July Book Club Review
For this month’s book club, we were supposed to meet at a French restaurant and read Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg. Well, the best laid plans of both mice and men oft go astray and this month was no different. We were told not to worry about making reservations at the restaurant because there would be plenty of tables but there was some huge company party going on when we arrived so there was no seating to be had. Did I mention this was during a major downpour? So that made finding an alternative place on foot even more awesome. Luckily, one of the ladies was smart enough to pull up Yelp on her phone and we were at Cafe Iberico with sangria in hand in mere minutes. Spanish tapas and lots more sangria – can’t go wrong with that!
They’re gonna get burned
As for the book, I didn’t actually read it (I know, a book club rarity for me!). I had a hard time finding it and the library has a huge waitlist, plus I didn’t want to pay for a new copy because I’m cheap. I needn’t have worried since only one other girl managed to get her hands on it (not such a book club rarity…). The book told the story of one of the first transgender activists in the nation and it seems engrossing enough that I will read it, at some point. However for the month I decided to stick to another LGBTQ book and I read Spring Fire, which was published in 1952 and is considered to be the first lesbian pulp fiction novel ever to be published. It told the story of two sorority sisters who fall in love with each other only to have that love ripped apart by social convention. Many years after the book was published, the author (who wrote under a pen name at the time) said she regretted the ending she gave her characters. Basically, one of the women is committed to a mental hospital and the other decides she’s straight and never really loved the other girl to begin with. However, at the time the book was released no place would publish a story where two women lived happily ever after so the unhappy ending was required. It certainly did feel abrupt in the book but I can understand the reasoning behind the author making the choices she did. That said, the novel was very innocent by today’s standards and gave me a glimpse of what living a gay lifestyle in secrecy could have been like.
As always with book club, we had a great time and ate a lot of great food. Now if we could just always have great weather, things would be perfect!
Time Out for Twix
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My mom didn’t have too many weird cravings when she was pregnant with me but there was one thing she couldn’t get enough of – Peanut Butter Twix bars. According to her, she would eat them for breakfast every day and again whenever she felt like a snack. I was enjoying them myself pretty much as soon as I was able to swallow real person food and they were basically my favorite candy bar of all time. I’m pretty sure they inspired my love of the Reese Cup, which I still hold dear to this day. Anyway, I spent a large part of my childhood assuming blissfully that the Peanut Butter Twix would, like my mom, always be there for me. And then I learned one of the first hard truths of growing up – nothing lasts forever.
The powers of candy bar production removed the Peanut Butter Twix from the shelves and my world was forever altered.
Of course, the standard Caramel Twix still remained a thing but it sucks. I remember being at Kings Island and telling a cousin about the Peanut Butter Twix dilemma and how my favorite treat had disappeared from my world. He got all exited and ran off to the concession stand, leaving me to think that perhaps there was some secret black market amusement park way of obtaining my beloved bar. Nope, they came back with a Caramel Twix and since I’m a good sport I tried it, even though I knew it wouldn’t be the same. Well, that was the day I learned I am not a fan of that weird-colored, taffy-like substance called caramel. It’s disgusting and has no business being anywhere near my mouth.
This is not a new recipe. Lies!
When I was in high school many years later, Twix announced a “brand new recipe” and brought back the red packaging of my Peanut Butter Twix. I was so excited and bought an entire damn box before I realized this “new” recipe was in fact entirely new and contained a layer of cookie below the peanut butter and chocolate. Again, my hopes were crushed as this was not the Twix I remembered but some bastardized version that really just wasn’t that good. At that point I pretty much gave up on my love of Twix and resigned myself to a lifetime of Reese Peanut Butter Cups. First world problems, right?
UNTIL FATHER’S DAY! Scott and I went to the suburbs to visit his family and stopped at a CVS along the way. Lo and behold, Twix is claiming another brand new recipe and this time they got it right! But you can’t fool me, Twix, I know your dirty little secret. You splashed some new marketing around and tried to convince the public this is a breakthrough recipe when in reality you’re no better than movie studios churning out the same old thing in order to make a profit. Not that I care – you can have my money because I have my original Twix bars back! My knees got weak when I had my first bite and it was all I could do not to cry. Then I looked at the nutritional info on the back and really wanted to cry, but I quickly got over it. I’m not going to be eating these every day for breakfast but I will be enjoying their deliciousness from time to time and chances are if I ever get pregnant they will be the main thing I live off of. Unless pregnancy messes with my taste buds and makes me crave nothing but meat, extra rare.
Maybe I’ll adopt.
Oh, and my mom was in town for the 4th of July and we shared a couple of Twix bars! Real Twix bars, not the Caramel or Cookie crap they’ve been slinging for years. It was a wonderful mother-daughter moment and I hope to have many more in the future! Just not too many or I’ll simply look pregnant without the excuse of a baby.
Better Late than Never
My blog posting has dropped off significantly as of late and I’m sure all three of you who read this are just plain devastated. Since I’ve been so out of the loop, this is a little overdue but warranted nonetheless:
I AM SO PROUD OF THE UNITED STATES FOR LEGALIZING GAY MARRIAGE!!!
This is a fight that was fought for far too long but the Supreme Court really came through in the end. Our country now joins many other countries and I just have to say – it’s about damn time.
Finally!
While I am engaged to a man, I have always and will always consider myself to be a bisexual person. It was very important for me when Indiana passed same-sex marriage because I didn’t want to get married in a state where I wouldn’t be able to marry whomever I ended up falling in love with. As it happens, the person I want to spend the rest of my life with is a man but I could’ve just as easily ended up with a woman and knowing that I could marry whoever my heart so chose just makes said heart so dang happy it could burst!
When the ruling was announced, I was back in Indiana for my uncle’s funeral. I spent two days in the company of my cousin’s kids (ages 6, 8 and 10) and we had a big talk about why they were seeing so many rainbow flags on the news on TV. I explained everything to the best of my ability and nearly cried when the 6-year-old displayed confusion because “why wouldn’t people be allowed to marry whoever they love?” That’s progress, that’s our future and that makes me so damn proud.
This all means I need to work on dropping the terms “gay marriage” and “same sex marriage” from my vocabulary. It’s all just marriage now!
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