Kate McKinney

Explaining Daylight Saving Time

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:24:52 -0400

When I was in college, South Bend did not observe daylight savings time. Half the year we watched TV on the Eastern schedule; half the year on the Central schedule. (Apparently all of Indiana now observes DST.)

My fave Frye boots for autumn. #wortheverypenny

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 17:25:16 -0400

My fave Frye boots for autumn. #wortheverypenny

9/11

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 13:46:00 -0400

10 years is forever. And a moment.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was seven months pregnant with that little guy over there. (Now, he’s in the fourth grade, loves Pokemon and LEGOs and plays piano. And he’s got three siblings.)

Jason was already gone, headed to work. I was getting ready for work at my law firm. The TV in our bedroom was on, like most mornings, tuned to the Today Show. I remember Matt Lauer and I remember Tom Brokaw. I don’t remember Katie Couric but I’m sure she was on as well.

I sat down on the bed for a moment when I saw a report that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. A wild accident, I was sure.

But I sat and watched as they talked about it, probably because I knew my middle sister worked nearby. As I watched a live shot of the first tower, another plane smashed into the second tower. And my heart raced, the breath went out of me. Everything changed.

It became immediately clear that this wasn’t an accident. I don’t remember if I called Jason (although I must have) but I know I called my mother, who asked me to call my sister.

At the time, my sister and her then-boyfriend (now husband) lived on the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge but both worked in Manhattan. Jill worked at a restaurant in the Financial District, just two block from the WTC. Will worked at a restaurant a bit further north.

Jill answered the phone, sleep in her voice. She was not scheduled to work until later. And she had no idea what was going on just a few miles away from her door. As I talked to her, she turned on the television and we watched together in stunned silence.

Except it wasn’t silent. Through the phone, I could hear a constant stream of screaming sirens outside of her window. First responders headed past her apartment and over the Brooklyn Bridge to help. I still wonder how many of those trucks and their personnel were lost a bit later in the morning.

I finished getting dressed and drove to work, listening to the news on the radio. The towers fell as I made my way to the office. No work was done as we all gathered around computer monitors and televisions to watch the news. We learned about Flight 93 and about the Pentagon about the time I arrived at the office.

Already hormonal, I spent the next few days crying and wondering what the world would look like for my child.

The restaurant my sister worked at never re-opened; rescue workers used it as a place to rest. The building was eventually torn down due to structural problem related to the 9/11 devastation. I looked for it on a trip to NYC in August, 2006. A hole in the ground was all I could find. I even called my sister from the street corner to double-check the address. Gone. It shook me.

10 years later. I have four children instead of zero. I live in a different house. I have a different career. I have the same husband. My sister married her boyfriend and convinced him to leave his native New York City for the calm and affordable Midwest. They have a new baby this year. My other sister was a sophomore in college in Nashville then; now she’s a PhD working in Los Angeles.

I am happy and blessed. But my heart aches for all that was lost ten years ago on that bright morning in New York and across the world. Our lives changed. History changed. The world’s attitudes changed. I’m worried about my future and about the world that my children will inherit.

I had no idea, when I sat on my bed and watched that plane crash into a building, that I’d still be worried ten years later. And I’m wondering when or if it will ever stop.

Two churches located across the street from each other. At least the Catholics have a sense of humor. lol

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 18:37:46 -0400

No idea if this is real. But it’s funny.

tithenai:

wizasaur:

-prettyprettyplease:

ultraball:

paranoidrobot:

…Do the Presbyterians think Rocks are animals?

ALL ROCKS GO TO HEAVEN

CONVERTING TO CATHOLICISM DOES NOT MAGICALLY GRANT YOUR DOG A SOUL.

WOW. EPIC CATHOLIC WIN.

I LOVE THIS.

It’s amazing all of the things I had forgotten about 9/11...

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 01:28:27 -0400

It’s amazing all of the things I had forgotten about 9/11 over the course of ten years. Things I was so sure that I would never, ever forget. Things I shouldn’t ever forget. Look through all of these photos. It’s worth it.

life:

One decade after 9/11, an unsettling number of images from Ground Zero and environs remain seared in our collective memory — unsurprising, perhaps, given the scope and scale of the destruction. But the fact that the deadliest, most visually arresting attacks occurred in New York City also meant that many of the world’s best photographers were, in effect, already on the scene when the terrorists struck.

Here, to mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11, and in hopes of lending coherence to our shared, turbulent recollections, LIFE.com presents the 25 most stirring, visceral photographs from that day, featuring pictures from the likes of James Nachtwey, Joe Raedle, Spencer Platt, Mario Tama, and other celebrated photojournalists (and one intrepid amateur).

These are the pictures we remember: wrenching, indelible photographs that tell the tale of a still-resonant late summer day that changed everything: 9.11: The 25 Most Powerful Photographs.

"Marriage is betting someone half your shit that you’ll love them forever."

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 16:15:17 -0400

“Marriage is betting someone half your shit that you’ll love them forever.”

- one of my Foursquare connections

theniftyfifties: The Kennedys at Hyannis Port, 1959. Photo by...

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 23:19:09 -0400

theniftyfifties:

The Kennedys at Hyannis Port, 1959. Photo by Mark Shaw.

madmendaily: I wonder what Carrie Bradshaw would say. Sigh....

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:51:55 -0400

madmendaily:

I wonder what Carrie Bradshaw would say.

Sigh. Both of them need wardrobe and makeup. Still love John Slattery though - even scruffy.

Photo

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:14:17 -0400

Wish we weren’t just passing through…

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:11:32 -0400

Wish we weren’t just passing through…

Is it wrong that I kind of want this?

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 14:28:46 -0400

Is it wrong that I kind of want this?

6:30AM. Waffle House, Cookeville, TN.

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 07:43:02 -0400

6:30AM. Waffle House, Cookeville, TN.

2:45am in Vienna, IL…

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 04:10:28 -0400

2:45am in Vienna, IL…

No more freelance portfolio

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 12:47:00 -0400

For several years now, kbmckinney.com has been a portfolio site for my freelance writing business. I’ve taken that down now because my freelance copywriting morphed into a social media and marketing consultancy that has grown beyond my expectations.

I still do some writing and “content management” for several clients but it’s really just one dimension of what we’re doing over at K2Media.

I’ve had a personal family blog for a long time over at 4funnykids.blogspot.com. I’ve used that blog less and less as time passed and my workload increased (and for a lot of other personal reasons). I may still blog over there from time to time.

But this will (hopefully) be a space that is mine - not just about my kids, not just about my business - but about everything and nothing. Very Seinfeld-ian, don’t you think?

Photo

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:14:11 -0400