Sup?

Being in Palmdale can be very boring sometimes, but it is pretty quiet, and I love spending time with my family & dogs. Mark & I arrived here on Friday night. Bonnie's nose isn't black anymore! It turned pink which is very common in dogs, especially Labs, due to cold weather. It's starting to get cold @ night here in Palmdale, and during Winter it gets unbearable. Bonnie's lucky she has her own big insulated house. Too bad Chumbah wrecks everything inside the house (blankets and toys) so he has to sleep in another house.

For the past 2 mornings I haven't been able to sleep in because Chumbah knows I'm home. His pen is right below my room, so starting from, I'd say, 6am, he'll just continue to bark. And it's not like barking at a stranger or anything random; it's the cry for attention and food and more attention. My dad said that he doesn't even act like this at all when I'm not home. Ay, Chumbah! Drives me crazy, that big boy with a little kid attitude. If you say "Bonnie, Bonnie" he starts crying & barks at you. If you say Cinnamon's name, he barks at you. He's a little baby. Ha. I love that dog.

I've been cleaning the house all weekend. I'm exhausted. I'm so used to just being a bum at home in Lomita, doing absolutely nothing but going online, watching tv, laying in bed, and eating a lot. I'm not used to cleaning at home over there because I'm scared of what and what not to touch. But when I'm here in Palmdale, I clean everything. I was pretty exhausted Friday night after all the sweeping, vacuuming, dusting, feeding the dogs, dish washing. Ahh. Overworking the pregnant chick, I'm sure.

Yesterday we had our early Thanksgiving dinner since my parents are going to be in Vegas on the actual Thanksgiving day. My dad makes the turkey every year; mmm it was delicious. Then there was all the typical Filipino food that I don't usually care for, haha (except the traditional Valerios' pandesal, yum). I tried to eat as much as I could. My mom invited a huge amount of her coworkers so they filled up the house. Only a few relatives came by. I sang a couple songs off the karaoke & was too tired after that. I had been up since 7am all because of Chumbah's nonstop barking.

The most interesting part about yesterday was when my brother & Mark got into a huge debate over Proposition 8 (because my brother voted 'yes') and it turned into this huge mess. It was brought up because I asked my brother if he voted. I don't even know HOW we ended up talking about it, but we did. We weren't trying to argue with my brother; we were just trying to state our opinion. My brother says he has nothing against gay people, but that he doesn't believe they should get married. Mark & I argued over why that isn't fair. My brother thinks that it seems pretty fair to him because gay people have all the rights as everyone else except to get married. Well, exactly OUR point. They have all these rights BUT marriage so why hold back from that? They can have 99.9% of human rights as everyone else, but that's still NOT 100%. Even if gay people getting married doesn't SEEM like a big deal to other people, it is. They wouldn't have created a Proposition 8 if it WASN'T a big deal to them. I told my brother, "What about when they have colored bathrooms back decades ago? They fought for their rights and were brought justice." My brother said, "I think if you said that to black people, they would get offended." HMM, NOT REALLY. The guy who was IN that commercial for "NO ON PROP 8" was a black guy talking about how they used to never have rights, how Armenians were never allowed to live in the Central Valley, how African Americans weren't allowed to ride buses. Have you guys seen that commercial? They used to play it a lot before election day. So anyways, no, I don't think black people should be offended really. Also another thing, I told my brother, "It's like saying mentally challenged people couldn't get married." And you know what my brother said? He said, "That's totally different. Mentally challenged people don't have the capacity to get married." Now I think that would offend people. Not everyone who's disabled is STUPID. My goodness. The decision isn't based on RACE, MENTAL STATE, SEX, OR RELIGION. This is based on human rights and how EVERYONE in this country deserves 100% of it. My brother kept saying, "You guys will understand when you have your kid one day." Um, I really don't know WHAT that's supposed to mean, but if my kid turned out gay, I honestly don't give a damn. As long as my child is responsible and healthy, live your life! I told my brother, "That's another thing when I was watching those 'yes on 8' supporters. They were telling the interviewers how they're voting because they believe in the 'FAMILY' and that they're afraid that their children will turn out gay. They're also afraid of gay marriage being taught in schools. Never once in a public school was I ever taught about MARRIAGE. In a Catholic school, yes, because it's part of religion, but you SWEAR Christian schools are going to TEACH gay marriage? Ahhh, that's so ignorant. My brother believes that gay people recruit MORE gay people. I honestly don't see gay people standing on corners saying, "HEY..HEY YOU...wanna be gay?!" like WTF?! I hate how people are so ignorant to judge. That's just plain rude. No common sense. Gay people come from straight people, no? It's all connected. These "YES" supporters can believe in whatever they want, but I just wanted my brother to just hear us out; we're not trying to change his mind rather to just have him listen. He had the nerve to say that we don't know what we're talking about because we're still young. MMMMM HMMM. Religion also. Religion plays such a huge role, and my brother admitted that his decision was mostly because of his beliefs. Christians obviously don't believe in gay marriage, and all my brother could say was, "Most of California voted YES on Prop 8 anyway, why can't you guys accept it?" Um, we UNDERSTAND they voted yes, but we lost by only 5%. That means MANY are against it as well. It makes me so sad. I cry when I think about how discriminating people are. My brother said, "If the whole country were to vote, most would vote yes because the USA is highly populated by Christians." I understand that as well, but shouldn't human rights be based on RIGHTS, not a BIBLE?! Then my brother got into the subject about how statistics state that domestic violence is HIGHER with gay couples compared to straight couples. WHAT THE FUCK?! Straight couples obviously outnumber the population of gay couples, how can you prove that that's entirely TRUE? Statistics doesn't include the whole country, I'm sure. Okay, so you're saying that we gotta vote "Yes" on prop 8 because if they get married, there will be more domestic violence? Violence occurs EVERYWHERE. No matter what, there is violence. Single, couples, gay, straight. Who the hell said MARRIAGE is gonna create more violence? If there are already gay couples out there living together, does that make a difference? The "married" title is going to cause more trouble? See, that I really didn't understand. We kept telling him that "Love is what matters in marriage. If they want to be together forever, why is it such a problem?" Apparently my brother's definition of "marriage" is something else. God knows. When my brother would state his opinion, Mark would respond with, "I understand." But when we stated OUR opinions, my brother would laugh at us and say that we make absolutely NO sense. He said we obviously have more to learn in this world. Riiiiiiiiiiiight. So that aggravated Mark. Mark kept telling me, "I don't understand how I can sit here and talk to him like an adult, but he talked back to me like I'm stupid." Mark was very passionate about stating his opinions about the proposition & didn't appreciate my brother mocking or laughing at him. I told Mark to calm down & relax, but it turned out to be another one of our fights. Of course I agree with everything Mark said (because I was stating my opinion half the time), but I got tired of talking and just wanted the whole thing to stop. If anyone is offended by reading this, DON'T BE. We are just strong about the situation. Even though it doesn't even involve us, we believe in equality and everyone sharing the same rights and happiness as the rest. We love everybody! And animals! (haha) Mark even said himself that when he was in his psychology class, his teacher asked, "Who believe that it's wrong to test on animals, including rats?" Who was the only person to raise his hand? Yep.

But yeah, Mark and I argued after the whole debate because he got mad at the fact that I kept teling him to calm down and be quiet. He kept thinking that I wasn't "on his side" which I obviously WAS if I was arguing with my brother as well, but Mark was too angry to understand it at first. He was so mad so he ended up going home at like 9pm while I was left alone (me and fetus) in my room. I stayed in my room all night and tried to sleep. Bleh.

So that was my weekend. Sorry about the huge paragraph over Proposition 8; I'm sure all you other "No on Prop 8" supporters fully understand. On another note, my sister's boss said that she's giving us a crib! That's pretty nice of her especially since I've never even met her at all. Another one of my sister's co-workers is giving us a bouncy chair. Aw. I love generous people. I appreciate all the support. About one more week & I'll be in my 2nd trimester! Crazy how time flies. There have been some nights when the nausea gets REALLY bad though. Ahhh, it drives me crazy. Just when I thought it was slowly going away, it comes back. Ah, the ups and downs of pregnancy.

Well, I guess I gotta wait until my sister and her bf decide to head home so I can tell Mark to pick me up. I'm bored. Sigh. Bye everyone!