welcome to the right side of history, oregon

“Where will this all lead? I know that many suggest we are going down a slippery slope that will have no moral boundaries. To those who truly harbor such fears, I can only say this: Let us look less to the sky to see what might fall; rather, let us look to each other…and rise.”

-- Concluding paragraph from the federal judge’s decision striking down Oregon’s same sex marriage ban. It’s taken 10 years to reverse what should never have passed in the first place, but love still wins in the end.

on the proper way to celebrate a birthday

When I asked Sal what he wanted to do for his 40th birthday, he decided he wanted to ride the Banks-Vernonia Trail (an old RR line from Banks to Vernonia that's been converted to a 21 mile biking/walking trail). I'm sure he was thinking simple: load his bike on the rack, drive over, ride the trail roundtrip, come home. I don't know why he'd think simple... after 18 years of marriage, surely he must know by now that I can make anything into an extravaganza.

So here we are in our room of the delightful B&B in Vernonia where we're staying for the weekend, complete with birthday balloons and flowers for a bit of festivity. We've enjoyed lunch at our favorite place in town (Blue House Cafe OMG ZATAAR FLATBREAD YOU ARE THE GREATEST) and are currently kicked back in decadent leisure on a gorgeous evening doing absolutely nothing productive. Tomorrow (the actual big day), there's homemade breakfast delivered to our door (srsly great B&B), an awesome trail ride he can take the whole day to enjoy, our famous and fabulous smorgasbord dinner, the most incredible cake ever (made by one of his former students), and presents that will blow his mind.

Simple, ha!