Really McCain? A "Pro-Life feminist?"

Upon hearing the news of Senator McCain appointing Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate, I am left with a few things to say.

I have to wonder if this was simply an attempt to embrace the disappointed Hillary supporters (I am one of them, although I feel much better about Obama after the convention).  Does McCain think that women will vote for him merely because his VP is female?  To be fair, as a (feminist) woman, it was pretty cool to have a woman run a (near) successful campaign for presidency in a major political party.  It is pretty tragic that some of the women who paved the way for this to occur (namely the suffragettes) are not here today to have witnessed that.  However-to put aside those warm, fuzzy feelings for a moment, this country is in BIG TROUBLE (welcome back!- To those of you who didn't know this already, I hope you watched the convention).  Throughout Hillary's campaign, I (like most other women I know) was INFINITELY more struck by her intellect, enthusiasm about a possible brighter future for Americans, and drive to set this country back on its feet than I was in the knowledge that we both have a uterus.  Hillary Clinton has proven to be someone that men and women alike can feel good about supporting.  

Sarah Palin is no Hillary Clinton.

1-Hillary Clinton majored in political science at Wellesley, graduated with departmental honors, and gave the commencement address to her fellow classmates at graduation.  She was active in political campaigning at both Wellesley and Yale-where she received her law degree.  Sarah Palin MINORED in politics at the University of Idaho.  She spent her 22nd year winning the Miss Wasilla contest and went on to score second in the Miss Alaska Beauty Pageant.

2-After 30 years of actively working for the Democratic Party, in 2000 Hillary Clinton was elected to the Senate.  After 8 successful years as a New York senator, she ran for President.  Sarah Palin has been Governor of Alaska for ALMOST 2 years.  Before this, she had a few unsuccessful campaigns of her own (Lieutenant Governor, the Senate).  She did however, spend 2 years on the Wasilla City Council. 

3-Hillary Clinton is probably best remembered for designing a then unsuccessful yet pretty brilliant health care plan during her husband's time in office.  In the early years after law school she was active in children's law and would later become the co-founder of the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families.  In 1984 she won the title of Arkansas Woman of the Year largely for her work to better education in the state.  She became the first First Lady to take up an office in the West Wing of the White House.  From there she was only second to Eleanor Roosevelt in being the most influential First Lady in matters of public policy.  In the Senate, among other things, she has been a loud voice of opposition for war surges and in favor of a scheduled troop withdrawal.  Hillary Clinton is Pro-Choice and an active supporter of adoption and foster care programs.  She is a supporter of Civil Unions with full equality of benefits.  Sarah Palin, who refers to herself as a "Pro-Life feminist," is strongly opposed to abortion.  She supports the teaching of creationism alongside of evolution in public schools and is an enthusiastic member of the NRA.  Palin signed into law the largest budget Alaska has ever seen during her first year as the governor and is also opposed to same-sex marriages.  But apparently she does have some gay friends and is "quite receptive" to GLBT concerns about discrimination.  

I don't want to drag Sarah Palin down too much here.  I mean, I think she'd be a cool chick to have a beer with sometime-her favorite food is moose burgers!  Thats pretty cool, right?  And I'm not knocking her for competing in a beauty contest.  My best friend competed in Miss Maryland last year and will again this year.  What I am questioning is how secure I'm going to feel if McCain wins in November, and kicks the bucket before his 4 years are up.  I'd trust Mrs. Palin implicitly to tell me which ponds are best for ice fishing or what kind of hairspray keeps your bathing suit from giving you a wedgie.  But I do not think I'd trust her with the United States of America.

This will be a very interesting next couple of months.  What'll they come up with next!?!

And don't worry Johnny, I wasn't planning on voting for you anyway.

Rough

"Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue, a wonderful living side by side can grow, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky."

-Rainer Maria Rilke

JUST SAY NO (to cheese?)!

"The belly rules the mind"

-Spanish Proverb

I heard some grave news today.

I'll first start by explaining that I have had problem skin for the past several years.  I wouldn't call it full fledged morbid acne, but for at least the past 10 years I've had AT LEAST one SERIOUS blemish at all times.  I've tried everything from Tetracycline, to Proactiv, to glycolic based cleansers/toners,  to birth control pills, to egg/garlic based masks, to simply dove soap, to Retin-A, to 100% natural make-up-and back again-And NOTHING has made a whole lot of a difference.  I don't even want to think about how much money I have spent on skin care in my short lifetime.  The number would be sickening.  

As of yesterday, I read in TWO different publications (Cosmo and Women's Health aka the bibles) that DAIRY (!?!?!?!?!) is often the culprit behind breakouts.  After researching further, I couldn't exactly pinpoint the specific reason why milk based products cause acne (most sources linked it more or less to hormones in the cow), but the sources were unfortunately pretty scientific-which must mean that there is at least some truth to it.

Ok.  I've seriously got a problem here.

Let me put this in perspective.  If I had to choose to NEVER eat either cheese or chocolate EVER again in my life, I would HAPPILY forgo tasting chocolate (CHOCOLATE!) in favor of being able to continue to enjoy cheese.  I consume more dairy products than probably 90% of American children.  I've drank a glass of milk almost every day since I can remember.  If I'm starving at 3 am I ravage my mom's refrigerator in search of a cheese slice.  The only way I can stomach salad is if there is some sort of crumbled cheese on it.  My favorite dessert is cheesecake.  Macaroni and cheese comprises a good 20% of my weekly meals.  Cheese goes beautifully with my drink of choice: wine.  My most favorite dishes have at least some element of cheese in them.  I literally get at least 3 cheese cravings a day.

I really don't know what to do.  I tried to avoid cheese all day.  My efforts were unsuccessful.

BREAKFAST:  I poured myself some cereal.  

"Damn!  I'm WAY past the sell-by on this carton (hey, I've been out of town), oh wait...I'm not supposed to be drinking milk anyway."

LUNCH: My mom made me a sandwich.

"Mmmmmm, ham and cheese...wait...UGH!"

DINNER:  I was on my break at work.  A little carton of "easy mac" was batting is promiscuous eyelashes at me from my purse.  

"Easy mac...or go buy something else.  I'm broke...besides, I bet everything I could possibly BUY has dairy in it.  Good justification, Katie."

So yeah... O and 3

I seriously need some advice.  This is maybe more tragic than Hillary losing to Obama.  And if you know me at all, you'd know that I cried that day.

And I've mercilessly ridiculed vegans my whole life.  Karma is such a bitch.

I took this picture in Colorado.  Probably after eating some god damn cheese.

I'm hungry.

The day that nothing changed.

"In the end is my beginning."

-Eliot

Sooooo, at this VERY moment, instead of being on the autotrain moving to Miami, I am pulling an all nighter so I can drive to the airport at 4 am.  I'm going to Vail for the weekend to see my stepsister and stepbrother.  I'll take lots of pictures-PROMISE!  Be back Monday.

Ok so Joos always makes me smile

Ok ok ok ok ok...no matter how bad of a night you might be having, when you find THIS on the internet you can't help but smile.

My very dear friend William Joos is without a doubt the best photographer I've come into contact with.  PLEASE check out his website.  This was his thesis show work-and I love how Sarah Jones and I are exhibiting the "same sex relationship" here.  Well- if I was gonna do that with anyone, you'd be it JONES!  well...maybe.  For all of you who are confused...my head is on Sarah's body and her head is on my (Savannah thesis weight) body.  And I can't get over how clean this photo makes my house look.  AND my baby Venus' pose in the background!  HYSTERICAL!  Seriously-you all must check him out.

Give MAMA a JOB!

"Leave it to me as I find a way to be

Consider me a satellite, forever orbiting

I knew all the rules, but the rules did not know me

Guaranteed"

-Eddie Vedder, Guaranteed 

 

My friend Tara (fellow SCADie) and I are going to start shooting some weddings together.  More info to come!  She's designing a little flyer for us (she also does graphic design...God I totally should have done that) that I shall post here when it is finished.  TELL YOUR MARRYING-TYPE FRIENDS (bc mamas got BILLS)!

That's going to be all for tonight...feeling a bit emotionally "under the weather" I shall say.  SO you know what that means!  Time for some good 'ol healthy BOTTLING UP OF FEELINGS!  HOORAY!

haha...and do you all notice that this picture looks JUST like the other wedding picture I took/posted a few days ago?  Disturbing. 

Oh, but before I go-you all should check THIS out.  Pretty friggin' amazing.

Time?

"What if we chose the wrong religion?  Each week we just make God madder and madder."

-Matt Groening, The Simpsons

TONS of effects of reciprocity failure, but at least at this size it looks neat.  This was a 13 second shot nightshot off the side of my parent's boat.  Time might be interesting to explore.  Been done, but what hasn't?

Shut up and do it.

"My heart is like a mason's heavy weathered skin, each scar makes it harder for me to hurt again."

-Avett Brothers, Pretty Girl from Chile

I've been in the process of (more thinking than doing) beginning a new body of work called Manscape.  The idea was in some form born even before the first photograph in Decay Constant.   For some reason this series isn't pouring from me in the way my thesis show stuff did.  The top photograph here is an EXTREMELY elementary version of an idea I have for it (the real one definitely won't feature my feet anywhere in the frame).  The bottom photo is a cookie-cutter-whatever-Annapolis-photo I took tonight after the Wednesday night races (and is  in no way related to Manscape so don't worry).

I feel like I can't shoot this work the same way that I shot Decay Constant.   The landscapes (?) that I have been planning will not allow for that 2.8 aperture/shallow misty depth that has become a big part of my style/aesthetic.  I love f-2.8...I cannot really ever imagine anything above f-11 even.  Is it possible to successfully shoot something in a style seemingly different from my own?  But then again I want these photos to be a little funny.  Decay Constant was so friggin serious.  I don't want any mystery.  I want straight forward, awkward, and ironic.  Misty, shallow depth won't do those things.  

I always do this.  I think myself into a corner.  I think about everything before I do it and stress myself out about it.  I don't think I've ever planned a photo that I have actually liked in the end.  Sure in Decay Constant I would set out to photograph a certain person, a certain area, or a certain thing, but the only photos I would actually LOVE were the ones that I shot on a whim...in an unplanned light/untried/thought of angle/obscure moment.  Its like split personality disorder.  I've always had a tendency to be entirely too cerebral...but things (not just photography) always seem to turn out best when I haven't really thought about them too much.  But to not "think(!?!?!?!)" about something too much before I do it...why, that goes against everything I stand for!  Its like an epic battle between Aries and Taurus (I was born on 4:20, and no one ever knows which sign I'm supposed to be), and Aries always wins. 

If you are reading this Rebecca Nolan (an old professor of mine), I'm sorry.  I'll "shut up and do it"...just like you always told me.

(Most of the) Day Off

"Here or there does not matter

We must be still and still moving"

-Eliot, East Coker

This scene is ironically both one of my earliest memories as well as a fixture of my everyday.  As a very small child I remember laying on my back on my grandfather's sailboat, looking up, and seeing these towers.  Today, I can walk to the end of my parent's street and see these across the river.  When I see these towers I know I'm close to home.

This is possibly the worst picture of me I've posted anywhere.  I just wanted to let you all know that I do bait my own hooks as well as pull off my own fish.  None of this girly nonsense over here.
"Katie crop" of my stepdad fishing.
Eastern Shore represent!
This ashtray has a beanbag attached to the bottom.  It goes nowhere!  

I like the one because the horizon is CRAZY

I've often said that living inland would be my worst nightmare.  Savannah is built on a river, but even this didn't suffice.  The water was inaccessible.  Tanker ships were the only vessels in that water.  The ocean wasn't too far, so that made it a bit better.  Those 2 years were hard on me partially for that.  Before then I'd never gone more than a few months (the winter) without being on the water.  There is nothing I love to do more than lay completely still and feel a boat rock beneath me.  To be still and still moving.

Happy Sunday.

"The psyche itself is articulated like language; indeed, the further one 'descends' into the psychic depths of an individual, the more rarified and the more classifiable the signs become."

-Roland Barthes

"I mean...at least he didn't cheat on me."

"If there is a sin against life, it consists...in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life"

-Albert Camus

Before I begin this I will just clarify that YES my boyfriend and I DID break up.  A few weeks ago.  Please don't say sorry, because I'm not upset about it.

In fact, I'm inspired to write this blog.  Here is hoping that this doesn't come off as some jaded, malicious attempt at literary revenge.  I've got no hard feelings.  Life is too short.  

However, I do feel as though I've dodged quite a bullet.  Don't get me wrong, things with exboyfriend (I'm totally stealing from you Lindz) were not so horrible.  I mean...at least he didn't cheat on me.

But really, that utterance disturbs me quite a bit.  I feel like I was with this guy for far too long solely based on the principle that things really weren't THAAAAAAAT bad.  How bad does it have to be to be too bad?  I mean, I'm 25, educated, motivated, attractive (just so long as it isn't 6 am after several glasses of wine the previous night), sort of funny, rational, friendly, etc., why should I ever settle for something that is "OK."  Lets face it- marriage (from an outsiders perspective) is not nearly as cool as we (ladies) all thought it would be at ages 5-20.  You're with the same person forever after that (I come from a LONG since divorced set of parents, and I've seen the good/bad/ugly sides of it...and divorce is not for me).  If you're going to have to endure someone's morning breath, habit of leaving the toilet seat up, road rage, nail biting (these are all my pet peeves, can you tell?  PLEASE NOTE:  these are things that bother me about ANYONE-this does not necessarily have to do with my previous relationship), laziness when it comes to household tasks, lack of regard to finances, etc. there better be some very real drives that will keep you in love with and attracted to the same person indefinitely.  I am aware that NOTHING will ever be PERFECT, but I think that the give and takes shouldn't be dire.  And at the beginning of a relationship (a year or less is definitely the beginning) if things are just "OK," how do you expect them to be in 5 years?  20 years? 40 years? 

After much thought, and conversing with my mother (who has bought me this book and insisted I read it) I've come to the conclusion that women have quite a tendency to settle.  We stick with things that are "far less than perfect, but not as bad as they COULD be."  This could be caused by any number of things.  Women, as a whole, are more nurturing and motherly than men, and so maybe we stick with not so great situations because we feel that we can change our partners for the better.  Maybe we've been so historically brainwashed into viewing ourselves as second class citizens (in this role), that we can't help but feel a bit that way even in 2008 (here's hoping that isn't it).  Maybe we've been so wired to think about our "child bearing future" (my mom's been bugging me for a grandchild for the past 3 years) that we rush into less than perfect relationships with people to ensure that we don't miss that opportunity.  Maybe (as my mom suggested) some women don't think they deserve to be treated like the wonderful human beings that they are.  

Now guys...I'm not suggesting women are alone in this.  I've known many guys who have been in the same situation as I had been over the past year.  But I feel that ultimately, it is more of a female phenomenon.  

I can see the other side to this as well.  I have a few female relatives who are unmarried and  nearing their mid-30s.  I can definitely understand their muted horror at the thought that maybe they are "too late."  But I don't think it is ever too late.  I know it that this is pretty easy for me to say at 25, but it is my sincere hope that if and when that age comes and I am still alone, that I am comfortable enough with myself to not find issue in it.  Sometimes I think that I could sooner see myself as someone's mom than someone's wife. 

So this is my message to you ladies...and gentlemen :)

Learn to love yourselves.  You are all you've got.  Do not expect or put up with treatment that is less than what you deserve/give.  Do not ignore unhappiness.  It will not fade until you've recognized it and done something about it.  Learn to let go of the things that are holding you back from being the most happy/successful person you can be.

And make sure that nothing is keeping you from smiling.  :)