I turned twenty nine yesterday. Katie surprised me with a Bateaux dinner cruise around the tip of Manhattan and back. Amazing food, drink and views. Everyone should have the experience of seeing NYC at night from the POV of the Statue of Liberty. Amazing!
For those of you taking notes, Katie took me one a similar trip for our first date, almost two years ago.
So I'm in my 30th year now. They say that 30 is the new 20 so perhaps I still have time left to reach all my lofty goals. My buddy James Van Olphen contacted be yesterday from CA. I haven't talked with him in a long time, and it was a real birthday present to hear from him.
Lofty goals come and go, what really makes life rich are the relationships you have. Sharing love... Not in that way, ewwwwwww. You've got a sick mind!
Yesterday Katie and I had a choice. A cause or a crusade. We could go see Billy Graham preach the evangelical truths he holds true in his heart, or support our gay/bi/lesbian friends by marching with them in solidarity in the Gay Pride parade down 5th Ave.
The cause beat the crusade hands down.
Amazing experience! We marched the entire parade route, starting at 54th and 6th, all the way down to Christopher St in the West Village. Our feet were tired but our purpose was wide awake.
The Bible isn't all that kind to homosexuals, espically the Old Testament. So, if you've decided to live a life devoted to using the Bible as akin to a how-to manual, I can see how you might want to douse all of us with holy water and run away tearing your hair out.
However, if you're like me and you've decided that the Bible is a book of stories and wisdom, then you'd be nut to repeat past injustices (the African and Jewish Holocausts for example) where people were killed because of how God made them. Jesus, my homeboy, wouldn't like that one bit.
So, I hope Billy Graham dies peacefully in his sleep, feeling that his time here was everything he wanted it to be. I'm sure he's a good man, and wants what he thinks is best for the world around him. So do I.
So I finally got around to changing my name on my website. The legal ramifications of which, I have no idea about. Katie and I are still waiting for our marriage certificate to come in the mail so we can take care of all the other affiliated business of name changing and everything else.
Speaking of which, I've been asked a lot about how we came to the name conclusion that we did. Prototypically it's the man's last name that gets adopted as the family name, though more and more women at present are adopting to keep their own names when they get married. This, we could have done, but Katie thought ahead and decided that it is important that she have the last name of our children.
Thus, we had to find a middle ground. We could change our last name to a "franken-name" Say, Givime, or Kivens. That might have worked, but we just didn't like the sound of any of them. I could take her name, but that would just be replacing one outdated system, with another albeit BRAND NEW outdated system. So, we chose to work our middle names into our decision.
I would take her name as my last or middle name, and she would do the same for me. What order were the names to be? I left that decision for her to make. She picked Givens Kime, over Kime Givens because she thinks it sounds better (alliteration wise.)
Thus, our children, somewhere down the line, already have middle and last names. Now, we just have to pick first names, and that's another entry for another day.
The problem still remains. How do we take this blind, male dominated system of re-naming women through marriage and push it foward into the light of a new, and harmonious day? I think there are many more options available when you put your middle name to work for you, but that's just me.
NYC on the cheap. That's what Katie and I are doing these days. IT's wicked fun too. Yesterday riding through Central Park, and people watching, and then finding an all night dance party at Lincoln Center complete with dance lessons.
Great fun to be in this city. You can always bargain for a great experience at a great price!
It looks like I'm going to be composing some music for Ronan Noone's NYC opening of "The Blowin of Baile Gall." A show I wrote music for a few years back in Boston. It'll be my first official off-Broadway credit.
We spent today (Father's Day) BBQing with good friends on the Bronx. Now there's something I really want to learn how to do well. Fire up and cook on an open flame. Sadly, along with never being taught how to drive a standard transmission, there are some things that I really should know how to do that I dont.
I hate moving and dating. They both suck. Now that I'm married, I no longer need to do one of them, now if only I (we) could only find a place to stay for the rest of our lives. Lay down roots, and start a home. I suppose that's a dream of many more people than just me. When you move, for a split second, I wonder if I feel a bit of what it's like to be homeless. If so, I've got to give more time to charity. I can't imagine what the real homeless folks of the world must have to deal with.
Anyhoo, that's just what Katie and I are doing. Moving. Hopefully this will all end tomorrow and we'll have another home to nestle into. We're lucky like that.
Katie and I are finally back in NYC. Had a great final day in Chicago though, with our friend Kraut (pictured below.) Hit a resturant called "The Kitsch-en", for some fried chicken and waffles. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.
A great surprise today! A layover, and a flight cancellation in Chicago, means that we're visiting our friend Kraut for a day here in the Windy City. On the way over to his house, we found Haddon Ave. I'm far too much a geek NOT to blog this experience.
While Katie's out on a run, I think I'll blog a little.
We've had an amazing and relaxing week here in Bayfield, WI. We stayed the first few nights at the Old Rittenhouse Inn, a big beautiful mansion overlooking Lake Superior and the Apostle Islands. We've done a lot of biking, and some kyaking. We even saw ourselves a real live wild Black Bear. Such stunning views, and sooooooo much quieter than the big city! All this and tomorrow night we're bounding into Minneapolis for a few nights at Le Meridian before heading back.
The wedding was simply amazing. Katie and I are still coming to grips with it. Probably will be for some time to come. Most all of our friends and family togehter in one HUGE party! There are so many memories we'll always hold near and dear. THANK YOU TO all who were able to make it. It was so much more than either of us had hoped for! Thankfully, Topher Cox, photographer extrodinare captured most everything, so we're going to have a HUGE book of pictures to keep thanks also in part of iPhoto.
On another note, I finally saw Gone With The Wind. Completely racist and sexist piece of crap, but I can understand why it holds the place in film history it does. GIANT is much better.
