Photo of the Day: Wet Leaves

Wet leaves are as much a part of Portland Fall as the rain itself. It also means that, however pretty, one must walk carefully so as to avoid falling on one's ass in the street.

See more here. 

Photo of the Day: Autumn Light

I'm finally taking photos again! Try not to die of shock.

I love Autumn. It's my very favorite and I can't believe I haven't taken more photos of my fave season this year, so I'm making up for it now.

Because I tend to migrate toward macros, I thought I'd play with light and shadow in some full tree shots. What do you think? Isn't this afternoon light just delicious?

See more here.

The Crazy Bunch

As a kid, I always loved the Brady Bunch, maybe because I was an only child who desperately wanted a houseful of siblings, though, let's be honest - I was also obsessed with Marcia and her gorgeous hair and bellbottoms and I pretty much spent a chunk of my formative years trying to look like her.

And, while I never had a houseful of siblings, I did have two cousins who were just like sisters (seriously, I'm soooo the middle child), and I definitely had a houseful of pets.

Where I'm going with this is that Eminem have our own Brady Bunch-esque house going on. Sure, we don't have children, but we do have two cats that used to be only children and a bulk of our days is consumed by those two furkids.

Truly. Merging the furniture has been surprisingly breezy. We've been able to mostly agree on decorating and style (aside from his occasional affinity for plaid). We've yet to have any huge blowout fights (though that's not really our style) and have survived just a few small tiffs with no casualties. We don't fight over the television. In fact, most evenings, he'll be watching some game on TV while I watch one of my shows on my laptop with my earbuds.

So no issues!

But the cats. Those rascals.

Hobbes desperately wants to be friends with Iggy, which makes sense. The only other cat knew was Jete and those two were the best of friends. In many ways, Hobbes was Jete's cat, while she was mine.



And now I'm tearing up a little. Dammit if losing our furbabies isn't painful forever.

It also freaks me out a little how much Iggy is like Jete.

He's smaller and has this cute munchkin face, but he's just as smart and moody and mischievous. He's also cuddly in a really demanding way. Saturday mornings, he'll often crawl right up into my face and demand attention and it reminds me soooo much of her.

So Hobbes has been surprisingly bold and brave about Iggy. He's doing everything he can to get Iggy to see how sweet and cuddly and harmless he is. But Iggy isn't so sure about Hobbes. Just when it seems he's warming up to my fat boy, Hobbes gets too close and hissing and head batting ensues.

They do seem to get along the water fountain, taking turns at the dripping faucet, but that's their only neutral zone as yet.

So Hobbes has taken a new tactic: making Iggy jealous. He's been sleeping in Iggy's fave spots, cuddling up to Eminem, and eating all the food. Well, he ate all the food before too.

I have to hand to it him; I never would have guessed my big lug would have been smart enough to come up with such a plan. And it seems to be working, sort of. Iggy hasn't warmed up to Hobbes, but he has warmed up more to me. He even slept on my side of the bed last night.

The jury is still out on these two, but I have hope that they'll be best friends soon enough.

Horrifying Shit on Pinterest: Racist Halloween Costumes

Horrifying Pinterest shit is BACK! I had intended to link up a Halloween post before Halloween, you know, so people can learn something. But alas, my laziness and lack of time management skills won out and so you get this gem after Halloween. 

There were so many examples of racist costumes, mostly in the vein of "culture as a costume." If you don't know what I'm talking about, Google it. I'll wait. :) 

And, while the cultural appropriation costumes go back a long time (such a long tradition of racism to celebrate, evidently),  but there's an even more perverse issue when it becomes the Sexy Racist costume. At that point, we go beyond the problem of Sexy Halloween monopoly (meaning a woman cannot buy a pre-made costume that isn't uber sexified) and the devaluing of a huge, non-monolithic culture into one stereotype and we now sexualize that monolith, that stereotype. And that has huge consequences. 

See: above. 

I hope that made sense. I didn't want this to be a long post. I highly encourage you to do tons of research on the subject because there's SO much more to be said than I can articulate. 

Thankfully, I've spotted no Blackface pins, probably because at least costume manufacturers, while content to make money off of cultural appropriation and racism, seem to have some line they won't cross. That doesn't stop white people from taking it upon themselves to paint their faces to mimic another race every single damn year. Hey, people, stop it! Just stop it. No more blackface fullstop. 

Aaaaaand discuss. 

Grieving Sprocket

The other day, I told you that part of the reason I haven't written was due to my big move (yay!), but the other part is because I've been grieving and haven't wanted to write or take photos or really be expressive at all.

See, the beloved Sprocket Ink is no more. 

And I am very sad. I wasn't there the entire time, but I was there at the beginning and at the end and there's something sweet and sentimental about that. For about 2 years, I was happy to have a forum to write about news and politics, where I was never censored, where I felt a responsibility to talk about what I was passionate about and flex my writing wings.

And I was part of an incredible community there! I left the first time because, with the exception of a couple folks, I didn't feel part of the writing crew. When I came back, I found the greatest group of nerdy, lovable, witty, warm, and brilliant people whom I could always turn to whether I needed to rant about some idiot politician or just about work issues or some stupid facebook debate. 

I really hope those friendships remain with the death of our wonderful site. They're truly wonderful people.

So, as you can imagine, I've been very, very sad. I felt like I was laid off from the best job (even though I wasn't paid). Or I was going through a breakup, except my ex in this instance was gone forever, not living a new life with some hot girl he met in a bar (just kidding. that actually never happened to me). 

I've been truly grieving. And I'm glad I let myself grieve, because now I'm starting to feel myself again. And look at me! Writing again!

I also have a ton of articles over at Sprocket that I have no clue how to pull off and save. If anyone is super techy and smart at Wordpress, I'd very much appreciate the help. 

Some of the ex Sprockets have some ideas in the works for next steps and I'm really hoping to be a a part of that too. I'm not sure what I'll do in the meantime. I hope to write here a hellofa lot more, but I haven't decided if I'll write about politics at all here or just save that for an external site. I just don't know that this is the place for it. I might rant about world issues like racism or sexism, etc., but I don't know that I want my blog to be taken up by politicians and pundits and government. 

Time will tell, I s'pose. 

Bye, Sprocket. It's been too wonderful. 

Our House

Well hello, old friends, old buddies, old pals. It's been a thousand years since I've written, a veritable millenia, if you will. I have a bunch of good reasons for this, of which I may or may not write about in this post. I honestly haven't decided yet. Let's just all be glad I'm actually writing, shall we?

Yes, yes we shall.

The biggest reason I haven't written was that I MOVED! Into a house! With Eminem! Huzzah!

Yeah, moving sucks. I don't care if you're moving into an awesome house with a great guy with all kinds of rainbows and happiness and unicorn shit, you still end up with lots of boxes everywhere and won't know where all your stuff is for weeks and have to spend money making your house livable. It sucks and it's hard work and it eats up all your time and energy.

Despite all that, however, we are totally happy and the house is just beginning to feel like a home. We still have some boxes left and have a couple spaces to finish nesting and photos to print and hang and I have some crafty projects to complete, but it's just at the point where I feel good about it. I come home and feel like the space is really ours.

Here are some photos of the empty house. I'll share finished photos when it's all done. (please excuse this photographer for taking iPhone photos)

Happy Peoples

We're also decorating in largely orange and grey, which I'm sure has nothing to do with these two:

No we didn't decorate our house to match our cats. Shut up. Only crazy people do that.

Anyways, I suppose that's all for now. Le sigh. Apparently I get burnt out really easily these days.

Happy Halloween! More soon, I promise!

We didn't come from money

I've been just mildly obsessed with this song lately. Okay, the last month or so. At first, I was just enchanted by the totally delicious harmonies and really thought the lyrics were fairly meh, but the more I listen to it, the more I actually began to identify with it.

I also may have sang it at a little birthday karaoke fun last night and rocked it. Make of that what you will.

The other day, I found myself in a conversation with women I didn't know all that well and they were discussing how much they pay for their fabulous apartments and how worth it it all is and I just sat there with nothing to say, nothing to contribute, because I couldn't identify with these women in any way. I don't begrudge them their fabulous lives and I'm not envious of their fabulous lives; I just simply and truly could not relate.

I pay a fraction of what they do for my tiny little hovel and I have to work to make ends meet even then. But I'm oddly okay with that. I'm doing much better than anyone could probably have anticipated considering where I come from and I'm proud of how much I've done for myself.

Sure, would it have been nice to come from money? To have parents who paid for everything I wanted in life? I guess. That does sound lovely. But on the other hand, I have worked really hard and done some really cool things on my own. And that's pretty damn cool.

In a couple weeks, Eminem and I are moving in together, which is majorly exciting and nervous making and YAYchange! We found an insanely cute house to rent which is really a steal for the space and charm and HUGE yard we're getting. We will be paying a fraction of what many people pay for their wonderful houses and apartments in fabulous places, but that's just fine with us.

We have something better, something within our budget but still really cute and comfortable and (most important) with lots of privacy, because after years and years of apartment living, we cannot wait for the quiet that comes from not sharing ceilings and floors and walls with other people. We have a house! Once it's ours, I'll take some empty house photos for you all so you can see just how damn cute and also before I decorate the shit out of it. I already have tons of crafty plans for it and it's all nested in my head.

I guess my main point of all this is that people just live their lives how they can and so what? There's such a war waging in our culture over money. And rightfully so in lots of ways. But also, those who don't live in very certain ways, or who weren't born into money, are constantly vilified. And why? So those who have more can feel better about it? It's all luck.

Nobody chooses to be born into poverty and those who are born into wealth landed there by pure luck. I'm okay that I didn't come from money. Life wasn't as easy, isn't as easy, but it's mine. I've done it my way and made do and struggled and guess what? I'm okay!

And since I'm doing okay, I can work to speak for those who don't have anything. I can help where I can. I have a lot less than lots of people, but still a lot more than others. I think there's a certain advantage to that, to knowing what it's like to live on very little and therefore have a little understanding for those who still struggle.

This post wasn't meant to be so preachy; I just wanted to share that my life is good and even though we don't have all that much, we're still happy. Imagine that.

Before I leave you, I have to share that I posted two (TWO!) whole sets of new photos over at Double A Photography last week: Wilting Blooms and Little Buds. Here's a sample (Just click on the photos to see the full collections):