The Shadows on My Wall Don't Sleep

After due consideration, I think I need a name for a small starship. ( Writing stuff under here. )

On other subjects, I survived the summer trip to see the family, though I had the lovely adventure of having the exhaust drop on the Jeep while traveling the NY Thruway. Thankfully my AAA membership was current and I was able to get a tow to a muffler shop in Canandaigua that was able to get me a new midpipe and catalytic converter (ouch!) and have me back on the road with only two and a half hours of delay.

There's not really a whole lot to say about the last few months.

I read a lot and despaired for the amount of romance crammed into otherwise interesting books. I read a very good original fiction novel by a fan author I enjoy and wished she had written more in that universe. Tanya Huff got me hooked into another series of hers.

I knitted some, but nothing that interesting since I focused on finishing a pair of socks identical to the last pair I knit except for being half an inch shorter in the foot. I'm currently juggling a few doll projects. One is finished and needs to be dyed and blocked, the others are all still in progress. Since one of those is destined to travel to Utah with the one that needs to be dyed I'm trying to focus on that one. Unfortunately the last couple days have been very, very bad with my hands so the 00 needles aren't fun.

I got an awesome haircut that I need to go have trimmed . I should have about two weeks ago actually. Wish me luck in getting it cut the same way again by a different stylist since the one that did the original is back in Massachusetts. There is one stylist I am pretty sure can do the cut, but I can't remember her name (I only had her cut my hair once before) so hopefully she'll be working and I can get her.

I lost a bit more weight, just enough that the awesome jeans I bought on clearance for $3.60 require a belt. I'm very glad I didn't spend more on them or I would be ticked.

And I think that gets everything caught up. Get ready for the NaNoWriMo spike in postings. :)

I went to the expensive place for my haircut and I should just suck it up and go there all the time because the extra $4 means I get a freaking awesome haircut. Thank you very much, Dixie!

The good mood today is probably the result of the awesomeness of the hair cut and the fact that I am wearing jeans I have not been able to wear since I left Tucson, size 28 and not stretch denim. :D

Stopped at the Dollar Tree and Walmart for a few travel items. Walmart Optical says my glasses should be ready tomorrow, I really hope that's true because the old pair is on the rapid decline to unwearable unless I figure out a way to fix the ear piece on the right bow.

And I have to wonder about the sizing system used by White Stag (one of the brands that Walmart carries much of). I tried on a 4X shirt and pants, which are labeled as 26/28W... *mimes lifting her arms and looking at extra fabric around her bust* the hell? I didn't bother to try the 3X stuff today but if my glasses really are ready tomorrow I think I will.

I just tried on the trouser socks I bought at Dollar Tree, figuring for a buck I could wear them in my granny boots or something where they could slouch around my ankles after failing to reach my knees. The no name queen sized ones get as far as mid calf, which means they will be slouching about my ankles as expected.

The George ones, for shoe sizes 8-12 and not plus sized at all, actually go to my knee. OMGWTF?! I am SO getting more of these for a buck a pair. I can't remember the last time I got knee high any sort of sock that actually stretched over my calves and made it to my knee. And bonus points for being brown on brown zebra stripes. :D

One of the forums I frequent is in the midst of a mudslinging bitchfest on the possibility/impossibility of being both overweight/fat and healthy. I'm not going to bother with generalizations like that. It just got me thinking about my own personal history and my recent apparent weight loss (such as it is).

The lightest I can remember weighing was 193 pounds. I can remember the number because I was so damned proud that I had lost 15 pounds. I was down to a size 14, I remember because I found some awesome robin's egg blue jeans with totally useless zippers in the pockets (useless in the design sense, they served no purpose at all) and they had a 34" waist. I was 5'4" and hadn't yet had to look for "tall" jeans. I was 12.

The smallest size I can remember wearing in my adult life was when I was 21, I was 5'9" and a size 24. I remember because I was having to get new clothing of some sort almost every weekend because of how quickly I was dropping sizes. I went from a size 32 to the 24 in just a semester or so, probably due to walking on average 5 miles a day 5 days a week with one weekend of all day hikes once a month. My bra size went nuts, from a 50B to a 38DD/36DDD and I was buying every bright color and wild print I could get my hands on because I could. No more plain beige, white, or black bras! I discovered that underwires were actually pretty damned awesome if they fit right. It was the first time that my bust became the fit issue with clothing rather than my belly.

I went from an estimated 360 pounds to 325. I know because I actually joined a gym and stood on a scale. I was bench pressing 197 pounds, curling 45, and resorted to the pneumatic leg press machine because it offered 790 pounds of resistance. I started training with the vague idea of making getting into power lifting competitions. I also developed a hatred for bikes and treadmills that had nothing to do with my aerobic abilities and everything to do with my still being very large and tall. Bikes never had a seat adjustment that made pedaling comfortable (and we will not discuss the comfort of the seats) and treadmills are made remarkably narrow for a device encouraged to be used for weight loss. Stairclimbers are of the devil.

Now, as of today, I am 327 pounds (if the scale is to be believed) and I have no clue what my actual size is. Based on the jeans that I have on hand it's probably a 28/30. I'm a lot less muscular than I was, alas. I can, in stretch knits and empire waisted styles with ample fabric below the bust, wear a size 24/26 shirt. I tend toward 2X tees that show that "yes, I do have boobs, thanks, stop calling me sir" rather than going immediately for the loose 3Xs. I find myself fairly comfortable about my size and body with the exception of my belly. The T&A are looking rather nice lately, in my opinion.

Thankfully, I know, if the trend in weight lost continues, the belly will solve itself. I have always lost weight in a certain pattern, under the bust for a while, from the face and neck, and then back to the underbust and belly, then thighs. I don't know after that because I haven't ever managed to get that far. Hopefully the boobs never get on the list because I've always, always been cheated in that department. A woman hauling around as many pounds as I do should have a RACK, goddammit!