Thanks, N/A!

Someone sent Bob and me an anonymous wedding gift through our online registry: the twelve-inch everyday pan. Since you didn't leave your name, I can only hope you read my blog (and I'm guessing it was someone who reads my blog since I posted the info about our online registry on my blog about a week ago). Thank you very much, Whoever You Are! We really needed that pan!

San Francisco's Top Court Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

Yesterday California's Supreme Court declared that same-sex couples in California can marry.

Finally! It almost makes me wonder what I'm doing in the midwest whenever San Francisco shows its brave, progressive side like this. Gay and lesbian couples that are residents of any state, not just California, will be able to actually GET MARRIED, not have a civil ceremony. I hope we're done with that separate-but-equal crap. I think either everyone should be able to get married or no one should be able to get married.

I don't say it often, but thank god for California.

Always a vice-presidential nominee, never a presidential nominee?

The TIMING of John Edwards' endorsement of Barack Obama really does sort of deal a death blow to Clinton's campaign. Edwards waited for his moment, didn't he? Was this his plan all along? To step forward at the critical moment, when his announcement would be most likely to put an end to HIllary's nonsense, since he must have seen along ago that she'd never withdraw reasonably? He's like secret weapon, finally unveiled.

I almost feel sorry for Clinton. She was really trying to make her West Virginia win yesterday seem like momentum. She was REALLY working it, working hard. And Edwards just wipes it out. Yes, actually he did (sorry Clinton supporters, but not really).

This is a great time. We must enjoy it. How much good news have we had in the past 10 years? I commit to resisting every natural instinct I have and allowing myself to feel optimistic about the 2008 presidential election!

Are we really going to do this?

"Spring," Part II

Another Chicago spring day: 49 degrees at 7:30 a.m, gray and drizzling. Temperatures today are expected to top out at about 56 F and it should rain all day. Hah! Happy Mother's Day! Maybe a sundress and hat?

Addition: At 10:30 a.m. it's 47 degrees, raining quite well and very windy. Maybe a mini-sundress.

Big Wedding Favor

Just ripped a pair of bedsheets recently and the situation is a bit dire. Donations?
MyRegistry.com
Name: Regina Rodriguez
Password: bobreg.

How's that for a shameless plug for wedding gifts, Obesio? Or just have fun looking at our wedding gift registry.

"Spring"

Today on the far northside of Chicago, it was completely overcast and right around 60 degrees. At 6:30 pm, it's 57 degrees and cooling fast. Shall we slip into mini-dresses and sandals and go clubbing without sweaters?

Chicago's coldest month

During the fall and winter months, we expect Chicago to be cold. Our landlords and building managers (reluctantly) run the heat and we all bundle up and keep our scarves and gloves handy.

But around this time of year, everyone begins to ignore the weather forecast, and starts dressing according to their own expectations of what the weather should be doing. This is stupid. For instance, a few days ago the forecast was for temperatures in the high 40's/low 50's, yet I saw many people dressed in light jackets, sweaters or no outer wear at all. And they looked cold.

Why do Chicagoans do this? I actually hear people insisting that "It's May," as if the weather should warm up on principle. May in Chicago is not a warm month. I've lived here for 15 years and I have only experienced one, ONE Memorial Day on which people did not need to slip on a sweater or jacket by mid-day. Memorial Days in Chicago are chilly. The temperature on that day is always just a little bit too cold to comfortably spend the entire day outdoors. By "comfortably" I mean that at no point do you wish you'd brought an extra pullover. Or ski jacket. That's just how it is, year after year.

This is our coldest month because it's the month during which there is the biggest discrepancy between the weather and the way people cover up. We're cold in February, but we also keep our heaviest clothes on. In May, many people slip into flipflops, switch long pants for light skirts and shorts and prematurely store their jackets. And then they freeze and spend the whole month complaining about how cold it is.

A friend of mine told me there's a Swedish saying that there's no such thing as bad weather, only bad planning. In the spring, most Chicagoans plan horribly. At the risk of sounding like a northern California jerk, maybe it's because I'm originally from the San Francisco Bay Area that I don't put away my long coat until June.

Hi, I'm...

Intersection:

1. A month ago I got married, anticipating my new identity as "Regina Rodriguez-Martin."
2. This week I began a new temporary FULL-TIME job (yay!!) and am reminded that until I have a new social security card and driver's license, I am legally still "Regina Rodriguez."

So which one do I go by? Should I change my email and signature back to "Rodriguez" while I wait for the government to process my paperwork? Or am I allowed to go ahead and be "Regina Rodriguez-Martin" even though my drivers license and social security card indicate that I'm lying?

When do married women start using their husband's name? After they get their new driver's licenses, however many months that takes?

Take five minutes to KNOW you're a good person

It turns out that having my friends sign the back of my driver's license four years ago, to witness that I want to be an organ donor, is now worthless. If I want to at least be useful AFTER my death, I have to re-register online. As an Illinois resident, you now need to RE-REGISTER in Illinois' NEW organ/tissue donor registry, established by the Illinois Secretary of State's office last year.

In 2007, the national donor waiting list surpassed 100,000 people. I don't know how many people die every day, but surely it wouldn't take long to work through the donor list if everyone were willing to be used for parts. Why would you NOT register at www.IAmAreYou.org? I think each state has their own list, so if you don't live in Illinois, you'll have to research the website for your state.

Just think: if you died tomorrow, you'd leave hundreds of things undone. You can at least try to save a life (literally, seriously) in about five minutes. Illinois people, I know our website takes about two minutes.

I just wanted to pass this along. It's got to be the easiest way imaginable to think of yourself as a giving person: "Hey, you can have everything! Just wait til I'm dead."

How to Get Job Help from Your Friends

The text of an email I sent to most of the people for whom I have email addresses:

Hey, everyone -

After launching a job search in October, leaving the waitressing job in January, taking a long-term temporary assignment in February and becoming very discouraged and lax in my job searching, it's time to get busy again. Bob and I have been trying our best to live on his salary (my very-underpaid-earnings go straight into savings) but two people need two incomes. I have GOT to find a job.

Does anyone have any contacts at non-profits such as the American Dental Association, American Student Dental Association, MacArthur Foundation, Dermatology Foundation, Posse Chicago, etc.? Or contacts at any colleges or universities such as Northwestern, Loyola, DePaul or any of the city colleges?

My new job criteria:

Executive assistant or general office administrative position (corporate, academic or non-profit)
With writing and editing tasks (please)
Salary in the 32-40K range
Downtown, northside, southside, I don't care anymore. I'll commute anywhere (but for no longer than an hour one-way).

I'm also open to teaching jobs (adult ed), entry-level publishing jobs, other writing/editing jobs and anything that requires strong Internet, communication and interpersonal skills.

My resume is attached. I'm open to feedback, including plain old hang-in-there encouragement. Thank you, all!

reg

Stress

I feel stressed out by my continuing unemployed state. I'm still temping, but there's only a month left of that job. I've been in and out of unemployment my whole life and have never had such a hard time finding a job. It might seem good that I just got married because at least I'm not sweating the rent, but it turns out that my feelings of guilt and failure to my new husband more than take the place of the old sweating-the-rent fears. Which is worse for me: being unemployed and having no one else to lean on financially or being unemployed and dragging someone else down by my lack of earnings? I don't know. My capacity for guilt is huge. My new husband, of course, says not to worry, it's all right, everything will be fine, but my capacity for guilt is huge.

Tough times

I guess it's just really tough times for people right now because the morning of March 25th we sent out 75 mailed announcements to let friends and family know that we just got married and we've heard from a surprisingly low number of people. We did get a couple of gifts and a few emails and phone calls and I was delighted to receive them. But I expected a few more responses from 75 friends and family members.

I know we did this very non-traditionally and it might be the height of tackiness to include online registry information when we didn't even have a proper wedding at which we fed our guests. But I really just hoped our announcement would feel like good news to people and they might send an email or a card. Maybe I didn't do things right or maybe getting married just isn't that big a deal to people when you're doing it so late in life. I don't know. I'm chalking it up to the crappy economy.