Not too bad: 8:30 AM on my day off and I've already got a chocolate torte baking
in the over, and matzo balls boiling. And I've already rowed 10 K and showered. I
also made chicken soup, but that was last night so it doesn't count. Yes, I am
being disgustingly energetic. I'm also taking this half-assed Seder way too
seriously, as I can tell because I dreamed a conversation last night in which
Rudder and I discussed the problem of baking the torte when the brisket's in the
oven. (Solution: do the torte first, see above.) We'd already had pretty much the
same conversation last week, which classifies the dream as not only a waste of
perfectly good REM time when I could have dreamt of making love to Mr. Darcy, but
redundant as well.
Having the day off not only lets me cook like
Martha Stewart's maniac evil twin (redundancy again) but also update here from
home, which means I don't have to watch what I say. I interpret the company's
Internet policy to mean it's ok to update my diary on my own time (i.e. lunch)
but I do worry about their scanning what comes in and goes out so I tend to avoid
the use of foul language and other topics they might have flagged, just in case
Big Brother is watching (and I wait to read
href="http://badsnake.diaryland.com">Badsnake at home).
Which is
a long-winded way of explaining why I'm about to offend half the people who read
this.
Why in God's name do Christians always feel like they have to
advertise? Can't they just have their beliefs and worship as they please without
broadcasting? Even when they were a hidden, persecuted sect, they scratched
symbols on the walls of catacombs; now they're in the majority, there's everything
from the lighted cross on top of the mountain overlooking my lake to the fishies
on cars and business ads. I wouldn't mind the cross, which I presume is there for
Easter, except that it's one more damned bit of light pollution. If the fish on
cars are supposed to advertise that the humans within are highly moral, I must say
their driving doesn't tend to bear that out. In fact, so much the opposite is true
that I tend to avoid businesses who put fish on their ads in case they're run by
the same nasty people. It also seems highly unlikely that the sight of a simple
fish pictoglyph is going to cause anyone to suddenly convert. As best I can tell,
the whole thing reduces to an exercise in labeling to reinforce the "us-ness" of a
group, and by extension to cast everyone else as "them". Pfui.
Now,
on to offend a completely different group. If, as I keep reading in various
diaries, it's finally becoming possible for fat chicks to buy flattering, well-
fitting, and appropriate clothing, when do the rest of us get our turn? As an
athlete (more or less), I do not have the same shape I used to; I'm still more or
less straight up and down, but my arms are bigger, my thighs are bigger, and my
pecs stand out more. I can't wear clothes that are designed for eighteen-year-olds
who are apparently formed of strings and rubber bands, but I can't wear clothes
designed for curvy female figures either. I'm sick of arm holes that cut into my
underarms (especially in exercise clothing, whose makers ought to know better).
I'm even more sick and tired of stores that don't carry petite sizes; for once, I
would like a pair of low rise jeans that are really low in the rise. It's annoying
to know that if I were taller, I could try on J. Crew clothing to find what was
flattering, but as a short person, I have to order from the catalog. And J. Crew
is far ahead of most retailers, who don't have a petite line at all, mail order or
not. Gap has the strange solution of selling jeans in three lengths, where only
the leg lengths change but not everything else. This makes if possible for me to
find jeans that are the right length but that still have odd buckling and bulging
because the band at my waist is only supposed to come up to my hips.
Incidentally, as someone who worries about what I eat, I agree
entirely with everything Caerula said
about how much harder it is to find healthy food. I do get a yen for grease
occasionally and wouldn't want it to be impossible to get a burger and fries at
the drive-though, but I wish I had the choice of healthy food that was as easy to
get. I also wish I had the choice of smaller portion sizes; it's irritating to
have to pay for twice as much food as I can eat. Burger King deserves some praise
here, since as far back as I remember, they've been the only one to offer a burger
with actual toppings in a small size. Wendy's deserves even more praise, since
they do offer the option of semi-healthy foods like veggie pitas and baked
potatoes. (I suppose all the toppings are loaded with fat,
though.)
Done ranting. I don't ask for a lot. I just want a world
designed around me, instead of larger, skinnier, or greasier-intestined people. Is
that too much?