too darn short

had a good weekend considering both t and i are sick and fighting a nasty cold that appears to have taken over most of calgary. friday night was spent reminiscing with my high school friends about well....high school. to my dismay t had a nice long look through old year books as i cringed in horror at old pictures of gap teeth, gawky legs and amazingly bad glasses. sigh...but i could not help but laugh...as i looked at every one of my old friends doing exactly the same thing. the years of 12 to 16 are not always nice but at least it was like that for most. and thank heavens we grow out of it well...mostly. i still feel like that awkward kid alot but i suppose that is what keeps us humble.
saturday was spent distracting a friend while her husband prepared a surprise 30th birthday bbq party for her. it was pretty fun and apparently i am quite the actress as she had no idea. i started playing around with my new camera at the party and took tonnes of pictures with it, now i just have to figure out how to upload them to the computer.
we wandered around lilac fest on sunday but it was insanely busy and crowds like that put me into a bad mood as i feel like people are rude and pushy. then i get rude and pushy...vicious cycle. we headed home and took a detour at the drug store for nyquil in hopes of killing the cold. did not work but we both slept well. then we capped off the evening with a hot dog and a b rate horror film that a friend of mine made. it was pretty cool to see someone doing what they love and to see all the friends who came out to support it.
so that was my weekend, they are never long enough that is for sure...

but a fond memory

Things have been quieter which is welcome as I am person who recharges by spending quality time alone. also I have missed my knitting and I am back on making a pair of slippers for a friend. They are surprisingly easy which is nice or maybe my knitting skills are just getting better.

The other night I met up with some people from high school....some of them I have not seen since the last day of grade 12. It was pretty crazy but really nice at the same time. Everyone has turned out great and it is nice to meet them all as adults and laugh about the immature days of high school. It was the crazy phenomenon known as facebook that brought us all back together. I am glad of it as next year is our 10 year reunion but I do not expect to be here for it so this is a great way to find out what people are up to these days. Kind of surreal but also quite cool to see where everyone is and how they are.
So to my old pals it is truly nice to see you all!

FYI

To the guy I saw the other night wearing leggings...well really what can I say except what were you thinking? I know you had all your MEC gear on and that you looked very fit (because I could see everything) but seriously aren’t there any other pants that you could wear? Like a nice pair of longer shorts that are not skintight. FYI I think the legging trend is for girls.

to me

so it is one of those days where it is beautiful outside (26 degrees for goodness sake) and i am stuck inside. sigh. i suppose that is the way it goes but i find myself reminiscing for my university days when i had 4 months off and worked shift work so i often had days off to relax in the sun. who knew that years after wishing to be done school i would be wistfully recalling how great those days were. man if we could only go back and tell out younger selves to quit whining and enjoy it.
actually i would tell my younger self many things:

1- go to art school or fashion school
2- think about what you would like to do for a career (it will be an issue)
3-you are attractive in your own interesting way
4-maybe you should date around :)
5-floss more (had a bad trip to the dentist 2 weeks ago)
6-exercise more for goodness sake you are in kinesiology!
7-maybe you should consider switching programs
8-wear shorter skirts you have great legs and it is ok to know that
9-do crazy stuff now
10-remember that your family knows you best even if you don't believe it

i have alot more to tell my younger self but i think maybe i should focus on my "self" now and start getting in touch with the future self...

quote

"Find out what you like doing best and
get someone to pay you for doing it."
 
- Katherine Whitehorn



hi katherine?  yeah....call me.

dudes don't want twigs

after having a conversation with a friend about womens' body image issue as well as our own i could not help but think how totally crazy it is that we even allow ourselves to succumb to society's ridiculous standards. but i know that it is not easy to ignore the pressure and i believe that all women feel it to some extent. anyhow here is a male perspective on the "thin" issue, found it in today's herald.
nice to hear dudes don't want twigs.


Tyra's chubby-is-beautiful crusade rings hollow

As we all get fatter, fashion models get thinner

David Staples

Edmonton Journal

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Supermodel Tyra Banks, the latest crusader for the notion that chubby is beautiful, is acting a bit odd these days.

Not only is Tyra now on the cover -- looking all sleek and bikini-clad -- of pro-slender Shape magazine, but all of the finalists on her show America's Next Top Model are various shapes of skinny, skinny and skinny.

If you look at Tyra's words, as opposed to her actions, there's no doubt she has talked a good -- and undeniably feel-good -- game when it comes to bashing the fashion industry for pushing skinny models on the public, as opposed to hiring more normal-looking, plus-sized beauties for magazine spreads and runway shows.

She recently launched a campaign called,"So What!", which is apparently the proper comeback to shout out if someone criticizes her or any other woman for being too portly.

And this year, on her show, America's Next Top Model, Tyra even picked two plus-sized models to be in the Final 12.

But those two bigger girls are now long gone, and the competition is down to the survival of the slimmest.

One finalist, Jaslene, is the kind of curves-challenged model that most guys absolutely do not find attractive, but for some reason is invariably featured in the most high-brow of fashion magazines, which tend to be run by wraiths cloaked in Prada. (Presumably a sizable percentage of women must also secretly yearn to view these ultra-slim models, otherwise the magazines would go out of business, as did Mode, the one magazine devoted to plus-sized models.)

In the Top Model competition, Jaslene has had as many first-place finishes as her next closest competitor, Natasha, who is by far the most curvy of the finalists, and the one who would easily be the choice if any red-blooded male picked the winner.

Hell, if a guy were picking the winner, he would also go for a Jordin Sparks, a plus-sized model and the star of this year's American Idol, over any of the Jaslenes of the world, and I'm not saying that to be nice or politically correct, but to hammer home the point that men prefer women to be curvier than the weirdly thin, fashion-magazine ideal.

But, of course, red-blooded males don't pick the winners in the fashion industry. It's run by high-society ladies who think a stick of cheddar cheese is a sinful dose of junk food.

So why is it that bone-thin models are so favoured in the fashion industry? And, in a more general sense, are the fashion editors engaged in a conspiracy to make chubby folks feel bad, or are they merely reflecting a deeper truth about what is now attractive?

It's often been said that as we all get fatter, fashion models get thinner.

One convincing theory for the trend is that in the past, during the endless centuries of scarcity and famine, biological health -- the ability to produce healthy, thriving children -- was equated with being heavy. It was consequently seen as sexy to be portly. That is why poets and artists of past eras were so enthusiastic about women who would now be seen as in need of a diet.

Today, however, there's no shortage of food in the developed world. We live in the age of quick and easy calories. Anyone can be fat. Only the disciplined, the health-conscious and, possibly, the genetically lucky, are thin. So, today, like it or not, biological health is equated with slenderness. Thin is in.

The modern notion that fat equals poor biological health has been reinforced by science, an endless array of studies linking overweight and fat to numerous and serious health problems. If anything is putting the brakes on the feel-good Tyra-led, plus-sized model crusade, it is this health argument, which is too convincing to be denied.

It's worth noting that Tyra really started pushing her plus-sized ideas this winter when she was blasted for being too heavy herself. Since then, however, she's taken steps to change, as is reflected in her appearance in Shape, a bible of the fitness-obsessed.

In her Shape interview, Tyra stresses that she wants everyone to eat healthy foods, and admits she recently hired a part-time chef so she could eat better. "I realized I needed to take better care of myself," she said, adding that whole months went by when she didn't exercise. She has recently turned that around as well, she said, and is working out hard.

So Banks has rediscovered what we all know all too well and struggle with endlessly in our own lives -- that eating healthier and exercising more is the only real answer to the inconvenient truth that fat isn't beautiful. It's unhealthy.

© The Calgary Herald 2007

i might have a problem

more like an obsession....i love clothes, shoes, jewelery...you name it! it is true. i keep trying to deny that i might be addicted to fashion but i think i proved myself wrong. how, you ask? well t and i are talking about traveling again and ultimately moving to NZ for awhile and i am getting panicky about what clothes i will take. i know that is so lame especially after my last rant where i said that i should be making a difference. yeah yeah i know but we are all contradictory sometimes....couldn't i better the world by helping one fashion victim at a time? hmmm i do prefer to think that what you present on the outside is an extension of who you are (i happen to be a sassy turquoise flat at the moment) no no really i do. i think that we need to feel good about what we are showing the world although i will admit i am sure i spend too much time on it which leads me to my next thought, i think i have figured out a bit more about what i want to do (and cousaaaaaan you were right). i just happen to be scared to make a move i think....and what is more crazy is that i think i have always known that fashion really interested me. (yes i know not really making a difference but hey what can i do?) so know i have sort of figured a little bit out, now i just have to decide how to move ahead...suggestions?