Unpleasant flashback to merry-go-rounds.

We bloggers are so on top of things, so I'm sure you're hearing it here first: SoCal had an earthquake.

It was a surprise to be sure, but it was over before I could do much more than utter a "what tha...?"

I'm stuck home with a tweaked back, so I didn't have to live through the wildly swaying building (I work on the 45th floor of a downtown highrise), so that's nice.  Even here in Long Beach closer to the ground, it did its darnedest to make me ill and loopy in the head for about 6-7 minutes.  It's a fairly bizarre sensation.  Kinda like the tire swing on three chains or the merry-go-round from days of yore, and much like those times, I wanted to get off before vomiting.  But it's hard to get off the earth - you guys from NASA know of what I speak.  Apparently there's been a earthquakian dry spell for the last decade or so in LA...  Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come.  People in LA are loopy enough as it is.

Be it old-school or new-school, the LBPD gets its man.

Addie shared this with me the other day and it deserves to passed along.

She was driving home from work, passing through the club district in downtown Long Beach. She says she saw a homeless guy with a shopping cart stopped by 4 of LBPD's finest.

Get this: the homeless guy had a huge mattress on the cart, and the cops? Two were riding Segways and the other two were on horses. What kind of schizophrenic PD do we have around here? And how am I supposed to decide whether this is overkill or ridiculous?

But I know that this is both.

Pride and drunkenness. It's all good.

Okay. I’m not anywhere near the Blue Line. But the it’s the Pride Festival this weekend in Long Beach and craziness has ensued. Addie and I live right near the parade route... as well as an assload of bars frequented by gays. Right now they are yelling. A lot. They are more excited than usual. I’m assuming it’s the California Supreme Court marriage ruling - bless their logical, scientifically-based even-handedness.

I can hardly blame my homosexual neighbors for going overboard. No worries - I can put in earplugs tonight. Carry on with all zeal.

Legally and otherwise, a little more state-acknowledged love in the world can’t be a bad thing right? Right. Parking around here is murder on the best of days though, and that - not really ironically, but metaphorically - is a killer. Okay. I’m willing to sacrifice. Metaphorically.

I knew some homosexuals in my undergraduate in Alabama. It cost them a lot just to be themselves. Now, two of my work colleagues are gay and they are wonderful, vibrant, normal people. I live in a neighborhood that is mostly gay. Two doors down from us, lives a guy ran that for city council here in Long Beach. I voted for him. He lost. He’s an environmental scientist who has a partner (male, of course) and two kids, one black and one white. We walk by and the kids are... kids. They have skateboards and scooters and they are normal. Fucking normal I tell you. It is beautiful. Let them be married, I say. Them them all be married.

It’s about time, after all.

Namaste, my homosexual brothers and sisters. Thank you for being yourselves and bringing more love into the world. Drink up. You deserve it.