My First Gay Wedding Greeting Card

Tomorrow, one of my coworkers is getting married. He has been with his partner for 17 years and they finally get to tie the knot and have the state recognize them as a legally married couple in the state of California. I’ve heard my co-worker often talk about his partner, their travels, how they deal with their money, their families and everything else that they’ve shared. They’ve even already had a ceremony and registered in California as domestic partners, but, despite all of this, getting legally married at City Hall tomorrow still seems like a big deal. And, why shouldn’t it be? When Kevin and I got married, we were already living together for about two years. A lot of people said that marriage didn’t change much since we already had this living arrangement, but, I knew that marriage was something special.  Yes… two people can live together, share everything and have a strong commitment without being “married”. But, I love this tradition of marriage and having the state as well as your friends, families and strangers regard you and your spouse as a union. Now, if I can have this joy, I don’t see why some of my gay friends and coworkers can’t have the same thing. It just didn’t seem fair. So, when the California supreme court passed a ruling that banning gay marriage was unconstitutional, I was ecstatic.  I believed that every same sex marriage should be celebrated with the same fanfare as a heterosexual marriage.

So, this week, some coworkers and I organized our usual card signing, cake party and gift collection for our team’s first gay wedding. While at work, my coworker described the black and white complimentary outfits that they would be wearing (along with matching gold ties), so, I decided to make them a special custom wedding greeting. Here it is… my first gay wedding greeting card:

We also enjoyed a delicious chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting from the Bi-Rite Creamery (the heaviest cake I’ve ever carried), some champagne, rasberries, strawberries and Mexican Wedding Cookies (from Tartine Bakery).  I put together the dessert list after finding out my co-worker’s favorite desserts by sending a message to  his partner on Facebook. Ahh… another Facebook story.

Cheers! To Gordon and Joe! Congrats!  And for anyone in California, PLEASE, PLEASE go out in November and don’t just vote for the next president, but, vote NO on Proposition 8 which will create a constitutional ammendment to ban gay marriage and deny my friends the same rights that I already have.

Babies Everywhere

While we’ve been busy watching the Olympics (almost every night), we’ve also been busy visiting the growing number of friends that we have with babies. Last weekend, we hung out with C&C who just had a boy two weeks ago. As is the duty of good friends, we spent a Saturday night making them dinner and hanging out with the new addition to their family. While the meal was last minute, I decided to make a beet salad and “make your own” pizzas. I figured that I could pick up some fresh ingredients from the Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building. I ended up picking up some beets, arugula (that I couldn’t resist), and zuchinni. We also picked up pizza dough, sauce, mushrooms, sausage and cheese at Trader Joe’s.

Since I had the time, I decided to try steaming the beets before heading over to C&C’s house. I didn’t want to use the microwave because I heard that this often zaps some of the nutrients out of our food. I had no idea that the process of steaming these massive beets would take over an hour. But, in the end, it was all worth it. I ended up recreating a recipe that we had a “la cubana gringa’s” house. The salad had beets, goat cheese, walnuts, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The simple recipe includes:

4 medium red or golden beets (4 ounces each), stems and root ends removed
1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon sunflower-seed oil
2 ounces lowfat goat cheese

You can find it on epicurious.

To give it some more color, I put this all on top of a bed of arugula. It was delicious. The pizza’s were also better than I thought they would be. Unlike other times when we’ve made pizza, the crust was perfectly crispy. (Thanks for telling us to set the oven at 400 instead of 350, Arthur).

Today, we went to a Jewish service where our other friends had an official “baby naming” for their daughter. The baby naming happened at the same time as a girl’s bat mitzvah. So, there were tons of 12 and 13 year old girls in the pews. However, they didn’t look 12 or 13. Most of them were taller than me (that doesn’t say much), but, they also had dyed hair, makeup and dresses that seemed older than they were. But, maybe I’m just turning into a conservative! Anyways, our friends served a beautiful and tasty brunch after the service. My favorite part of the meal was Jen’s kugel and the Noah’s bagel that I had topped with onion cream cheese and a slice of a brandywine heirloom tomato. mmm….

Obsessed with the Olympics

Its been over a week since I’ve written a blog post and I fully blame the Olympics. Even while I was enjoying a relaxing couple of days in Sonoma with a friend (KO), I didn’t miss a night of catching some Olympic action.

Friday night – Watched the opening ceremonies in a comfy bed at the Fairmont in Sonoma after 8.5 hours at the spa.

Saturday night – Watched some swimming and gymnastics with Kevin, KO, and another friend after dinner in North Beach.

Sunday morning – caught some USA vs China basketball

Sunday afternoon – watched a little Olympic action in a bar in North beach while drinking a few beers.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday night – Olympic action from our couch on Kevin’s big HD TV.

Last night, I only got about five hours of sleep thanks to the Olympics and I felt really groggy. I need to stop watching… At least gymnastics and swimming will end soon. But, then, I’ll have track and field and all kinds of other fun sports

Chick-Fil-A, Palace tents, cougars and dead hookers in Tahoe

This past weekend, we went on a camping trip with my a bunch of my coworkers. A total of ten of us took Friday off and drove up to Tahoe to stay at the Cisco Grove Camp Ground. It was tons of fun. We ended up carpooling up with two of my co-workers, Chewy and Sho-gun (these are nicknames, of course). As we drove up 80 towards Tahoe, we were passing Fairfield when Chewy casually mentions, “I don’t think Joan would be interested in this, but, Fairfield has the only Chick-Fil-A in Northern, CA”. Kevin, got really excited… actually, I admit, I did too. I’ve heard of Chick-Fil-A having some amazing waffle fries and chicken. Sho-gun, who is from Canada wasn’t sure what Chick-Fil-A was, but, he was game. He asked what it was, and we admitted that it was just a fast food joint. I think he was a bit relieved. With a name like Chick-Fil-A, he thought it might be a strip club. A strip club, with your co-workers at noon on a Friday… probably not the best idea. Anyways, to cut to the chase, we ate at the Chick-Fil-A in Fairfield for lunch and I had the chicken nuggets even though I haven’t had chicken in years. It was tasty…and worth the experience. Everyone left satisfied and only about $6 poorer.

When we arrived in Tahoe, we started to set up camp including our tents. Kevin and I had the smallest 2 person tent (by far). Chewy, who borrowed a tent from our VP brought a tent that we dubbed the palace, or the events tent. This tent had two rooms set up with a divider. It would comfortably sleep 6 (at least!). For the rest of that night, we barbequed up our dinner, drank beer, ate smores and sat around the campfire. It was awesome.

The next morning, we did a 3.1 mile hike up 1000 feet to a lake. It was pretty strenuous, but, the reward at the top was awesome. We ended up eating lunch there. None of us brought bathing suits, but, three people in my group jumped in the water anyways. :

When we returned to camp (6.2 miles later), we were exhausted. We all took showers (my first in over 24 hours) and plopped down in our chairs by the fire once again. Eventually, we got the bbqs going again, more smores and more campfire stories. One of my coworkers, who we’ll call “the Soprano” since he has family from Sicily and could certainly pass for a member of the mob, had lots of stories to share. “The Soprano” was a great story teller. His “dead hooker” story, which we had to wait til the second night to hear was hilarious. Don’t worry, no one died in the story… it was just about a crazy night with a very drunk ex-girlfriend. Sho-gun also shared some stories of making himself out to be a “cougar magnet”. For those who don’t know, a ‘Cougar’ is an older woman who preys on younger men. The women are usually over 40 and pretty wealthy. I think it was the beer, but, Sho-gun probably shouldn’t have shared the stories because I don’t think our team will let him live it down. Since he is from Vancouver, we have already changed his name tag on his cubicle to read, “Shogun Vancougar”.

All in all, it was a great trip. Kevin is convinced that he wants to camp with a bigger tent, an aerobed and a two person sleeping bag, but, I think I can probably convince him to camp again without the luxuries…but, we’ll see.  Here is a final picture of Donner Lake where we spent Sunday afternoon.