Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any wool…

I’m writing this from the beautiful Millennium Hotel in The. Worst. State. Ever.

I don’t know what is wrong with Ohio and I, but this state apparently hates me. Hardcore.

Which is fine because the feeling is quite mutual…

I almost didn’t make it here yesterday.  The incoming flight was delayed and every one (including the flight staff) was getting kind of antsy waiting for it. I don’t know if that had anything to do with us getting rushed onto the plane, but we left Charlotte ASAP only to have to turn back not too long after we left due to some sort of mechanical issue.

In the Charlotte boarding area, I saw a woman knitting so I sat across from her and pulled out the Retro Rib Sox. (Magic loop, toe-up, two at a time, if you’re curious. In a GORGEOUS red.) We knit for a bit and then others started noticing us. This woman came over to talk to us about knitting - she tried, it looked terrible and she gave up, so she basically came over to get some “how to” advice from the two of us. Sadly, tatmom was the more friendly of the two of us because I couldn’t seem to count past five without getting all confused and I spent a lot of time looking at my knitting going, “WTF” and counting stitch after stitch. Despite my issues, I did manage to be friendly and social. (Go me!)

You know how you fall into conversations with people and you just *know* their conversational boundaries? Yup. Between the three of us, we must have chased off six different people with our toxic ideas and free thought. Tatmom is a Christian (not THAT type LOL) who was brought up in a wicked conservative, whack-job offshoot of Christianity. She has since decided she likes being able to think freely and have certain freedoms, so she is no longer practicing that particular flavor… The stories she was telling were along the lines of the stuff you’d hear on like 20/20… you never meet people who have lived something that f’ed up.  Fascinating.

It was interesting and challenging to talk to her. I like how she can’t come to terms with the biology of being gay (it’s not natural to be born “that way”) yet is able to fully believe that people should be allowed to be who they want to be, and that includes being gay. If you’re in love, it doesn’t matter what gender you’re in love with - it should just be enough that you’re in love. It’s awesome that she still holds to her belief but is open minded enough to accept alternate realities. So, anyhoo, we’re stitting there talking and the other woman decides to come out and tell us she’s been with her partner for 18 years and that she used to downplay the fact that her lover was another woman. They had gotten married when they lived in MA but now they live in the south where it’s a little different. It was awesome to see how happy she was that she could say that she was gay to someone. I had said something about being a bleeding heart, tree hugging liberal and she was thrilled. Her next comment was something like she “knew the three of us were of the same mind”.

After she made that comment, it dawned on me that you couldn’t have picked three more different looking people and come anywhere near close to assuming that they shared very similar beliefs. It made me wonder how it was possible that we just knew that our overt liberalism, subtle homosexuality and open minded, yet deeply religious world views would mesh. It’s something I’m still chewing on.  How is it possible that you can just *know* where a random’s strangers boundaries are but you struggle with determining your friends’ boundaries? I’m talking about people you’ve known for years, even your spouse, yet you still don’t know what’s safe to talk about. You always know when you cross the line, but you never knew where the line was until that point.

It was weird. Very weird.

Just goes to show - you never know what’s going to happen when women start to whip out pointy sticks and play with string.