Lax in my duties…

I know, I know…it’s been a long time since my last post.  It’s just been a tough week, that’s all!  I promise it wasn’t anything personal!  Here’s a quick recap of the highlights that have set the tone for this week:

1.  I ran into a blind guy on the metro.  I turned the corner to go out the metro door and ran smack into his cane.  I pulled up just in time and shouted, “Whoa!”  He froze, I froze, I apologized and promptly got out of his way and told him he was clear.  I’m just glad the doors didn’t close on him. 

2.  The metro train in front of us broke down, meaning we had to push the train with our train to Reagan National Airport so they could offload, then we had to offload, then we had to wait for the eight trains that had piled up behind us to pull forward so we could continue on our merry way.  By the time I got to Crystal City the platform was so full that they had shut down the escalators so people could stand on them while waiting.  No joke, the line to get onto the platform went out past the turnstiles.

3.  The shuttle I ride in the morning to the Metro always stops short of the sidewalk where the shuttle stop is located, meaning everyone needs to walk across the grass to get on the shuttle.  Not a big deal except with all the snow melting the grass is really muddy and I don’t really feel like walking through mud on my way to work.  When I asked the driver why he didn’t pull up to the sidewalk he said the crossing guard told him he couldn’t block the crosswalk, which, amazingly enough, also lines up with the sidewalk.  Why the shuttle driver didn’t tell the crossing guard to go screw is beyond me.  I suppose the fact that the shuttle driver referred to the crossing guard as ‘officer’ tells me all I need to know. 

4.  Work.  Let’s not even go there.

As you can see, my  mornings haven’t been the best so I hope you’ll accept my most sincere apologies for not being in a literary mood these past few days.  Here’s to hoping that next week is more fecund in terms of writing.  (that was for Jason)

Post Apocalyptic Zombie Snow Part III

I’ve officially forgotten what day it is.  All semblance of time has been lost.  On the plus side, I realize that we have a lot more food in the house than I thought.

Post Apocalyptic Zombie Snow Part III

It’s almost ten in the morning on a Tuesday and I’m wearing warmup pants and a sweatshirt drinking a cup of coffee while my wife is at work.  I haven’t shaved nor picked out a suit since Friday.  My shoes remain unshined and the cat is staring at me as if to say, “what the hell are you still doing here and please tell me that smell isn’t you.”  So this is what it’s like to be a professional blogger…

The good thing about all this snow and the accompanying days off is that it helps you gain a little perspective.  All those things at work I was stressing about on Friday?  They don’t matter.  All those powerpoints, excel files and word documents?  Who cares?!  This is why vacations are important.  They help you regain perspective and remind you that most of the stressors in your life are artificial and that the world won’t end if you don’t get them done on time, despite what your boss tells you.  Definitely something to keep in mind.

Post Apocalyptic Zombie Snow Part II

I used a power drill to help with the arms. Proof that any childhood activity can be made better with the introduction of power tools.

It’s been three days now since the snow started falling and I’ve finished one book and am almost done with another, though in all fairness one of those books is a coffee table book, which is actually kind of cool because how often does one actually read a coffee table book cover to cover?  I also baked cookies.  White Chocolate chip with walnuts…mmmm….nothing like combining marginal amounts of exercise with baked goods!  The other day Chris and I built a snowman.  I started working on the base and I just kept making it bigger.  In the end I stopped only because I no longer was strong enough to push it any farther, which is why the snowman was built along the side of our building completely out of view of our window.  It’s about six feet tall.  I’m somewhat torn about tomorrow.  Part of me doesn’t want to go to work but the other part is starting to get bored.  I should remember this next time I’m complaining about work and how I wish I could do nothing all day but bake cookies, read books, and build snowmen.

Post-Apocalyptic Zombie Snow

I’ve seen this city panic when it comes to snow, but this was something totally different.  Normally, you have people running around trying to prepare for the snow and everywhere you go it feels like the city is one fender bender or broken set of eggs away from complete and total chaos.  Today there was nothing.  Everywhere you went there was an eerie silence.  I’ve never been in a post-apocalyptic zombie filled world but I imagine it would feel something like the metro this morning.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more sparsely populated metro station in my entire life!  There was no one riding in my metro car other than one other girl! (who, thankfully, was cute so I wouldn’t have minded fighting off zombies with her) Maybe the city is just in shock over how many ‘historic snowstorms’ we’ve had this year that people just aren’t responding as they normally would.  Either way, I would have felt better had I had a shotgun with me.

Gays in the military

There are few institutions in America that better represent the ‘can do’ spirit of America than the military.  The military prides itself on accomplishing the mission no matter what and it is that attitude that makes it such a fine  representation of America.  The military also has a reputation, though not always justifiably, for being famously chauvinistic and demeaning to minorities, women and gays.  ‘Don’t ask don’t tell’ downplays the best the military has to offer while highlighting the worst and it should be repealed to allow gay service members to serve openly. 

My fundamental problem with the ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ policy is that it is grounded in the idea that being gay is a problem.  For example, if  sharing a tent with a gay soldier makes me uncomfortable, the assumption is made that being gay is a problem and therefore something the gay soldiers needs to deal with, either by finding another tent, hiding who they are, or leaving the military.  In my  mind being gay is not a problem, which means that any insecurities I may have about sharing a tent with a gay soldier is my problem, and because it is my problem, it is incumbent on me to deal with it, not my gay tentmate.  Those who support ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ do so because they believe that being gay is a problem, a deviation from the norm, but my problem with this belief is that it is ultimately based on religious teachings, which I consider to be a false premise for any argument. 

Without going into questioning the overall validity of religion, let’s just say that religious teachings are highly flexible, meaning they can be made to say whatever you want them to say.  For every person who claims religion bans homosexuality I’ll find you another who says religion should be tolerant of all people.  Any argument that uses religion as its foundation is immediately suspect because, ultimately, it boils down to how a person has chosen to interpret a supposedly divine edict, and no matter how sure that person may be of their particular interpretation, there is no way to be sure and it therefore should not be considered as a suitable cornerstone for any social policy.

‘Don’t ask don’t tell’ isn’t about unit cohesion, command influence, troop morale, or any of the other justifications supporters of the policy use to bolster their arguments.  In the end, arguments in favor of ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ boil down to nothing more than the religiously based idea that homosexuality is wrong.  By stripping away the facade of concern over military integrity the true foundation of ‘ don’t ask don’t tell’ is revealed.  I’m glad our Commander in Chief, Secretary of Defense, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs are finally attacking that support with a wrecking ball.