Saturday, April 01, 2006

Not Ready to Make Nice

When was the last time I was compelled to blog twice in a day? Let alone list song lyrics? Maybe the 8th grade?

I just heard the Dixie Chick's new song "Not Ready to Make Nice," which was their response to President Bush's anger surrounding lead singer Natalie Maine's London concert comment about her embarassment that the U.S. president was from her home state of Texas.

The song made me think of my bigot father again and I thought it was appropriate to list the lyrics here. I've taken the liberty of changing six or seven words to fit my life.

This is my new "I'm 35 and gay hear me roar" song:
Not Ready To Make Nice
(written by Emily Robison, Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines, Dan Wilson)
Forgive, sounds good
Forget, I'm not sure I could
They say time heals everything
But I'm still waiting

I'm through with doubt
There's nothing left for me to figure out
I've paid a price
And I'll keep paying

I'm not ready to make nice
I'm not ready to back down
I'm still mad as hell and
I don't have time to go round and round and round
It's too late to make it right
I probably wouldn't if I could
Cause I'm mad as hell
Can't bring myself to do what it is you think I should

I know you said
Can't you just get over it
It turned my whole world around
And I kind of like it

I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don't mind sayin'
It’s a sad, sad story when a father will teach his
Church that they ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can who I am
Send somebody so over the edge
That they'd write me a letter
Saying that I better change
or I'd spend my after life in hell

I'm not ready to make nice
I'm not ready to back down
I'm still mad as hell and
I don't have time to go round and round and round
It's too late to make it right
I probably wouldn't if I could
Cause I'm mad as hell
Can't bring myself to do what it is you think I should
Forgive, sounds good
Forget, I'm not sure I could
They say time heals everything
But I'm still waiting


posted by Jay @ 11:27 PM 1 comments

Moving On

So, I'll either let the last blog entry sit there glowing like an ember I shouldn't touch, or I'll move on. I'm moving on.

But what to write about after such a dramatic reveal? I'll write about the Yum Yum Club, my fabulous group of friends who every Thursday night get together to eat! My favorite topic. Van, Michelle, her husband Karl, Nick, Nicole, and sometimes Dawn. What fun we have every Thursday night. All prompted by Michelle's New Year's resolution to see more of her friends every week. It's working and THEN some!

In concept, we're supposed to migrate around to our different apartments. In practice, we all flock to Michelle and Karl's apartment in Oakland like it's the latest religion. We love their loft. Can I say it again? We love their loft. Plus, Michelle cooks like no other on the planet. Five heart-attack mac-and-cheese comes to mind as I remember a recent down home splurge that left me rolling back to BART and nearly needing a cab to get up our hill back home once in the city. Another meal theme was inspired by the foods we loved as children. Van and I hosted a similar brunch a year ago where everyone had to bring a breakfast food they loved as a child (I'm still remembering the Honeycomb cereal!). At the recent dinner version of the same theme I brought spaghetti shells with Ragu. I forgot the orange Crush, which I was supposed to bring, reminding me of Saturday nights spent at my grandmothers house. She let us pick whatever we wanted at the store for dinner, as well as for the next morning's breakfast. It was always spaghetti shells, sauce out of a bottle, orange and/or grape Crush, and Doritos. For breakfast we always chose Apple Jacks. Yum!

So, what do I love about the Yum Yum Club? I love that it's kind of like getting into a giant sandbox every Thursday to let everything go. We play board games and drink good (sometimes not so good) wine. And we laugh. That's the most important thing. We laugh like third graders gone wild in Mazatlan.

How I love the Yum Yum Club. I'm a lucky one, I am. I love making every day count. Van and this great city of San Francisco have taught me that.


posted by Jay @ 6:09 PM 1 comments