AllLivesMatter. The problem is that left to its own devices ALL quickly gets reduced to and prioritized to straight white men, and the closer you are to being a straight white man, the more your life matters. I love straight white men, but they’re already protected. Their concerns and problems are the ones everybody has: livable wages, providing for family, keeping home and property safe, basic personal safety. They don’t have to worry about what the Supreme Court decides they can do with their bodies. They don’t have to worry about being refused service and humiliated by a business’ religious objections. And they don’t have to worry about whether a routine traffic stop might result in their death.

So yes, All Lives Matter, but we’re not yet at a place where ALL actually includes everyone.

BlackLivesMatter isn’t exclusionary. Nobody is saying that ONLY black lives matter. I suppose we could say that BlackLivesMatterToo – but that makes it a reminder, an afterthought, an ‘if you have a chance’ please address this. That approach requires time, and patience, and hope, and we’ve run out of those things.

There is anger in the words BlackLivesMatter, but most of what you’re seeing and hearing, is fear. BlackLivesMatter is a plea to armed authority, for humane consideration. It begs those who could kill us with impunity, to stop for a moment before pulling the trigger. To stop just long enough to ask themselves “If this person was white, would I handle this differently?”

You were in seat 14B on July 4th, American Airlines flight #3150, YYZ to LGA, I was the girl to your left in the window seat. I wanted to tell you that I thought you were quite handsome, but I refrained as I feared I would wind up having to share my candy with you – you had offered me a stick of gum, remember? And not offering you any candy in return was already somewhat ungracious. So anyway, now that my candy is out of jeopardy, wow are you ever handsome!

If our flight was crashing, I’d have been totally open to making out with you, even though I’m much older and kind of married. I understand that you might not be as cool with the prospect at first blush, but think back, I really was the cutest person between rows 13 to 15. You would have had to go pretty far to reach the blonde with the side ponytail, and I think she was travelling with someone. And the man with the crooked smile and shaggy brown hair was even further still! Sure, that petite gorgeous brown haired woman was just a little bit behind us, but she was clearly Orthodox and it was NOT going to happen. I know that looks are a useless way to make determinations about people, but in a plane crash make out situation, I think it’s a safe go-to.

Anyway, as a polite young man I think you would have gone along with it to avoid hurting my feelings, which, by the way, I totally appreciate.

The Littlest Princess got married earlier this month and for whatever reason (probably alcohol related) I thought it would be great if I made my dress for the event. Forgetting of course that I haven’t sewn anything ballgown’esque for close to a decade.

Whenever black tie is an option, I take it, so I definitely wanted a floor length, ballgowny something. The MotB was going to be in a strapless cobalt gown and the MotG was going with a one-shoulder cocoa, so I figured I’d avoid both of those styles and aim for something halterish.

The initial design:

Since the moms were in cobalt and cocoa, I figured purple was somewhere in the middle and went with that.

Pinned to my dress form:

Adding the gold striping was actually pretty easy:

But after that point I ran into some problems. I tried it on and it was way too big, which I totally still don’t understand because I have the dress form set at my measurements. Then after I took it in, I realised that even my wee boobies were at risk of nip slipping on account of the open sides. Relying on double sided tape to keep from flashing everyone didn’t seem like the best idea so:

It worked! I had to add a set of darts at the lower waist at the last minute as it was gaping a little bit, but I think it turned out well.

Everything blurry but me!

Everything in focus but me!

Everything in focus – including me!