Tag: size

How My Kitchen Captured Me

First of all, in case anyone doesn’t know this, objects can’t capture you.  Objects can captivate your interest, but they can’t capture you outside of nightmares and horror films.

Second of all, don’t you dare try to caress my taste buds with your food!

Third of all, women saying “That baby is so cute it makes my uterus hurt” and the whole “I’ll be found alone in my apartment eaten by wild dogs (or cats)” that was originally thought up by Helen Fielding is tired and cliched now.  Give it up ladies and come up with new ways of saying babies are cute and that you, as a single woman, will end up alone and dead.  Cudgel your brains and I’m sure you can come up with something original.

My back went out on Saturday afternoon.  I spent all of Sunday and much of Monday in bed, icing, and hopping up on Ibuprofin.  The most boring pill in the world, though effective enough, I suppose.  I should be working in bed right now but I can’t stand it.

Wow!  That was a freaky time capsule- it’s actually been a whole week since I started writing this post.  I don’t know what happened except for all the house guests from California, more kids that I can possibly handle in any given year all in one day, distracting gifts of lemons from my California friend’s tree (SO EXCITING- thank you Sharon!), not being on vacation while all this was going on (worked right through it all), and nursing that bad back…

Wait- how did that happen?!  It’s tomorrow again.  I gave my presentation at the library and it went very well.  I really enjoyed myself.  There was one man there who had a couple of good questions and I am dissatisfied with how I answered them because they were questions about the global economy versus the local economy and that is too huge a discussion to dive into during a local eating challenge meeting- but it did show me that I want to talk more about these issues on Stitch, or even here, in the future.  Worthy complex questions with multi-layered answers.  Math will be involved.  I can’t begin to tackle it all now.  That man rushed off before I could come and tell him I appreciated his questions and comments.

Bottom line for me is very simple.  I love it when things are simple for me.  The bottom line is:

Our entire global economy is made possible by fossil fuel and, to a lesser degree, nuclear power.  Fossil fuel is not a renewable resource and nuclear power is dangerous and an unacceptably polluting source of energy.  We can’t sustain a global economy forever.  For things to change, lots of businesses will have to change or collapse.  Probably a lot of both.  There’s no way to back down from the economy we’ve created without people being hurt.  I have no feelings for big business.  I don’t see a place in the future for giant corporations or corporate agriculture that depends on Russia buying from us or China.

Bottom line: we better be able to produce everything we need for survival right where we are and in our own community.  We should be preparing now for a changing future.

On the other hand, if large masses of us die off because we can’t make changes, that’s good too.  There’s way too many people on this planet.

Love that topic.  Guess that’s why I wrote a speculative fiction novel on the subject.

Speaking of… a New York literary agent requested my full manuscript and has it.  I can now expect to wait 1-4 months to hear back about it.  So when I return from my vacation I will compile a small list of other agents to query and send those out.  If any of you know of an agent who handles sci-fi OBVIOUSLY LET ME KNOW.  Unless you’re my nemesis and don’t want to share sources that could mean my future success.

So now I’m going to sew.  I think I’m going to post this now before it gets any older and maybe post again later today- something fresh.  Or tomorrow.

One last thing- I felt very appreciated for my presentation and the people I met (some of them people I just haven’t seen in a long time) were so warm and it made me realize that people like me, even though I’m quite fat.  I can’t get it out of my head that I’m somehow a bit of a horror because of my girth but it was good for me to feel appreciated and liked and know that my size has nothing to do with my likability.  That was positive reinforcement in action.  Just have to pound it into my head.

The Height of Things

There isn’t a holiday in existence for which I can’t find some cranky-ass detail to dislike about it.  Mother’s day is no exception.  My lack of sentimentality is well established.  If I was an important person it would be legendary, but as I’m not, it’s merely irritating.  I’m feeling charged with the magnanimous air of spring and have decided not to tell any of you my thoughts on this up coming holiday which I don’t dislike but about which I have some predictable complaints.  I am tucking them in a tender hand-tatted handkerchief where you will not trip over them.  Unless you are on facebook, where I already let the acid drip a little.  That can’t be helped.  I’m tucking it all away now.

I have recently become height obsessed.  I suppose I always have been, what with my old teenage wish to be 6’3″ tall, but it’s become very focused now on famous people.  I just can’t get over how a man like Jon Stewart can appear so tall to me and yet only be 5’6″.  My perception of people’s height seems to be always a little skewed.  I feel like a tall person but I’m only 5’7″ (and shrinking), my brother thinks he’s taller than me but when we had Philip decide the issue it turns out we’re the exact same height.  I am fascinated how some people who are very tall appear average until standing right next to a much shorter person.  This slight obsession is finding its feet in my television watching.  I now look up actors’ heights constantly.  IMBD nearly always lists their height if a height is known.

I imagined that Mathew Macfadyen was tall but it wasn’t until I saw him in Little Dorrit next to Claire Foy that I had to wonder if he was crazy tall or if she was crazy short.  I couldn’t find anything on Foy but Macfadyen is 6’3″ so even if Foy was average she’d appear quite short, still, the scene near the end where he picks her up and kisses her?  She looks like a mere child (slightly disturbing) so I think she must be quite short.  Why does it matter?

It doesn’t matter one tiny little bit.  But aren’t you happy not to come here and have your brain taxed for once or your conscience prodded or your reason questioned?  The question of height has zero importance.  All heights of people are interesting and I don’t see any heights as bad.  That’s very boring of me.  So it isn’t a question of ideal heights or heights I prefer but is simply my fascination how tall people can appear average or short and short people appear average or tall all depending on their surroundings, the people they’re standing next to, and what perspective your eye is allowed to see them in.

I am also fascinated with the idea that Americans are generally super tall people and English people are more average yet many of the English actors I most enjoy are quite tall.  Rupert Penry-Jones is 6’2″, Richard Armitage is 6’2″, Lawrence Fox is 6’3″ and there is one I’m forgetting right now who is 6’4″.  That’s a lot of tall people.  But if you suddenly see a person who is 6’5″ all those men seem sort of average.  But then there’s Jon Stewart who calls himself a small man, which I thought was just his little joke for a long time, or until he stood up next to Liam Neeson (6’4″), and then I had to find out if Stewart really is short or what.  He is.  Reports vary between 5’6″ and 5’7″.  I think he has a tall personality.  Then there’s Tim Roth, who I love, and he’s only 5’7″ too.  My height.

What does it mean?  What are my conclusions?  Nothing and none.  Except that I can’t stop looking people’s heights up.  I’ve mostly been mentioning men here and I suppose I am more fascinated with men’s respective heights than women’s because in general* there is less wide variation in women’s heights.  There are very very tall women, of course, but it’s more unusual.  But lest you think I’m sexist, I actually have looked up quite a few women actor’s heights as well.  I love Hermione Norris so I looked her height up, she’s 5’7″, pretty average, but I actually thought she looked much taller.  Heels will do that, of course.  Keely Hawes (who is married to Mathew Macfadyen) is fairly tall at 5’10” but appears much shorter to me than another of the costars on MI-5, Miranda Raison, who is actually 4″ shorter than Keely at 5’6″.

And lastly, Nadia, my mom’s dog (pictured above), is quite tall and makes my medium sized dog look very small in comparison.

This also is meaningless but curious.

*Generalities being what they are.