Civilized

Last night I attended a wonderful forum on civil unions in Illinois.  The law has passed, and civil unions will be effective & legally possible as of June 1, and a panel of representatives from Lamba Legal, Equality Illinois, and the county clerk’s office were there to tell people how to do it, plus a divorce lawyer (who provides other services, as well, such as wills, pre-nups, etc.), who was there to get real about dissolution of marriage or civil unions, as need be! 

Great info & marvelous humor, respect, and goodwill. I was so glad to learn more and be there in support. And it’s possible I’ll be on the tv news or have my picture in the paper and someone will want to civilly unite with me.  (Sorry, married to a man already.)

One source of humor was what to call oneself: “civil unionized,” “civilized,” or “civilly united”? They all sound fine to me, especially “civilized,” but I understand how “married” would be so much simpler, so I’ll hope for that someday, too.

Interesting quirks and complications re: taxes. Yeesh. Double paperwork will be required, as one can file jointly on state taxes but must still file separately on federal taxes, and the numbers all have to work out. Tax accountants will be getting some good business out of this, and I am thankful that 1) we have a tax man 2) he is humorously willing to be our “marriage counselor,” as in keep us together since trying to do our taxes without him might lead to divorce, and 3) the government hasn’t shut down, meaning our tax refund might come reasonably soon in the scheme of things.

Plus, there was cake.  As in wedding cake.

In other news, I won’t necessarily have to lead a discussion on Genesis for Great Books Chicago, though I am really enjoying re-reading it and creating discussion questions.  I will be the back-up leader in case anyone gets sick or delayed.  The organizer made this switch to give a new leader his own discussion group and so I don’t have to be super-focused on that, because I am performing in The Encyclopedia Show that same night!  (If my creation myth is approved.)

This is a sort of live encyclopedia event, also recorded for the radio, and I have been listening to past performances on WBEZ to prepare.  You can listen at Audiopedia; click the show title to be taken to the WBEZ program.

Yesterday I got what I hope is a final draft of my piece, which is in rhyming, slant rhyming, or internally rhyming couplets!  And, by random coincidence, I used to be an encyclopedia editor.  I love how my life keeps going in circles.

Er, um…?! Going in circles is “supposed to” be a dubious thing…?!

*****

April 13 poem-a-day prompt: supposed to

Scrabble cake comes from Pink Cakebox!