Hot Days, Cool Rings

Summer is definitely here. It's well into the 90s every day now in Pasadena, and often we hit 100+ (like we're expected to this week). Steve's new workplace in Van Nuys gets even hotter, while I am blessed with mid- to upper-80s at work on the Wilshire Miracle Mile, thanks to the proximity of the ocean (several miles away, but close enough to mitigate the heat).

This Independence Day Weekend we were invited to a small get-together at friend John's home (he is going to be Stephen's best man). It was nice to see that we were almost all couples there. Longterm relationships are becoming almost trendy in the gay community, it seems. John's just a few blocks from the fireworks in South Pasadena, so all we needed to do was walk out to the street when we heard them start and watch the show framed through the palm trees.

On Saturday we went out and looked for rings. We found what we wanted at a good price in the second place we visited (a web shot is included here; similar to the rings we got, only ours are nicer).

In the first store I got the definite impression that the fellow waiting on us would much rather not have had us there. Though after a lifetime of being gently to rudely shunned by all sorts of people, it didn't bother me. We just didn't spend our money there. (Bite me, Mr. Raffi.)

The second place the store manager (named Greg) waited on us. He is "one of the children," as my Jamacain friend E Lloyd used to say, and was genuinely happy to help us find something nice. He was an excellent salesman (we spent our money there, didn't we?), and really shared in the joy of celebrating this moment that once seemed so impossible.

My brother Steve and his wife Pam (and perhaps their daughters Amanda and Emily) are coming out from Wisconsin to visit the first week in August, so Steve and I are thinking about having our civil ceremony while they're out here, just in case they can't make it back for the formal wedding and reception next year. (Not formal like all dressed up, but formal like that's when we'll spend the money on a bodacious party.)

I'm probably repeating myself, but for those of you who were alive in 1969 and watched man land on the moon, that's what it feels like to be planning our wedding. All my life it's been one of those basic things I was denied because I'm gay; now I have that freedom, and it leaves me in awe at how much people can change and grow and accept. Acceptance is so much nicer than merely being tolerated.

The rings are on order and should arrive by the 20th of this month. I'll take a picture of them and include it in a blog entry. Until then, enjoy.