james nunn | blog

I had a realization this morning: nothing is stronger than a mother’s bond. I (re-)discovered this earlier today when Chris called (he snapped the picture) to let me know that one of our new ducklings in the neighborhood had fallen into the storm drain in our street.

After thinking like MacGyver, I created a net using a incense stick, a can of silly string and some duct tape (actually it was a coathanger, some netting and duct tape), and headed to the drain. I also took some bread and water down just in case. After feeding the little one I attempted to capture it with the net, however the little guy (I think it was a girl duck by it’s coloring) decided that she wanted to stay there (or she was frightened by this huge white thing).

Finally, momma duck and the other ducklings headed back up towards the drain, and after some coaxing of momma duck to make a noise, the little stuck duck started chirping constantly. Momma duck knew that the little one was there, but couldn’t quite figure out where. Momma duck (and ducklings) wandered across the road, and as they did, the little one become visible, and I snatched her up with the net. Little duck was not happy at this, however as I got closer to momma duck to release her, I actually felt the excitement of the little duck. When I put her on the ground, she took off towards momma real fast. As momma duck quacked, I took that to mean thanks (of course, it could have also meant get the hell away from me). Naturally as I walked the ducks back to the pond, I spent the next few minutes chatting with the ducks explaining the dangers of storm drains. I think they understood.

First, yesterday was my birthday, so I enjoyed a relaxing day (more so due to the activity in Saturday’s city council election). It helps that the sky is gray and it’s been raining on and off. The day actually is a good representation of how I am generally feeling.

Next, Chris lost his election bid for Frisco City Council. A lot can be said about this, but I’m not going to say much here. Chris didn’t lose because he wasn’t the most qualified or the most experienced, he lost because he is gay. More on that in a separate post.

Backtracking some…

On May 12, I graduated from UNT with a BA (Sociology). I am now in the process of waiting for my work authorization from the government so I can practice a little bit of what I learnt. Following this, I will be returning to UNT to complete my graduate program. At this stage I hope to study Queer Theory as it relates to Communities. I’ll work on refining this as the time passes by, but that is my current plan.

Earlier this year, a good friend of ours and former Frisco Mayor, Kathy Seei announced that she was going to run for Congress, and we are helping her out on her campaign. There is a lot to be done, but if anyone has the opportunity to replace Ralph Hall, it will be Kathy.

This week may be one of those weeks. I awoke to the news today that Yolanda King, the eldest daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, had died. Chris and I saw Ms. King in February 2006 as part of UNT’s Diversity Conference. She was phenomenal! In the short time that we spent together, I learned so much about the history of the civil rights movements, and the impact that Dr. King and Mrs. King had. Ms. King’s message included an energetic message of love, tolerance, acceptance and action … a reflection of her mother and father’s lives.

A friend of mine recently saw her at last year’s Out and Equal Conference, and raved about her. She was that good. She will be missed.

Last night, Chris, Brian and I hosted our 6th annual NYE party. As we all know, he who blogs first, writes the truth.

We were lucky to have some wonderful friends celebrate the new year with us this year (there will be additional photographic evidence to this fact later on), and we all had a fantastic time — some more than others (thanks to alcohol).

Of course, there may be some amongst the crowd that thought I might have been slightly tipsy from the evening’s activities, however nothing could be further from the truth. I was drunk (the first step is always the hardest). I have been told that I didn’t do anything too horrific while in this state, and upon waking up this morning (yes, before 12!) I did a quick inspection and no additional piercings or tattoos had been added to my being. Of course, if I did overstep a boundary or six, then I publicly apologize (public = blog; blog = low readership; low readership = lack of caring).

Some of the memorable events from the evening include the lead up to the picture shared above — something about high kicks and who can get their legs higher in the air (the results speak for themselves); a discussion about the benefits of piercing your nipples vertically, rather than horizontally (I’m still not convinced); and whether it is appropriate to talk about breast size, when the focal point is a person’s mother.

We ran a slide show throughout the evening of some of the highlights from the year, and if I can get that down to a manageable size, I might end up publishing that (spelling errors will be corrected, and the “s-apostrophe-s” will be left intact). We have some great pictures that I am sure will make it into next year’s presentation!

As we were bidding farewell to some of our friends after the festivities, Chris and I reflected on how fortunate we were to have some of the most generous and loving friends in the world. 2006 has been a good year (even if it did pass us by so quickly). Both of us have decided that 2007 needs to be more about family and friends, and we are looking forward to the many challenges that 2007 will bring – including our efforts to become parents.

To all our friends and family, happy new year!

Don’t you hate it when you log into your blog site and find draft posts still waiting to be published? The following was started a couple of weeks ago, and I was going to just discard it, but I kind of liked what I wrote, and it will remind me of what I did on this weekend. The weekend this post references is October 6-8, 2006.

» Read the rest of this entry «

It’s been a hectic week, so I’m sorry that I’ve been absent from the blog world (I know one or two of you are dependent on my blog, for some reason). As I’ve done in the past, here is a little recap of what has been keeping me active.

Wednesday (11/16)
Got through my exam in Sociology. Very few problems with that test. I think it confirms that I’m making the right choice with my degree. That night, the foundation which I’m involved with was holding a meeting to discuss some bylaw changes. These changes appeared to cause some concern amongst some people, and there was a flurry of emails and phone calls during the afternoon. The meeting proceeded and the changes were made. Comments were made that were not the nicest, and one person – for whom I previously held a great deal of respect – made a fairly disgusting comment to Chris (yes, it got that ugly). It was an interesting evening.

Friday (11/18)
It was my friend Jonas’s birthday today, so after running around to gather his gifts, a group of us set off to Dave and Busters for an evening of food and fun (I think that is the tag line). It actually was a lot of fun, and we got to meet some new people (with whom Jonas worked), and reacquaint ouselves with people we’d met before, but only get to see at these events. There was this very cute guy whom we’d met before, only the last time we saw him, he was wearing these very cute leather pants and a harness (I hardly recognized him with his clothes on). Eye candy is always a nice addition to the evening.

Saturday (11/19)
Chris and I met up with one of the local leaders involved with the No Nonsense in November campaign to discuss future activities as we move forward. We had lunch at Buli (down on Cedar Springs), and I had a salmon panini, which was outstanding! It was a great meeting, and I’m really looking forward to working more with Suzanne in the future.

Tonight was meant to be the Frisco Pride Progressive Dinner, but that was cancelled due to a lot of other activities happening. Instead we arranged for a small group of 13 to head over to Maggiano’s Little Italy for some good, and plentiful food. It was a fun night, and I’m glad that we had the opportunity to spend some time with our friends while enjoying some cholesterol

During the evening I proposed to Chris – and he accepted! The actual proposal was done quite discretely, much to the chagrin of our friends there (but they quickly got over that ).

We left Maggiano’s with 4-5 bags of food (or about 20 containers).

Sunday (11/20)
Today was not a great day. Saturday I had received notice that the CCGLA Board of Directors was holding a special meeting to remove me as a director of the board. So today, I had to get up and head down to “defend” myself against the charges that I didn’t receive until I got to the meeting. Frankly, it is unlikely that anything I would have said would have changed the minds of the directors who were in attendance at the meeting (Morris, Mike, Blue, Ken and Dell). The actions of two of these directors, disappointed me tremendously, and what respect I had for them was completed depleted after this meeting. It was interesting to watch the body language of those at the meeting, and that gave a great deal away of who was actually “leading” the actions against me. So shortly after attending this meeting, I was asked to leave.

The rest of the day was spent trying to do some homework, and getting myself ready to challenge the decision of the board.

We ended the night by eating the left over food with Layton, Bobby and Ian. Another good night of food

Monday (11/21)
Today I got up and found an email that had been sent out to members from the board about my termination as a director. With this having been done, I finished working on my lawsuit that I was planning to file against the CCGLA. At 11:30 a.m. I managed to submit this and get it into the system. The sense of relief that I felt at the time they accepted the suit was unbelievable. It felt right, and it felt like it was something that needed to be done. I hadn’t realized how hurtful the actions of some board members had been, and it wasn’t until I was finalizing my suit that I realized how much this was really affecting me. I then put together a media statement that I sent out widely, as I have been unable to get access to the membership information to defend myself directly with the members.

The rest of the day was spent putting an essay together for one class, and studying (pathetically) for another exam.

After all that had happened this week, I was emotionally exhausted, and decided to have an early-ish night. I haven’t slept so soundly in a long, long time.

Geez, you forget to post for a few hours and people start to get blog withdrawal.

Today, we (Bobby, Ian, Brian, Andy, Chris and myself) went to see Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.  Great film.  It starts off very black/white/grey and then eventually becomes a full color (or colour, if I keep it in the British theme) – thanks Brian for point this interesting observation out.  The movie is worth a watch or two.  I can't give much away, but let's just say that it's a unique blend of old and new, and it's got Jude Law in it … is that enough??

After that, we headed home and Damir came over and we watched Latter Days (on DVD).  Another great film, dealing with an entirely different subject matter, and there is more flesh in this movie for those of you that care about such things.

It's good to have Andy here visiting. It's been forever, and he is such an easy houseguest.

A great weekend overall.

Well what a weekend. Chris, I and five other friends took off up to Lake Texoma for the weekend of cabin camping, and fireside singing and the like. We had, what seemed like, a number of Kum-Bi-Ya moments, with different words, and lot more liquor I'm exhausted, and I think only the pooches are more tired!

Of course, no camping trip would be complete without the mandatory sunburn, so now I have my redneck, arms and face — *sigh* We actually saw the lake – pretty, and the walk along the pathways to the lake was pleasant — though not a moment went by when I wasn't thinking how I'd rather be sipping a margarita on my chaise lounge overlooking the greenery of the hills.

I think I spotted house version three while there… a lovely maroon and white one on wheels