Thankful Thursday

Posted on October 6, 2011 by admin

Our hot water heater broke at the beginning of the week, and it has been a few days since I have had a satisfy hot shower where I step out feeling squeaky clean. Time and money are two things that my household doesn’t seem to have much of nowadays. Since we need both to put in a new hot water heater, to say I was initially stressed is a bit of an understatement. There may have been a point where I panicked, “what are we going to do without hot water?! How can I get a shower, wash the dishes, wash the towels, wash the sheets without water hot enough to quell my OCD and ensure the demise of all bacteria like creepy crawlies I imagine on my things?

After about a day, okay maybe two, I came back down to earth and realized not having hot water was not the end of the world. I started to think about the people who didn’t have any source of clean water in their homes, let alone hot, and figured I should be thankful for what I do have. As Comedian Louis C. K. would say, I was experiencing “white people
problems.”

On this Thankful Thursday I am thankful for:

Having access to clean water whenever I want it.
Having a home to be able to take a shower in.
And a patient, intelligent husband who is going to figure out how to fix the hot water heater this weekend.

What are you thankful for?

Here is a Louis C.K. video to watch for inspiration.

Louis C. K. Everything\’s Amazing

I look at your cart, and then I judge you

Posted on October 4, 2011 by admin

Dear cashier at the grocery store,

I understand I am a misplaced northerner in the south and will be forced to make southernly small talk at checkout, but please don’t ask me about every item in my cart.

I know you are just trying to be friendly, but I already feel judged for having frozen meals and premium store brand ice cream rolling down the conveyer belt. Please don’t make me explain how it tastes and when I plan on eating it. You are making me feel like I have to justify my purchase. Yes, I eat ice cream, but I am not shopping like an 8-year-old left home alone on the weekend. So just bag up my food and let me be on my way.

Sincerely,

Chris Christie too fat to run… for President

Posted on October 3, 2011 by admin

Prejudice of the obese stands in full, blazing force during the recent attacks on New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s weight.

I truly did not want to bring politics into my blog, especially in the second post, but the onslaught of media coverage over Christie’s weight is too ludicrous to ignore.

How does a person’s body size qualify or disqualify them to run for president? When I take my place in front of the voting booth, it never occurs to me to vote for a person based on their appearance. Instead I focus on their political policies and experience. Crazy, right?

I agree with Peggy Howell, the public relations director of the National Associate to Advance Fat Acceptance, who said the discussion around Christie is a “ridiculous effort to stigmatize the obese and distract from the governor’s actual politics.”

And if it truly is a matter of health, as many will argue, then someone should tell Obama to lay off the cigarettes and burgers before the next election. You’ll never see that article though. Obama eats a cheeseburger and the media reports, “wow, he’s so American. The president is such an average Joe.” A fat person eats a cheeseburger and suddenly they’re gluttonous and weak-minded. What hypocrisy!

And so it begins…

Posted on October 1, 2011 by admin

This blog has been in the making for about 17 years, or about the time I became fully conscious of the fact that I was always going to be treated differently because of my weight. In 5^th grade I knew my then crush, Josh H., the boy whose desk sat beside mine, would never see me like he saw the rest of the girls. After all I was the fat girl, one of about two in the entire 5^th grade. Not only that, I was tall- basketball player tall, but completely lacking in any and all athletic skills. Josh would become an outline for the type of boys I liked for the majority of my grade school years. He was funny and a little bad, missing a recess here and there for his smart aleck comments. With his pig nose and slitty dark eyes, he was in no way the cutest boy in school. No Jonathan Taylor Thomas (for 1994’s sake). He was cute enough to like, but not so cute he wasn’t attainable.

http://fatfeministina.wordpress.com/page/6/

This blog is for that awkward eleven-year-old girl. She is still with me, a constant in the back of my brain. There are times when I still feel out of place and unaccepted by society. She and I deserve more. As Stuart Smalley would stay, “I’m good enough. I’m smart enough. And doggone it, people like me.”

This is the beginning of the journey for me. So to say exactly what I want this blog to be and how I want it to develop, evolve is still part of the unknown. For now I want this corner of the web to be a resting place from the everyday onslaught of inconsideration.

In the meantime, I’ll raise a Squeeze-It in your honor awkward eleven-year-old girl. Josh H., you can suck it!