Sophia Loren and Carlo Ponti

 Sofia Villani Scicolone was born in Rome and raised by a single mother who was a piano teacher, but aspired to be an actress. Her aspirations, beauty, and talents were passed along to young Sofia who, at the age of 14, was entering beauty pageants and eventually enrolled in acting classes.
When her film career was launched Sofia decided to become Sophia Loren. She met the famous film producer, carlo Ponti, in 1950 when she was 15 and he was 37. Ponti was so much in love with Sophia that he married her in 1957. A small problem was caused by the fact that Ponti was already married. After one annulment and one divorce, the couple legally married in 1966 and remained happy together until Ponti's death in 2007. When asked in a November 2009 interview if she would ever marry again, the still beautiful and charming Sophia Loren replied,"No, never again. It would be impossible to love anyone else."
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_Loren

Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Justin Mikita

June is the month for gay pride events all over the world, and New York City is proud to be hosting their 20th Gay Pride Fest later this month.

A fitting tribute to NYC's legalization of gay marriage was the marriage between Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Justin Mikita last July 21st.

 Ferguson and Mikita, long time partners in romance, are also long time partners in their support of marriage equality. In September 2012 Ferguson and Mikita co-founded Tie The Knot, a non profit charity whose mission is to raise funds to support marriage equality for same sex couples by selling (what else???) limited edition bow ties. A perfect match for this great actor-lawyer couple!

Congratulations to all, and remember....everyday is filled with Gay Pride!

Wrong Place...Right Time

I never thought I'd meet my fiance in a girl's bathroom.

My future husband Jai spent his teen years in the resort town of Seaside, Oregon, then moved to Arizona for a decade. In 2002, he decided to move back to the Oregon coast to be near family. One of the things he had missed about living in Seaside was the Kajukenbo martial arts school where he had trained for some time and earned a brown belt. I had begun training at that same dojo two years prior, and attended classes three nights a week.

Once Jai moved back to Oregon, he registered for the class right away so he could resume his martial arts training. On his first night back at the dojo, he stood in the lobby waiting for the men's room to vacate so that he could change into his Karate gi (uniform). The instructor of the class, whom we address as "Sifu (teacher)", asked Jai why he was standing around.

"The men's room is occupied, I'm just waiting for it to open so I can change," he replied.