What's Weird Wednesdays - 8 December 2010

Happy Humps, y’all! It’s Wednesday, my favorite day of the week. You’ve already got two whole solid weekdays under your studded belt and only two more until the weekend. So much potential! During Mondays and Tuesdays you’re thinking about starting your week. On Thursdays and Fridays, you’re mentally planning your weekend. So that leaves Wednesdays to think about what’s weird. Welcome to What’s! Weird! Wednesdays!

Readers, you are highly encouraged to send in observations, eavesdroppings, daydreams, nightmares and generally weird nuances that stick to your shoe as you walk through your gay day.

See, this would be a good example of something weird. Cute, yes. In a fish hat kind of way. But weird nonetheless.

You know what’s weird this week? When your mom’s friends or any citizen of that general age range refers to female friends as “girlfriends”. Does that not totally throw you off every time? Just a little? “Where are you and your girlfriend going tonight?” Asks your conservative Republican neighbor. Instantly, your internal monologue rages. So she did see us kissing in the driveway last night! I knew this faux hawk was a weird idea today. Wait a second… “We’re probably just staying in for the night,” you seamlessly answer as you realize she’s talking about your actual friend. And that's enough for her to be on her way with a little Oh That's Nice Dear. Close one. NOT. She has no idea. Isn't that so weird? It is.

It's Wednesday,and that’s what’s weird.

Interreligious Dating

Sometimes it just takes a circle of lesbians to make everything feel a little better

Interreligious Dating

Just call them Holidays

I can only speak for myself when I say most people I know don’t think twice about dating someone of a different faith. Usually, when pursuing or being pursued by a girl, my friends have everything on their minds but religion. However, of course some couples of different faiths sometimes struggle to connect on issues of religion. While I have sympathy and the utmost respect for the sensitivity of interreligious dating dilemmas, this is less about that and more about how I love having a Jewish girlfriend. There it is.

Although I went through fourteen years of Catholic schooling, I am not Catholic, but I do believe in a higher power, wherever She is. My girlfriend is Jewish, and I love it. For me this means learning Yiddish, attending services at the local Hillel on high holidays and lighting the menorah. (I’ve had to Google like five words already). Growing up in both New York and South Florida, I am no stranger to you Jews. You are my neighbors, my best friends, my bakers. Now you are my girlfriend, and so only now am I getting to know the more intimate parts of you. The interesting thing about participating in the traditions of other religions and cultures is feeling so new to rituals that have been taking place for so long. It’s interesting to feel yourself navigating through such established ceremonies for the first time. Wait! Before you get bored and dismiss this as a holier than thou rant, please note that me feeling myself navigating through an established ceremony was me feeling myself starving after deciding I’d be the best girlfriend ever if, in solidarity, I too abstained from eating on Yom Kippur.

I was a nightmare all day. It was awful. My plan went all wrong. Instead of cruising through the day like a supportive champ, I kicked and cried (I think I did actually cry) and sassed my way to sun down. But at the end of the day, as we scarfed down vegan noodle kugel and got drunk on Manischewitz, I knew it had brought us closer and that participating in that holiday was an experience I would later write about.

Tonight, as I walked to my girlfriend’s house, a bottle of cheap red wine in one hand and a menorah in the other, I couldn’t help but feel excited to take part in Hanukkah, the festival of lights. This means I unsuccessfully lit the candles. I never do it in the right order and I never remember the whole prayer. But hey, she’s happy that I share and I’m happy that she’s happy. L’Chaim. To Life.

I guess I lucked out with a Jewish girl. There are much tougher eggs to crack.

What We're Bobbing Our Heads To

What We’re Bobbing Our Heads To:

Girlfriend Island by Frankie & the Outs

“Hold my hand. You know that it makes me feel better.”

Today’s song to add to your December playlist is “Girlfriend Island” by Frankie and the Outs, a Brooklyn-based all girl band. Front woman Frankie Rose has played for a healthy handful of great bands like Dum Dum Girls, Vivian Girls, Shitstorm (now Grass Widow) and my personal favorite, Crystal Stilts. Besides having a title that I decided should be the OutHaus staff’s band name, “Girlfriend Island” has those crunchy chords, catchy female harmonized vocals and snappy beats to keep your pace fast enough to stay warm in the cold weather. Stream it for free at Grooveshark.com

(Meatless) Chicken Soup for the Soul

It's been a while, and a lot has happened. None of what has happened falls into any previous post's predictions of what would happen, by the way.
It's time to reinvent this blog. To draw a new me.
ANYWAY
I'm starting a new project to become a better writer. One hour of writing every day for the first month. Two hours a day for month two. After those two months, starting with month three, three hours a day.
Having graduated over a year ago now (........) and living largely outside of the academic realm, left to indulge only in the intellectual spheres of NPR and the New York Times (sometimes), I'm losing the intellectual muscle mass I'd spent years building up. Or at least losing sight of it.
So, in a dazzling attempt to clear the channels of expression, de-clutter my hallways of thought, reorganize the library of my mind, I will be delving into lost vocabulary and attempting to navigate those schools of thought of which I am now an Alumnus.
See how this post is a little muddled and maybe hard to follow, assuming you've been compelled to read this far?
Yeah? Well, just wait til month FIVE!


-If You Can't Hear It, Turn the Mosephine UP!