Look, I am the first to admit I don't like DC movies. They are too dark. They are too melodramatic. They try to hard too deliver that "the world is awful" realism that I just avoid in movies in general. I know a lot of people are into that, I am just not one of them.

HOWEVER. Wonder Woman, the first super hero movie about a woman. Wonder Woman, the first super hero movie directed by a woman. Wonder Woman. This movie is not one of DC's standard lineup, and that is why it might just save the franchise. But enough about DC. I wanted to talk about why women have been flocking to this movie in droves. Why they have literally been breaking down in tears while watching it. Why this movie is so damn important.

I just want to say that, apart from everything I am about to discuss, Wonder Woman is a really good movie. It is a genuinely a good movie, not just a miracle for women everywhere. I won't really be going into plot here, but on a scale of 1-10 I give it a solid 8.

The story introduces a society of perfect women. They were made to be compassionate, loving, and wise. They are warriors. They are strong. They live in a perfect society where there is no crime and the sun is always shining. What a vision. Immediately the audience can sense something different from what you would expect. What is it? It is the women themselves.

• In the world oh white washing that is a staple of Hollywood, this society is diverse and vibrant.  This spreads beyond the Amazons and to the male side characters as well. It is not a world made up of white and light skinned racially ambiguous characters. 
• In a world where ageism is rampant in movies and many actresses careers die as soon as they hit 40, women in their 50s and more are portrayed as powerful, intelligent, beautiful leaders. They are not airbrushed. Their wrinkles and age stand strongly and proudly on their faces for the entire audience to see as they ride down their enemies and stab them in the throat. 
• There is no one body type of strength. There are lean and fast women. There are solid muscular women. There are women's bodies on display that would never make the screen if this was made by a man, and they are shown to be powerful, not eye candy for the male audience. 

That leads to my next point. The infamous "male gaze" that dominates cinema? Or the "boner lens" as I like to call it. This is the view almost every movie made. It shows us every woman through how straight men would want to see them. Sexualized. In many cases its so subtle most people don't even realize it until it is pointed out to them. It can be as obvious as a scene where the male hero accidentally walks in on the female nude or partially nude (which is hilariously reversed in this movie), or as subtle as scenes with women fighting shot just at the right angle to accentuate her breasts or butt. A close up of her lips. Filming the scene to deliberately show the male hero looking down at the woman.

None of that crap was in this movie. Even though the Amazon's outfits showed most of their legs, they was not a single sexual shot of them. Their boobs are not pressed together and up for male consumption. Their legs and arms jiggled. JIGGLED. Women are never allowed to jiggle, especially in super hero films (unless it is their boobs). The women in this movie were god damn heroes, and they were shown to be that, nothing less. They are not there for men to drool over. They are there to save the day.

Our leading lady, Diana, rejects the "strong female character" trope that men (and sadly many women) think is good writing these days. You know the type. She can fight (but not as well as the man), she is emotionally distant (for the man to break down her walls), and usually says something like "I am not like other girls" or "I was raised with brothers, that is why I am good at this traditionally male activity". And usually in the end needs to be saved by the male hero.

Diana is strong, but vulnerable. She is innocent, but tough as nails. She is driven, passionate, and stubborn, but she is compelled overall my love and compassion. She doesn't do what she does because she can't leave her violent life behind, or is too traumatized to do anything else, or because she doesn't know how or can't (in the case of mutants) live any differently. She is a hero because she loves so deeply and so much she physically can not stand to let people suffer around her. This is a female hero we have never seen before.

And let us examine our leading man for a second. Steve. Oh Steve. He is the male love interest we have been waiting for. He is above all, kind. He is driven by a sense of justice. He understands the cultural norms concerning women that he was raised with, but he does not accept them as right or natural. He is continuously baffled by Diana and her strange behavior, but he does not try to stop her because she is a woman. When he does try to stop her it is because he genuinely believes she is putting herself or others in danger through her actions. He easily hands command over to Diana and never makes a stink about being led by a woman. He doesn't have an ego. He doesn't care if he is humiliated or mocked. All he wants is peace. He is inspired by Diana but his morality does not depend on her. He was going to do everything he could to stop the war and save lives whether he met her or not, but is more than willing to do whatever he can to support and help her.

His most powerful scene for me was near the end, when Diana realizes that it is men, not the mythical Ares as she has led to believe, that are behind war. That darkness is a part of humanity and she cannot save them from themselves. She doesn't understand, and Steve is in tears trying to explain it to her. He has always known this fact, that humans are corrupt. He knows he is part of the problem, that they all are, that they don't deserve someone as pure as Diana, but he cannot stop fighting for them anyway. He is shaking, crying, grasping for words desperately trying to make her understand. And even though he fails to do so, and she refuses to help him, he charges in to the fight head first anyway. He cannot possibly do anything else. It is who he is. He is not the male hero we have come to know. He is a common man, he has no tragic back story, but though he is common he is uncommonly good.

Diana herself has many scenes that are stunning to watch. The final battle is certainly one of them. And her scene of discovering WW1 era women's fashion was fantastic, but there is one scene that stood out. It has been much talked about for its ability to make women spontaneously burst into tears. It is the scene where Diana, when all the men are shouting around her to stay put, that she can't save the village, she sheds her cloak, dons her armor, and steps out of the trenches into No Man's land anyway. She is taking heavy fire from the Germans, but she continues on. She holds up her shield and drops to her knees as thousands of bullets are rained down on her, but she does not stop. In that moment, millions of women watching the movie, including myself, were overwhelmed by emotion, and teared up or began to openly cry.

It has been kind of hard to figure out why that scene hits home so hard, but I think the best way to put it is that women didn't even realize how starved for a woman superhero that was not sexualized, not eye candy for men, and is THE hero of her own story they were. A hero that they can look at and see themselves and their own struggles without a hint of having to look through a man's eyes. When they see that on the big screen, all the repressed feelings, anger, resentment, along with pure joy come pouring out. Representation is important. The response to this movie shows that.

And that, overall, is why this movie is so important for women, and men to see. It shows us what can be in the future of not only superhero movies but of cinema in general. A woman in the director's chair was a key factor in this, and the world has shown the skeptics that these times of movies ARE financially viable. This movie may just go down in history as the turning point for women in film, and I am very excited that I was able to see it.

Well this is it. Bags are packed, internet and health care are canceled. Apartment is cleaned and emptied. My brother has already started moving his stuff in.

It's been real Seattle (a real pain in the ass!). This is a city filled with amazing, hard working people trying to find what they want in life and figuring out to get there. While they are doing this what money they have is slowly drained from them by increased prices of living and lack of opportunities.I am not sad to leave this system behind and find something better.

I am sad to leave behind those amazing people. I found an incredible group of kind, funny, intelligent, and overall lovely people, and I will miss them all terribly. You all were there for me, even when you didn't realize it, and made this struggle bearable, sometimes even fun!

I am grateful for the past year, don't get me wrong. I learned a lot about myself and what I want from life, was able to bond with my brother, and spent a lot of time in the most amazing nature I have ever seen. I got to see the Pacific Ocean and hike with wild mountain goats! I went whale watching and saw the most beautiful tulip farms. From here on out I will only remember the good, and not the bad.

Goodbye Seattle, may we meet again on more pleasant terms.

"Do you have a bucket list before you leave Seattle?"

This is a question I have gotten a few times over the last month. And the honest answer is, no, not really. Sorry Seattle, but there isn't really anything you have to offer that I have not already seen or done. There is only one thing I wanted to do before I moved back to the East Coast, and it actually had nothing to do with the city.

I wanted to see the Pacific Ocean.

Now before you say "Katie, you live in Seattle, the ocean is right there!", NO. The Puget Sound is not the Pacific Ocean. Not the same.

Anyways as a final hurrah and a trip to say goodbye to the Pacific Northwest, my friend Hilary and I went on a trip into the Olympic Peninsula for three days.  A lot happened in those three days, some of which I want to share, but that is for later. This is about the ocean and me.

The second night of our trip, Hilary and I set out to make my dream come true. We were staying at Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort in the Olympic National Park, which is roughly an hour and a half drive to our destination: La Push Reservation. That name might be familiar to you if you ever read a Twilight book. My 16 year old self would have been very excited to visit this place for very different reasons than I am now.

Getting to the reservation involved driving through a series of very dense pine forests. That seemed to stretch on forever. We knew we wanted to have dinner at this restaurant in the main town, but we also wanted to make it to one of the beaches in the reservation.

It should be noted we had absolutely zero internet signal this entire trip, so it was mostly us wandering around with a vague idea of things were.

We eventually managed to find the entrance to the trail to make it down to Second Beach, which is the most famous in the area.

You have probably seen pictures of this beach before, an arch in one of the rock formations there is one of the most photographed stone arches in the world!

*cough* This is the arch.

The trail was short and pleasant. It goes through the woods and had a lot of interesting trees that had magnificent root structures growing above ground. There was a steep hill going down to the beach, and when you emerge from the woods you have to immediately climb over enormous drift wood. I am talking fully grown massive trees.

Then there is the beach.

Sand beaches are pretty rare for the Washington Coast (or so I have been told), and this one was absolutely perfect. The wide expanse of glittering sand stretched fairly far in either direction, and just offshore were massive rock islands (not sure that is the right word for this) that jutted far out of the sea. It was, quite simply, stunning. It was a clear and sunny day, and the sun had just begun its descent, meaning everything was very bright (and the rocks in the my pictures are very dark).

There were quite a few people on the beach, but it wasn't crowded. It seemed like people were gathering to watch the sunset.

I was taking as many pictures as I could, but mostly trying to take it in. I was finally at the Pacific Ocean, and was overwhelmed with that feeling you only get when standing on a shore looking out into the endless expanse of an ocean, knowing that there is absolutely nothing but water for thousands of miles in front of you. I felt very small, like a child, absolutely in awe of what was before me. I had to touch it. It's not enough to be there, I had to feel the water in my hand. Spoiler alert, it was cold, but I was absolutely delighted. I ended up chasing the waves back and forth like a little kid, taking pictures of sea foam and otherwise just being a goof.

Very important sea foam

Weirdly enough I am not a water person per say. I am not a strong swimmer, and I hate being on boats, but being near the water gives me energy and puts me at peace at the same time. Living away from water, whether it be a lake, river, ocean, what have you, makes me pretty miserable.

This beach centered me, awoke that deep connection to the land beneath my feet I have always felt and often lose when I spent too much time in a city. I didn't want to leave. Unfortunately, Hilary and mine's stomachs had other ideas. Because of our need to feed, we could not stay as long as we would of liked. However my brief time with the Pacific was not over. As I mentioned, the restaurant we wanted to go to was right on the shore, next to the town harbor.

They had beautiful large windows overlooking the ocean, and we managed to get the last table of the night. The sun slowly made its way towards the horizon, and by the time we were ready to leave, it was a full blown sun set.

A sunset over the ocean. This is something that doesn't happen on the east coast. It is something I have always wanted to see, always longed for. And now it was there, lighting up the harbor I stood in.

I am very lucky to have stood where I stood, and seen what I have seen. I am very grateful to have been able to have this experience (Thank you Hilary for driving me out there), it is one I will cherish forever. When everything is crazy, the world is falling to pieces, and change is rocking my world, these are the memories I cling to, that keep me balanced.

I hope to see the Pacific again someday, but for now, this brief acquaintance will have to do.

As I mentioned last post, I am moving back to New York from Seattle very shortly. Part of that is getting rid of most of my stuff, which I have been successfully doing over the last couple weeks. I had a plan, and I was on track to succeed.....

Until I found out a local book store was going out of business. At first I managed to avoid the store and it's 50% off discount. But then, something horrible happened. They made a new deal.

If you took one of their tote bags, you could fill it up as much as possible with books and only pay $20. Ugh! How dare they. I heard this and got super excited, already imagining myself tearing through the store grabbing everything I wanted, but then reality hit. You only have so many suitcases dummy! And they have weight limits! So I promised myself that no matter how much the temptation grew, I would not step foot in that store. Nope. Not gonna happen.

Well obviously it happened, or else I wouldn't be telling this story. What made resisting super difficult is that this book store is on my route to both work and the grocery store, so I pass it nearly every day. Last weekend I was on the way to get groceries when I glanced inside. I saw the emptying shelves and the tens of people going through was left. 50% off eh? I could afford to get just one or two books for myself, I reasoned. Fool.

I took that blasted step towards the store and opened the door. Immediately I saw a day planner for one dollar. A day planner? Really? I have never used a day planner in my life. But, it had a pretty picture of Scotland on the front! I just had to have it. And besides, it was only a dollar....

I made my way further into the store, eventually heading to the second level. First I went to the travel section, then the women's lit section...and soon enough my hands were full of books. Lost in some kind of haze, I just stood there looking around the many bookshelves, wide eyed and confused. Should I grab a tote and fill it? There was a box of them right there. It would be so easy to just take one and go to town. But the suitcases! I shouldn't. But I did. I grabbed a tote. I was in there for over an hour, going through every shelf. I could barely think straight by the time I dragged myself up to the cash register, my tote filled to the brim. I paid my $20 and left the store, the bag extremely heavy in my hand. Mistakes were made.

My shame laid out for all to see

When I got home I looked through the books again, to make sure in my sale induced madness I hadn't gotten anything I wasn't actually interested in. On the whole I think I did pretty well. I want to read all the books. The only major problem is one of them is massive, nearly 700 pages. What was I thinking? Oh yea and I have less than 3 weeks to read all of them and then sell them off to another book store. Yea...right. I can do this.

I have decided to keep three for myself that will go back to NY with me, and two have already been mailed off as gifts. That leaves 6 books to read by my departure, including the massive one. I just finished one of them, The Welsh Girl, and have picked which one I will be reading next.

I am fairly determined to read all of them, but it is a pretty daunting task I have given myself. One book down, five to go. Why do I do this to myself? Wish me luck....(and for the record I have been using the day planner, and it is actually working pretty well...so take that me! You aren't an total dumb dumb)