Tawdry Talk

WHAT: Anti-prop 8 Protest
WHERE: The State Capitol, Sacramento
WHEN: SUNDAY 9 NOVEMBER 1:00pm to 8:00pm
HOW: Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor, of course (or you could drive, I suppose)

Who wants to go with me? The train is fun, scenic, quiet and has a dining/bar car. We ride BART to Richmond, then transfer onto the Amtrak, and bop into Sacramento. Capitol Park is only a few blocks away from the train station.

My work day started early - I had to hop up and zipcar downtown to grab my sheet and launder them, as I mentioned in my previous post. There’s something very satisfying about that job, but it’s not one I relish anymore, as my time is more valuable than that, but brainfarts must be paid.

Three clients today: two two-hour sessions, and one single hour session. During the down time, I was trying to arrange with Will and Bruin to see a movie tonight. They were at the big protest march during all this time, along with thousands of other people.

Once I finished working, I headed down to the Castro to meet up with them, and we browsed among the people until we grabbed a movie at Superstar and hopped on the bus up to their place to watch it. The movie, Chuecatown, a gay movie from Spain, is a funny and touching farce about a bear couple in the center of a murder mystery. Put it on your netfilx queue, or buy it, or whatever.

When the movie was finished, they dropped me back off in the ’stro, where some sort of street demonstration was still going on right in the intersection of 18th and Castro. The police had the roads blocked off. I walked up to 440 and met Jason coming out of the bar, kinda drunk. I asked him when last he ate, and he told me the day before, so I herded him to Baghdad Cafe and made him eat a BLT - I had a piece of cherry pie.

I know it’s impossible to have a meaningful conversation with a drunk person, so I pretty much just let him ramble on about this part-time job he got to earn some extra money for the holidays. We eventually wandered back to the F-Market stop on 17th, and I hopped on it, bidding the festivities farewell.

The ride home was odd, with a blend of tourists, locals, and bridge-and-tunnel people all mingling together on the train, several conversations merging and blending and spinning off like whorling galaxies.

Now I sit, my left foot tender and sore, eyes dry and tired, thinking of how much more I have to do to be ready for whatever comes next.

Be ready for whatever comes.

In all the excitement about a possible President-elect Obama, I forgot to put my sheets out for my laundry service. So, now I’ve got to go downtown to my office and do something I haven’t done in a year: wash sheets! Thank goodness for Zipcar!

I did a trade with an amazing textile artist today - a massage for a beautifully hand-knitted scarf! I don’t normally do barter, but I figured I’d give it a try today, and I am pleased!

I am reminded of the words of Winston Churchill:

Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never–in nothing, great or small, large or petty–never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

This pretty much sums up how I feel right now.

President-elect Obama. That has a nice sound to it.

Yes on Proposition 8. That has hateful screech to it.

I am so angry right now that my joy at the victory of Obama tastes very, very bitter indeed.

Yet, what is left to us but to keep fighting for our rights?

Twelve state propositions and twenty-two city, plus nine elected offices…

Only five booths where there are normally more…

No wonder it took so long to vote!

This precinct NEVER had a line here in sleepy Hayes Valley before!

Current Mood:  cold

I zipcar’d to Sacramento for Trash Film Orgy’s screening of “Undead” and Clive Barker’s “Midnight Meat Train.” Here are the pics I took of the cast and crew and some fans:

I’m totally in this video in a couple of places…