Running the World

I might be in love with this person:



She might be a bit much for you. And that's okay. But I think she speaks the truth in volumes.

And Beyoncé drives me nuts.

I Could Kiss You, Texas Reps!

Oh. Hello. 

I've missed you dearly. 

Since you last saw me, I have:

Study my brains out for Comps.

Took said Comps

Finished my Photography class

Read a book for a book club

Saw The Vagina Monologues

Partied with a Professor

Spent 7 hours writing

Continued being a wife and daughter and friend (kind of)

Paid bills

and packed for our trip to watch my best friend get married on Friday.

But, that's not what I want to talk about today. 

I want to talk about Texas, and specifically, how bad ass some of the Representatives are.

There's always a slew of Anti-Choice legislation which comes into play during the legislation season. I mean, it's just part of it. And, Texas was no different. The newest one (which really isn't so new) is that a woman who wants an abortion would have to view a sonogram and then wait one day before having the procedure. Currently, you have to wait at least one day after making an appointment. So, now, let's make you come into the clinic (you know, since they are so convenient for everyone), force you to see the fetus and then send you on your merry way to make sure you want to follow through with this decision. As if making the appointment in the first place wasn't difficult enough. 

This bill will pass. Without a shadow of a doubt, this bill will pass. But, not without some fight. 

Three legislators added some fantastic amendments. All have been tabled, but whatever. They are...

drum roll...

One that would require the state to pay the child’s college tuition if the woman decides not to have an abortion, one that would require the state to cover the child’s health care till they were 18, and when that failed one that wold require the state to pay for health care till the child was 6. -State Representative Harold Dutton of Houston

 ...require clinics that provide abortions to also provide medically accurate information about contraception. - State Representative Joaquin Castro of San Antonio

 ...let the pregnant woman force the father to have a vasectomy.- State Representative Marisa Marquez of El Paso

I could kiss them. Each of them.

Especially Dutton. He gave a statement that said, 

“We want to see all these children around, but the state of Texas ends its obligation to that child when it’s born,” he said. “We want it born, but we don’t want to do our duty.”

 Amen. 

And Castro? Well, you know, clinics already do that. That's actually the main function. So, letting that amendment stand would do change nothing. Yet we table it anyway.

Marquez: Exactly. This is so absurd that we would never consider it. And yet, Anti-Choicers do this. They force their beliefs on my body. 

Okay, reigning it in. These three people are amazing. Truly. Even though none of this would go through, they are fighting, and I am in love. If you’d like to thank these three legislators you can contact Rep. Dutton here, Rep. Castro here, and Rep. Marquez here. 

I know I will.

first heard about through feministing

Pages from my Journal

What made you smile today?

I have a friend, named Hannah. She's pretty rad. And, on like the second day I met her, she said, "What made you smile today?"

That little statement just blew me away. And I think of it all the time.

On Friday, I asked my facebook family what had made them smile. Some of the responses:
Snow days
Snuggling in my dad's snuggie -- he passed away in April
Children hugging and laughing
Balloons in the air
A friend's dog running through the snow
A fantastic night
Wearing sweats to the bar
A UT football recruit, when asked why he chose Texas, replying with, "Because it's Texas!"
Chuy's
Partners making fun of you when sick
Fluffy cream filled long john donuts
and an amazing story about a Parkinson's Patient

The stories just melted my heart (you know, because it's so frozen) and me happy. 

So, tonight. I would like for you to think about what made you smile today.


For me? It was my husband bringing me an amazing lunch.

How about you?

A Life Manifesto

The Holstee Manifesto. 

How awesome is this?

Creativity

Something that I have struggled with recently is creativity.  I have my hands in so many pots of ideas... well, not so much my hands as my brain. So, I posted a question on facebook asking what people their creative outlets were, and some awesome responses came back:

Writing, guitar, conversation, inventing, scrapbooking, sewing, belly dancing, cooking, baking, piano lessons, meeting new people, drawing... the list goes on.

I want to do a whole bunch of different things as a way to feel more creative, and as a way to take care of myself.

I want to paint. I want to write. I want to relearn the piano. I want to sing. I want to read. I want to dance. I want to garden I want to take photographs. I want to decorate. I want to learn typography. I want to build. I want to bake. I want to learn French. I want to learn composting.

I want to, I want to, I want to.

What I have been doing is my 365 Project which I've been using facebook to chronicle. But that ends on 11/22, after husband and I have been married for 1 year. Now, I need to figure out what I want to do with myself as an outlet, because I need something.

What do you do?

Dancing Hands

Some coolness for your Tuesday morning.

Redoing the Bedroom {pt. 3}

See Part I here and Part II here.  

And now... the finished project.

Drum roll please...!

Redoing the Bedroom {pt. 1}

See Part II here and Part III here.

For the last 6 months, I've wanted to paint our bedroom. It's not a bad bedroom, a bit small, no closet space. But it was white. We have beautiful woodwork throughout the apartment, but someone got happy with the white paint and painted over all the wood in our kitchen and in our bedroom/hallway. It felt awfully institutionalized.

I originally wanted to try to scrape the white paint off. And I thought about it until I pulled off a piece (did I mention it was old paint too? probably lead) and it was about 1/8 of an inch thick, with more white on there. So, that plan seemed like it wasn't going to work. Then, I decided I wanted a blue/gray color. a) because it's calming and b) it would look really good with the white "trim." Husband got on board once we went to go look at paint colors.

So, this past weekend I was on fall break (meaning instead of getting a week off for Thanksgiving, we get Monday and Tuesday off in mid-October). On Monday, we painted.

Before:

Our bed.  I created those canvases above the bed with this as inspiration. As someone who often doesn't feel crafty, I'm really in love with them. Folded up there on the right hand corner is our wedding quilt.  We used it during the ceremony in lieu of a unity candle and it's always on our bed. Probably one of the first things I'd grab in a fire. For real.

Corner of the room.  Husband spent about 20 minutes getting that chair into the room.  And  the cat lives in that window. 

This is my vanity/make up getting ready place. Our bathroom is tiny. Teeny-tiny. Without any storage.  We don't even have a toilet paper holder. So, I had to get creative with getting ready space. 

Then, finally, probably the most shameful part of the bedroom. The one where you kind of cringe anytime someone asked for a tour. Our "closet" area.  See that tiny door? That's supposed to be out closet.  It houses Chet's {hanging} clothes and that's it.  Most of his clothes lived under the bed or on the bottom of the white drawer thing. My {un}mentionables live in that suitcase. And my folded clothes (cami's, sweats, etc) were living in the white thing. Everything else lived on that crappy, crappy hanger thing from Target.


Since this is getting ridiculously long, I'm going to pause for now and do homework.  Tomorrow, I shall show you our painting!

Prove it.

inspiration and challenge all in one.

how do you prove it?

Dirty Hands

How true is this? What do you think?