[So excited! everyone should be able to get married!]

I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the Supreme Court ruling that  same sex marriage is now a right in all 50 states. Yes, it is. And I am so excited. This is a right that people have been fighting for  for a long time now, and now it is The.Law.Of.The.Land. Hells yeah!

People who know me are well aware that I am a supporter of gay rights. I don't like that my gay friends are being discriminated against, but there are still so many places where you have to keep it a secret.  San Diego isn't really like that(though San Diego's politics run towards the more conservative, we have a really great Pride weekend which gets a HUGE turnout every year.I've never gone, but I hear it's fun. I would love to go but I'm not a big fan of crowds(the reason(apart from tickets being so expensive and selling out fast)I don't go to San Diego ComiCon.)

So today, Oceanside(the city I live in) had their Fourth Of July parade(yeah, a week early, I'm sure there's a reason behind it.) and they had someone there with a rainbow flag.She was from the North County LGTBTQ resource center. I started talking to her.. anyhow, I wound up walking with the people from the LGBTQ center-I was honoured to be able to walk with them and show my support(and we had a lot of support from people watching the parade-it was more muted in some places but very much present in others.

Of course, the ruling was a topic of conversation..people could not believe the timing of it.And it really is amazing.

And you know, I wouldn't be at all surprised if  that is the theme of San Diego's Pride parade this  year :)

[spending a night outside was fun!]

Last night I camped out in my parents' yard(by the pool, in fact) so I could watch the lunar eclipse. I was worried about a) missing it and b) not being warm enough. Neither of those two things were a problem-I had a air bed which I put a blanket on top of, then a comforter,then another blanket.And I was wearing pajama pants. It was plenty cold last night,though!

I slept in a tent-a kids' pop up tent-it was what I could find at short notice but it worked fine!

As far as being able to wake up in time goes..I set the alarm on my iPhone for 2 a.m. Woke up at 2 a.m. and nothing.Set it for 4 a.m. and by then it had definitely started. So I did get to see the eclipse which I was VERY pleased with.

Now though, I want to go camping. Proper camping, like at the campground. I wouldn't call what I did  this morning camping,because it wasn't really roughing it-I had easy access to a bathroom, for example.

I just think that sometimes you have to go out of your comfort zone and try something new, and that's exactly what I did.

[oscar thoughts]

*YES to Eddie Redmayne winning  Best Actor for The Theory Of Everything.Well deserved, IMO.

*Lady Gaga..and Julie Andrews. Oh My Goodness.That made my whole..life. ;)

*Dear Sean Penn:Your attempt at "humour" most definitely was not funny.And offensive. Love,Me.

*I thought Neil Patrick Harris did a pretty good job at hosting.

*For once the Oscar orchestra wasn't *too* annoying, but they really needed to take into account that there were multiple winners in some categories. I get that they have to stick to a schedule ..just sayin'.

[I totally called it.]

Some of you may remember that I blogged about Cleve and Erica Rengo,the family that had their three kids taken away because of neglect, and because Cleve and Erica had a long history of domestic abuse issues?Well, they're back in the news.

The reason they got their kids taken away in the first place is because they were choosing to treat their children's health issues naturally. One of the children had eczema that wasn't clearing up;their twins, who were a year younger than the older kid, were born at home. Erica had no prenatal healthcare when she was pregnant.None.She didn't even know that she was pregnant with twins until she delivered!

Erica  delivered her twins at home. Cleve and Erica have claimed that this is one of the reasons that they have been "targeted" by CPS in Washington.

Cleve does not believe in modern medicine and believes that is is possible to pray away illnesses. He is also very possessive of Erica.He is a street preacher and apparently doesn't have much(if any) income-maybe they're living on Cleve's dad's SSI? Several people have offered to help Erica get out of her situation, but Cleve obviously holds some sort of sway over her. Erica's mother has offered several bits of information, including that one of the twins has a permanent disability due to being premature(and because  their mother didn't have any prenatal care.)

Add to this, Erica and Cleve have been living in Cleve's father's house-a one-bedroom apartment.

Initially the kids were taken away from the parents; several weeks later,they were given back to Cleve and Erica, but with lots of conditions. At the time that the kids were given back to Cleve and Erica, I said that this would not be the last we heard of them, and I was right.

Apparently, Cleve and Erica were not following the court orders, and CPS was about to take their kids away, so they fled to California. The cops caught up with them, and Erica headbutted one of the cops that tried to arrest her. I seriously doubt CPS is going to want to give the kids back to Cleve and Erica at this point. The kids should be with a family member(the grandmother lives out of state but is aware of what is going on..she has been demonised by Cleve and Erica's supporters(of which  there are many), calling her a"turncoat" and much much worse.

[volunteering for health work in countries with ebola..]

Should come with a caveat. You *will* be quarantined. If you don't like it, tough. It's a matter of public health/safety. Not only that, you, health workers, should know  better than to complain about this. You really freaking should.

Thankfully everyone(save for Thomas Duncan) got help early enough that they recovered/are recovering.

Luckily,we're getting a better understanding of how this thing works(and getting better treatments for  it and, hopefully, by next year, a vaccine.)

One of the reasons that we've been able to keep this under control is because we have excellent medical care here. We could definitely use some improvements when it comes to quarantining people with Ebola,but we're doing better. This is going to be a way of life for a while so we need to just get used to it.

Seriously, I was so freaked out  at one point that I did not want to go on the plane. But you know what? I thought "why get freaked out about this?"

[thank you,pope francis]

I am  pleasantly surprised by Pope Francis saying that the church has to be accepting/welcoming to LGBTQ church members. Not sure what caused this change in Pope Francis' way of thinking,but I like it!

This speaks to Pope Francis' willingness to have a dialogue with people-and I really hope he  has a sit-down meeting with people from the LGBTQ community.

Of course, "traditionalist" Catholics are NOT happy about this. They already hate Pope Francis, and now they're going to hate him even more. Basically, traditionalist Catholics would rather that Pope Francis *didn't* have dialogue with certain groups-to use a Mean Girls quote "You can't sit here"-actually, it's more like "You can't dialogue with them!"

And yeah,it *is* that petty. They resent Pope Francis because he's going in a different direction than Pope Benedict. I really wanted to like Pope Benedict. But he put a lot of people off of the church. When history records such things, I think Pope Francis will be remembered as one of the most beloved popes, along with Pope John Paul II

[this day will always be difficult for me]

I didn't lose any family on 9/11 but the day made its impression on me. I sill become emotional thinking about that day, 13 years ago. I remember that I woke up, I had fallen asleep on the couch.The TV was on, and I remember sort of half being able to see what was going on. Then I put my glasses on and I saw the whole picture.. and it was terrible.

To this day, a few days before, I tend to get very emotional, very overwhelmed. This morning is a good example. I was woken out of a sound sleep by a train horn that was loud and sustained.Several times. Any other day I'd have been "eh" but today..because of what day it is, I was rattled by it.

I talked about this on Twitter but what I remember the most about what happened right after 9/11-within hours-was how the military  bases shut down. One of my friends, whose dad was in the Navy at the time, tried to get on the Navy base, but by the time that she got there it was closed to all non-essential personel

Hell, even the *malls* closed down. A *lot* of things closed down-we'd no idea what they might attack next,so it was erring on the side of caution.There were no flights for a couple of days(again, that was understandable,though they knew they would have to start getting things back to normal eventually.

To me, going through the security checkpoint is a small price to pay. Yes, people like to bitch about it(especially if they have to fly, for work or whatever.)but it's such a minor thing.