So far this is working out to be my best quarter at UW yet. I finally made it into Biology after having to take Chemistry an obscene number of times. I love Biology! I love the class, I adore the teacher, the only downside is my lab partner. I think this is the first time ever that I have REALLY not liked my lab partner. I daydream about her dropping the class.. :)

I'm also taking a plant identification class. It's cool. Not as much fun as Biology but certainly doable. And then there is Latin. Well, Latin and Greek in Modern Usage. It's not that it's bad. It's actually interesting. But I feel very unmotivated to do the work or really to even go. It doesn't help that this is the only one of my classes I have skipped this quarter. And that makes me never want to go back. I skipped it for a good reason though. Melinda. :)

I am now in love with Melinda. LOL I fell, I jumped or whatever it took and now here I am up to my armpits in it. :) Possibly deeper. Melinda is amazing. It's so nice to be dating a girl who is sane. We're almost six months into this and it just seems to be getting better all of the time. The truth is she is my safe place. A place I can go where I don't feel judged at all, where I can be totally honest about anything and know that it's OK. I'm even starting to trust that she is honest with me. It feels wonderful!

We've been careful not to make any plans together. Nothing farther in advance of a few weeks. We've both been hurt in the past and we know that relationships often don't turn out as planned. But recently we have been making plans and sharing dreams and going together on little flights of fantasy. I love those. :)

As a result of this relationship I decided to come out to my dad. I came out to my mom when I was dating Sara and I came out to my sister when I was dating Diana. I've put off coming out to my dad in part because I really had no idea how he would react and in part because both my mom and my sister told me I shouldn't come out to my dad when I came out to them. I knoew he would be disappointed in me which is something I don't really like to cause but I had no idea how that disappointemnt would play out. Last weekend I finally got up the nerve. I told him I was dating someone (which he was delighted about) and then I told him it was a woman (which he was far less delighted about). He seemed to come up with a bunch of reasons against it. I think he was processing. He told me:

-My generation just doesn't approve of such things. I know now everyone is doing it or whatever but I just don't approve. (I can accept that)
-I was in the Navy! In the Navy things like that are not allowed. (Good thng I'm not in the Navy!)
-I hear once you've eaten camel you will never go back. (This was mortifying to hear from my DAD!)
-All the women I've heard of who decided they were lesbians after getting divorced then later decided to go back to men and no man wanted them. (Really? This has not been my experience. I didn't elaborate on bisexuality or how so many men think that is hot)
-I guess it would be worse if you were a man. (Yes, certainly, glad I'm not a man.)
-I can handle the friendship part it's the sex that bothers me. (I promise never to ever have sex in front of my dad with ANYONE!)
-So I guess your kids will never have a father. (Actually they have a father, they may never have a stepfather thought this is true).
-I saw so-in-so's girlfriend and I just about died. She was scarey! (Melinda is SO NOT scarey.)

There were other rebuttles. I can't remember them all. These were my favorites. He didn't yell though which made me happy and he didn't disown me or have a heart attack. I asked if he still loved me and he said yes. :) The next morning when I was leaving to come back to Seattle he asked that the next time I have big news like this I not tell him right before bed beause he couldn't sleep. If that is the worst that comes of it I think we will be OK.

My dad was my last hurdle. When I've hidden the fact of my queerness it was out of concern for my dad or him finding out from someone else. Now that he knows I feel like I can tell anyone and not worry about it at all. It's a fantastic feeling.

Life is good.