Today Is the Greatest...

Ok, maybe not the greatest, necessarily, but it was a good day. And since I've been doing my fair share of moping and having feeeeeeeeeelings up in here, I thought I'd share.

Here are my reasons why I had such a good day today (excuse the poor writing, I am simply too tired after the last couple days of editing to work too hard at this):

--I forgot I parked in a zone that is reserved for commuters from 6 am to 6 pm Monday through Friday. However, on weekends, it's not metered, like most of my neighborhood, and my usual safe spot was taken. Well, since my brain was frozen with the -30 windchill this weekend, I just plain forgot I wasn't in my usual safe spot or I would have moved my car yesterday.

I realized, as I was putting my coat on at 8:30 this morning, that I almost definitely had a $30 parking ticket. In a panic, I ran down the street in my super-awesome boots, (my mom picked them out for my birthday last year) but looking otherwise psycho, only to find that my windshield was ticket-free! I almost did a dance in the middle of the street, I was so excited. I wasn't even mad when I realized I was almost out of gas and had to stop in the snotfreezing cold to get some.

--I had happy hour with a lovely friend, good food, and conversation--and to top it all off, two colleagues of mine were at the bar, and secretly picked up the tab for our first round of drinks.

--An unexpected funny e-mail from another friend, and a sweet e-mail from my husband.

--Encouragement from another friend to kick some butt on my national freelance goal (which was yesterday, but also today), plus tickets to a fun hockey game in a couple of weeks.

Just the kind of stuff I needed to buoy me up for a while. OK, must now collapse. So tired.

A happy, but fairly controversial, post.

Happy Roe v Wade anniversary everyone! One more year of the government not being able to tell us what to do with our bodies! This is all I will say about it: choice is great because you can also choose NOT to have an abortion, and the government can't say anything about it, as they shouldn't. And choice doesn't make you anti-life, it makes you in favor of making informed, healthy, safe decisions, whatever that persuasion may be.

Thanks, all you Planned Parenthooders (and other pro-life organizations), for helping a LOT of women to obtain safe access to affordable healthcare (abortions are a very small percentage of the services they provide).

Today a man decided to crash his truck through the front of a Planned Parenthood in St. Paul. I'm not sure what his point was. Seriously. To kill someone? To ruin the clinic? To stop an abortion? To stop a woman from getting a physical? How would that change anything?

Other good things:
*We are getting a new mattress, free! Covered under our warranty. ROCK ON. This was one of my financial woes, thinking about replacing mattress that was fairly new.

*Obama ordering shutdown of Gitmo, along with investigations of CIA secret prisons. Buddy, two days in office and my heart is bigger already! Human rights are awesome. Let's have some more of those.

*A 30 degree day. It might be cold as crap tomorrow, but today I wore a skirt and tights and didn't lose feeling in my legs.

*The latest issue of Esquire renews my faith in journalists. If you love profiles, or want to read some background information on the latest pols in DC, which are also entertaining and extremely well-written, you'd do well to pick up a copy. It's cheap! It will keep them writing! Do it!

*I'm trying to embrace downsizing of my personal financial situation, as a lot of us are. I saw a great idea on a blog the other day about "What I really, really wanted to buy, but didn't." Sort of a methadone for we "social" shoppers. Look for this to be a semi-regular feature as I work toward paying off my debt and rocking my bank account!

*Woo, the Office back in fine form tonight.

Two Kinds of Blues

It's no secret I've had a touch of the blues lately. For good reasons, but they're also probably mixed with a little seasonal affective disorder. 

Why do I think this? Well, today I watched a brilliant sunset from my office window, and it was...5:25. Yeah! The sun didn't set until after 5 today and the light lingered, in a way that it only does when the days start to get a little longer. On our shortest days, it's like it sinks immediately. I felt better driving home tonight. 

But. 

That could have also been the awesome (blue-state-heavy) events that took place today. Like Wan, I think future generations will ask us where we were on the day we inaugurated the first black president. 

I was at work, but we had canceled our meetings and camped out in our conference room, where we have a projection screen. We ate doughnuts and laughed and cried as we watched the events unfold. I loved in particular the very human moments--the oath getting messed up, the Reverend Lowery, who resembled a Muppet, but moved me to tears nonetheless, the Obama children taking pictures and giving thumbs-up to their dad. The multicultural awareness without being overbearing--come on, Aretha, Yitzhak, Yo-Yo--it was like, hey, we're all here. We all want this. It doesn't matter if we're white, black, Asian, Christian, Jewish, or our middle name is Hussein. Those things have never mattered much to me, but I think it's a great model for people to see, who aren't quite so educated or open-minded. (Rick Warren being the sole bad call, in my mind.)

I was moved by all the people on the Mall, maybe not united in every approach, but united in wanting a better future for this country, agreeing that this man is the best person to lead us out of this quagmire. 

I am proud that I was part of this. I'm proud that if I have children, it will no longer be a strange or exceptionally moving for them to elect someone other than an old white guy into our highest office. I want it to be normal. I hope that the same will be true for a woman, by the time they turn 18. 

I hope, too, that future presidents take a key from Obama. His class, his style, his complete refusal to give in to the shit-talking that happens so often with politics. It's going to pull him through the pressure of being the first black president, the pressure of trying to right what's been so deeply wrong for eight years. It's a big job.

I just saw parts of Beyonce's interview, given after she sang "At Last" for the Obamas. her complete lack of PR touched me. She cried, she rambled, she didn't have a pat answer ready. She said she feels like this was fated to happen. She said, "He makes me want to be smarter. He makes me want to be more involved. And I am here! And I am singing! And I am overwhelmed!" And I cried. 

Because he makes us want to be a better generation. He makes us want to be better people. Not by telling us so, but by leading by example. Today a lot of people felt very invested in wanting to be here. We are all singing. 

Did you hear that, future hypothetical children? Today we are singing, because in this really dark winter, we finally feel like we've elected the people's representative. And for the first time in eight long, awful years, we feel like we have a fighting chance.

Loft Photo Tour

As promised yesterday, our blog is going to have much more photos with our new toy from Santa - no not that Santa, this one. Anyways, I woke up this morning and took a few quick photos around our loft to give everyone a sense of what we call home.

Molly is a little confused as to what the $%^& I am doing and where our afternoon snuggles have gone...With Molly now eating a treat I can freely move around the loft and not have a little follower at every turn.
Katie and I found these vintage letters at an antique store in St. Paul. Although these blocks are great, Katie gets the award for best find.
Down in the cluttered basement she uncovered this gem! It is a custom Lightolier chandelier. There are a few glass domes that were missing, but at $125 we could not pass this up. It is an energy hog, but it makes our loft sing from within and especially from the street corner outside.
Some of Katie's books. I am sure Katie will get on my case for not selecting her favorite books, but remember I don't read (joking) and I am just looking for pretty things right now.
Katie is a HUGE music fan. This is one of the things that attracted me to her. I am sure you have all heard about our first concert together. She has more CDs than anyone I know and if you think you can outdo her you're crazy.
More cds in the custom cabinet I made for her. It holds upwards of 400 cds and I thought that would be plenty for the both of us. Let's just say I totally underestimated the number of cds, as there are piles and piles of cds all over our place as well as another cd tower.
My love! I was extremely lucky to work with three great guys that got me into biking. As you can see, I need to show my bike some love and give it a good cleaning. Speaking of bike love. (sorry for the shameless plug, but hey, that's what you're gonna get)
My other love are antique robots and vinyl toys. These things are so damn awesome! Katie and her mom usually give me a new one each year - always a great gift.
My newest little guy is actually a 2gb USB thumbdrive as well as the coolest little guy you have ever seen.
These great cuffs have two different antique maps within. One shows St. Paul, where Katie and I call home. The other, Makena beach, the place where we made our vows to love each other forever. The coolest part is that I was able to trade a couple of my photos for them. Now, I just need to get more french cuff shirts...
Our dresser. This was another gem I found in Katie's mom's attic. It belonged to her grandmother, and is totally awesome. In fact, there are many copies of this in recent furniture catalogs. Above the dresser is a beautiful print I purchased in India. The colors are absolutely stunning and it is a depiction of an Indian man and woman getting married. The artist is Mukesh Sharma.
The colors on the link are not acurate, they are more vibrant like this one.
I bought this "soapstone" statue in Mumbai. It was extremely cheap and there were dozens of identical statues for sale. It is obviously a cast statue, but I love it nontheless.
This craftsman sits just outside of our entrance hall. The "love" print above was purchased at the Art Attack art show for my birthday. My birthday is less than a month before Katie's and so she was able to sneak this purchase before I could swoop in and get it for her.
This is our other art supply storage unit. It came from Ikea and was incredibly cheap for flat file storage.
Just off to the right of our art supply area are more officey items. Yes, Katie does in fact LOVE Jim.
Want a great way to kill some time...try this retro video game. It comes equipped with a ton of old games.
Some good old minnesota brew to keep me moving along...
As you can see, Molly has stopped moving a long time ago...
One last shot. I made this "think" sign as part of Katie's Christmas present. It is a simple sign made from recycled plywood and made to appear aged. It's something that slows me down on a daily basis to think of what I am devoting my time towards and what I should be focusing on.

New Toy!

For Christmas this year Katie and I decided to get each other a bunch of small gifts and go in together on a great new digital camera. See our old Canon Elph turned out to be a factory dud and now the lens will not go back within the body. We could pay to get it fixed, but since it didn't take great pictures anyway we decided to be good consumers and buy a new one. After much research we decided to get the new Panasonic Lumix LX-3.

It has full manual control, a super fast F2 leica lens, shoots HD movies, and a 24mm wide angle (great for interior shots). I can't wait until the weather warms up to take this out around town. Plus, it makes a great camera for Katie to learn how to take manual photos.

The splurge didn't end there either. Well, if you have a great new camera you "need" a great camera bag right??? We were sick of those boring black camera bags, and to be perfectly honest we just wanted a case as beautiful as our camera.
The whisky brown leather is extremely soft and has that great vintage look to it. I am sure we will get more compliments on the bag than the camera - as this photo does it no justice.

So, look forward to better photos and videos from both katie and I in the new year.

Don't Throw Your Hand

This has been a really terrible week, not going to lie.

At least once a day (sometimes more) this week—no exaggeration—I have heard bad news, the really serious kind of bad, not the "oh that's irritating" kind of bad. It gets put in perspective when it's homes, natural disasters, jobs, deaths, unkindnesses and injustices in an already ugly time.

I'm drained, peeps. A lot of it is stuff I don't feel I have license to write about here—I'm sorry, I don't like being cryptic or hanging the "I've got a secret" thing out there—just because they are stories that belong to friends and family, and they probably wouldn't appreciate them broadcast here and they came to me as a confidant. A lot of loss this week. A lot.

Among the things I can talk about here are the fact that one of my favorite teachers died this week. I have had horrible stomachaches every day. I have had to comfort people when I had no words of advice or helpfulness. It has been 40 below all week. (I know I'm Minnesotan, but this is getting inhumane.) I have two pairs of socks on. Two. I have my scarf on. In my house.

I'm feeling the weight of the world these days. I feel sad. I feel like there's a lot to think about, absorb. I feel misunderstood, on some levels. I feel helpless. I feel like these are supposed to be the years I've worked for, planned my successes for, and I feel like I look around and the world is crashing down.

I feel like I can't even clearly articulate it.

I have had some really high highs and low lows over the past year, and mostly I have felt good, loved, motivated, and more optimistic (or at least hopeful for change) than I ever have. But this week has so missed the mark, in a huge way. This is an ugly time, and I feel sad that all my peers, and people that I love deeply, are hurting, struggling. I don't want to start 2009 like this at all.

Dizzy Bizzy

Dudes, this has been a crazy busy last week or so. Been working a lot. Have a few freelance assignments coming up too.

So sorry for the delay in posting, and sorry to those of you who haven't received your questions yet. They are en route in the next day or two.

I am currently in the zone and must keep writing, writing, writing for a deadline tomorrow morning. Eeek! I figure I have about three hours before my brain shuts down.

I just heard Cake's Frank Sinatra, and I can't believe I failed to include Cake on my feel-good song list. I just love Fashion Nugget. Reminds me of being 16.

Interview

Doahleigh interviewed me as part of a fun little blog-meme thing. Fun questions! The deal is, then I have to offer to interview someone and give them five questions. Consider this your invitation--let me know if you'd like to be interviewed (by a professional interviewer, no less!).

Also you have to post the following instructions:
1. If you want to participate, leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.” (And your e-mail address, please.)
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.


1. Would you rather be beautiful but always smell terrible or be ugly but smell lovely?
I've heard from many sources that supermodels smell awful because all they do is smoke and drink Diet Coke and can't seem to take care of themselves, but they always manage to get through life, and pretty well at that.
But, being pretty, while nice, isn't really that important. I think people who don't look perfect tend to be more interesting since they can't rely on their looks to, err, catwalk through life.
And seeing as how I'm a total perfume nut, I don't think I could smell icky. So I'll go with ugly and nice-smelling.

2. The old adage says to regret nothing, and that's probably true. But if you could change something you've done, what would it be and why?
I think there are lots of things I would change about things I've done. Think about when something really bizarre or inappropriate catches you off-guard and you don't react the way you'd have liked to. I have a few of those. And of course things I've said or done to someone, that in retrospect, weren't cool at all.

But I think one of my most nameable big regrets is probably not going for a bigger college experience. I got a great education, no doubt, but I could have done so much more than just land on the Dean's List. I would have MOST DEFINITELY studied abroad, found more journalism activities to be involved with, made more of those experiences. It goes so fast, and you take for granted how wonderful that learning curve and time to learn about yourself, is. Grades aren't everything.

3. What are some of your nicknames? Tell us the stories behind them.
I really am not a person with many nicknames. I can think of two, but they aren't widely used or anything. Most people just call me Katie or Kate. I guess I don't really do anything outstanding to warrant one.
William calls me Smalls. It comes from the phrase "You're killin' me, Smalls!" from the movie The Sandlot. I think he just calls me that because I'm so much shorter than he is (I'm 5'6", he's 6'3").
The other one is Punsy. I used to HATE this nickname, which actually evolved from "Punny." The backstory: As a toddler/kindergartener, I learned to read early, and well. But one night, I was reading a book, and it was about the world's smallest elephant. (Man, I wish I could remember the title of that book. I would need to buy myself a copy. I remember it was a library book.) Anyway, I came across a word that I didn't recognize--"puny." So I came out into the living room with the book and asked my family if that word was "punny", and what that meant.
I imagine that my older brother found it endearing (as an adult I can understand that), so he laughed and laughed and laughed. I was a pretty serious child, and it infuriated me that no matter what I did, he teased me.
Well, like any nickname, it stuck. To this day, my brother usually calls me Punny, Punsy or some version of it. Eventually, I just embraced it. I remember the first time that he called me Punny and I didn't get mad--it was after college! I think he was a little let down--after all, that's what brothers live for, a reaction--but it hasn't stopped him from calling me Punsy!

4. What is one of your own favorite physical features and why? Also, you should show us a picture (if appropriate).
Um, I think probably my favorite physical feature is my eyes. They're big. And I think the color is kind of cool. They're gray, mostly, with some gold flecks in them. But when I put different eyeshadow colors on, or wear certain colors, they run the gamut from blue-blue to blue-green to green.
And even though my hair is unruly, it's thick and healthy.

5. When and why was the last time you cried?
I cry a lot. Tears come to my eyes, I would say, nearly every. It doesn't mean I bawl or sob, just that something touches me. When I'm angry, I cry. When I'm sad, I cry. When I'm really happy, I cry. When I hear the right song at the right time, I cry. See what I'm saying? So, without further clarification on the amount of cryage, I cried today when my brother sent me a picture text of his dog, who was really sick, but seems to be on the mend now.

Bonus question: Who is John Galt?
I had to Google this, so I assume that's cheating. I tried to think of it for a while but came up blank. I don't know if I shoudl reveal the answers since other people are getting this same question. Hint: I haven't read the book.

Come On, Get Happy

Because we're all feeling a little down, or at least feeling the effects of what's going on (plus some seasonal affective disorder for those of us in northern climes), I thought I'd post a list of songs that make me unbelievably happy, no matter what. Sometimes you just need some dance-around-the-living-room tunes.

Disclaimer: These aren't necessarily posted in the way that I would put them on a mix CD, just a random list. And there are some guilty pleasures on here. You know you have some too.

Disclaimer 2: I'm missing some songs, inevitably, and I lost this post once already, so I'm probably missing even more.

Superstition, Stevie Wonder
What I Like About You, The Romantics
Supernatural Superserious, R.E.M.
Anything You Want, Roy Orbison
Anything by the Traveling Wilburys
You Wreck Me, Tom Petty
Everlong, Foo Fighters
Shake Shake, The Subways
Raspberry Beret, Prince
Billie Jean, Michael Jackson
Da Funk, Daft Punk
I Want You Back or ABC, Jackson 5
Ignition, R. Kelly (I know)
Hey Ya!, Outkast
Smells Like Teen Spirit, Nirvana
Seether, Veruca Salt
Oxford Comma, Vampire Weekend
Fat Bottomed Girls, Queen
Mysterious Ways, U2
Crater Lake, Liz Phair
Interstate Love Song, Stone Temple Pilots
Spiderwebs, No Doubt
Son of a Preacher Man, Dusty Springfield
The Way We Get By, Spoon
I Like It, I Love It, Tim McGraw
The Twist, Chubby Checker
Find the River, R.E.M.
Rave On, Buddy Holly
Freedom 90, George Michael
My Favourite Game, The Cardigans
Sweet Child O Mine, Guns 'n' Roses
Today, Smashing Pumpkins
Cecilia, Simon & Garfunkel
Sedated, The Ramones
Disturbia, Rihanna
SexyBack, Justin Timberlake
Since U Been Gone, Kelly Clarkson
Mach 5, The Presidents of the United States of America
To Be With You, Mr. Big
Pump It Up, Elvis Costello
Green Onions, Booker T & the M.G.s
Rising Sign, Mike Doughty
Like a Prayer, Madonna
Jealousy, Liz Phair
Jackson, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash
99 Problems, Jay-Z
Sunshine of your Love, Cream
Maneater, Hall & Oates
If I Run, Semisonic
Suspicious Minds, Elvis
Electrolite, R.E.M.
Pretty much anything by the Pixies

Funny how a lot of my thinky favorite songs don't make it on here...just the ones that make me want to dance, mostly, or make me feel like the world's OK.

Your turn: What are your faves?

The World is Collapsing Around Our Ears...

Things have just been feeling a little upside-down lately. All around us. It's been frustrating and scary and sad, and I know a lot of people who are holding their breath lately...including us.

I saw this quote a while ago in O Magazine and I thought I would pass it along, because I like it so much and it seems appropriate at this time in our history and at this time of year:

I know
It's hard to be reconciled
not everything is exactly
the way it ought to be

but please turn around
and step into the future
leave memories behind
enter the land of hope

—Zbigniew Herbert, A Life

Bob Ross can suck it!

So, I have been trying to pick up oil painting for some time now. There is something about the smell of linseed oil, or is it my masochistic tendencies, that keeps pulling me towards oils. Oil painting makes no sense where Katie and I live right now. We have little to no room for even our day-to-day items let alone my tarps, easels, turpentine, brushes, sketches, canvases, lack of natural lighting.....I'm sure you get the point.

Anyway, there is something about the process of layering oils that pulls me in. This is far from watercolors, which tend to be a one-shot deal. If I mess up at oils, I just wait a week or so and paint over it. Therein lies my problem: I can never finish a painting. I just get frustrated enough to set it aside and start another, or 4 or 5. By now I am guessing you have understood my love/hate relationship with oil painting. Where Bob Ross finds joy in painting happy little trees, I get pissed when this little tree has taken five attempts and still looks like a damn lollipop.

Well, in a desperate move to try and drum up a little motivation, I have decided to post a few of my paintings here. That way everyone can keep asking how my paintings are going, and I won't be able to ignore them any longer.

Unfinished Works:

Canal somewhere in Holland...

You can see here that the boat on the left is a large black hole at this point and is quite distorted. Also, the bridge in the background is a little lumpy on the left-hand side. Then there are those great trees I was talking about, ehh. On a positive note, I do like the general color of the painting with the setting sun warming up the image.

Harbor in Holland

This painting has a similar color palette as the previous one, as when I became frustrated with one I could switch to the other. The row houses on the right are pretty sad, something that frustrates me to no end especially since I went to school for six years to design such things. The trees fading off to the horizon are also a giant mess and need a lot of work.

I don't really have much to say about this one. It was started with the leftover paint from the previous two.

Finished works:

Ganesh

This painting was inspired from a stock photo found on the internet. I love the colors, but the lighting is pretty flat. I am a sucker for texture, so I did lay the paint on a little thick here.

Because I tend to obsess about the smallest detail, I have forced myself to only use a palate knife while painting. This affords me some added texture while minimizing how long I can focus on one area—in theory at least.

Kiss

This one I painted for Katie as one of our first presents. NOTE: I have altered the photo slightly here. See, the painting was taking a little longer than I thought it would and Katie's birthday was approaching. In all my haste, and the poor light of my basement room at the time, I gave Katie's right hand six fingers instead of the more human five. The funny things is that it took us almost two years to notice the issue. I am still embarrassed by this and Katie will not let me physically alter the painting. I guess the abstract nature helps it a little bit, as most people don't see two people kissing rather a hummingbird in flight (one of our friends did).


Well here is a blown-up version. Now, correct me if I am wrong, but that sure looks like Katie having the time of her life while kissing me. No?