Things that Make me Giggle - Jack o Lanterns

Transform AZ

Yesterday I was blessed with the opportunity to attend some awesome workshops and meet amazing people at Transform AZ. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures to share with you, because I was having such a blast I never dug the camera out. Go to http://transform.transmentors.org/ for more details.

Then today I was able to join Transform AZ again at their picnic. It was a great time. I especially enjoyed Joe's performance, and the native american dancer who looked truly resplendant in her bright yellow buckskins.

It was great seeing friends old and new. Sister Frankly and Guard Spanky arrived just in time to see their favorite performer. I had a blast, but above all, I have to say that my favorite part was getting to sit and talk with such a variety of people. I can only wish I'd had more time. Fortunately for me, there will be such times in the future when I can reconnect with those people I met from the area. Community is such an important thing, it was good to connect with mine. Hundreds of people attended from all over the state, as well as some from California and elsewhere. Next year I hope even more come.

Blessed be,
Mischief

The Great Nationwide Kiss-In Comes to Phoenix

There is a craze sweeping the nation, it's called K I S S I N G! No matter your gender, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation, come on out and join in the kissing. We'll be doing it at the state capitol here in Phoenix http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=108132997978.

For local information:
http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?ref=mb#/event.php?eid=108132997978&ref=ts

Go to the Great Nationwide Kiss-In page or their Facebook page for more details:
http://jointheimpact.com/2009/07/the-great-nationwide-kiss-in/
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=124199360752&ref=ts

Pride Gala Award - CONGRATULATIONS!

Congratulations who all those who received a Pride Gala award this year! I wish I could have been there with you. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. Hopefully next year I will be able to go and celebrate like it's 1999 and I never had the accident that took me out of commission! :P

But for now, my online congratulations will have to suffice! You can see some pictures from the event on various people's Facebook pages, but let me just show off the award the Sisters won, and indulge in some pride here. Well done my Sisters!

QSpeak's performances of "All of Us"

Recently I attended a SOLD OUT play called "All of Us" Performed by QSpeak, local youth performance group. They performed on three seperate days to a packed house.

I was so proud to witness history in the making, and remembering. The play is written to encourage audience participation and sharing of personal stories. Collected from a series of interviews, the monologues and other parts of the performance are truly touching and embrace a variety of the pieces of our rainbow including transgender, lesbian, gay, bistexual, questioning, queer, and more. Topics touched on include spirituality, activism, homelessness, youth, self image, oppression, and HIV/AIDS.

I hear they may extend their performances. If and when I hear of more performances of All of Us I will post them to my facebook at www.facebook.com/SisterMischief so stay tuned.

Afterwards, they announced a project in conjunction with the Tempe Historical Museum in which local groups can participate by adding LARGE scrapbook pages to the existing books on LGBT past and present...sort of a living history which continues to grow and change. Fabulous!

Well done everyone and Blessed be!

Join the world in a time of gratitude

http://www.worldgratitude.com/

Go Gratitude is something I have participated in since it's inception as a reader, and as a daily practice of gratitude.

Today, I especially enjoyed the video on their homepage

The joy of Mischief

I can't say it enough, yesterday was the most fun I have had all year! So of course I had to log on and tell you all about it. I am so grateful to all the friends and Sisters who came out and helped me have such an amazing day of fun and reclaim my joy because it was all about the joy of making Mischief.

You can see lots of pics in my facebook photo album. If you missed out, never fear, there will be plenty of other opportunities to join me in making Mischief about town! Stay tuned for future opportunities.

But in the mean time, let me just say it was an Ingalicious day! Sister Inga came over for nun-factory at my house. Despite the lack of tunes (darn technology why do you hate me this month?) we frolicked in the paint and came out looking colorful as always.

Inga loaded my wheels into her wheels and we were off to Starbucks where we met up with friends and had a fabuloso time with bubbles, coffee and tea. It was guerilla gay coffee bar fun! Thanks to those who came, I had more than just chai. I thuroughly enjoyed the fellowship with friends. Especially the surprise visit from Sister Felicity in her joyful pink and blue goodness. LOVE THE SCARF!

Of course with Felicity and Raisa joining us, I couldn't resist playing with my all time new favorite toy (thank you Sister Inga!!!!) my BUBBLE GUN! (it's almost as fun to say as it is to play with) After all, Felicity likes chasing bright shiny objects and she did have her wand to pop bubbles with, it was an irresistable moment. Thankfully none of the bubbles landed in anyone's coffee so there were no complaints, and there were plenty of bubbles of joy!

We all headed out to caravan over to ASU, but on the way we sniffed the smells of Burgers and couldn't resist stopping in for a travel break with the King. No one quite knew what to make of us, but a wonderful little lady who has been married to her spouse for 67 years came over to ask what we were all about, and we had a great conversation about the joys of marriage and how quickly the years go by when you love someone. Here I am with her and her friends.

Finally we realized we were late to our own party and headed over to ASU to meet up with some lovely folks and pass out water guns, and bubbely goodness. I had a blast, and although it was a bit harder than expected to find people who wanted to join in the water fight, I must say it was worth every moment!

You can see more pictures of painted nuns and water guns on aspirant Jen's facebook album

As if that weren't enough fun and mischief making, I couldn't resist making the day last longer, so asked who wanted to go eat and where in the world do four Sisters, a guard, an aspirant and friends go in Tempe to get their grub on. A few suggestions along the lines of cheap gut sticking food were suggested, but when someone said PF Changs I just couldn't resist the lure of eating Chinese OUT, instead of ordering in, for the first time in six months. So the caravan of fun headed out and we decended upon PF Changs like a bright burst of bubbles falling from the heavens above. Tho some of the patrons weren't quite sure if it was heaven we were coming from, we had many wonderful interactions with people stopping by our table or waving as they made their way past our giggeling gaggle. Thankfully our server was so wonderful we had to thank the manager (and left what is hopefully a hefty tip)

And for that person who swears she "isn't a stalker, she just follows my blog religiously" let me say the day's events just wouldn't have been the same without you. I can't wait until our next adventure together. May your days be filled with the joy of mischief until then!

I blow where the wind blows,
Sister Mischief S. Merrymaker

Learning from HIstory

Thanks to the power of Netflix, I was able to rent the movie MILK and have some friends over to watch it this past Sunday when I would have otherwise been resting at home alone. I truly enjoy when local community members stop by for a visit, and even more so when there's lively conversation about our history and what we can learn from it. MILK was an inspirational if sometimes heart wrenching movie. If you haven't seen it yet, get some munchies, some tissues, and a comfortable chair and sit down for a good watch.

Also of note: Recently some new photos of the Stonewall Inn were located: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/images-from-the-stonewall-uprisings-final-night74-/

Keep on keepin on,
Mischief

Blessings and Memories from the Day of Decision Rally in Phoenix

Blessings to all who are continuing to spread hope for Equal Rights and specifically Marriage Equality!

The rally here in Phoenix was a blast. Being that I'd been laid up with cluster migraines for the last 6 months, I was grateful that the Universe allowed me a reprieve for most of the day as I was able to get out there and manifest Mischief with 300 other Phoenicians, and blow off a little steam. Now if only I'd left before the camera flashes started going off and the bullhorn siren was blasted in my ear.

Special CONGRATULATIONS are in order to Novice Sister Jinger Breadman and her husband Mike who participated in an impromptu public commitment ritual as our sacrificial lambs for the cause. I was most grateful to be able to follow Sister Mary Timothy Simplicity's blessed example and stand with my community as they poured our hopes and dreams for the future into the holy vessels of Mike and Sister Jinger (ooh that sounds like watersports!) tho she was OOF so perhaps I should be saying Eric. I am told afterwards they celebrated with chocolate fudge cake and super hot….well I'll leave you to your imaginations. They've been together for 16 years and the question of the day was "When will we hear our wedding bells?" Keep Hope Alive! 16 years and looking forward to some day making their commitment legally recognized

As I said at the rally, "No civil rights battle has ever been lost in this country, and this won't be the first. It may take longer than some expected, and at times it is a painful labor, but we shall overcome. Let freedom ring and put those rings on our fingers." Sure those of us born and raised in California have shed some tears of anger and disapointment over this, as have the rest of our community across the nation, but we will keep on keepin on and in the end there will be marriage equality (and I believe many more equalities) coming round in every one of the United States some day. Some day we will witness many a LEGALly recognized LGBT marriage.

Pictures from the Phoenix rally are up all over facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Phoenix-AZ/Ice-Pics-Video-Bar/82156812158#/album.php?aid=15787&id=1622397468
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2013652&id=1201714089&saved#/album.php?aid=2013652&id=1201714089
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2013652&id=1201714089&saved#/album.php?aid=23343&id=1130792611&ref=nf
http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=Phoenix+rally+photos&n=-1&k=400000000010&sf=r&init=q&sid=ca000815dab33455b7a80fd0ba11d4f7#/album.php?aid=98247&id=666416019&page=3

Blessed be,
Sister Mischief S. Merrymaker

"She blows where the wind blows"
blogspot.com/sistermischif

Get Schooled

Starting this Wednesday!!!!

BINGO for EMPACT!

Tonight I will be at Community Church of Hope at 6:30 PM to vote for who will comprise the new HERO Steering Committee. I hope everyone who wants to have a say on Human Equal Rights Organizers will be there.

Afterwards of course I will be swinging by Icepics on 32nd and McDowell for BINGO!

Sign the Open Letter to Obama and Join the national Rally Jan 10th!

Tomorrow night, Sunday, Jan 4th, I will be spreading joy at The Door with Sister Bend, Guard Spiketakiss, and Novice Sister Raisa Brow. And I will also have a copy of the open letter that jointheimpact.org has put together for Barack Obama about keeping his promise to repeal the Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA)

Come on down and sign it yourself! Let's get over 1,000 signatures in AZ and over 1,000,000 nation wide!

Check it out:


More details on the Phoenix January 10th Rally coming soon.

Ringing in the New Year - Vow of Silence

Happy 2009!

This year I rang in the New Year with a 1 day vow of silence, focusing the energy that would normally be put into talking on thoughts of love, joy, refocusing my spiritual path, and spreading equal rights. I know, it seems all too brief to some, and shocking and horrificly long to others.

But for this Sister, it was a part of my spiritual path which was sorely lacking in 2008. So what better way to ring in the new year, than to reclaim my spiritual path, and revitalize my listening abilities.

It was a wonderful experience, and I'm sure you will see me taking longer vows of silence in the future.

So happy New Year to all! I hope 2009 brings you love, joy, and blessings beyond your wildest imagination. And I hope 2009 brings further equality for all!