Betty Crocker, Fifty Shades and Jesus

So I published my first blog post about a week ago and have spent the past week trying to figure out what my next post should be about. Should it be happy and cute or dark and twisty?  The reason I started this blog was because I have a burning desire to put my opinions on paper.  The person that triggered my thoughts about blogging was Shay Shull and her blog “Mix and Match Family”- seriously, Google her…she is Sean Lowe’s sister and she is super cute and super amazing.  If you don’t know who Sean Lowe is, we can’t be friends anymore. Anyways, I was reading her blog, feeling really inspired.  She is a 30-something, Bible loving, happily married woman with some seriously cute children, who blogs about recipes, style and her super sad, but very encouraging story of infertility struggles.  So there I was, reading her blog (for days), dreaming up what my blog was going to be about.  I was going to share my recipes, I was going to take pictures of my totally amazing shoe collection and I was ready to go buy a new SUV so that I could pop out some babies, put them in car seats, become a stay-at-home mom and then blog about it.  And then I grabbed a beer, turned on some Nirvana and kicked my ass back to reality… 

The truth is, I am the farthest thing from a Bible-loving, Betty Crocker, stay-at-home mom.  I actually don’t believe in the Bible, it’s a nice story, but that’s about all it does for me.  My posts about recipes would be short-lived because I have mastered Spaghetti and meat sauce…but other than that, my specialties are vodka with soda water and vodka with tonic water.  And as far as being a stay-at-home mom goes…if you know me and you know my personal struggles, then you know that I am a woman who desperately wants to have a family (I dream about my future babies, all the time), but who has always, always, always, put her career before everything else (not sure if that was the right choice to be making all this time, but I am working on it and I am making some very good progress). 

So in thinking about all of these “bloggy” things: recipes, shoe collections and fancy bags, I realize I have so much more to say, so much drama to stir up and I hope you come along for a nice ride with me.  Below, are a few topics I am interested in and I hope you will message me or comment about them so we can turn this blog into a controversial, beautiful piece of work. 

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Religion.  Such a lovely subject.  I am not a Christian, I have been to church, I have been to Science class and I am not an Atheist either.  I respect religion because I believe it is important to believe in something bigger than yourself.  With that said…I believe in something bigger than me.  I believe that whatever created human beings, whatever created Earth, whatever made something out of nothing, is so advanced and so special, that our human brains would simply not even be able to imagine it, let alone name it and write a book about it.  I certainly don’t think some man in the sky said “let there be a human being” and then POOF here we are.  I also don’t think some giant star exploded and then POOF here we are.  I think it’s more complicated than that.

Pro Life VS Pro Choice.  This is one of my favorites, it’s so controversial and so personal and usually creates quite a frenzy.  Let’s be clear, personally, I am Pro-Life.  There has never been a moment where I would have considered an abortion, for myself, personally.  However, I will fight Pro-Life until the day I die.  I don’t believe that life forms at conception…I’m no doctor, but I am well aware that life forms far before birth…I think that hazy area of a few weeks into things, might be where that lovely gray line exists.  If we were giving women abortions six-months into their pregnancy, I would consider that murder…but six-weeks into pregnancy…I would consider that a choice that a woman has a right to make.  I do think there is a fine line…and we can talk about that fine line if you want to.  I also strongly believe in Planned Parenthood…I know there is a lot of controversy on where they get their funding…but for all of your super conservative parents who HATEEEE that your tax dollars might go towards abortions…here’s the thing, picture your 15 year old daughter having an abortion in an alley way in Mexico…because that my friends, is what would happen if Planned Parenthood didn’t exist, if Pro-Choice didn’t exist.

Can we please talk about healthcare.  This is a personal problem for me right now…I know of a lot of people who are on government healthcare (AKA free healthcare) because they are single, with children and they don’t make enough money.  Yeah, yeah, super sad story and I should probably be more sympathetic.  BUT, here I am…married and living in middle-class America and my health insurance cost is $600/month through my husband’s employer.  Seriously, WTF.  It’s like the government, or God, or someone said “Hey Kayla, thank you so much for doing the right thing all your life…for going to college, for getting married, for having a successful career and a lovely home to live in.  Thank you for creating a savings account and for not getting in over your head with credit card debt, thank you so much for living within your means.  We are going to reward you with a $600 health insurance bill every month.  Congratulations!!”.  This whole issue absolutely sends me sideways…

And to close up tonight’s blog, let’s chat about Fifty Shades.  People either love this book, or they hate it.  The one’s who hate it always say “oh it didn’t really speak to me” or “I just didn’t get it” or “it was terrible writing, so unrealistic”.  I FEEL BAD FOR YOU.  Fifty Shades made it okay for women to talk about sex again.  It made it okay for us to believe in fantasy.  It was not meant to be some Shakespeare novel, it was meant to be an easy, sexy read that you enjoyed in the bathtub while sipping a strong cocktail.  Brilliant literature was fabulous in college, but now, I’d rather read about billionaires who want to chain me up.  Ladies, are you with me?  

So in high school, I was the Opinions & Editorials Editor and I had my own column in the school newspaper…my journalism teacher always had to ask the principal for permission before publishing my articles, because she always thought my words might cost her a job (poor lady)…but she always fought for me and my opinions were always published, even if they were a little bit toned down, a little bit vanilla.  Nice thing about this blog…there isn’t a principal I have to run my opinions by before I hit the publish button…

Until next time…xoxo.