Electrolicious

Dre wrote an interesting post recently about releasing a chunk of his identity. In discussing it last night with he and a friend, we got onto the topic of atheism.

“No one likes it when you say you’re an atheist,” our atheist friend said. “People always try to argue.”

Andreas then proved her right by arguing. Doesn’t it take a certain kind of faith to believe so strongly in the non-existence of spirit? And how can you deny that there are universal forces beyond our understanding? The discussion eventually led him to wikipedia’s atheism entry.

“Atheism is the affirmation of the nonexistence of gods,” he read. “An absence of belief in deities.”

“Huh,” he said. “So it’s not a dismissal of spirituality, but rather of deities.” He kept reading, and then a minute later: “Oh, so Buddhism is essentially atheistic?” More reading.

After a minute more, he looked up and announced: “Whoa! I think I’m an atheist.” So in the first two days of 2009, he’s gone from an agnostic vegan to a vegetarian atheist. What’s next, 2009?

As for me, after an hour of philosophical/spiritual debate, I affirmed my standing as an apathetic agnostic by yawning and announcing I was tired and going to bed.

I think I’m done trying to negotiate with myself about my age and what it means. I am a married woman in my mid-30s. I’ve been working in my chosen profession for 10 years. I think I’m finally done with conversations about mortgages or board games or quiet music that end with a horrified gasp of, “…oh my god, does that make me OLD?”

Enough with the gasping. It’s over: I am an adult and it’s not the horror I spent most of my 20s dreading. No, instead it feels sort of like … contentment?

It means I spent this New Years Eve watching “Singin’ In The Rain” in bed with Andreas. Next year I might be out raging, but only if it’s because I’m stoked to rage. There’s so much less to prove when you just come to peace with the fact that you are where you are.

I was preparing to fall in love with my husband. Yay, Andreas!

My father’s worked for Seattle Metro for 25 years, and always has interesting perspectives on local public transportation. From our emails this morning:

Dad: I’m home today, frozen in. I’ve never seen more of Metro down than at present. Articulated buses were getting torn in two — I saw this near Yesler Building yesterday! So all Articulateds have been idled. After all, the regular ones cost over half a mil, the tunnel hybrids closer to 1 million. The number of routes simply canceled is enormous.

Me: Articulated buses torn in two? If that’s not a symbol of a public transit Apocalypse, I don’t know what is!

Dad: Yes! Apocalypse Now for Transit:
Sound: wop-wop-wop of killer helicopters, overlay of Dance of the Valkyries
Visual: Slow motion of million dollar articulated buses being ripped in half, hapless riders strewn on frozen, angry streets.
I’ll call it in to the American Transit Assn. immediately. On YouTube by late this afternoon, with a donation request.

Seattle is in the midst of a cold snap, and Sassafras is such a dainty paw that she’s been refusing to go outside for her walks. When we woke up to buckets of snow this morning, I decided it was time to get crafty and make the dog some booties. Here’s how that went:

For the last 18 months, Mondays have been my day for Offbeat Bride. I write up the posts for the week and set ‘em to publish at 5am each day so that the East Coasters have something to read when they get to work in the morning.

Last week I conducted a survey of my readers and learned all sorts of interesting things about them … how many of them aren’t planning weddings (pre-engagement or post-wedding), how few of them have read my book, the things they want more of … less of. Some of the feedback wasn’t very helpful. A couple folks suggested that there’s “too much gay stuff” on Offbeat Bride which, yeah, ok: my being of not one but TWO gay families means Hetty McHetero Readers are just going to have to deal with it.

Today I wrote up an interview I did with several wedding photographers about whether they negotiate lower prices for non-traditional couples, tried to publish a post about Baratunde’s wedding that he asked me to wait on, edited and produced a post written by a member of the Offbeat Bride online community that involved a cat vomit metaphor, and cranked out an ad about a wedding photographer in Brooklyn who uses this amazing vintage camera to produce shots that look like they’re from the 1850s.

I also chatted with my web designer about a little site refresh we’re pushing in a couple weeks. I mulled over a partnership that’s launching around new years and tried to think about how to rejigger the tabs on the site to better meet the needs of new readers, which is many of the folks who come to the site.

It’s a funny thing, this offbeat business … I need to do some biz dev mulling to figure out where it’s all going. But for now, every Monday, it just goes.