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I'm writing this from the plane as I fly towards Buenos Aires. After reading a bit (James W. Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me) and watching one of the in-flight movies (Miss Congeniality), I tried to sleep. The attempt was unsuccessful, so here I am. With no net access in-flight, I'm saving this as a text file and I will post it tomorrow when I get to Malargue.
As I was lying down and trying to sleep, I kept thinking of recent events and how good my life is right now. Sure, my positive outlook may be influenced by the fact that I lucked out and got three seats to myself for this flight -- which is what made lying down possible in the first place -- but I think there is more to it than that. In general, life seems to be dealing me some pretty good cards at the moment.
Take this past weekend, for instance. Friday afternoon,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
polymorphism and I took a road trip down to Louisville to visit miss_tessa for Beltane. True, we did not celebrate with any specific Beltane rituals but -- with a slight break Saturday afternoon to watch The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy -- the weekend's activities were very much imbued with the energy and spirit of Beltane. (Other, more detailed, accounts of the weekend were written by miss_tessa and can be found here.) We all had a fantastic time and, after musing on the weekend, I have come to think of myself as the least straight Straight Guy that I know. Sure, most people that I know are less straight than I am... but they think of themselves as Gay or Lesbian or Bi or Queer or Trans or whatever else. I have always identified as Straight -- and still believe that to be true -- but of all the people I know who identify thusly, I think that I am the least straight.
Saturday night,polymorphism and I drove back to Illinois so that I could be here for Mayday. A few months ago, the Chicagoland Anarchist Network (CAN) laid out some grand plans for this Mayday. However, an extremely active March and April, coupled with internal troubles and tragedy within the group, kept those plans from materializing this year. Thus, my main Mayday activity this year was going down to the Forest Home cemetery and participating in the annual picnic at the Haymarket Martyrs' memorial. This is the second year that I have been in Chicago for Mayday, and it really is such an honor to be here and commemorate the heroic Anarchists of the past. I was one of the first people to show up for the picnic, around noon, and one of the last to leave, after 4pm. During the afternoon, I saw about two hundred people come to pay their respects for the Haymarket Anarchists and to celebrate them. Not all those in attendance were Anarchists, but most of the Chicago-area Anarchists that I know did come out to the picnic. I felt very close and connected with so many of them, which made me appreciate how wonderful it is to be a part of a close-knit Anarchist community. Towards the end of the picnic, we had a CAN meeting at the cemetery. Although CAN has had some hard times in recent months, it seems to be regrouping and refocusing... rather than disintegrating. This is a very, very good thing. Also, at the meeting, a sub-committee was formed to start organizing events for Mayday 2006 (the 120th anniversary of the Haymarket march) now, so that we can really do a great job next year. After all, on Mayday the world looks to Chicago, where it all began, and we should have something worth showing.
[N.B. Weirdest moment in this year's Mayday: For about thirty seconds during the picnic, we got hit with a hailstorm!!!]
In other news, I recently had a very nice world-shrinking moment whenmiss_tessa re-introduced me to cassiopia about a week and a half ago. I had met cassiopia about thirteen years ago, when she was dating miss_tessa in high school in New Jersey. Now, as it turns out, cassiopia is living in Urbana, just over two hours away from me. In fact, she is a member of the Urbana IMC, where I went for the sexual assault discussion a couple of weeks ago (though she was not there on that Saturday when I was). Back in the early 1990s, cassiopia and I only saw each other a couple of times, and we did not leave particularly strong impressions on each other. Thus, I was caught by surprise when I saw how well we seem to be clicking now. For instance, in the past thirteen years, we've both become Pagan and polyamorous and activists, and share other interests as well (e.g. theatre, muppets, etc.).
Right now, I'm on my way to Malargue for a quick trip to calibrate our telescopes with a roving nitrogen laser system ("roving" = "mounted on the back of a pick-up truck"). This should be a lot of fun and, in general, work has been going better than ever this year. As mentioned, this is a short trip; I will be back in the States sometime next week.
And that's my life in a nutshell right now... minus the news that I have already covered, like having my RNC criminal charges dismissed. Earlier this year things were a little rocky, what with having a close friend lose a parent and having our car stolen and having a bunch of psycho-drama thrust upon me, but right now seems to be a patch of smooth sailing, which I intend to fully appreciate and enjoy.
As I was lying down and trying to sleep, I kept thinking of recent events and how good my life is right now. Sure, my positive outlook may be influenced by the fact that I lucked out and got three seats to myself for this flight -- which is what made lying down possible in the first place -- but I think there is more to it than that. In general, life seems to be dealing me some pretty good cards at the moment.
Take this past weekend, for instance. Friday afternoon,
polymorphism and I took a road trip down to Louisville to visit miss_tessa for Beltane. True, we did not celebrate with any specific Beltane rituals but -- with a slight break Saturday afternoon to watch The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy -- the weekend's activities were very much imbued with the energy and spirit of Beltane. (Other, more detailed, accounts of the weekend were written by miss_tessa and can be found here.) We all had a fantastic time and, after musing on the weekend, I have come to think of myself as the least straight Straight Guy that I know. Sure, most people that I know are less straight than I am... but they think of themselves as Gay or Lesbian or Bi or Queer or Trans or whatever else. I have always identified as Straight -- and still believe that to be true -- but of all the people I know who identify thusly, I think that I am the least straight.Saturday night,
polymorphism and I drove back to Illinois so that I could be here for Mayday. A few months ago, the Chicagoland Anarchist Network (CAN) laid out some grand plans for this Mayday. However, an extremely active March and April, coupled with internal troubles and tragedy within the group, kept those plans from materializing this year. Thus, my main Mayday activity this year was going down to the Forest Home cemetery and participating in the annual picnic at the Haymarket Martyrs' memorial. This is the second year that I have been in Chicago for Mayday, and it really is such an honor to be here and commemorate the heroic Anarchists of the past. I was one of the first people to show up for the picnic, around noon, and one of the last to leave, after 4pm. During the afternoon, I saw about two hundred people come to pay their respects for the Haymarket Anarchists and to celebrate them. Not all those in attendance were Anarchists, but most of the Chicago-area Anarchists that I know did come out to the picnic. I felt very close and connected with so many of them, which made me appreciate how wonderful it is to be a part of a close-knit Anarchist community. Towards the end of the picnic, we had a CAN meeting at the cemetery. Although CAN has had some hard times in recent months, it seems to be regrouping and refocusing... rather than disintegrating. This is a very, very good thing. Also, at the meeting, a sub-committee was formed to start organizing events for Mayday 2006 (the 120th anniversary of the Haymarket march) now, so that we can really do a great job next year. After all, on Mayday the world looks to Chicago, where it all began, and we should have something worth showing.[N.B. Weirdest moment in this year's Mayday: For about thirty seconds during the picnic, we got hit with a hailstorm!!!]
In other news, I recently had a very nice world-shrinking moment when
miss_tessa re-introduced me to cassiopia about a week and a half ago. I had met cassiopia about thirteen years ago, when she was dating miss_tessa in high school in New Jersey. Now, as it turns out, cassiopia is living in Urbana, just over two hours away from me. In fact, she is a member of the Urbana IMC, where I went for the sexual assault discussion a couple of weeks ago (though she was not there on that Saturday when I was). Back in the early 1990s, cassiopia and I only saw each other a couple of times, and we did not leave particularly strong impressions on each other. Thus, I was caught by surprise when I saw how well we seem to be clicking now. For instance, in the past thirteen years, we've both become Pagan and polyamorous and activists, and share other interests as well (e.g. theatre, muppets, etc.). Right now, I'm on my way to Malargue for a quick trip to calibrate our telescopes with a roving nitrogen laser system ("roving" = "mounted on the back of a pick-up truck"). This should be a lot of fun and, in general, work has been going better than ever this year. As mentioned, this is a short trip; I will be back in the States sometime next week.
And that's my life in a nutshell right now... minus the news that I have already covered, like having my RNC criminal charges dismissed. Earlier this year things were a little rocky, what with having a close friend lose a parent and having our car stolen and having a bunch of psycho-drama thrust upon me, but right now seems to be a patch of smooth sailing, which I intend to fully appreciate and enjoy.
