Gettin' Back to My Cactus Roots--Tucson, AZ

My brother testified before Congress this week on a panel about federally funded abstinence-only sexual education programs in public schools.  (In case you haven't met my brother, he testified on the side that believes that abstinence only programs are worthless and alienating.)  While I will always be proud of my brother, I believe this issue in particular is important, whether or not my brother had anything to do with it.

Max blogged about his testimony in the Reproductive Health blog RH Check.  My brother's testimony in its entirety was published by this awesome gay reverend in Atlanta.  (Warning: it is a bit of a read.  Good, but not short.)  You can view my brother's actual testimony (snazzy suit included!) in this clip from CSPAN.  There's was also a long Q and A session with the whole panel afterward that he also participated in, but we don't have video links to that at the time being.

I'm so proud of him, I could just explode!  Go Max!

Off to curl up with my darling dear.

Cheers.

Current Mood: excited

I took my brother to Miyagi's yesterday evening to kick off our night-time activities, so we could sit on the porch, smoke cigarettes, and watch the cars roll by on Sunset. Sitting that close to Sunset Avenue shouldn't be relaxing, but it is. Since I never got to take Max out for the stereo-typical 21st birthday drinkathon, he let me buy him a drink (which because of 2-fer-1s at Miyagi's become two drinks). He ordered a cocktail called a Skittle, which included a whip cream and a cherry on top. I enjoy watching people consume those kind of drinks because I never want to order them myself.

Ben and PBJ met us there, and we enjoyed ourselves for a while. My brother and I went to Amoeba, which always does a body good. I love it when Max gets new CDs because, chances are, my musical horizons are about to be expanded.

Ben and Jay then wanted to go to another bar. This conversation ensued:

Jay: What bar should we go to next?

Mandy: I was thinking I could take Max to Lucky B's [my favorite bar in perhaps all of LA, because of its general low key nature and fantastic beer selection]

Jay: We're already in Hollywood and your brother is visiting and you want to take him *back* to Pasadena? Come on--we can't always go to the same places. We need to try somewhere new.

Mandy: [after some thought] Let's go to a bar in West Hollywood! Max totally just turned 21.

Ben and Jason: Uh, well . . . uh . . . we're not really familiar with the bars in West Hollywood.

Mandy: That's okay, because I am. We'll just park on Santa Monica and we can walk to one. There's not a great one in particular, but I can pick a specific one if we need to.

B and J: Well, we, uh . . [uncomfortable fidgeting] . . . maybe we should go to the Cat and the Fiddle instead. We wouldn't want to ruin your game, or anything.

Mandy: Max and I aren't going to pick up dates. Let's just go and get one drink. For fun, since Max just turned 21 and everything.

PBJ: Why don't you and Max go and then just meet up with us later.

Perhaps you can imagine how this escalated. Perhaps you can imagine the collective disappointment of my brother and I.

We ended up going to the Cat and the Fiddle, where Max struck up a conversation with a misogynst Scotsman who (ironically) PBJ and Ben became totally smitten with. Since the Scotsman repeatedly talked about me in the third person, my brother and I eventually evacuated.

Max and I hit up Dona Rosa's back in Pasadena for late night Mexican deliciousness and curled up on the couch to watch the West Wing. I tried to start off with some of my favorite episodes from Season 2, because I always want everyone to love the Aaron-Sorkin era West Wings as much as I do.

All in all, my brother and I are having a great time together. Today we're going to go shopping for sandals.

Cheers.

Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: Talking Heads--Road to Nowhere