Ya’ll know I’ve been tweeting about my trip out West, but I really hadn’t had a lot of time to sit down and talk about it.  So, fair warning, this post might get a little long.

I wasn’t even sure if our 1996 Volkswagen Jetta would be capable of making the more than 2100 mile trip to Oregon.  From the start, I knew it was very possible that I’d be stranded somewhere in the Great Plains.  I don’t know if any of you have ever been out that way, but there are times where you can see for miles and miles and there is nothing resembling human civilization.  Even the cars on the Interstate become few and far between.  Everyone knows how crazy I am about Breanna, though, so it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that, in my mind, it was completely worth the risk.

I’ve been outside of Tennessee before, but not in this direction.  I’d never been off the East Coast.  I went through Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho before I finally reached Oregon.  I didn’t have to go very far into Oregon, because Breanna lived right on the border just outside of Boise, Idaho.  I left about 5:45 AM CST on Friday, February 12th and I got there around 9:30 PM MST, on Saturday, February 13th.  I was pretty damn determined to spend Valentine’s Day with my girl!

Her parents aren’t exactly thrilled that she’s gay, but I, honestly, felt very welcome in their home.  They asked us to spend the night at a motel, which was fine, and we thought we’d be leaving the next day, anyway.  Needless to say, I’m glad did because it was nice to have time alone, together, for Valentine’s Day.

We went back to her parent’s house, which is really lovely, by the way, and Breanna made us all Biscuits & Gravy for Valentine’s Day breakfast from scratch.  I think we got to know each other pretty well, that day.

Breanna had a lot of things to finish packing so it didn’t look like we were going to get out of there on Sunday, either.  Also, the shocks on our car were so bad, we weren’t sure we could even put her stuff in the car without dragging the bumper the whole way home.  The trip, itself, was costing us so much that we really didn’t have a set of new shocks, struts, and an alignment in our budget.  Her parents even pulled me aside and said we really need to get that fixed before we leave.  They knew we didn’t have the money for it, so I don’t know why they’d be telling me this.  That’s when her dad completely stunned me and said that he’d be taking care of it.

We didn’t find a place to do it until Monday morning.  It was supposed to be done that afternoon but the guy working on our car had some sort of medical emergency; rumor has it that he died because of our car.  They finished it up on Tuesday and we were finally able to start packing stuff up into it.  We really did overload it because by the time it was done, the bumper was just a few inches off the ground.  I can’t imagine how impossible this would have been without the new shocks.

Before I continue, I’d like to say how grateful I am to her parents for allowing me to stay there and for helping make our trip home possible, and safer.  I really like them a lot and really enjoyed being there.  I can’t wait to visit, again.  Furthermore, I’m really grateful to Chalaine for being as sweet and understanding as can be.  We had a lot of fun hanging out with her.

We took a different route home which allowed me to cross through Colorado and Kansas for the first time.  I haven’t really checked, but I think I’ve been through, at least, half of the 50 states!  On our way home, we took a couple videos with the Ipod that I got her for Christmas, but I don’t know how those came out yet.  Hopefully, it’s something I can post!

We had a little incident in Denver, Colorado where one of the four new tires that I put on the car before I left decided it weighed too much.  We were towed off the interstate and stayed at the DoubleTree Hilton hotel for the night.  The next morning we used their shuttle service to get a new tire, but a second one was badly worn, so we then drove to the Firestone we got that tire from to get a second one put on.  We were back on the road by our noon checkout time that Wednesday.

We got to drive through Castle Rock, an adorable little town just south of Denver in Colorado.  If I could pick one place in the world to spend the rest of my life, this would be it.  Of course, that’s only if I can spend it with Breanna.  She liked it too, but she’s keeping an open mind for other places as well.  I just hope that if she decides on something else, that it’s at least something very similar.

The rest of the trip was really uneventful.  There’s almost nothing but gas stations until you get to Kansas City, Missouri.  We got home, safe and sound, on Thursday afternoon, and we’re almost settled in.

Breanna really is my Manifest Destiny, and my life truly feels complete.

If the technology becomes commercially viable, I’ll visit you in a submarine.

When it comes to browsing, Google Chrome is just faster.  Unfortunately, there were just too many Firefox extensions that were essential to me and Google Chrome didn’t support extensions at all.  Now, Adblock, IE Tab, iMacros, Reloader, RoboForm, and a bunch of other extensions that I’d become dependent on in Firefox are now available in the latest release of Google Chrome.

First of all, I’m really surprised, impressed, and thankful at how fast these all became available.  It’s nice to see the developers of these amazing extensions so quick to act on this.  I got everything I need now, and unless Firefox decides to do something innovative, I’ll be exclusively using Google Chrome from now on.

Sure, it bothers me that we’ve torn the United States constitution to shreds to justify political agenda, but why the hell is Marriage Equality, of all things, still an issue?

On one side, you have arguments founded on the Fourteenth Amendment’s declaration that we’re all created equal and that no State shall pass any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.  Furthermore, no State shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Obviously, nobody cares, so let’s just tear that part out since, like the rest of the Constitution, it’s obviously a joke.  El-oh-el, did you get it?  Don’t sweat it; neither did I.

Opponents of Marriage Equality say that it’s a religious institution.  Sure, I’ll buy that.  I’m even willing to concede marriage as union between one man and one woman.  All I ask for in return is that all the legal privileges and rights, federal and state associated with it be redacted.  Am I not merciful?  The very First Amendment in our constitution prohibits Congress from creating any legislation respecting an establishment of religion.  If marriage is a religious institution then it should be nothing more than a solemn, yet trivial, promise before a shared perception of a higher power.  Creating any legal protection and privilege for it on the basis of religion is a complete reversal on the very foundation of this entire country.

When our forefathers wrote the damn thing, their were seeking to establish a government that wasn’t defined by religion.  That’s not to say our laws and ideals aren’t guided by some of the common sense doctrine in religious scripture, but I’m not about to advocate there’s not at least some degree of common sense in the bible.  Anyway, it was this exclusion that made this country what it is today.  Excluding foreign, internal revolutions, we’re among the youngest of developed nations and the most powerful country in the world.  The fact is, we didn’t get where we are by paralyzing and stagnating our country with these ridiculous, archaic arguments.

We’ve tried, though.  I am not about to go through the list of setbacks for this country because we tried to gyp people out of their civil rights.  Let’s just agree that it had never gotten us anywhere.

Now, look at us.  Even Portugal is about to permit gay marriage.  That country is almost entirely Roman Catholic.  Are we so backwards that we are no longer the leader of civil rights?  At this point, we should just be ashamed of ourselves.

So, back to my point.  Why is this an issue?  Why is there even a focus of energy on civil rights within this country?  What do these other countries have that we don’t?  Are we so obnoxious that we think that just because we weren’t the first to recognize it as a basic civil right, that it isn’t one at all?  I’m seriously baffled.

Marriage Equality is largely a grass roots movement.  The opposition, the religious and conservative institutions broadcasting all their nonsense propaganda, are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat legislation to protect our civil rights.  Do you have any idea what those hundreds of millions of dollars could have done instead?  Who is god really going to punish?  The gays for loving, or the churches for hating?

I think of the money, time, and energy spent on both sides and I wonder if it’s even worth it anymore.  The opposition has invested so much in this already that they know they have to win so they’ll never stop.  It’s only a matter of time before the churches are just as bankrupt as the rest of us.

I’m worried about this going all the way to the Supreme Court, but what if we win?  The justices aren’t propaganda sponges and the appointment process somewhat separates them from the lobbyists, so I suppose it’s possible.  Will we, finally, be able to move on?

Then again, what if we lose?

Ommmmm nom nom nom!

Like anyone, I’d listen to music virtually my whole life.  When I was younger, though, I wasn’t a big fan of music with lyrics.  That didn’t stop me from becoming partial to several great songs, but I was very happy with something I could stereotypically rock to.

I’d become quite a fan of The Cranberries when I was twelve, though, and that was the first time I’d ever really become a real fan of a particular artist.  When I was fourteen, I became a huge fan of Jewel.  For a while, her and The Cranberries would go back and forth as my favorite, but Jewel, eventually, came out on top.

Well, it’s been over a decade and I’m almost 30 so it’s no surprise some things might change for me. Needless to say, I still love Jewel and The Cranberries and they will always hold a special place in my heart.  However, I must admit, I have a new love.  For a while now, I was torn between her and Jewel as my favorite because Jewel had been so good to me and so reliable for so damn long.

It should be obvious, but if it isn’t I’m referring to Lady Gaga, of course.  Her awesome lyrics mixed with lavish rhythm you can move your body to is just orgasmic nirvana.  The more of her music I listen to, the more I find myself falling in love.  Her talent, alone, is enough to warrant this dramatic promotion, but she comes with so many lovely bonuses; my personal favorite being her civil rights activism.

I’d been leaning this way for a while, now, but I decided to just accept it. Jewel, honey, I love you, but I really just love Lady Gaga more.

I’d been on Blogger for a while and it was pretty easy to ignore Tumblr just as easy as it was any other blogging platform that had come along.  Just recently, my friend Monika tweeted about it, and I thought I’d just go and check it out, again; expecting another glossy representation of stagnant innovation.

Flawless integration with Facebook & Twitter?  Audio Blogging?  Seamless support with a multitude of other services?  I’m seriously impressed.  So, why not start off the year by switching over to Tumblr?

Unfortunately, Tumblr doesn’t have a very good system for importing a blog from another platform.  There is a hack out there to do it for you, but I kept getting an error about halfway through, so I gave up on that.

But I really like it, now.  I like it A LOT!  I could just keep using Blogger and hope Tumblr implements a system to import from my blog from there; suffering in the meantime.  I could also just start posting here and, hopefully, such a system, if ever created, will be able to append and predate existing blog entries.  Yeah, I think I’m going with the latter on this.  Besides, I’d messed around with integrating a third-party audio blogging system in my Blogger and that is just a damn headache.  Tumblr has native support for it!  I’d be retarded not to switch, wouldn’t I?

So, here you have it.  Hopefully, Tumblr will continue to design seamless solutions rather than relying on a fractured, third-party, widget system to do all the work for them.  Seriously, that’s really all Blogger does.  They’ve done nothing groundbreaking, phenomenal, or original.

Thanks, Monika!

This year really didn’t end like I wanted it to. I just thought that 2010 would be different. I thought I’d finally have a New Year’s kiss from someone I wasn’t related to. I didn’t even go my family’s New Year’s party because I wouldn’t have been able to get there until a half hour before midnight. I know it’s going to get better over the next few weeks. I just wish things were different right now. Besides, there’s always next year.

As far as New Years’ resolutions, I think I’m just going to continue to strive toward more positive goals contributing to a brighter future for me, my fiancée, and our hopes and dreams. The world has been struggling more than ever this past year. Ever since Breanna had to go back home, I’d realize that I’d been pretty complacent on letting the world crumble around us. While it doesn’t matter if the world falls apart all around us, it does matter that we have a plan to adapt and recollect ourselves. October wasn’t a great month for me as I spent almost all of it crying. However, last month, and this month, I’ve been really making an effort to make the healthy changes I needed and that’s made me more positive about the future. I still have a ways to go, but I’m more confident in the direction I’m heading and I know everything’s going to be alright.

I miss you, Breanna. Happy New Year, baby.