So…over a month ago, the day after our wedding, our minister dropped all of the signed forms documenting our wedding into the mail. They have not arrived at the Nelson Town Clerk’s office, according to said town clerk. Now, I’m trying to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and convince myself that the mail is just slow at this time of the year. After all, it took from November 6th to December 2nd, according to the USPS website, for my certified mail to the IRS to arrive in Kansas, or wherever they were going. But a friend who married a gay couple in Dover last summer said the exact same thing happened to that couple — the marriage license was “somehow” lost in transit to the Dover Town Clerk, and it took weeks to straighten out.
That it’s entirely a coincidence is pretty hard to believe. But we’re talking two different towns. And when I went to talk to the town clerk in person, she seemed sincerely apologetic at the distress this was causing us and was very helpful, reprinting the original marriage license and signing it along with me, back-dating it to when the first was issued, and explaining how Maureen simply needs to sign it and date it the day we got married. Then she asked me to bring it directly to her, rather than trusting it to the mail again.
In the meantime, Maureen had to request new copies of her permission to marry NH residents in the state of New Hampshire, since she is a resident of Massachusetts. Our friend, Claire, offered to drive to the State House and pick those up personally, but no, the State House put the damned things in the mail! We’ll see if the Raymond town clerk says she received them next week.
Hopefully, we can get all of this resolved before the end of the year. Maybe even before Christmas. That would be nice.
In other news, the House just approved a repeal of DADT, and now it’s going to the Senate. I’m still pissed at John McCain for his ridiculous refusal to accept the fact that the study he requested was done, and done properly, and the majority of people in the military (not to mention the entire country) are tired of DADT and want it repealed. I doubt he’ll change his opinion, but it would be nice if he admitted that he just doesn’t like the idea personally. But politicians never admit anything.
Also, a judge in India has just overturned a 148-year-old law banning homosexuals. Gay men and women, who before today, could be imprisoned for expressing affection in public, were kissing in the streets in celebration!
My cyberpunk story is still creeping towards an ending. I got my characters safely to Canada, but was bothered by two things: 1) The trip took them several days. In all of that time, did they never have a discussion about Connor’s feelings of betrayal, and what Luis is really up to? And 2) I had an entire page that was reading like a travelogue, with brief descriptions of where they went and what they did, but no actual scenes to speak of. It was too distancing from the characters.
So, I’ve gone back to the halfway point, where they’ve checked into a hotel so that Connor can jack in and hack their records. This will allow me to have a scene resolving their personal conflict and possibly throw in a little sex, as well. We’ll see how it develops. But I’m at about 13,500 words, so I can’t drag it out much longer. The cap is 15,000 words for a “short story” by Dreamspinner’s definition.
Jamie Fessenden's Blog 