so ashamed….

Posted by under life

I vacillate between periods of healthy activities (yoga, body weight exercises, running) and periods of high sloth (couch sitting! desk sitting! sitting in general!). My inertia in either is strong, but eventually something will push me into one or the other. Recently, it was realizing that I am a great example of “skinny fat” (yes, problematic terminology all around) — I look thin, sure, but I have little to no strength or tone. So, fine, activity it is, I resolved, and commenced to work.

I’m weak enough that I can’t do much impressive, but here’s what I did today:

Yeah, this kicked my ass. And believe me, I was doing the beginner versions.

 

Then there’s this, which brings me to the title of this post:

There’s a lot of reasons to be ashamed. First off, might be that I can hear my previous yoga teachers saying things like, “seriously?!” and “that’s not good for your [fill in blank here]” But second, and more importantly — this is serious booty shaking.

Reader, I loved it. It was super fun. I can only imagine how foolish I looked. I have about….zero sensual gyrating genes in this body. I was put on earth to make people feel embarrassed for me when I try to ape sexy moves. In tough financial times, when I would joke about stripping to make ends meet, my friends would look at me tenderly and say, “but that’s not really your strength, is it sweetie?”

But I am sold. I have managed to find about 5 full length videos of this woman’s “buti” yoga vids, and plan on making them a regular part of my week. Because dignity? What’s that?

not interested in the movie, but….

Posted by under music

 

Let it not be said I don’t have a soft spot for overly theatrical schmaltz because I am THERE.

 

(Baz Luhrman quick run down:

1) Hated Ballroom Dancing.

2) Liked parts of Romeo and Juliet as a college student, but felt embarrassed by it. Mostly I liked Mercutio, and the “swords.” Claire Dane’s cry face made me cringe, but I sort of admired her for doing the ugly cry, which I’d never seen happen in a movie before. Props.

3) Moulin Rouge. I was utterly mystified my first viewing of this. I couldn’t decide if I was horrified or exhilarated as the gentlemen in top hats entered to the tune of “come as you are.” Other scenes felt stagey and odd and either too slow or too kinetic. Subsequent viewings won me over, and I have real affection for this movie, even though I think it’s terribly flawed. LOVE Kidman’s “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend,” though I’d also say that the original is super fun as well (as is the movie it’s from!)

4) The Great Gatsby. You can’t make me see this. It’s two bobbleheaded actors making kissy faces at each other. Ok, that’s not true, and I like these actors in other films, but I’ve never been interested in Gatsby (oddly, I’ve read numerous Fitzgerald and not this one somehow?) and unless DiCaprio is somehow playing his character from the Departed and she’s playing her character from Never Let me Go all those sequins can just go hang.

oh today, hooray

Posted by under Uncategorized

Today has just been a really nice day. Is that goofy to say? I’m saying it. Today I finished the first draft of an article I’ve been working on for about a month or so. I’m not a fast writer when it comes to prose, except for occasional exceptions, and I am really happy to feel a sense of accomplishment about this project. To celebrate sending off the first draft, I commenced operation Make All the Food Things, which might also be a celebration of Screw the Fast Diet, No Way. (For the record, I made it around 3 weeks, but it turns out women are particularly prone to insomnia on this diet and I couldn’t handle the sleeplessness or the anxiety I felt regarding reduced calorie intake). I am doing Paleo for real, after several months of having occasional carbs, and I think it’s a good change, once more. So, back to all the things! I made a Raw Cashew Dreamcake, and also Avocado pops again, b/c they were great the first time. I haven’t tasted the dreamcake, as it’s setting up in the freezer, but the batter was pretty delicious.

Oh! I got a computer program called Paprika and if you like cooking, it’s worth buying. I finally ponied up the money (which to be fair is not egregious but I’m feeling pinched) after trying, oh, about 5-7 free versions. The best of these was Pepperplate, but the interface was mind-numbingly slow. Paprika works really well – I especially like how it can usually pull a recipe off a webpage accurately, and when it can’t, the interface to add it by hand is quite user friendly. But the real reason I got it was because it has a weekly meal planning option and makes a grocery list, and all these things together were exactly what I needed. Eating paleo isn’t always the cheapest option (esp. if you live where I live), so it’s important to plan.

(side note: I still am a huge fan of The Fresh 20 meal planner, but that’s why we were eating the carbs, alas. My subscription has been yummy if you do eat those things though, and if they came up with a paleo plan, I’d be back in a heartbeat — so so good and organized! I also got a deal on an emealz paleo plan, but it SUCKED — I got the sense the people running it don’t really know how to cook. In one week, 6 of the 7 meals were for a grill. I wrote and said, “hey, awesome, but what if you don’t have a grill or you have a job and don’t have time to sit around prepping a grill for 30-40 minutes before you can cook” — and the customer service advisor suggested I buy one, or get a George Foreman. Seriously? Did I write something bitchy back about how that was a pretty unreasonable expectation and maybe they should provide alternate instructions instead? I kinda did.)

Anyway, I’m cheerful is what.

scene from life

Posted by under life

me (drinks smoothie, pulls out strange strand of something from mouth): ARGH! What is this? What is this? Is it a worm?

Mark: It’s a strand from the banana. You know what they look like.

Me: Then why didn’t it get broken up on the blender?

Mark: It just didn’t. Why wouldn’t a worm?

Me: That’s what worms want you to think.

I’m out of the box! (for now): EDIT: just kidding, back in

Posted by under life

So, some kind soul reversed the changes that took me from being a “writer from Virginia” and a “writer from Oklahoma” (wha?) to “women writer from virginia” etc. I would like to note that these sub-categories weren’t in addition to my being a writer from virginia, but replaced my being a writer from Virginia — thereby taking me out of that greater category entire.

I’m not particular as to my state affiliation (I don’t think living here for just under a year makes me an Oklahoman, for instance, and if anything, time wise, I’m Georgian, birthwise, Virginian) but I dislike intensely what I’ve been seeing regarding this impetus to put women writers into “women writers” categories.

I still seem to be an American poet, so that’s something. As the article in the New York Review of Books notes regarding these problematic subcategories, there are fewer articles on “women poets” than there are articles on porn stars.

 

EDIT: just kidding, back in. The original person who put me in the subcategory has put me back in. sigh.

Oh hooray, I’m in a small box

Posted by under life, poetry

So, if you’ve been reading the news, you may have noticed that Salon and the New York Times both had articles about how women novelists were being shunted from the category of American Novelists to American Women Novelists.

Well, it’s not just novelists.

Today I checked the history on my wikipedia page (yeah, bizarre, I know), to find that I’d been moved from “Writers from Oklahoma” (which is erroneous anyway) to “Women Writers from Oklahoma” and “Writers from Virginia” (correct) to “Women Writers from Virginia.”

Here’s a screen cap:

Screen Shot 2013-05-07 at 12.04.53 AMBasically, this is the weirdest, most infuriating thing ever, for all the reasons argued so well in the aforementioned articles.