Topical
So this afternoon we fly to Seattle for Nora and Chad's wedding, and this therefore is the start of slightly over two weeks off work for me. You can tell I'm officially on holiday because I've been awake since 5am, emailing work since 5.30, and fretting about what I've inevitably forgotten to do.
In the meantime, I've also been catching up on the news, and discovering that the very state to which we're travelling has had its 'Defense of Marriage' act upheld as constitutional by the state supreme court. It's easy, being caught up in preparations for our own impending civil partnership as we are, to overlook the fact that 45 of the 50 US states have this kind of statute on their books, and even though Dubya's proposed constitutional amendment to enshrine bigotry against lesbians and gay men has come to naught, it's still all-but-impossible for lesbian and gay couples in the US to take a step anything like the one that we'll take in October. And we're not even officially talking about 'gay marriage'.
But: there is something approaching a glimmer of positivity to be gleaned from the Washington state ruling. The judges make it clear that they're not ruling that there's anything inherently wrong with gay marriage as a concept, simply that one particular state law is not against that state's constitution:
"Given the clear hardship faced by same-sex couples evidenced in this lawsuit, the Legislature may want to re-examine the impact of the marriage laws on all citizens of this state," wrote Justice Barbara Madsen.
By the way - because I'll shortly be Sleepless In Seattle rather than Sleepless in South East London, updates between now and Monday will probably be sporadic.