BuggBlog

I've been fretting

Judging from the uneven output on my part, you'd have to think that the most common topic 'round the parts would be "Why I haven't been posting in, like, forever." Short answer is, I've been overwhelmed by tossing a wedding into the annual spring work rush at the magazine, plus a couple of other projects I've been working on. Oh, all right. I've also gotten sucked into playing Guitar Hero II. But now that I've reached the limits of dexterity in my digits, I can get back to more important things, like intense navel-gazing on the web.

But really, other than work and noodling around on a toy guitar -- on which I rawk, by the way -- my focus really is on trying to get my wedding planned and implemented. I have to reiterate that I've been really taken aback by the attitude of people I've dealt with in Virginia, from cake makers to store clerks to bankers. After picking up my new suit at Nordstrom's this weekend, one of the sales guys was showing ties and shirts to me and Cavin. The sales guy asked me at one point, while Cavin was off searching for a better blue tie, what the bride would be wearing, so he could find something that would match.

Perplexed, because I was honestly not paying enough attention, I said something like, "We're not going to match. He's wearing a pinstripe suit."

"Your friend said it was your wedding," said the sales guy, confused.

"It is," I said. "It's his wedding, too."

Blank look.

"We're marrying each other."

Light bulb!

"Are you both wearing boutonnieres, or do you need pocket squares?"

I've said it before and I'll say it again, capitalism and self-interest make commissioned sales people so much easier to deal with.

Anyway, I'm now at T-minus 11 days until the big ceremony. I have a handful of family coming in -- possibly including one of my grandmothers. If she does come, I just find it fascinating to consider that in all her life, she probably never entertained the idea that one day she would be traveling to D.C. for the gay, Buddhist wedding ceremony of her first grandson. It's a big, strange world. And thank god for that.

Virginia really is for lovers

Well, Northern Virginia, at least.

In the ongoing saga of planning our wedding, Cavin and I finally hit a number of stores over the past weekend to register. Obviously, we're extraordinarily late in doing it -- long story, tell ya later -- but after prowling a number of stores, we settled on Williams-Sonoma.

In store after store, not one employee batted an eye or stuttered a word when confronted with a non-traditional couple. Not one said, "I'll have to check if we can do that." Not one asked, "Where's your fiance?"  When shopping for our rings, not one store balked at bringing out all the men's rings for us. Compare this with a trip to, say, a government office to ask for recognition of our relationship. At the risk of going all Cato Institute, that's why I'm a big free-market fan -- the places that have to convince me to part with my money (instead of just taking it in taxes) treat me so much better.