Hello Out There :)

I live in Fort Wayne, IN & have recently "come out," so to speak. Well, sort of. My closest friends know I'm bisexual. But my family does not. Let's keep it that way.

I believe strongly in gay rights, and although I cannot come out completely as long as I live in Fort Wayne, I am doing what I can to promote gay rights. It's not a lot, but it's a start.

I have a good friend, "K" , who has been encouraging me to come out since he met me almost 3 years ago. He's a homosexual, himself, and has been a tremendous influence on me.

My friend "G" has also made a huge impact on me. She is not a lesbian, or even bisexual, but she is quite liberal and progressive and is my sounding board when I need to really talk about things.

I also have a close friend who's transgendered. He has truly been an eye-opener for me. He's made me realize who I really am, and he is someone I can confide in about almost anything. He has also introduced me to people I never would have met otherwise.

I'm pretty liberal on most issues, to my parents' dismay. They are extremely conservative, and I'm sure they wish I were too. But such is life. I was brought up in a fairly liberal state (definitely NOT Indiana), and I seem to have come to my own conclusions about a lot of things. Probably because of my own inner tension of hearing my parents preach conservatism, while I secretly loathed their narrow-mindedness and tended to gravitate toward the open-mindedness and tolerance devoid of prejudice that the northern state I grew up in, taught me.

I am, always was, and always will be a Northern Girl. I lived in a state in the Deep South for 10 years, and it almost destroyed me. I had a few friends, but honestly the majority of the people there were narrow-minded and in many cases bigoted. Sure, they were outwardly friendly. But whenever I openly doubted my belief that a god existed ~ because of my own childhood full of parental abuse ~ I was condemned for it & they tried to "save" me without taking into account that my opinion was valid and valuable.

In this blog, I cannot promise to write every day. I have a lot of responsibilities as a mother, an employee, and a student. But I will write as often as I can about anything & everything. My passions, my beliefs, my loves, my hates, daily life, and anything that I feel affects me or the world around me.

I just wanted to let you know that my very close friend who is transgendered may be losing his job because he legally changed his name from a traditionally female name to a masculine one & is in the process of gender re-assignment (sex change).

I want you to know that I will stand by him through these changes. Someone who goes through this stands to lose everything, and he knows this. Please keep him in your thoughts, as I will.

On the happy side of things, my son & I just got a new kitten. He's a cute little thing. And kind of funny ~ he's teething! So he's biting on anything & everything. He's a hyper little thing, but sooooo cute. It's been about 11 years since I had a baby kitten ~ although I've had grown cats since then. And it's just such a cool & wonderful experience to watch our baby "C" grow up. It's like having a baby person, but different. Know what I mean? Having my son is the most wonderful experience I've ever known, but having a baby kitten is so much fun too!

Oh! I won 2 e-bay auctions over the weekend. I won a Budweiser stein for my b/f and also an Erasure CD called "Wild!" Can't wait to get these things in the mail. Also, I ordered "Aquarium" by Aqua. Remember the song "Barbie Girl"? I love it! And lots of other dance tunes you hear at gay bars. (or so I've heard ~ I've actually never set foot in a gay bar ~~ Yet!!!)