On my soap box for a moment...

Okay, this clearly hit a nerve with me.

You've seen the Susan Boyle video, right? From "Britain's Got Talent?"

I can't tell you how annoyed I am that it's linked all over the internet as a reason not to judge a book by its cover.

Tell me, what is wrong with her cover, exactly? Because she doesn't fall into our culture's extremely narrow standard of youthful beauty she clearly has no value? She's to be laughed at? And it's a huge surprise that she has an amazing voice?

OH. MY. GOD. People. WAKE THE FUCK UP.

We have to stop marginalizing each other. For any reason. Looks, race, age, background... whatever.

I have spent so much time and energy throughout my life feeling bad about myself because I don't fit into the standard, either, and this was made very clear to me at a very tender, impressionable age. It's the number one reason I have such terrible memories of my adolescence in Barbie-land.

We are damaging people with this shit.

Knock it off. I'm trying to do the same.

I really, really, really like this guy...

I don't really have much to add at this point, as our last couple of dates have been on the brief side -- he's busy, I'm busy -- but it's all good. Really good.

I'm not sure if I mentioned he has kids; he has them every weekend. He's now talking about changing those arrangements so that he has some of his weekends free.

Note: I would never ask a father to give up time with his children -- kids come first, always , and I've told him how I feel about that -- but I have to admit it makes me smile to know that he's looking for ways to find more room in his life for me.

*Sigh.