Actually, any alcoholic beverage will do

Since first moving to the island, I have moved eleven times, including the moves back and forth to Saskatoon during the summer holidays from school. This upcoming one will be my twelfth one in under nine years.

When I move I'm pretty organized. In preparation for my last move I started packing a month before. Granted, I had an entire apartment to consolidate into one bedrooms worth of furniture and belongings [with a few extra containers in the laundry room of the condo]. Thankfully a friend stored things like my two gigantic bookcases, a few lamps, kitchen items that I wouldn't be needing for a while and other odds and ends that weren't necessary for living where I currently do.

[Sidenote: my current roommate has EVERYTHING you'd ever need, and more. So long, gigantic tv! Netflix! PVR! Couch of dreams!]

Every move I have ever done has taken under three hours. Boxes, bed, desk, dresser, etc... it has always been efficient. The unpacking always takes a heck of a lot longer, but the actual transportation of belongings is quick and easy. I know part of it is because I would feel like absolute rubbish if someone were to show up to help me move and I had things unpacked still. That's just a dick move, let's be honest here. Another reason that I make sure to have everything all set to go is because I am pretty useless when it comes to actually moving. Now more than ever - I can barely lift up my twenty pound cat, let alone carry heavy boxes or a bed.

This upcoming move is turning out to be a little different than previous ones. I move in about a week and I feel as though I have hardly even made a dent in packing my life into boxes. Granted, I have been working full time at a new job in a city that is 1.5 hours away for which I have been both commuting and staying down there for the last week and a half. BUT STILL. I am starting to feel fairly nauseated when I begin to think about the actual move and how it's all going to go down. It may come down to me declaring "Eff it!" and just throwing crap randomly into boxes.

So if you see me in the next week, the kind thing to do is to avoid asking me how the move is going. Instead, offer me a Palm Bay and give me a gigantic hug.

Why is it still an issue?

On my trip to the UK last fall the girlfriend I stayed with for most of my trip got me hooked on "Modern Family". A hilarious show if you aren't already watching it. Upon my return to Canada I quickly went back and watched the previous season and caught up on the second. During one of the most recent episodes I was struck by the realization that the show has never written a storyline around the nieces and nephews of Mitchell and his partner Cameron commenting on having an uncle who is gay in a negative way. Or any way at all. It is a non-issue.

Which is how it should be.

I was raised in a way that I didn't know that two women or two men being together was "not normal" until I was told otherwise years later via the schoolyard. One of my aunts has been with her partner for as long as I can recall. My parents never tried to cover it up, or make excuses as to why I received gifts from two women together. I recall the day that my mum sat me down at the kitchen table and explained to me that some people don't think it's right for people of the same sex to be together. I know she did it because I was at the age where kids were starting to say things such as "You're so gay" [or worse] and have it be a horrible insult to one another. I remember that if one of your peers called you gay it was one of the more offensive insults someone could hurl at you. Because it was so wrong to be gay. And at that age you were doing everything in your power to be as cookie cutter as possible.

The reason I adore how "Modern Family" has never made it an issue with the kids is because that is how I feel it should be. For any generation before ours, to a degree I can understand how it is hard for them to understand a same sex union. It just wasn't as prominent. It was hidden, avoided and repressed. For so long it has been drilled into society that it should not be that way.

For our generation though, and the ones following, the fact that it is still considered "unnatural" just makes me cringe. I often wonder if I would feel so fiercely about the negative connotations that being homosexual has if I wasn't raised how I was. I hope that I would be as nonchalant about it as I am, but one can never predict what a person will accept or reject without any influences.

You won't catch me using the phrase "That's so gay" or any other saying along those lines. And I have a hard time dealing with it when others do. In fact, it makes me want to throw you off a roof. If you suddenly find that I am no longer speaking to you then perhaps review your vocabulary. If you partake in the use of the word gay in a derogatory way or other words of similar kind, chances are there's your reason.

Because while I don't care about the sexual orientation about my friends I sure as hell mind if they are ignorant assholes.

Tally ho, here we go

There's no real right way to start a blog. And when you have been blogging for nearly a decade, it doesn't exactly feel like a "start".

Perhaps this will go in a ranting direction. Or conversational. Personal to a degree but don't expect many posts about how I went to work and then had a smoothie and then I came home and I watched "30 Rock" and it was awesome. Because my life is obviously awesome in general, without me having to detail every moment of my day.

"30 Rock" is pretty fantastic though. So maybe we'll see it featured here on occasion.