The Stickiest Hug Giver You Ever Saw

This is my Grandpa Earl in a nutshell. I love this comic for making me smile and think of his fantastic hugs.

Crazy Scary Good

Wow, sorry for the absence people. I was connected in Texas, but only through Blackberry. I had a great time with Mary and Gabe at their wedding (more to come on that later), ate and drank way too much and am back in Charlotte. It's REALLY hit me that I am leaving very soon. I've started to get busy putting together my portfolio, selling almost everything I have accumulated in college (and it's A LOT) and making plans. The challenge in all of this is to remember to stay present and make sure I really enjoy my time here and my people here while I have them readily available.

I feel so fortunate that I've got a lot of you wonderful people out there floating around in the world, making your presence known and keeping me sane. My love is definitely a bit promiscuous when it comes to geography, but I have no intention of holding it back. Charlotte is just one more city that I will have loved and lost to some extent. I am always missing people and places, but the silver lining is that a plane ticket and an email can solve all of that.

So while everything here is making it pretty challenging to detach, I feel a wee bit better knowing that I can come back to these people and they'll be the same even if the skyline changes.

It's been a pretty good day. I'm broke and jobless after June. I've turned down four opportunities to play it safe and I'm scared as hell about job searching as a photojournalist. But it feels freakin' great to make a choice.

It's crazy scary good.

Ashes to Ashes or Cradle to Cradle?

The author of Cradle to Cradle discusses design and how to rethink how we build our products and cities in order to save and enjoy the world. Check it.

The Future of Body Care is Futurenatural Baby

Also, glamazon ladies out there, check out this new website PLEASE!!! If you like Sephora, but are eco-conscious and want to put only the best, purest, organic products in and on your body, Futurenatural.com is the way to go!

Founder Emma Pezzack was interviewed by Current TV about the mission and purpose of this fabulous new company.




We often forget that our skin is our largest organ and absorbs everything we put on it. If we are concerned about putting chemicals into our body, we must also be concerned with what we put ON our body. Emma does a ridiculous amount of research about their products and tests everything. Anything on their site is top quality in all areas. Check it!

Wedding Season

photo credit: www.cartier.com

I don't know if anybody else noticed--but it's wedding season. I myself am in one for my best college girl next week and am going to a shower for another couple tomorrow. That's this month alone.

Not to get all Carrie Bradshaw on everybody, but I have mixed feelings about wedding season. On the one hand, the joy and love that accompany such a day is so incredibly refreshing. On the other, that nagging feeling that I should be up at the alter too doesn't ever quite fade away completely.

It's not that I want to get married. I don't. Well--let's clarify, I don't want to get married now. The idea of finding a man I am so head over heels in love with that I just don't know what to do with myself is incredibly appealing in theory. It's just that I know I'm a massively long way from being there right now. You know that State Farm commercial (The one where everybody is "so there")? I'm it's anti-thesis.

I'm so not there.

What is there? That good ol' peer pressure--even in this day and age where getting married later in life is perfectly OK, normal and common--to find somebody. Because if you haven't, then there must be something off about you right?

Wrong.

There is nothing awry with this little girl. I'm just freakin' independent as hell and have high enough standards to stay away from Mr. Right Now. I don't have time for Mr. Right Now. Not because I'm spending it all in a hurry to find Mr. Right. Uh, hello! I've got a life to live and things to accomplish! I've got goals and plans and aspirations that don't involve a hubby (at least not on paper, because we all know the world has a crazy way of throwing the best laid plans askew and challenging you to fit things into the picture that weren't even on the horizon in the original vision).

But back to Mr. Right Now. I hate Mr. Right Now. Mr. Right Now is such a waste of time. Sure, it's nice to have a guy or two to go out on dates with. That you enjoy spending time with, but don't invest anything further into. That's all fine and dandy. But the guy (or girl) that you stay with because there isn't anybody else on your radar at the moment, and you can't handle being alone for more than two weeks, isn't somebody we should be staying with. Not only do we hold ourselves back, but we also hold them back. Not just from finding "the one," but from finding self-confidence, self-determination and self-awareness. While a triple braided cord may be stronger than the three alone, you are also only as strong as you weakest link. You have to make the individual parts strong if you want the entire cord, the relationship, to be strong as well.

Me? I'm in strength training mode baby. I'm learning so much about myself right now. I'm learning about what I believe in, what I am passionate about, what I want to do for the rest of my life. I am learning about my baggage and figuring out what I want to and need to leave behind in order to get to a new level of being. Cause, man oh man, am I ever ready for that level!

It just doesn't necessarily involve my soul mate. Or maybe it does. It's like a video game. There are all these levels and challenges to pass before you enter the next phase. In life, we play each level only once, and we never know what lies ahead--so maybe Mr. Right is there. But Mr. Right Now will surely be avoided. Don't want to get stuck in a level and become stagnant. Let me put it this way. There are some people who will call you crazy (and who have called me crazy), but we'd rather be crazy for the rest of our lives than apathetic for one single day, right?

So all you single ladies (and gentlemen), bury that feeling of insignificance despite the fact that you haven't come across a significant other. It's about as important as Mr. Right Now.

I.E. NOT VERY.

It's wedding season, yes. It might make you long for a soul mate of you own--and that's OK too. Who doesn't love the idea finding that person. Just remember that you are worth just as much single as you are married or committed. My Mom loves this mantra: I am holy, I am whole.

I am holy, I am whole. I am holy, I am whole...

Feeling Indecisive

Voting is the ultimate way to use your voice. We know I love to use mine, so that should lead you to conclude there is no way I'll be skipping out on the polls this year. But I have a dilemma. The North Carolina presidential primary is Tuesday and damn it, I still don't know who I'm going to vote for. I'm sitting here with my voting guide, feeling frustrated that I can't make up my mind!!! I've been listening to speeches and debates and reading positions and meditating on it for months--and no luck. If I were less obsessed with democratic principle, I'd flip a coin, but I just can't bring myself to cop out. My damn and blessed democratic duty is stressing me out.

Maybe (hopefully) my decision will come to me in a dream. They've been very telling on my inner workings lately. Or maybe I'll just have to buck up and make a hard choice. There is so very much at stake here. We are obviously at a crossroads as a nation. We absolutely need to make a good decision this go around or things could go from bad to worse very quickly.

I'm worried about my country. I want it to be all it can be! We are so far from that now and I wonder if we can ever get there. But, as an ever-faithful, if not discerning optimist, I have to hope against all hopes, and the past eight years, that the American Dream is not dead. It does seem like we are entering a global period of soul searching, doesn't it? That we simply need to go on a quest and reclaim our identity. We know what it's supposed to be, but we haven't done such a bang up job of living up to the lofty principles we claim to hold so dear.

Choices are not always easy, but I keep coming back to the fact that we are so incredibly blessed to have them. We have to hold on to the right to make them with everything we've got. The erosion of the public voice and role in making complex decisions with great impact on our nation and the world is a worrisome and quietly occuring phenomenon. But it doesn't have to be. Our votes have the potential to put a protector of those rights into the highest office and set the tone for the rest of the system.

Millions around the world lay down their lives for the right to choose (and thousands of our own soldiers risk their lives to protect it--however misguided their superiors are). I'm still feeling indecisive, but also grateful. Despite some major issues, what a great country this is that we live in! Let's not take that for granted. Let's get out there and vote for growth and positive change and for putting our principles at the forefront of our politics.

Now, which candidate will get us there? Damn good question. I'll have to get back to you on that one.

Happy Voting North Carolina!

New Forum For My Big Voice!!!

Hey all! My first post on Charlotte's hottest new blog, CLT Blog, is officially up!!! Check it out please! And check out the rest of the blog too if you've got time. There are some very very talented people up in our space!

Hot Time, Estelle Is In The City