This made my day. And the day after that. And it will make tomorrow, too. So I wanted to share it with everyone. This is ETDC reader Laurie Skelton‘s response to my post about how the pretty princesses we’re exposed to growing up never seem to have big noses. Or flat chests and big butts. Or very much that reminds me of myself at all, actually. This princess, created by Laurie, clearly has her priorities straight:
Her blog is here. Her tumblr is here. She is fantastic and I love her forever for this.
* * *
Unroast: Today I love the way I look in little strappy sandals. Or barefoot, vanquishing the dragons that try to keep me from my cupcakes.
Kate on September 15th 2011 in being different, guest post, uplifting
A lot of my friends are on OKcupid, the dating site where Bear and I first encountered each other (I know! It’s the most romantic love story ever! Online dating!), and occasionally, one of them will pull me over to a laptop and ask for my opinion on, say, fifty or so guys.
“OK, so he’s pretty vague about what he’s doing with his life, but look at all the books he likes!”
And “Look at his eyes! You can tell he’s really nice. But do you think he’s funny? I can’t tell.”
And “Oh my god, this one’s hilarious. Listen, he says, ‘I will search your soul and find the answer and then I will turn that answer into all of your dreams coming true.’ Is he really, really high?”
We pour through pages of guys. I am often surprised by how picky my friends are.
“Nope. He works in an office. Boring.”
“Nah– those are the show-offy glasses. And what is he wearing??”
Continue Reading »
Kate on September 14th 2011 in body, relationships, weight
I try to be nice for the most part. I also try to sound smart. But sometimes the niceness wins. And sometimes I’m just not that smart.
The other day, I was having coffee with a friend who was talking about the world. It wasn’t a conversation I was proud of. In fact, it was maybe a little embarrassing.
Her: “The world is just a messed up place!”
Me: “Hell yes, it is!”
Her: “I mean, it will keep you down. You have to fight for everything you have.”
Me: “You do!”
Her: “You know what they say? They say no good deed goes without being noticed. I believe that.”
Me: “Me too.”
Her: “And that’s the saving grace.”
Me: “It really is!”
It was a conversation composed entirely of clichés. But I like her. And I wasn’t about to disagree or ask for specifics or clarifications. It was easier and more fun to just go along with it. So there I was, in a coffee shop, eagerly agreeing with statements about life being a little like a bowl of cherries, or was it a box of chocolates, as the guys with their ironic laptop bags at the next table over glanced up curiously to see who could possibly be having such an unimaginative conversation in such a cool part of Brooklyn.
Continue Reading »
Kate on September 13th 2011 in friendship, life
There are no examples of people who look like me being hot. Because I am this weird combination of parts that surprised even God. God was like, “Wait, really? That can happen?” when I was born. I still don’t understand it. I look at my parents and grandparents and can kind of figure out how it’s possible, but I can also see how it could’ve easily gone a lot smoother.
Growing up, I knew this couple who were gangly and oddly-arranged. They had bad posture. They looked somehow drab. And they had three kids who looked like child models, and later, like actual models (although that line is a little blurry sometimes, so maybe I shouldn’t make the clarification). It was like all of the parents’ fantastic genes had been singled out and put to work. It was fabulous.
It didn’t happen that way with me. Maybe my parents were too good-looking to begin with. Which is really OK. I mean, I’m over it. For the most part.
(even her bird has a prominent nose. source)
Continue Reading »
Kate on September 12th 2011 in beauty, being different, nose
What is that? Apparently it’s something. One of the readers of this blog sent me some info on it, wondering if it might be an interesting thing or possibly, possibly a real one.
Orthorexia is when someone is obsessed with eating healthy foods, often to the point of self-harm. It’s not a medically recognized term, but Wikipedia is all over it, of course.
OK, our culture wants to medicalize and pathologize (I’m getting red squiggly lines for both of those words as I type this. Get with the picture, Word!) everything in the world. I don’t know anyone who can’t recite at least one Greek-based term for something that’s wrong with them. I have scoliosis (as you know from the yoga post) and anemia, myself. Wait, neither of those is from the Latin, right? I probably also have several things relating to my tendency to nod enthusiastically when other people speak, my abnormally acute interest in little summer dresses, and my inability to stop cutting my hair.
Naming things often gives them meaning. But some things have meaning even before someone tags a fancy title on them.
Continue Reading »
Kate on September 8th 2011 in body, food, weight
I went on a walking tour of Brooklyn the other day, with my visiting bonus mom and Bear and some other people we didn’t know. I learned that when the Brooklyn Bridge was constructed, it was the tallest thing on the horizon. Hard to imagine! I learned some other stuff, too, and I already forget most of it.
One of the women on the tour turned out to have gone to grad school at the same place as me, and she had lived in the same neighborhood during.
“Remember Gray’s Papaya?” she said. “Remember Koronet’s pizza? I think I gained twenty pounds.”
“Oh, I remember,” I said. And we laughed.
We had a little moment of bonding. The way women do when they talk about how much weight they’ve gained.
I think most women bond over college this way. I have had the conversation hundreds of times, now.
“Remember freshman year? All I ate was ice cream.”
“Me too. I ate ice cream three meals a day.”
“I gained twenty pounds.”
“Me too! I totally gained twenty pounds!”
We’ve all gained twenty pounds during some ill-advised period of ice cream and pizza eating. That’s what being a woman is about.
Continue Reading »
Kate on September 7th 2011 in beauty, body, new york, weight
When I was little, I loved to climb. So I tied my sheets together and climbed out of my window. I couldn’t get back up, though.
I climbed onto the long, sloping roof from the top of the garden fence, and then I climbed to the peak. I climbed trees, when the branches were the right distance apart. I climbed onto the overhang above the back deck. I climbed onto the deck itself, which was high up, wedging my feet in the cracks in the diagonal beams that supported it.
And then one day, I didn’t like climbing anymore. And then one day after that, I was so scared of heights, my breath caught when I came near the edge of something. In the Time Warner Center, on the fourth floor, standing by the glass railing took resolve. On the Brooklyn Bridge, sometimes I look down and, through the slats, I can see cars far, far below, and it seems like I’m walking on air, and my heart picks up pace.
Zip-lining in Costa Rica was a failure. Everyone else loved it. Everyone who has been has a story about how great it is. I still remember what I was thinking when I was dangling over a green, misty canyon on a trembling line, “I am not supposed to fly! I’m a person!” After a childhood of wishing I could fly! What a disappointment.
Continue Reading »
Kate on September 6th 2011 in fear, life, new york
