Yeah, yeah. It's 1:45 in the morning. I'm wide awake. Toggling between two tabs on my computer. One is my job-job. The other is a piece about a tree in the woods near my childhood home. I realized it's been over thirteen YEARS since the first time he raped me and eleven since the last. Life passes so quickly sometimes that the actual amount between a once upon a time in our lives and now is quite a bit. Yet some things will always feel like yesterday, and some things will feel like distant memories almost instantly. Scrolling through the plethora of pictures, I came across this one, taken in the fall for a piece I'd been writing on how I wasn't going to get married, and at 30 I'm cool with that, but I still like white dresses and bouquets of flowers.... It feels like an absolute lifetime ago because for the first time in almost 31 years, that's not something I'm saying. I still like white dresses and bouquets of flowers, but marriage is on the table in a distant future kind of way. I'm just here in my thoughts about how the woods has always been my happy place, but it's also been a place of literal waking nightmares. Yet I've been able to somehow maintain that joy in spite of such stark memories. A landscape which should inspire fear will always bestow calm... and a place for photoshoots. https://liketk.it/3wLdm @liketoknow.it #liketkit
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![Happy Indigenous Peoples' Day! I've been meaning to write this post for awhile, and this seemed like a great day to post it.
Two and a half months ago I took my first road trip since the pandemic. Twenty hours in the car, I arrived at the Grand Canyon's South Rim.
I hadn't been camping since I was 15, and that was in Iowa and 20 minutes from my bed. Not only was I camping the Grand Canyon, I was doing it alone. I had zero expectations other than I knew I wanted to hike in the Canyon.
As I drove through Arizona, the sun rose, illuminating an entirely breath-taking landscape of plateaus, mountains, plains, and wildlife. I knew would use my time to search for the stories of the people who lived in and around the Canyon for thousands of years before white people arrived to fuck shit up. The trip that was meant to center myself, connect with nature, and escape life's hustle created a subtle yet distinct shift in my soul.
Head to my blog post to find a highlight reel of things I learned at the Canyon. There will be a post about my trip in the near[ish] future. https://onthebl.org/2021/10/11/11-things-i-learned-camping-the-grand-canyon/
#grandcanyonnationalpark #nativeland #stolenland #indigenouspeoplesday #indigenousrightsarehumanrights #socialjustice #racialequity #fightforrights #allyship #hikinggirl #adventurelife #grandcanyonsouthrim #southkaibabtrail #grandcanyonplateau #americanhistory #traveltolearn #challengethestatusquo #riseup @liketoknow.it http://liketk.it/3pvH1 #liketkit](https://images.liketoknow.it/8b0c9bbf-2ae5-11ec-8881-0242ac110004?v=0&auto=format&fm=jpg&w=450&q=80&dpr=1)
![I've spent a lifetime figuring out how to look as good as I possibly can while spending as little as I possibly can. I've learned it's best to go cheap on some things [press-on nails] and splurge a little on others [find a good tailor]. I'm nowhere near where I hoped I'd be financially ten years ago or even two years ago. I'm lucky I have a partner to share the burden and supports that I'm doing things that make me happy. Until I'm independently wealthy—if that ever happens, but I can hope—, I'm going to continue practicing my budget-friendly bougieness in all these ways and more. But I've learned the bougiest thing I can be is happy. You can find some of my top tricks to being bougie on a budget here: https://onthebl.org/2021/09/20/11-ways-to-be-bougie-on-a-budget/ or through the link in my bio!
Taking pictures of nails is so hard. To the people who do it, I'm incredibly jealous. This took way too many tries to get. I am a recent convert to press-on nails. They're my go-to when I don't want to take the time and effort to paint my own nails or spend the money at a salon. They're quick, they're easy, and they can look classy as hell when done right.
#onthebl11 #bougieonabudget #bougie #budgetfriendly #listicle #houstonwriter #houstonblogger #texasblogger #pressonnails #kissnails #houstongirl #houstonian #prettyinpink #nailsofinsta #nails #finances #lookinggood #styleblogger #houstonfashionblogger #tallgirl #keepingitreal #liketkit @liketoknow.it http://liketk.it/3o6wv](https://images.liketoknow.it/8cdea031-1a2e-11ec-bc07-0242ac110004?v=0&auto=format&fm=jpg&w=450&q=80&dpr=1)
![With a sense of humor, Kathy Benjamin prepares her readers for the one completely unavoidable consequence of living: death. Like it or not, death comes for us all. Unfortunately for us, we can't control what happens once we're gone, but with a little bit of preparedness, we can sure try. Death is one of those topics people shy away from, which causes a lot of heartache and mess once they're gone, so if you do it for no one else, do it for me and write your damn will. I've never felt a need to avoid talking about death for a lot of reasons including but not limited to: I like making people uncomfortable, it's unavoidable, dark humor is my jam, and I hate unknowns. Kathy Benjamin, I feel, falls in my camp because she tackles all the deathly facets of living with a sense of humor, information, and creativity in her book It's Your Funeral from Quirk. Read my full review at: https://onthebl.org/2021/09/16/confronting-death-in-its-your-funeral-by-kathy-benjamin/ or through the link in my bio.
These pictures were taken in a cemetery because I figured it would be the most appropriate location [and they're really pretty plus no one will judge my posing like an idiot (get it?)]. Well a morgue would have been super appropriate, but they said "no." Weird.
#ontheblreads #fallreading #readingoutofdoors #bookreview #kathybenjamin #quirkbooks #itsyourfuneral #cemetery #texas #texaslife #texasgirl #houstongirl #writinglife #darkhumor #darksenseofhumor #funnygirl #findinghumor #readersareleaders #confrontinggrief #grief #bookshark #bookishlife #fallreads #liketkit @liketoknow.it http://liketk.it/3nQEn](https://images.liketoknow.it/b91ac060-1737-11ec-9344-0242ac110004?v=0&auto=format&fm=jpg&w=450&q=80&dpr=1)
