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Why Today is a Good Day.

There are many reasons why today, July 29th, is a good day, and I like to make lists, (which will make me feel even better) so here they are:

1. I just turned on KCRW's online live music stream and a super (hate to say it, but it is) awesome song came on. I can't help but bob my head as I sit and type. Enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1CaN4thI5w
2. I turned in fantastic coverage for a job I really want that I have a great chance at getting. I still might not get it, but that's OK. I feel good regardless. I found out on another job I am probably not getting, but a very deserving person is, so that's good news anyway.
3. I discovered the truly amazing taste of an iced soy latte. I had a latte hot so far in my newly found taste for coffee. Wow is an iced one a great drink! Every sip I took gave me those same feelings as Christmas morning when you are 7 years old. This is a surprise, this is thrilling, this is delicious, now THIS is happiness. In reality this is probably a bad thing because before I could rationalize drinking straight coffee since there are no calories, but I fear now my body will pay the price of my mouths lust, as it always does.
4. Along with drinking coffee comes my new ability to have a reason to sit at a coffee shop. Yes I could sit there and do nothing, or maybe buy an expensive Naked Juice, but it's just not the same. Now I feel a part of a new culture, I feel cool, I am a coffee drinker and I like to read things/write things/play on my phone while I slowly sip this drink! I am always most inspired and feel most connected to my thoughts while I sit during my lunch breaks outside of Starbucks and take in the gorgeous California weather.
5. I have recently fallin' back in love with reading magazines. I read every word printed from cover to cover, and I go slowly so it's lasts for days. Today I read about the editors favorite beauty products and I of course I want them all.
6. I am eating at Birds tonight. Enuf said.
7. I swallowed some of my pride and am truly trying to grow as a person and curb my jealousy. That's a big one. I will get mine one day, but for now I can take others accomplishments as hope.

The Most Important one
8. I helped a 91 year old woman with her grocery's today. Even in my ridiculously tall shoes, I walked a few blocks out of my way to help her, and those few minutes touched me in many ways. I feel like this was one of those weird coincidental "Amelie" moments, where a stranger comes out of nowhere and somehow tell you everything you've needed to hear. It's somehow so much more meaningful because it's not someone you know, telling you what you need to hear because they want to make you feel better and know you need to hear it. This woman just spoke to me because she wanted to, unsolicited, with no future gain.

First she was so grateful for the help she told me my parents should be proud of me. Then she repeatedly called me an Angel. So simple and silly, but it made my eyes well.
Then we started talking about her. She's from Prague, but moved after WWII because she didn't want to live under a communist regime. So she lived in Paris and London, where she tried to "find herself". She told me how chauvinistic Parisian's are, how she could trust English men, and how she could never get a job as a foreigner so she came to America, the land of opportunity, and got a job the day she stepped off the boat. What history!
And lastly, though more of a somber topic, she told me to cherish every moment I have. She talked about what it's like being old and how everything falls apart and how miserable it really is, so I should live every moment I have now and take advantage of being young. I tried to tell her she is quite with it for a 91 year old, but she insisted "Will you remember what she said? It's good advice! It's the best when you're young so use it while you can."

I haven't been living that way lately, but I will. And the first implementation of this - I am going to become a heel person again. Short LA men be damned!

Today I am sure will continue to be a fabulous day.

There are so many things I feel like I am not doing right now... I need to start doing things again.

I need to get the word mediocrity out of my head!

24... the year I started aging

24 was an interesting year, kinda, had a lot of ups and downs, maybe a little more down... but it's biggest bad was my realization that yes - in fact - I am starting to age. World, I am getting old. You would think that at such a tender age I should be wonderfully young and relatively stress free, not that I am losing my beauty at an alarming fast rate.

My first moment of "...ummmm what???" was when I started continually plucking out white eyebrow hairs. You mean platinum blond hairs, you say? NO, I mean stark raving mad WHITE. What is that about!? I am not sure if I have white hairs on my head, but when I told my mom this upsetting news she goes "I have those too!" So I go "But MOM I am 24... you are 53!" Her response to this was the best:

"I think white hair is interesting, you can become one of those cool looking white haired people in a few years. It's a great look, happened to your aunt when she was 30."

... GREAT! I AM GOING TO BE AN AWESOME WHITE HAIRED 30 YEAR OLD! JUST WHAT ALL THE MEN WANT!

My next sad feeling of "Oh Jesus, not me!" was the moment I felt - inherently in my bones, my being, or really my skin - that I now... Gosh I can't even say it without nearly falling into tears. Deep breathe. (Beat.) I now. must. shower. everyday!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Okay okay, so I don't have to wash my hair everyday, God forbid!, but I have to absolutely must wash my body. Like ALL the time! I mean I should have known things were changing when I actually had to shower after working out (nope I never did before the age of 22!) but I really didn't think I would feel gross all day long if it had been only a mere 24 hours since I last showered.

Our parents always warn us about how depressing it is to be old, and all the miserable things that start to happen, but as a kid it always sounded nice. Like oh to be financially stable, no longer be dating, and not have to worry about your beauty! Who cares after you have kids right?? But now I get it.

I am now 25 and can only imagine what this year has in store for me. Am I suddenly going to have frail bones? Will my hands become brittle and craggly? Not my hands, please don't take my soft sweet hands!

So here's to you 23! I never appreciated you before, but now Oh God how I do!

glitter!

From gifs

The butchiest of them all

There is a competition in our house, started by my La Roux loving roommate Nathalie, to see who get's 'the butch one' title amongst our group of friends. It's not a title I ever thought I would vye for, but tired of hearing about how un-feminine my ultra girly roommate is, I challenged her.



And that is how I, Kate Gill, fixed the frame of our couch, and became BUTCH.

One side of our couch's frame broke after our outlandish New Years party, and so I decided to salvage the broken beast and fix her.

I went to the lumber yard and bought the strongest wood known to man, which is Oak, in case you didn't know. Then I went home, and after visualizing how I could fix it, I pulled out my power tools. I have been waiting to use these power tools in an impressive way for years, and I finally got to.


(My handy Marylin Monroe measuring tape. Butch girls can still have a fashion icon.)



I had to learn how to use my power hand saw, so I read the directions and inserted the blade. Will you look at that edge? Sparkling, just waiting for me to cut some shit with it. Yeah I curse now, I'm thinking about taking up spitting too.



You can't do good man work without a good flannel. Luckily the hipster revival of flannel ensured my already owning one.

After measuring out the piece of wood I'd need, I went outside and began to saw. No I didn't have goggles, or a proper table, but I think I did well considering. Yep those are my house slippers. LL Bean house slippers for tough chicks who don't like dirty f-e-e-t.



The power I felt, the destruction i had in my hands, unparalleled. I recommend power saws for everyone in a race to butchdom. You start to feel for real.

After successfully cutting my oak wood, the strongest, I went inside to nail it into the existing broken frame.



With my power hammer in hand, this was bizarrely easy. Nails in, done.



Posin'!

Unfortunately, the unbroken side of the couch was not so easy to nail...



I'm not that butch yet! That's Josh. Unfortunately, after many bent nails, and a weak and tender hand, I needed someone else to try and force this oak on this faulty couch.



Luckily, he succeeded (though not without a struggle). He only did two nails though, it doesn't take anything away from me.



Do you see the genius of my design? Recreate the frame that was broken, for ensured support of all future fat asses that sit on this resuscitated couch. Once I got my elbow on the frame, all that was left was some more power sawin'.





BOOM, completed! And that my friends, is how I took the beer helmet off of Nathalie's head and became the number one Butch of the Cat Mansion. I celebrated by not shaving my legs before work, slappin' random chicks asses, and killing kittens. You know, how the butch roll.