Someone searched my blog today for a link to the full summary of my current favorite Spanish novela, Al Diablo con los Guapos. Here’s the full summary. Don’t read it unless you want to know how the soap ends. I totally cried watching tonight’s episode. Poor Milli!
Fortunately/unfortunately, Chapin has me hooked on Fuego en la Sangre and those sexy cowboys. 
No tears there (so far…).
Four years since Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage, California followed in its footsteps, recognizing that marriage is a fundamental legal right and that moral judgments should not be imposed on people’s marital choices in a society that is supposed to enforce the separation between church and state.
“The right to marry,†Chief Justice George wrote, “represents the right of an individual to establish a legally recognized family with a person of one’s choice and, as such, is of fundamental significance both to society and to the individual.â€
Chief Justice George conceded that “as an historical matter in this state marriage has always been restricted to a union between a man and a woman.†But “tradition alone,†he continued, does not justify the denial of a fundamental constitutional right. Bans on interracial marriage were, he wrote, sanctioned by the state for many years.
In a second rationale from the interracial case, the court struck down the laws banning same-sex marriage on equal protection grounds, also adopting a new standard of review in the process.
When courts weigh whether distinctions among people or groups violate the right to equal protection they generally require just a rational basis for the distinction, a relatively easy standard to meet. But when the discrimination is based on race, sex or religion, the courts generally require a more substantial justification.
Discrimination based on sexual orientation, the majority ruled on Thursday, also requires that sort of more rigorous justification. The court acknowledged that it was the first state high court to adopt the standard, strict scrutiny, in sexual orientation cases.
Doesn’t monogamy and committed pairings fit right in with the conservative agenda? Hopefully Connecticut and other states will follow in California’s footsteps and recognize that the government should be giving equal rights to EVERYONE, whether based on skin color, religion, sexual preference, or any other category. Basic legal rights should not be limited by moral judgments, no matter how justified legislators or judges may think they are. That argument could be a slippery slope. If we say that it’s okay to pass or enforce law based on our religious beliefs then how can we go out and preach to people in countries with laws strongly shaped by religious values to change the way they operate? Hypocrites.
Well I made it through Spring semester and, boy, did it fly by! Between family and work upheavals, heavy reading and paper demands for my classes and illness, I can barely remember what I did over the past few months. I’m just glad it’s done and that I have a few weeks to recover before starting over again in June with a really intense summer session.
I won’t make predictions about how exams went. I will say THANK YOU to everyone who suggested I talk to the school and ask for some help last semester. I didn’t do it and it hurt me with fall grades. This semester, especially with the addition of the super-slow-brain meds, the extra time really did help me concentrate. I also brought highlighters, flags, etc. after realizing on the first, smaller exam that I was having difficulty with reading comprehension and needed some aides to help me break down the question. I think that helped for the second exam, but I guess we will see when grades are issued.
This summer I have to take two six-week classes. I already have the book and study CDs for one class, so I should probably get a jump on the reading. 
Bleech!
is her nanny, as I’ve recently discovered. Mine started this week and I LOVE her. She has organized my cabinets, cleaned out my drawers (even my bedside drawer 
), done the laundry and made dinner for Pumpkinhead and then had something else waiting for Chapin and I each night! 
She makes Pumpkinhead a healthy breakfast and then takes him to school at 8:30 and picks him up at 3:30, much more reasonable hours than before when I was dropping him off at 7 and he was getting picked up at 6:30 by whoever happened to be able to get him that night.
If I love her this much while I’m on break, imagine how much I’ll adore her once I’m back in school four nights a week until 9 p.m. You should see my pantry and my fridge! Pumpkinhead’s toy room! Seriously, I am in over-organized heaven. 
She’s promised not to touch my home office with all my school stuff, although now I wonder if maybe I should let her…
How can I afford a nanny you ask? Well, I got really, really, REALLY lucky. I found a single mom who needed a place to stay for her and her two daughters (8 and 10 – soooo sweet and well-mannered). She and the kids are living with us and we’re paying for food, utilities, TV, Internet, gas, car insurance, etc., in exchange for her babysitting/cooking/housekeeping services. She gets child support and during the year she will most likely take on a part-time job while the kids are in school. We’re paying her during the summer to watch Pumpkinhead and have bought YMCA and Zoo memberships so that she can keep all three kids occupied while they are out of school. She’s even going to take Pumpkinhead to swimming lessons and we’re hoping to sign him up for karate or music classes as well. Hopefully it will continue to go as well as this first week.
