Whistler Wishes for Meredith

Greetings from sunny Whistler! Dip's right. I had intended to write about Meredith Baxter to give her a holler and a "woot woo!" for coming out before I left town, but ran out of time.

By now, it's quite old news, but it was funny how we learned Meredith was on the boat. We were sitting at the pool when I first heard rumblings about her. Laying on my back reading a novel, I heard a dyke a few chairs down say "MB alert" to her friends. In gay unison, they all sat up, pulled down their sunglasses and looked in one direction. Curious, I, too, followed their gaze, assuming that they were alerting about some ex-girlfriend who'd been stalking one of them or about a hot woman they'd all had their eye on and intended to encircle on the dance floor that night. Nothing stood out, so I pried: "What does MB alert mean?"

"Meredith Baxter is coming our way."

"Who?" I asked, looking toward the woman. Super surprised, I saw the mom from Family Ties headed in our direction. (Of course, I thought she was still Meredith Baxter Birney.)

"Huh," I said to my girlfriend, "I didn't know Alex Keaton's mom was a lesbian."

And then the firestorm of media attention after we got home and her big proclamation on the Today Show, which was extremely brave. It's hard enough to come out on your living room couch, let alone on national morning TV.

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Curve Magazine's Heather Robinson did a great job covering the story, so if you want to read more, check it out online. Congrats Meredith!

All that Hollywood stuff aside, we're here in Whistler celebrating my birthday this weekend. We've been having such a nice time and it's simply amazing how "Olympic-ized" Whistler (and Vancouver for that matter) are becoming. To illustrate my point, I've included the photo below of Patty and I having a sample of the "Triple Lutz," a martini shooter saluting the famous figure skating jump yesterday at the Mallard Lounge (our favorite place to warm the tootsies apres ski and start an evening off right). Thanks to bartender Lisa Marie!

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler has a whole list of special drinks for Olympic enthusiasts and athletes, who dare throw a few back while in Canada for the 2010 Winter Olympics (which is February12-28, 2010).

Alcohol aside, so many other things are changing around here. The roads are wider, the traffic patterns have changed, some of the golf links are being turned into parking lots, huge nordic centers and bobsled tracks have been erected, buildings are popping up, new restaurants are putting up signs, and parking lots are filling with trailers for temporary housing. It will be pretty amazing to be up here for the Olympics, but I think we will all be happy when the torch is passed to the next city.

I'll try and take some more shots this weekend of things in Whistler Village that drive home my point.

Go Portia

The big news this week is that Meredith Baxter came out, after being on the Sweet Cruise that Lipstick & I were both on. Lipstick saw Meredith a couple of times on the ship and promised to write about it, but I know she's a little busy this week.

While we wait for that report, our friend Portia was on The View this morning talking about her relationship with Ellen and why the word marriage is so important. She really impressed me with how clearly she made her point. Go Portia!

Go SU!

Gotta love my alma mater. This is from the student paper, that I used to write for "The Daily Orange."

Michelle Deferio arrived on Waverly Avenue outside of Newhouse I around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday wearing a long corduroy skirt and holding a sign that read, "Homosexuality is a sin, Christ can set you free."

In response, Chris Pesto, a junior acting major who is gay, made a sign that read "Corduroy skirts are a sin, homosexuals can help you," and stood next to Deferio in protest.

The article then describes how a student protest spontaneously broke out.

Makes me miss home...

Pink Glove Dance

A friend sent me this video. It was made in Portland and word is that once one million people view it, the glove company will make a donation to the hospital's cancer center.

So many people I know are affected by breast cancer. This made me think of my friend Kristy, who I lost to the disease six years ago. She would have loved it. I'm sure she's dancing along somewhere.

Resurrection!

We're alive! Sorry for the black outs during the last couple weeks. Dip and I were on the boat (with very limited internet access) and then needed to take care of ourselves and play catch up.

What an adventure the Sweet Cruise was! A warm THANK YOU to Shannon Wentworth, Jen Rainin, Daddy (aka Frances Stevens), and Sara Jane for inviting Dipstick and I to come along, as well as all the "Sweeties" on board who made our cruise a success. Congrats to you! Here's to many more Sweet adventures. Also, a shout out to all those we met on the high seas! Thanks for coming to our events and coming up to say hello!

If you missed the cruise, you can sign up for other upcoming trips they've got in the works: Sweet's Kenyan Safari (February 7-16, 2010). Don't want to travel so far? How about joining Sweet on their Salmon River Rafting this summer (August 16-21, 2010)?

RE: recap of the cruise, I'm not sure where to start, so instead of explaining, I'll let the photos do the talking.

Enjoy...

Sweeeet!

Lipstick and I both had an amazing time on the Sweet Cruise. We survived the hurricane, but both of us came down with the flu or a cold, so we don't have the energy to write much yet. But here is a little video about the volunteer part of the cruise, which we participated in. It was awesome!

More to come about our adventure later...

Curve Magazine - November Column