Purge

It's been a while.  

I have so much that's been rattling in my head.  Here goes:

1) You can't own a cake business and decide that you aren't selling your cakes to someone because they sin (your definition) differently than you.  Sorry, no.   Selling something to someone isn't ever some sort of personal spiritual validation on your part.  And why on earth would you think that it is?

"Well, this is America and I should be able to sell or not sell to whomever I wish."

Again, no.  The freedom to buy cakes from whomever is selling them trumps whatever discriminatory stick you've created and would like to use in measuring the "worthiness" of your customers.  Why?  Because Black people.  Because Native American people.  Because Jewish people.  Because physically challenged people.  Because female people.  Because mentally challenged people.  Because Asian people.  Because Italian people.  Because divorced people.  Because single people.  Because Muslim people.  Because Irish people.  Because Buddhist people.  Because Christian people.  Because Mexican people.  Because mixed-race/religion people.  Because married people.  Because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory, baby.  Or didn't they teach that to you in Vacation Bible School? 

Isn't forcing me to sell my cakes to specific "sinners" that I don't approve of fly in the face of my Freedom of Religion?

Again, no.  Your freedom to believe as you wish (that's what's guaranteed) isn't diminished by selling a cake to anyone.  No one is requiring you to renounce Christ during the creation or the selling of the cake.  You remain free to believe in (or not) whatever you want.  Just mix up some flour, sugar, eggs...you may feel free to sing your favorite hymns or say a prayer at any time while you're doing it.  See?  You get to believe as you like and make a cake (and a living) without having to bother yourself about anyone else's personal life.

Really.  It's that simple.  

2) My washing machine is dead.  It was the only survivor in the virtual appliance Jonestown of last year and it gave up the ghost mid-cycle the other day.   I've had to work a lot of hours lately so I'm thankful that God's timing on the cash front remains impeccable.  

3) Last year, I had the opportunity to help someone find their birth family using autosomal DNA (genetic genealogy).  As a newborn, Kayla had been left behind an Alpha Beta supermarket in Anaheim back in 1987.  I remember discussing the story about her with my parents; I was 23 at the time and still living at home.  It was a story a lot of people talked about because it was so unusual.  When my friend CeCe asked if I wanted to help, I was in the fog of grief having lost my mom a few months earlier.  My dad passed away as well during the time I was working on the case.  Focusing on finding Kayla's birth family was a welcome distraction.  I thought a lot about my own mom while working on Kayla's case; how imperfect but yet how amazing she was and how blessed I was to have her.  All moms have their baggage, you know.  Some baggage less publicized than others but all moms have mistakes and regrets just the same; myself, of course, included.  Kayla met her birth mom, arms wide open and with a heart full of love and forgiveness on the first anniversary of my mom's death.  I didn't expect to feel such complete joy on the very day I was dreading.  But I did.  

Funny how that worked.  

4)  Because people unfamiliar with genetic genealogy ask the same questions over and over on these message boards I'm reading, I've thought of making a super simple instructional video for total beginners...maybe using shiskabobs as a visual aid.  Hmmmmm.....

5)  Summer is flying by and I desperately need a beach day.  I haven't been at all and it's right down the street.  My days off insure that I will miss most of the crowds which is a huge plus in my book.  I don't want to see "the beach" turn into yet another southern California place I don't regularly visit, like The Observatory at Griffith Park or the LA County Art Museum.  

6)  I've never been to Catalina.  I've been to The Emerald Isle but not the isle 26 miles across the sea that I can easily see from the shore.  I should go.

7)  I don't ever need to go to Disneyland again, thanks.  

8)  I'm planning another trip to Ireland.  If all goes as planned, I'll spend my 51st birthday there and at some point, will be getting drunk and acquiring a new tattoo in Dublin with my friend, Sue.  This is our plan.  I'm not sure what design I'll choose.  I could go with Irish knots or something authentically Celtic, or something Book of Kells, but I'm leaning toward the cheesy, predictable shamrock for the loveable kitsch factor alone.   Because I bet that's what drunk Americans do: get shamrock tats in Dublin.  

9) I'm not sure where I'm putting that tat...

10) I've got this current fascination with Antarctica.  It started with reading everything I could get my hands on about Ernest Shackelton and has progressed to watching documentaries about Antarctica on Netflix.  The Werner Herzog documentary is good but, "Antarctica - A Year on Ice" is better.  The cinematography is just breathtaking.  I fall asleep watching it every night.  It's just so beautiful.  Today, it was 70 below zero at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Center.  Being July, it's still winter there.  And dark.  But the sky is slowly lightening.  The sun will return, as it always does.  

11) If I had 10K to blow, I'd totally go to Antarctica. 

12)  It's a shame I only get one life to live on this planet.