Kim Baird [March 2005] Canon EOS 20D w/Lensbaby

This is Kim Baird, one of my Burning Man camp-mates and my dear friend. She has a disease called Cystic Fibrosis (CF). Kim is 25 and found out she had this disease in early childhood. That's like sitting on a time-bomb, because when Kim was a kid, the outside of the life span for someone with CF was about 25 years. Kim turns 26 next week, and she's spending her birthday living where she's been living for the past couple of months, a hospice. That's because at the beginning of the summer, Kim went into the hospital and gave us all a real scare--we, Kim, and her doctors thought she wasn't going to get better this time. But she did, and now she's stable, but living in a hospice because she's still to sick to totally take care of herself.

Kim just started a blog called Coughing Fit, and I think you should check her site out. Kim is a tell-it-like-it-is girl. She's spunky and sassy and stylish and adorable. She's been a Burner, a raver, a punk kid, and a hair stylist, and probably a whole lot of other things that I don't know. She's been talking about starting a blog ever since last winter, when she was considering getting a lung transplant (maybe she'll tell that story on the blog). It's finally up and running, and Kim's written a handful of posts, and holy crap! She's an awesome writer and and awesome blogger.

I hope you'll head over there and check it out, and please leaver her a comment! She still doesn't believe anyone is going to come read her blog, and I'd like to prove her wrong. And trust me, it's worth reading. Is it going to be depressing? Yes, it is, because Kim and all her friends and family are experiencing a tragedy. But it's also going to funny and insightful and edgy, because Kim is an unusual and wonderful girl, and her take on living and dying is going to be...well, knowing Kim, it's going to be all over the place and a hell of a ride.

Check her site out: Coughing Fit: Livin' LOUD with Cystic Fibrosis

You can also see a little more of Kim at tribe.net, or see a few of my other photos of her here (being adorable as usual), here (also being adorable), here (at Burning Man in 2004), here (at an Oracle Gathering with boyfriend Nathan), here (with her dog Tahoe), and here (at SeaCompression in 2004).