There’s a thing going on Facebook right now where you type keepgif.com/yourname into the comments and it automatically posts a gif related to your name and I was a little worried about doing that because what if I accidentally post something horribly offensive, but then I decided to just do it and this is the gif for my name:
So fucking accurate, y’all.
Unrelated: Ten years ago I found a child’s dress in a thrift shop that was a bit ripped but lovely. It was too big for Hailey at the time but she adored it so I used safety pins to make it fit and she wore it until it frayed. It gave me one of my favorite pictures of her when she was just a few years old.
I kept the dress but somehow missed the window when the dress would actually fit her, so a few days ago when I stumbled across it in the closet Hailey and I decided to cut it so that it would fit her and use it to take pictures underwater.
Hailey doesn’t like to open her eyes underwater so I ended up with a ton of half-face pictures, but they looked awesome so it was totally worth it. And a bunch of you asked how I did it so I’ll give you my secret: Put your phone in a waterproof bag and instead of taking photos just take video. Then go through the video in slow motion and screenshot the best images from the video. Photoshop the bathing suit straps and pool vents out. Add a black and white filter to make it look artsy. Don’t drown.
And the images looked strange and muffled and fairy-like and surreal. Almost as surreal as the idea that it’s been 10 years since Hailey first wore that dress. It’s all going by far too quickly. It’s a bittersweet realization that I can only suspend time in my photos and my memory.