Wednesday, July 8, 2009 | by nathan

I’ll Fly Away

I’m going to be off the grid basically until we return to the States, so I wanted to leave you for the time being with this view of the Bray-Greystones Cliff Walk that we took today. It was seven miles of uninterrupted views of the Irish sea and the DART tracks and a seal playing in the waters splashing off the high cliffs.

They don’t make air fresher than the air up on that walk. You guys, it’s entirely possible that I won’t be coming back. Returning to Ireland after nine long years has felt like coming home, in a way that has taken by storm and by surprise, because there is a long litany of places in which I lived for longer than I lived in Ireland. It’s been challenging and hard but in a really beautiful, lovely way, and the icing on the cake is that I’ve gotten to show three of my favorite people in the world around my favorite little corner of the world besides Oklahoma.

I can’t believe how much I love and have missed Ireland. To be honest, even though we’re only just halfway through this trip, I’m already totally terrified of leaving because of how much of myself is still here and will never leave.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009 | by nathan

Gives You Strength

One thing I never got to do the two previous times I visited Ireland – including the TWO MONTHS I lived down the road from it – was visit the Guinness brewery at St. James Gate. We did that today. It’s been entirely refurbished since then, the whole museum and tour designed as a seven-story pint glass. The top of the glass is a Guinness bar featuring a 360-degree view of the city. I managed to get a bit of a panorama looking toward Trinity College, Christchurch, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Irish Sea:

Monday, July 6, 2009 | by nathan

Oh, My.

It seems we have somehow made it to Dublin, Ireland. This photo is of the view from our apartment balcony of the James Joyce Bridge. I cried when we landed. I cried for most of the bus trip from the airport to the city centre. Internet, I am a weepy mess because of how much I love this country and how much I’ve missed it the last nine years. Some Caffrey’s with lunch should clear that right up.

Sunday, July 5, 2009 | by nathan

233

Trying to write a blog post with the slow internet at the JFK airport is rather like trying to pull oneself out of a mess of quicksand, possibly just after having eaten a whole mess of Taco Bueno. So I’ll keep this short: Fourth of July? WAS AWESOME. Happy 233rd Birthday, America!

Saturday, July 4, 2009 | by nathan

Hey Abe Lincoln

Internet, if you haven’t had the chance to be in our nation’s capital for the Fourth of July, you need to add that to the list of things to do before you die. Seriously. Between the four of us we’ve walked about 100 miles in the last three days, and at the moment we’re resting our feets before we head the two blocks from our hotel to the National Mall to watch Fourth of July fireworks and hopefully hear Aretha Franklin sing "God Bless America" at the Capitol. I’m swelled with patriotism right now. If you’re looking to feel the same way but won’t be making it out to see any fireworks, may I recommend you read Garrison Keillor’s piece in this month’s National Geographic about state fairs.

Thursday, July 2, 2009 | by nathan

Garden Update, July 2

Wow, okay, so this was the garden on April 22:

Aaaaand here it is today:

I KNOW, RIGHT??

I’m going away for ten days starting today, so I wanted to get one last look at the whole thing to see how it changes while I’m gone. Today the Beam’s Golden Pear Tomatoes started to ripen:

Don’t those look great? There are about a hundred more of them that are still green and will probably ripen while I’m away. D’oh! But I’m going to try to take a few with me to D.C. so Brian can try them.

Also starting to change colors are the Aurora Peppers:

They started out a deep, deep shade of purple but will turn yellow, then orange and red. I’ve got a ton of these plants, and I think they look so neat:

I’ve also got a whole bunch of rooster spur pepper plants growing in pots.

Some of the rooster spur plants have started to put on fruit, though only just:

Last night my mom came over and we went shopping, but first I gave her a bunch of leaves off my basil plants, which have FINALLY started to really take off:

So in ten days when we get back I imagine that all of this will be taking off and we’ll be able to enjoy the fruits of all this labor. In the meantime, our housesitting friend Casey, my mom, all the neighbors and friends are invited over to pull whatever ripens while we’re away. That’s one of the best parts of having a garden – getting to share the bounty with the people you love. I’m off to D.C. tonight and won’t be posting *as* regularly in the next ten days, though I do plan to try to do Daily Photo posts as regularly as possible. We’ll have two days next week without internet access, and I’m not making any promises, but I’m trying not to go away entirely. Enjoy your Fourth of July!

Thursday, July 2, 2009 | by nathan

Sirloin Stockade

Dude, not only did I score the cover of the Gazette this week, but it’s one of the most hilarious cover images I’ve ever seen them do. It’s kind of an honor, really. Pick it up if you’re in town; if not, read the article here. Also, there’s another one I wrote in there about all the neat geological stuff to do in northwestern Oklahoma.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 | by nathan

Just Imagine It In Neal Conan’s Voice

I was driving home from lunch today, listening to Talk of the Nation like I always do in the car at lunchtime. They started talking about President Obama’s recent outreach to the LGBT community and the question was put to the callers as to whether Americans feel that their political leaders’ publicly (and loudly) expressed views really reflect the feelings on the ground about gay marriage. I tried to call and couldn’t get through, and by that time I was back at work anyway, so I ran inside and fired off a quick e-mail. Then I threw in my headphones and had a listen, and sure enough! "Here’s an e-mail from Nathan in Oklahoma City," said Neal Conan, who then read the words I’d punched out literally 60 seconds before:

"I live in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and despite my state’s reputation as one of the most conservative areas in America, despite the fact that we are the home of such foaming-at-the-mouth anti-gay characters such as Sally Kern and Anita Bryant, I have to say that my husband and I have had almost no trouble with anti-gay sentiment. Even people who disagree with us on religious grounds are generally friendly – the attitude around here is that it’s no one’s business but our own. I would say that in Oklahoma, our politicians are very out-of-step with the populace. Most of the people I know could care less about anyone’s sexual orientation or whether gay marriage is legal or not.

As to President Obama, while I’ve been disappointed so far in the slow steps the administration has taken, I think we have to remember to keep in mind that only six months have passed since the Inauguration. I think we should remember that there are a lot of things going on right now. Gay people will still be here and ready to marry once we’ve tackled some of these more pressing issues."

I wanted to add in about how Clinton’s failure to pass health care in his first term, and the Republican resurgence of 1994, is occasionally attributed, in part, to the huge amounts of political capital he wasted on both sides of the aisle with the battle that eventually gave us "don’t ask don’t tell." Nothing irritates me more about the gay community than when we start acting like our issues should be at the top of everyone’s agenda, and damn everything else to hell. It doesn’t do anything for our image as a community except makes us look selfish and myopic. While it’s good to remind the President that we’re here, to keep ourselves on his agenda, let’s not pretend like we should be the top priority right now.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 | by nathan

Almost Two

This smiling, adorable specimen of Cooperdom will be two years old just five days after Brian and I get back from Ireland. I adore the everlovin’ crud out of this kid, and yesterday I got to have lunch with him and his momma at the Red Cup, where he entertained me by shouting out his impressions of all his favorite animals and repeating all his little antics everytime he got me to laugh. He’s also a natural in front of the camera. He’s going to have a little sister in a couple months, although he has yet to really grasp that concept.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 | by nathan

World Tour

Internet, I’m having one or two minor problems with anxiety in advance of my deeply imminent travels abroad. It’s crazy – I mean, remember that one time when I LIVED IN EUROPE FOR SIX MONTHS? Why am I freaked out about going back? 

Part of it is that Brian isn’t here; he left on Sunday morning, early, to jet out to Washington, D.C. for business. I’m leaving in about 48 hours from now to join him. In the meantime I have to do a whole sh**load of laundry, get my house nice and clean so that my buddy Casey, who is house-and-dogsitting for us, doesn’t have to live in a pig sty.

Last night I stayed up packing – most of my clothes are already crammed tightly into my freshly-Febreezed duffel bag – I REFUSE TO CHECK LUGGAGE. To aid myself while I packed I watched all six episodes of the first series of the BBC black comedy Sensitive Skin, starring the lovely Joanna Lumley (Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous). I only meant to watch one episode. I SWEAR I did but that sh**’s addicting. Careful, though; it’s about the most British thing you’re likely to have seen in awhile.

I’ve got a ton of stuff to do before I leave, including a freelancing deadline for an article I pitched BECAUSE I AM TOTALLY NUTS. In other news, I am the cover author of the local alternative newsweekly – for the second time in a year, holla – so be sure to pick that up if you’re in town.

Maybe it’s the lingering worry of having a largely-uncompleted to-do list hanging over my head, or maybe it’s that I’m always weird when Brian is away, but the past two days my stomach has been fluttering wildly, wobbling so much that I can see it through my shirt. It feels the way that I would imagine a kicking baby does. Also, I’ve become entirely obsessed with my passport, with knowing where it is at all times, to the degree that the first thing I do when I rise and the last thing I do before I go to bed is to check and make sure it’s still in the same place it was. I pick it up, I flip through it a few times, and I set it back down EXACTLY where it was before, but then come the next morning, there I am, rushing to it to make sure it hasn’t been moved, or ran away.

One can only sustain this level of mental illness but for so long; in 48 hours I’ll be in the air and headed east, and when I set down in Washington, D.C. to begin this next adventure I’m sure everything will have come together just as it’s meant to.