My muse

Angela is such an amazing person. She rarely reads this blog so I have free reign to sing her praises without hearing, "Oh, Jenny...stop it."

I drug her along to an ex-gay event over the weekend. I'm working on a story for the Dallas Voice about Living Hope Ministries, an ex-gay ministry based in Arlington and affiliated with Exodus, and they held a conference in Burleson on Saturday. Even though no happy, healthy lesbian in her right mind would be likely excited about going, Angela went without complaining. I asked her on Friday if she was nervous about it and she said, "a little." Neither of us really knew what to expect. We didn't know if they would filter us over to a special "in-need-of-therapy section" upon entry, if they would give us a special rainbow-colored nametag or what. We decided to wear business casual clothes instead of cutoffs and muscle shirts (like we have tons of those in our wardrobes anyway), but we still wondered if we would stand out. I'm certain that we did. You can't spend seven and a half years with someone and not emit couple vibes to people around you. But perhaps the rest of the conference-goers just thought we were there to embark on our own ex-gay journey. I'll elaborate on the conference goings-on soon, but for now I just want to say how amazing Angela is for fully supporting me in all of my crazy endeavors. She took notes and provided another interesting perspective, even though I'm sure she would have rather been at home working out and watching the Food Network. She's awesome.

And yesterday she spent nearly the entire day cleaning the office where she works. They had new flooring installed on Friday and the mess had to be cleaned up by the time they reopened today, so she cleaned from 10-6 yesterday all by herself. Other co-workers were supposed to show up but they didn't, and somehow she managed to get the layers of dust off of everything and the computers and other equipment back into place alone. And again, she didn't complain. She's an inspiration I tell ya.

If you're wondering, there was no Ellen-to-Anne-Heche type transformation at the ex-gay conference on Saturday. The things Living Hope has to say were interesting, but not insprirational enough to launch us into group therapy. So we can keep on having our wine and crab cake nights, having deep spiritual talks, and planning for the possibility of kids someday. That's productive inspiration. :-)