce pride, passion,
and anger. Perhaps you're this way because you
were forced to survive a rough childhood. Or
maybe you just have a strong grasp on reality
and know that life is tough and the world is
cruel, and it takes strength and independence
to survive it. And independence is your
strongest point - you may care for others, and
even depend on them...but when it comes right
down to it, the only one you need is yourself.
Thus you trust your own intuition, and rely on
a mind almost as brilliant as the fire of your
wings to guide you.You are eternal and because
you have a strong sense of who and what you
are, no one can control your heart or mind, or
even really influence your thinking. A symbol
of rebirth and renewal, you tend to be a very
spiritual person with a serious mind - never
acting immature and harboring a superior
disgust of those who do. Likewise, humanity's
stupidity and tendency to want others to solve
their problems for them frustrates you
endlessly. Though you can be stubborn,
outspoken, and haughty, I admire you greatly.

*~*~*Claim Your Wings - Pics and Long Answers*~*~*
brought to you by Quizilla

I would get the fucked up one.

You're A People's History of the United States!

by Howard Zinn

After years of listening to other peoples' lies, you decided you've

had enough. Now you're out to tell it like it is, with all the gory details and nothing

left out. Instead of respecting leaders, you want to know what the common people have to

offer. But this revolution still has a long way to go, and you're not against making a

little profit while you wait. Honesty is your best policy.

Take the Book Quiz

at the Blue Pyramid.

It fits…

before & after