i luff it!! i luffs it soooo mush!!!

more cat pictures


finally, someone who loves bologna as much as i do...maybe even more!!

it's been a long week. last friday i secured the caterer for our reception - an amazing restaurant, gay-owned and operated. it was a really fun meeting! we um...really got off topic and started discussing the blood type diet, lol, and he sent me home with a stack of HUGE cookies. loaf and i were worried that they would be out of our budget...it's a very popular restaurant...but bill said that with our budget, we could "do pretty much anything you want. seriously." so YAY! when loaf is here this summer, we're going to schedule a cake tasting and go over a possible menu. i'm excited!

in other news...hmm. is there other news? OH! there's a possibility that i may get to do something amazingly wonderfully fabulous this summer, but i haven't heard for sure yet so i don't wanna get all excited (the friends to whom i freaked and gushed all just gave a collective *SNORT*). trust me, either way i'll be blogging about it. good thoughts please that the next post will be one of delirious excitement and not one long BAROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

oh yes, and tuesday i'll be boxing at a strip club. for money. no, i won't be topless. i know what a disappointment that must be. did i mention that i've never so much as been in a fight before? but it's against a similarly amateur classmate, it's three 1-minute rounds, and if i LOSE, i'm guaranteed to make $150. for three minutes of "work". that's gotta be better than prostitution, right?

ok. let's try this again.

thanks to my beloved loaf, i might now be able to post the pics from last night! so...without further ado:

here's the cat outside comerica park. (note: he's cool and all, but comerica park is a blasphemous, wobbly stain on the city. that being said, enjoy the pic!)



here's the episcopal church (built in 1858, i think) next to comerica park:



here's hockeytown cafe (i'm using E's pic, mine came out blurry):





intersection of woodward and jefferson:




aaaand the wayne county building:




more to come, if we can catch another great night for it! i love my city very much and need lots of pics to get me through the time away...which may be the rest of my life, but i'm trying not to think about that...

WINGS WIN!!!!

THE DETROIT RED WINGS HAVE WON THEIR 4TH STANLEY CUP IN 11 SEASONS!!! *insert victory dance break here*

it was an awesome game. the puck dropped at 8:15; i left school at 8:30 (having skipped entirely on monday, i thought i should show up for half the class last night) and headed back over to my friend J's house. we've now watched all four of the recent Cup victories together! in 1997, they won it the night we graduated high school...a couple days later, we were invited back by our marching band to join them in marching the victory parade down woodward avenue. in 1998...well...actually, i have no memory of that game. J tells me it's because i was really sick and on lots of cold meds at the time, lol. in 2002, we watched the game on the big screen tv at a local bar. J was roughly a month pregnant with her now-5-years-old daughter. and last night, we watched the game at her house and ate pizza.

i can now move to florida with my head held high.

you know, detroit has a really rough reputation, but i'll say this - our sports fans are quite polite! the pittsburgh fans...yeah, not so much. call it sour grapes, call it whatever you want, but if the circumstances had been reversed and the penguins had won the cup at the Joe, you can bet our fans would've been more mature. chanting crosby's name at zetterberg when he was awarded the conn smythe trophy? and booing the Wings in general? please.

and let me just say that after the triple-overtime defeat on monday night, i couldn't bring myself to write about it. i drowned my sorrows in a cheeseburger and fries, and have been mildly depressed for two days. yes, it's THAT important!

so after the game, i headed to downtown wyandotte, where everybody was going CRAZY, to meet a friend. i called loaf and let her hear what it sounds like when a team wins a championship - the screams, yells, and car horns blaring. my friend E and i , after videotaping the madness, decided to head to downtown detroit and see what was up. so after a quick detour to get my new (to me - thanks, baby!) digital camera, we struck out for the city. in the rain. and the fog. we were hoping to hit Hockeytown Cafe, but they were closed to new customers. we did wander around and take a few pics, though - one being the tiger wearing the jersey at the top of this post. except i didn't mean to put him up there and can't figure out how to put him somewhere else. huh. us luckdragons aren't always very technologically proficient.

did i mention that this year's victory parade is friday morning at 11? the same time i'm supposed to be north of detroit, meeting with our prospective caterers? that's going to be an interesting trip...

where has my head been?

how in God's name did i manage to start a blog in the middle of the Stanley Cup playoffs and not write a single post about hockey and my beloved Red Wings?!

quickie recap: the Wings beat out nashville, colorado, and dallas to face pittsburgh in the Stanley Cup finals. game 4 of said finals was last night, and detroit now leads the series 3-1!!!! YES!!! YESSSSSSSS!!! game 5 is monday night, here at joe louis arena (the Joe), and since a team must win 4 out of 7, and the Wings in all probability will win that 4th game on monday...the Cup will actually be there! at the Joe! ready to be presented! there is no better drama than an arena full of hockey fans (and two teams...hell, an entire city!) high on feeling the presence of the oldest championship trophy in sports. detroit has won the Cup three times in the last 11 years. you can bet your sweet bippy i'll be skipping class on monday night.

so yesterday was also my cousin j's wedding. i had a lot of mixed emotions...joy for my cousin and at seeing my dad's side of the family, for sure, but also a fair bit of envy. why? two reasons: a) her wedding is legally recognized, and (this is going to sound awful) b) my straight younger sister got engaged about a week after i did, is getting married 21 days before me, and...well...all she had to do was stick out that left hand and everyone squealed. i have a ring too, and i love it more than i'd ever love a diamond ring because it is so personal and so symbolic to loaf and i...but i spent the evening waiting for the excitement to die down and saying "by the way, i'm getting married next summer too." i missed loaf in the worst way. not that my family was any less excited about our engagement than my sister's - they were totally pumped, can't wait to meet loaf, and i am beyond blessed to have such awesome relatives - but it really bites to feel like an afterthought. i adore my sister, and we're so excited to have each other to bounce wedding ideas off of, and a therapist would probably say that this has more to do with my feelings of always having been outshone by her (to the extent that i'm continually surprised that my niece gravitates toward ME...i've never been the cool one!), and of frustration at having a sibling so close in age that it has made me territorial about what is MINE and what is HERS, than with being a lesbian. but still. it hurts to feel like you're on the outside looking in. it hurts to feel like a second-class citizen. it hurts to know that my marriage won't be legal in this country for quite some time. add to that my being extremely physically uncomfy (strapless bra and girly dress do not a happy luckdragon make...all night i had lines from Ever After running through my head: "you look like a girl!" "that's what i am, half-wit!" "yeah, but today you look it!"), and it made for an interesting internal mindscape. oh yeah, and when my niece and i were in the buffet line, a table full of people were openly staring at me and whispering and laughing to each other. apparently they'd never seen a dread-headed dyke dragon before. MY family thinks i look great, and wouldn't judge me if i showed up covered in purple feathers from head to toe. which brings me to the night's other three emotions - love, gratitude, and pride. i love my family so much, i am so f*cking grateful to have been brought up in an environment of unconditional love and valuing individuality, and i am beyond proud to be a part of their clan.