Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Just say NO to Leggings
There are so few people on this earth who can pull this look off, even the rail thin models in Spiegel have enough sense to leave the look to the pages of their catalog and not take it to the streets. I believe salespeople have not only the right, but the obligation to stop women from making this irreversible fashion mistake (once you've been seen in leggings that image is forever burned in to the memories of those who witnessed). There should be a mandatory 360 review by a panel of no less than 3 people--can't be friends or family--to assess the possible damage one could do to ones' image by sporting such a catastrophic look. If so much as one dimple of cellulite swallows the legging fabric, run do not walk, back to your dressing room and put back on the baggy sweatpants you came in wearing!
Monday, January 4, 2010
The Last Breath
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
A re-post of my column from Aug 2004
Hag Journal: Once a “grooms” maid…
Aug/September
All Rights Reserved Mollie Worcester-Worrell
On July 27, 2003 I had the distinct pleasure of being an attendant at one of my very best friend’s wedding. Come to think of it, this was the first time I had ever been in a wedding (excluding the two in which I was the bride). In retrospect, this particular ceremony would represent several “firsts”. When I told my parents that I was to going be in a “Gay/Jewish” wedding the day before their own 52nd anniversary, my mom, Lois, simply responded, “I don’t think you’ve ever been to a Jewish Ceremony”. She was right. Another first, (not the first time she was right, but, rather, that I had never been to a Jewish ceremony). My sister, Laura, a lifelong banker who secretly channels Martha Stewart (pre-controversy of course), was hired to do the floral arrangements. The couple wanted simple, yet elegant arrangements using an array of white flowers, not an unusual request for a wedding. Aside from ignorant dip shits each thinking they were the only to ask me “how do you know who’s the bride and who’s the groom?” the preparations were just like any other wedding.
When I first met Aaron, he was with a different partner. Most of us know the struggle of finding “the one”. In Aaron’s case, the guy he was with, though not a bad person, simply was not on his level. Conversely, it was immediately apparent that Aaron and David (or Dr. Dave as he is known in our inner circle) were/are meant to be together. I was not at all surprised to learn that they chose to formally solidify their union. At the time, Oregon did not recognize gay marriages. Even now, despite issuing licenses and performing more than 3,000 same sex marriage ceremonies in the uncertain months leading up to the senate vote on the now ill-fated federal proposal for a ban on gay marriages, it is under some scrutiny. Oregon’s gay-marriages are for the moment, in legal limbo; the Court of Appeals has ordered the marriages to be recorded, but the State Attorney General refuses to do so pending the outcome of a ballot measure this November. Last July, my friends entered a “domestic partnership” in their county, a simple registration that could be entered in to by either homo or heterosexuals. So, in reality, the “wedding” we were planning was technically called a “commitment ceremony”, but for God’s sake if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck well, it’s a damn duck!!!! I don’t think any of us participating in this event anticipated becoming a part of history that day. Standing in front of 350 loving relatives and friends, Aaron and David were the first same sex couple to receive a traditional ceremony held in the main sanctuary of the beautiful Beth Israel Temple in Portland. Not without its own place in history, Beth Israel Temple is the oldest reform congregation in the Pacific Northwest. Adding another first to this momentous occasion, the ceremony was performed by Rabbi Kim Stoloff (now Rosen) and Rabbi Emmanuel Rose, making it the first gay ceremony performed by Rabbi Rose in his 43-year history. **Mollie’s thought bubble: gay, Jewish marriage ceremony with a female Rabbi… yep, this is definitely one for the books!
I remember wondering before the ceremony if I would get as emotional as I typically do at weddings, but standing there with the other attendants, witnessing Aaron and David pledge their unconditional love and commitment to one another with such incredible emotion, abiding devotion and undeniable passion, I quietly wept with joy. Who wouldn’t?
Aaron and Dr. Dave just celebrated their 1st anniversary, and what a busy year it’s been. Three months following the July 27 ceremony, the couple crossed the Canadian border and was legally married in Vancouver, British Columbia, making their union recognized across a large portion of North America and nearly all of the countries that recognize Canadian marriages, except, (hello!!!), the U.S. Then in March 2004, Multnomah County in Oregon joined Massachusetts and San Francisco in issuing marriage licenses for same sex couples. Aaron and Dr. Dave again said their “I do’s” before Rabbi Rosen.
As I write this, I am surrounded by pictures of this incredible day one year ago. I would have been thrilled to simply be a guest, but to have been asked to stand with my friend on this special day is something for which I will always be grateful. In a world filled with terror, hatred and uncertainty why wouldn’t everybody on the planet rejoice when a couple, any couple, find one another and commit to each other in love. For those who espouse such clever edicts as “it was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Adam or Eve and Eve” GET A LIFE. Surely there must be something more productive you can do with your time than to engage in reckless hyperbole. Learn to knit, join a gym, take part in adopt a homosexual day… whatever!! I’m not suggesting you be gay (though the original definition of the word is “to be merry, keenly alive or exuberant”, chew on that for a minute), I am only asking that you allow all people, regardless of whom they choose as a life partner, the same rights you enjoy and expect! Now that would be a very welcomed first.
I recently asked Aaron to reflect on some of his memories of his wedding. He wrote this: “Finally when the last load was picked up (referring to the three truckloads of bounty they received), I headed down Flanders street towards downtown and our hotel. In a true "Sex in the City" moment, a half a block down on the sidewalk, I came across a stem of the beautiful white orchids that you and your sister had put together for our celebration. I picked it up, and carried it on the quiet 15-block walk towards the river. It seemed like an appropriate memento of a day filled with celebration with friends, of beauty and thoughtfulness... of community, and of love”.
Simple, yet elegant and loaded with firsts.