"bl_list" via Large Libertina in Google Reader

My Invisible knapsack is really heavy this week

2009-07-17T16:11:41Z

For some reason this week there have been a lot of posts, videos, so on and so forth to remind me of my privilege.

I couldn’t find a fat white cat, so that will have to do.

Pretty much everything that Bint Alshamsa has written this week at Feministe was interesting and powerful but this one in particular made me take stock of how much I take for granted.

This video of a woman GLUING HER EYE to blew my mind. I had no idea this was such a big deal that there were actual products marketed for it. Just, Wow.

And then we have pretty much every piece of coverage from the Sonja Sotomayor coverage piled on top.

Especially this argument between Rachel Maddow and Pat Buchanan. It was the most mind blowing thing ever to hear someone say, in earnest that white working class people are the victims of discrimination compared to other races. She was right when she said he was dating himself.

There was also Obama’s speech at the NAACP, which I haven’t watched yet, and probably a million other things going on this week.

So now I just feel really stupid for complaining about the lunch I had with my CEO early this week when 8 guys kept insisting they were going to wait for me to walk through doors. (I mean, it’s just impractical.)

Lets hope the Beatle’s were right and that it is getting better. I know I will be trying harder to make it so.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2009-07-17T15:29:07Z

Okay, not on a jet plane, but Conall and I will be gone for a few days this weekend and next.

It’s been a while since we’ve been able to take time for ourselves, and there’s been a lot of drama around here lately. So these two mini-vacations are definitely needed and welcomed.

I might post tomorrow’s Saturday fluff, as I am taking the laptop this weekend. It depends on where we end up and if the hotel has internet capabilities. Next weekend, however, there won’t be any posts, as we will be all the way in the middle of the mountains, in a gorgeous campground, pretending to be lords and ladies in the middle ages.

Or pirates. Whichever.

(Although since we regularly play lords and ladies, playing pirates will be way cooler!)

Picture a Day - Day 226

2009-07-17T13:15:00Z

Break out the champagne and firecrackers!

PAINTING IS DONE!Well okay not really done done. There are a few touch ups and where the paint stuck to the tape we'll have to fix as we pull that off.

But otherwise we are done! Just have to clean up the huge messes we made, toss our drop clothes and soak up our new bathrooms. What's that? You want to see our painting jobs? Oh I don't know.

I mean like I said there are still touch ups and you can't really get a feel for the themes until we put up our other decorations and the like.

How about a taste, til I get all the trees up and paint the white piece of furniture brown and finish some other stuff. Then I show it all off. This is our spare bathroom that we are trying to turn into a forest. The color isn't for everyone, but what the hell you only live once right? May as well enjoy it.

(Don't let the pictures fool you either, that bathroom is huge and it took forever to paint thanks to all the corners).

It was kinda funny, the previous owners haven't unhooked their cable yet so once we finished we collapsed on the couch and watched HDTV for an hour or so.

Like watching Lifetime or WE after the wedding, watching the hours of house hunters and first time home buyers shows is a weird sort of reverse schadenfreude. You nod your head in agreement with all the damn hoops they make you jump through, that feeling of "Dear God I'll do whatever the owners want because I am sick of looking," and the gut wrenching fear the lender puts you through.

Though holy hell can I see why the housing bubble burst has destroyed the economy. I want to run through the TV and just slap some of these entitled people who think they deserve this and deserve that but never bother to figure out how much their damn mortgage payment would be or what is expected for a down payment.

Even though we won't be bothering with cable I think I should declare a no HDTV rule for a while, as it just angers up the blood. Did you have to stop watching Bridezillas and Say Yes to the Dress after the wedding as it just caused you to smash your head into a coffee table muttering "Wedding, you're doing it wrong?"

But, the painting is practically done! Small celebration at the local bar. Half of the drinks are on me!

and the result is in…

2009-07-17T07:14:12Z

I got my remarked paper returned in today’s mail. I got a lower grade. Not by much and my semester result still stands at a Credit. I am suspicious of their idea of an ‘independent’ remark though as the person who marked it the second time knew exactly what had transpired with the first essay. Personally, I don’t think that fulfils the criteria of ‘independent’. She ripped my proposal apart from here to Sunday but at least it was done on ‘academic’ terms, aside from one comment - she questioned that the ‘obesity epidemic’ is exaggerated (despite my referencing many many studies and stats that back up my claim). And apparently my methodology reeks of bias. Which it probably does but you can’t tell me that all the DEATHFATZ research isn’t biased. Oh well, I stood up for what I believe in and that’s that.

Ranty rant rant

2009-07-16T13:51:00Z

So, everyone and their brother in the Fatosphere has picked up on that vile article in the New Yorker that says us fatties are encouraging others to gain weight as a subversive act, hate public parks, and loooove the McDonald's. I won't give link love, and I exaggerate (but not by much), and I agree that it's a gross misrepresentation of what we're all about. Others have covered this better than I, for I am not that eloquent, and not nearly as political as some others in the sphere. But I shall echo that no, fatties can be healthy and many of us are, eating right and exercising does not automatically equal thin, and not all fatties (I'd venture to say 99.99% of us) don't eat McDonald's or other fast food for every. single. meal. or. snack.

I'm also going to use this as a jumping-off point to go off on This is Why You're Fat. My initial reaction was "I am fat, because other people eat this food. You've found a new Law O'Science TM!" See, when people with insanely high metabolisms eat food like this, they don't gain weight- which defies the Calories-in/Calories-out equation. But, the calories have got to go somewhere, right? And they do, right onto those "good fatties" (really, I hate the whole "good fatty/bad fatty thing. Food is not a moral issue, unless your religion says so- ie kosher), the vegans, the athletes, even those who are not necessarily fat, but are attempting to lose weight. The science of how people get/stay fat is solved! Fat people become fat because this food exists!

Yeah. Science. Or, you know, bullshit.

-Angie

30 Things to Do with a Naked Man

2009-07-16T19:15:00Z

Thanks to random link clicking I came across this list and just had to share my own interpretations.

30 Things to Do with a Naked Man - Well don't pick up hot pans with one, I learned that the hard way.

1. Sneak Up Behind Him - let out a scream and watch him jump through the ceiling.

2. Get Naked Too - Freak everyone out at the local ice cream shop.

3. Let Him Be an Animal - Stress that he must be a seahorse and gestate your children.

4. Break Out the Blindfold - causing him to smash his family jewels into that coffee table he couldn't see

5. Climb on Top - naked mountain climbing is the latest craze.

6. Take a Sensual Shower - Bathe in nothing but perfume and oil for that I just wandered off a porno set look.

7.Find His G-Spot - And ask it what happened to his E & H spot.

8. Give Him a New Number - Because you disconnected his old one for failing to pay his bills.

9. Find a New Favorite Spot - for him to lay down, because you're sick of him circling the rug ten times.

10. Massage His Backside - with the hand mixer.

11. Turn Him into a Buffet - complete with chafing dish and prime rib carving station.

12. Boss Him Around - Jefferson! Do you have those files for the Pillsbury account done yet? If you aren't finished by the end of the day you're fired!

13. Give Him a Peep Show - I like the pink ones best.

14. Make Him Beg - because you just spilled your coffee in his naked lap.

15. Treat Him to Don't-Lift-a-Finger Sex - look into traction.

16. Talk Dirty to Him - get swearing lessons from the navy.

17. Make Him Long for Your Lips - cover them in masking tape so he can never see them again.

18. Play No-Hands Nooky - break his hands.

19. Taunt Him - bring up his problems with premature ejaculation in front of his friends.

20. Enlighten Him - What is the sound of one hand masturbating?

21. Get Dirty with Him in the Tub - May I suggest 20 lb bags of fertilizer from Bob's Discount feces.

22. Tie Him Up - And rob him blind.

23. Imply That He's a Stud - But make sure he knows he isn't really. Or conversely convince him to climb inside the walls so you can hang a picture.

24. Make Him Hot, Then Cold - Force him to go through menopause

25. Seduce Him - because it's hard to think outside the box.

26. Toy with Him - Build a lego kit on his ass.

27. Rev Him Up for Round 2 - Of drunken Mario Carts.

28. Let Him Climb on Top - of the roof to finally fix the shingles.

29. Play Rough - break his feet as well as his hands.

30. Make It a Quickie - tell him the tortoise was run over by a truck.

Lost: 2 Heffers last seen near Burger King

2009-07-16T16:14:00Z

I really shouldn't be encouraging stereotypes but well sometimes you just find something too hilarious and have to share.

I came across this little ad last night while de-stressing from painting and perusing the newspaper:How exactly one loses not one but 4 heifers is beyond me and then feels like putting it in the newspaper instead of say calling the neighbors up.

I smell a buddy comedy. Four young heifers fresh out of high school rent a car and travel the country experiencing friendship and love while trying to come to terms with a future life of milk production. Special guest appearance by Toro the Bull as the ladies heartthrob.

We could call it The Bovinehood of the Traveling Udders! Someone get Dreamworks on the line!

all sorts and spreading the message

2009-07-16T13:02:42Z

Some of you may have noticed the site has been down a few times lately, particularly in the last 24 hours. I think it is sorted now that the hosting people have sorted the domain issue out. I thought it was sorted late last month but it seems the dude who was meant to have sorted it, hadn’t. So today I dealt with new dude who assures me it is now sorted. I guess we’ll soon find out…

And just to update you regarding the whole uni essay debacle (the one with the assessor who comes from the family that has trouble keeping on weight)… well I got an email from the Unit Chair and she is submitting my paper for an independent remark. She thanked me for my ‘feedback’ (I had emailed her about the situation as we couldn’t seem to catch up via phone) and that was pretty much it. Semester results are sent out tomorrow (I get mine on my cell phone) but I don’t know if the remark will have been done and even if it has, if the new mark will be reflected on tomorrow’s results as the final results had to be submitted by the Unit Chairs last week. Anyway, it will be interesting to see if the grade changes with a new (and hopefully non biased) assessor.

It has been an exciting week in the Aussie realm of the Fatosphere! A new fat positive site has been established and I am really pleased to have The Axis of Fat on the fat feeds. Another fairly recently added Aussie fat blog, Corpulent, is also a great addition to the feeds. Hopefully this will mean the message, or the very existence, of Fat Acceptance will be bought to the attention of wider Australian society.

I think FA is slowly entering mainstream consciousness, what with Marianne and Kate’s book, the new Fat Studies Reader in the UK, new and existing fat blogs and media coverage. There is hope. It isn’t going to happen overnight but (hopefully) it will happen. (Forgive the Pantene shampoo reference there!). And in the next few weeks the FA message will be broadcast to a few million more Aussie women…so stay tuned!

Picture a Day - Day 225

2009-07-16T13:12:00Z

And here we get to the really really super duper boring stuff about moving. Deciding just where the hell all our stuff should go.

Don't worry, we still have one room to finish painting and the downstairs bathroom needs some more TLC so I can't get out of the back breaking labor that easily. But we really needed to -- at least -- claim one room as our own, something to show that yes we will be living here and not just sacrificing our time (and probably a few years at the end of our lives) for this thing:Meet our living room complete with new tv stand (courtesy of Target) our new tv (hopefully now we can finally see our teeny tiny characters running around trying to kill giant squid and riding lizards and spiders), our new couch and some fancy new curtains.
Pretty much the only reason we could already have a living room to flop down into in a painting stupor is because everything is new and was sitting in boxes ready to be set up. Instead of taking up space in the apartment.

I did also finally put my painting up over the fireplace. Though the mantle still needs a little work and the whole place in general needs a little readjusting of things.
We still want a few more pieces, like a coffee table, and some more sitting space. Also when I finish the one wedding dress order (I'm gonna attempt a back view this time cause I'm insane) and the angel forest then I think I need a big tree in front of some more blue painting to go behind the TV.

Please remember I am the furthest thing from an interior decorator as they come (I think that makes me a tubeworm with a case of indigestion) so we're just kinda throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks.

What do you think? Especially any paid professionals who may be reading *cough*Rachel*cough*

And now I am off to sit quietly at my desk and hope I don't have to move for 8 hours. Ah! Could one of you pick me up . . . eh I'll just sleep here tonight.

Which flow chart do you want?

2009-07-16T12:33:00Z

Lumo (physicist Luboš Motl from Pilsen Czech Republic) welcomes America to the EU today with an animated flow chart of the healthcare system in the United States. It was created as a simplified visual of the healthcare reforms being proposed, perhaps as a last effort to get American’s to think about the reality of the bureaucratic monster that’s been created. Each agency created to oversee some

Fat Acceptance: Fab or Fad?

2009-07-16T11:33:24Z

Depending on whether you read The New Yorker, or the New York Times, you would come to a different conclusion.

I read the NY Times Health page online just about every day, and I read The New Yorker (my sister’s subscription, mostly) with some regularity.

One of my pet peeves is how it’s seen as “cool” to distance oneself from fatness, in oneself or others, in liberal-intellectual-”hip” circles. I know that it’s certainly not the only instance of snobbery or bigotry in these circles, but it’s one that makes me feel on the outside of a groups that otherwise I might feels some affinity with (and hopefully, challenge the bigotry I might encounter). Readers of The New Yorker are maybe slightly less fat than the overall population, but certainly many readers are fat. While for the most part, there’s not much overt fatphobia in The New Yorker (fatness seems to be mostly ignored), and I would expect that there is more fat panic in the Times, but two articles have made me think that the tide at the Times is turning, while The New Yorker is stuck in a fatphobic past.

In a “Fitness and Health” feature called “Skin Deep,” writer Mandy Katz penned an article, “Throwing out the Diet and Embracing the Fat” with my favorite photo of the year so far. I think I actually want to purchase this photo and frame it. [edited to add, there is a sidebar I didn't notice at first on Intuitive Eating - yay! - with a lovely photo of Kate Harding in it. And, frustratingly, comments are enabled on the article - argh!] While the article has one hateful (and oh so erroneous) quote in it from Walter Willett, it doesn’t come until the 10th paragraph into an 18 paragraph article. The article ends with a quote from clinical psychologist and HAES hero Deb Burgard, instead of the usual “but, but, but, but don’t actually BE fat.” Overwhelmingly, the article presents the HAES case extremely well. This isn’t the first article of the sort that the Times has published. And, Gina Kolata, of course, writes for the Times. I think that the message is finally getting through that you can’t continue to insult the public that reads your paper, and that this movement can’t be ignored.

But, The New Yorker chose a different path. Rather than ignoring, they chose to ridicule those of us who support fat acceptance with the multi-book review, XXXL. The subtitle, “Why are we so fat?” makes me ask, what do you mean “we?” as the photo of the author, Elizabeth Kolbert, shows a slender woman. Of course don’t know her past, or her struggles, and there are thin allies out there, but she is not currently fat, and doesn’t provide any sense of her subjectivity in the review. A better subtitle might have been, “Why is everyone else so fat?” There’s a link under the offensive image that says “Submit a question for Elizabeth Kolbert about obesity in America” – to which I wonder — what does she REALLY know about obesity? (If I were going to ask a slender science journalist anything about obesity in American, I would much rather submit a question to Gina Kolata.) If she were informed about the authors and experts quoted in the NY Times article, she, and the editors, would realized how biased and outdated her perspective is. Here’s the most offensive example, and really highlights the anti-fat bias I’ve observed among people who consider themselves intellectuals:

But, just because size bias exists it doesn’t follow that putting on weight is a subversive act. In contrast to the field’s claims about itself, fat studies ends up taking some remarkably conservative positions. It effectively allies itself with McDonald’s and the rest of the processed-food industry, while opposing the sorts of groups that advocate better school-lunch programs and more public parks. To claim that some people are just meant to be fat is not quite the same as arguing that some people are just meant to be poor, but it comes uncomfortably close.

Other bloggers have deconstructed this better than I can, and the idea that some people are just meant to be fat is very, very far from the idea that some people are just meant to be poor. I don’t believe that people choose to be fat, in most cases, any more than people choose to be poor, in most cases. This sentence reads as someone “otherizing” and conflating fatness and poverty. A person can choose to make peace with their particular combination of genetic inheritance and environmental exposure to fatness and live a full and complete life, and there is no cure for being fat. Kolbert believes that people are not meant to be poor or fat, but both fat people and poor people (and fat and poor people) exist, and the “cures” on an individual level for both are not well established, hard work and simply “choosing not to be” do not solve the “problem” and the U.S. certainly hasn’t eradicated poverty (although I personally believe there is much more that we, as a society, can do). I wish Kolbert, or her editors, had thought about this more deeply before publishing this piece in this format, or choosing to include the book “The Fat Studies Reader” in a review of books about fatness that had a lot more in common.

Fillyjonk at Shapely Prose and withoutscene at Big Fat Blog both wrote about Kolbert’s piece in greater depth than I have here.

I have been aware of and in and out of the Fat Acceptance movement since I discovered it while a student at UC Santa Cruz in the late 80s. I don’t believe that this is a fad, nor, as Kolbert writes, that “It effectively allies itself with McDonald’s and the rest of the processed-food industry, while opposing the sorts of groups that advocate better school-lunch programs and more public parks.” To the contrary, I know that most fat acceptance advocates would love more public parks and better school-lunch programs. She is setting up a false dichotomy, with “health advocates” on one side, and “fat advocates” on the other, while in reality, there are many advocates in fat acceptance and HAES movements who are just as opposed to the processed-food industry as their fatphobic adversaries. What the fat acceptance and HAES advocates realize is that it’s not only fat people consuming these foods, nor is fatness the only or worst outcome of the proliferation of processed foods. They distinguish between the industries and the individual consumers, while Kolbert does not. She writes “...just because size bias exists it doesn’t follow that putting on weight is a subversive act.” Her misunderstanding here is that fat acceptance advocates are not encouraging weight gain as a subversive act — the subversive act is simply being visible and advocating for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in a larger-than-expected body. The tone I get from Kolbert’s article is that it’s primal, animalistic to be fat, and those people who fail in their ability to be thin are not welcome in The New Yorker club.

Near the end of the article, Kolbert writes: “But, as anyone who has ever gone on a diet knows, weight that was easy to gain is hard to lose.” Had she, or her editors, been more thorough, that would have read “weight that was easy to gain is lost in the long run by no more than 5% of the population.” She glosses over decades of research that is rarely refuted (mostly it’s just ignored) that long term weight loss is nearly impossible to maintain for most people.

With Mandy Katz’s piece, you get these sense that The New York Times editors and writers have been reading their own journalists and articles and piecing together the big picture. Maybe Kolbert and The New Yorker editors might consider reading The New York Times’ coverage of fat acceptance (and fatness overall) to, you know, get a clue.

“Generation XXL”

2009-07-16T04:33:43Z

The advertisement pictured in this Consumerist post* made me sad. (For those who can’t see it, it’s a little kid with their hands on their hips standing under the text “I will not be part of Generation XXL.”) Our society has enough things pressuring our children into disordered eating; the last thing we need is more anti-fat advertisements geared towards children.

The whole issue of calorie counts on menus, and of “healthy” always being code for “low-calorie,” are subjects for posts of their own, neither of which I am awake enough to write at the moment. But I do have a good internet connection at my apartment now, instead of just whatever weak, unsecured wireless network I could pick up, so that’s something.

* Sanity watchers on the comments. I mean, that goes for most Consumerist posts, but doubly as soon as anyone so much as thinks the word “fat.”

Beth Ditto Rocks My Closet

2009-07-15T02:05:00Z

I didn't even bother trying on Forever 21's plus line - Faith 21. Yuck. Looks like Kate Harding from Jezebel agreed with me. We usually agree on things. Until now. Kate said of Beth Ditto's new line: "I'm afraid there's not enough hipster irony in the world to make it work." First of all, nice top, Kate (she drips with sarcasm). I love you, but unless your name is Donatella, I think I'll pass on fashion advice from a Baby Boomer. (Here's a picture of Kate on the cover of Red Eye being featured as the grand dame of fat bloggers.) So anyway, my friend Rebequita Facebooked me today. She lives in London so she gets to check outBeth Ditto's "range" at Evans (must be a british thing to call a clothing line a 'range'). Evans is the British version of Layne Bryant (totally bereft of trend) so Beth's "range" is a crazy breath of Venice Beach air among the stale solid t-shirts and gag-me flowy dresses. I wish I could fly to London to paw the line in person. God Bless you, Beth. Thank you for always shaking shit up. I don't know how you pulled it off, but at first glance I'd buy every single piece of your line. And go broke doing it. My only issue (and it's a small one) is with this model who is so very NOT plus size it's ridiculous. Beth wears the pieces better than she does. I love how Beth has no fear wearing the tightest dresses. Let's all adopt her brand of fearlessness. Oh, and Kate, the oversized kitty cat T-shirt is hilarious I'm buying it just to lovingly defy you. love nati

RiffTrax Live!

2009-07-15T18:31:00Z

What is it about these three guys? Every time my life is just being a giant pain in the ass they do something that makes me jump around in my office excited forgetting about the groom's cake that's two seconds from collapsing in on itself or the in-law wedding from hell.

Just who are these guys? Why it's Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbet of MST3K and Riff Trax fame.

And what has me all a twitter? Fairly exciting as I learned from the Honeymoon and getting to catch Cinematic Titanic there is nothing to compare with a theatre full of MSTies. Then I clicked on the link and on a whim put in our zip code.

And proceeded to fall out of my chair. Holy hell! In the land of corn & cows, the state that can't bother with anything outside of big Hollywood, a local movie theatre is actually going to host Rifftrax Live?

Calling it our "holy shit we have to move and no one is helping us" treat I booked two tickets as soon as I peeled myself off the ceiling.

I think there are a few geeks reading but if there are any big old fans of Mike and the 'bots just go here to see if Rifftrax live will be in your town. Apparently there's a goody bag as well, but I just can't wait to see them up on the big screen once again.

What a wonderful hump day present. Even though they'll never see this thanks again guys. I'll make you your own wedding dress painting for free as a thank you. I think Kevin would look best in something strapless and lacy.

Tai Chi, Day Three

2009-07-15T17:41:20Z

I’ve started taking a Tai Chi class, offered at a local Karate Dojo in town. This Dojo offers two group classes and one individual class per week as part of it’s package.

I wasn’t so sure I was going to like it, when my friend (who’s going for the Kenpo lessons) invited me to go. I’ve tried Tai Chi videos in the past (in the 1990’s when there still was videos), and just didn’t like how slow it was. I have been looking for a way to introduce a bit more formal exercise in my life again, so thought I’d try it.

I love it.

Maybe because there’s other people, it doesn’t seem as slow as I remember it from way back in the 90’s. Or maybe, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve slowed down a bit, so it seems about the correct tempo. I don’t know.

What I know is that this is something that’s both fun and challenging for me. My muscles let me know I’ve been working out after the hour long group sessions. You wouldn’t think standing in “horse stance” for forty five minutes would be so hard. Errr, yeah. Just shows how out of shape I have allowed myself to become.

The other thing I noticed is that this exercise is having another, unforeseen benefit: it’s grounding me more into my body.

With having to remember so many things at once — standing in horse stance, walking in half moon, then the arm movements, oh, and don’t forget the deep breathing — I’m having to be very aware of my body. It’s a new and unusual experience for me.

I’ve spent a good part of my life trying not to feel my body. I dissociated a lot, for many different reasons. This is part of the reason I still don’t know when I’m hungry (or conversely, when I’m full). I just am not that in tune with my own body.

Yesterday, during the private lesson, the instructor and I were working on my deep breathing, opening up the diaphragm. The progression of sensations astonished me. First, I never realized how shallow I normally breath. Then, as I was breathing into the diaphragm, the muscles around it became sore. I was able to use that as a metric for a little bit on if I was breathing deeply or not. Until I just dissociated from my body again.

This is both frustrating and thrilling at the same time. I had a part of the lesson where I could use my body to tell me if I was doing something correctly or not. I had a part of the lesson I was able to actually feel the feedback my body was giving me. This is definitely progress for me.

Being able to inhabit my body more fully and dissociate less is a good thing. Even if I wasn’t getting any other benefits from Tai Chi, this would make it worth it. Of course, the benefits from the exersizes, such as increased strength and balence, are nice too.

Open Threadiness 07.15.09

2009-07-15T13:33:17Z

Ramble away!! Or… ya know… be coherent IF YOU MUST.

–AngryGrayRainbows

Picture a Day - Day 224

2009-07-15T13:11:00Z

Yesterday in honor of my birthday (and because I'm pretty sure my muscles are trying to eat themselves ala the Donner Party) we skipped over the painting of our last bathroom and instead focused on setting up our living room.

And this is where there'd be some lovely pictures of our living room, except I stupidly left my camera back at the apartment. So here's pictures of a couple of roses:
These are actually surprise roses, and not just because of the big spider who wanted to get in on the picture.

I call them surprise roses because we had no idea we had any roses until a few days into moving. The two of them sat in the front lawn not making much fuss til Sunday when I noticed some really vibrant petals poking through the buds. They also have a really strong scent so I'd love to be able to keep them around but I don't know how well that will work out.

I promise I'll take my camera today and show off the new living room tomorrow. In the meantime I need some suggestions for a birthday present idea for my best friend. She's the mother of these to crazy boys:I keep offering her a screwdriver or a 2X4 as my husband and I seem to have called Home Depot our third home but she says no dice.

Anyone got any good ideas? I hear they have a lovely selection of toilet seats.

Twitter & My Plans for World Domination (Including Sham-Wow)

2009-07-15T02:12:00Z

DAHLINGS -

I confess. I have become rather a fan of Twitter, if not of most of its users. Do I really need to know someone feels bad because they broke their diet because they ate some gnocchi? At first, the 140 character length left something to be desired. Such as intelligence. But soon I learned that brevity is levity when one works on it. And now, through sheer grit and determination, I have as of today 306 followers!

My initial goal was 300 followers, but I want at least 1,000, so that I may plot my plan for world domination. Or at least the domination of a part of the world. Here are some of my promises if I become a World Leader:

1) World peace, because you have to say that first.

2) Recast all of the situation comedies on television that have fat men married to beautiful women, so that fat women are married to handsome young studs. Because, my dear readers, that is how it is in real life far more than you think.

3) Force-feed Megan Fox pastries as if we were stuffing a goose for foie gras. In fact, stuff Ms. Fox with foie gras as well.

4) Ban all diets except those medically mandated. Destroy any and all height/weight charts. Ban all stock footage of heavy people's midsections used for news footage about obesity.

5) Ban Photoshop on advertising. In fact, perhaps we should ban advertising. (Comments are welcome on this one, dahlings. After all, I would be a most open World Leader.)

6) Legalize same-sex marriage. But I do not care how devoted it is, you cannot marry your dog, cow or parakeet.

7) Ban informercials for colon cleansing, exercise machines, and...oh, let's simply ban all infomercials. (Comments are welcome if you have a "thing" for the Sham-wow gentleman.)

8) This is going to get a bit complicated, so bear with me:

Bring women's salaries to the same level as men's
Allow women of any country to wear what they want
Allow women of any country to attain any level of education they want
Allow women of any country to aspire to any political position they want

9) Any suggestions? Please do leave your comments.

If you agree with my plans, please do follow me on Twitter. Together we stand, divided it's just the same old mess it's always been.

Ciao,

Elisa & Bucky the Wonderdog

Dancing with my selves

2009-07-15T02:48:09Z

I went to 5 Rhythms Dance Sunday morning, a session called “Sweat Your Prayers” — which is about an hour and a half long, and includes more inspirational and introspective music, and generally is pretty crowded.

As I began to dance, I found myself in an interesting internal conversation. On one hand, I found myself feeling a bit more buoyant than usual, but on the other, a bit sad, as well.

As I blogged about on my WRT2 blog, I have been exploring growing a bit smaller to deal with some medical issues that have come up. I still believe that weight loss as a goal is unhelpful and in most cases, unsustainable, but I’m approaching my medical challenges with an open mind and trying to apply all that I’ve come to understand about HAES, intuitive eating, good self-care, mindfulness and CBT to this endeavor. I have been both larger and smaller than I am now, and I know that I have been beautiful, brave and bold at that larger size. If anything, I tend to feel less secure as I grow smaller.

As I was dancing, I was noticing that tentativeness about being slightly smaller, and realized I didn’t want to feel like I was rejecting or renouncing some larger version of my self. I wanted to honor that on this same dance floor, in a slightly larger body, I had danced my pants off. So, even though I was aware that when dancing, I felt a little more lift, this wasn’t to say there was anything wrong with how I danced before. And the idea popped into my head of imagining me dancing with that larger self. As I came across this thought, I smiled. I wasn’t recoiling from that slightly larger me, glad to be rid of her. Instead, I was inviting her to dance along with me. At first, to be my partner. And this felt delightful. Of course, I would want to dance with that girl, she’s adorable and bouncy and open and warm and fun! I realized that I might dance a bit differently with her than I would just on my own, that is, I might be a bit more grounded. And I wondered, would the slightly heavier me be envious of the slightly less heavy me, if I could currently jump a bit higher and twirl a bit faster? I assumed the heavier me would be, but maybe not. Maybe her attitude would be, “go for it! Have fun! Do it!” I tried doing “the bump” with that larger me, soft hip hitting slightly less soft hip, and that was fun. And I also found myself inviting the larger me to dance next to me, so we could dance with others.

And then it hit me — the other people in the room may either be having or have already had some version of this experience of dancing with some part of themselves that they don’t currently occupy. Whether dancing with a younger self, a more or less vital self, a sadder self or a happier self, I was able to imagine that the room was filled with invisible dance partners, all invited to join in the dance. I felt much less alone (and weird) once I realized this.

As the class went on, I observed some other things. While I was able to leap higher and twirl around a bit more easily, I got tired faster, and noticed I needed to take more breaks. I didn’t have my usual level of endurance. I am not used to going to a morning class, and I didn’t have enough to eat beforehand (I don’t like to have a full stomach before I exercise, and I didn’t have time to eat early enough in the day). So, the slightly larger me, who was eating as much as she needed throughout the day and then going to class at night, had more stamina than the slightly smaller me who was mindfully consuming a bit less food. In the end, I was envious of the endurance of the slightly larger me.

This is all useful information. It occurred to me that in order to enjoy dancing at the pace and intensity I like to, I need to eat more beforehand. And conversation between the slightly larger and slightly smaller versions of me is entirely possible. This isn’t “before” and “after” — this is about allowing all of my selves to join me in the present.

Etsy Find of the Week - Loveable Treasures

2009-07-14T18:50:00Z

Sometimes you just don't care about being practical or economical.

Sometimes you just want to look at really cute and funny things and savor life for a few minutes.

In comes Loveable Treasures and her Roly Poly's:
How cute is that little piggie with his black ear? Not so big into farm life? What about a koala.Or an adorable little monkey in his own forest.
Each of these come with their own habitats and are completely movable so you can play with them and place them however you want.

Like say have your skunk standing in the river.
Or the robin out of her nest pulling up some worms.But my favorite by far is the little mole. Because even moles deserve a little love in figurine form.
If you want any cute Roly Poly animal figurines go check out Loveable Treasures.