Baby Steps and More Snow...

Weight is a constant fight in my life and periodically I admit to myself that I am horrid at self-governance and need outside help. I've belonged to Weight Watchers on and off throughout my life and have joined again now. When I want a plan that actually works for me, I always return to Weight Watchers. I rejoined the program two weeks ago because I was getting nowhere losing the 40 pounds that I really need to get off and their on-line program and mobile tools are making things easier than ever, even with my crazy hours and poor food choices. So, two weeks on program and six pounds lost so far. I have 36 pounds to go, but I'm feeling much better because I'm at least doing something positive for myself.

Jennifer Hudson is the latest spokesperson for the Weight
Watchers program. She looks outstanding and is such
an inspiration. If she could lose it, so can I.

We're back into snow again. Yesterday was a mix of rain and snow that made walking in to the store across the parking lot an exercise in extreme care and shuffling along like a 90-year-old arthritic woman. Oh...I was so NOT happy about that, but I do have to be cautious because of my osteo issues. I can't afford to break a bone because I slipped on ice, and I can't afford to replace my computer if it doesn't survive the fall along with me. So care and baby steps.

I'm quite sure that this is photoshopped, but it is so cute!

But it started snowing in earnest overnight and I will have several inches to shovel this morning before I get to the coffee shop for my morning coffee and oatmeal. Oh well, at least I'll get some exercise - LOL. We're supposed to get a serious dumping of snow Sunday night into Monday - from three to ten inches worth. I'm hoping we'll get closer to the three inches :-)

Chickie can read the various glyphs and
takes great joy in it. Personally, I love my
Egyptian hieroglypics more, but these
are pretty too.

I'm short staffed at the shop today. Chickie is taking one of her three allowed Saturday vacation days to attend a workshop on Mayan Iconography at the college across the street. All of us at my shop have a background in Anthropology and varied interests. My interest is Egyptian hieroglyphics, hers are Mayan, and my Manager's interests tended more towards the Aztec. Chickie belongs to the Maya Society here in town which is quite large and active and for many years has been involved in the more advanced workshops that they have put on. She'll have a great time today, I'm sure, and I'll miss her at work, but we'll make it through.

Thanks and Thunder

I have to start out today with a huge "Thank You" to everyone who carried out what turned into a very active and totally fascinating discussion about the new Pope on my LJ Blog post yesterday. Despite individually divergent opinions, everyone was very respectful of the other posters. I loved the fact that people posted links to supporting documentation and readings to support their positions. It was a wonderful interchange to participate in and I was so very happy that with discussions about religion, which can sometimes be quite contentious, everyone treated each viewpoint as valid and worthy of thoughtful response. THANK YOU TO EACH ONE OF YOU!

Last night's "Project Runway" episode was to design three menswear looks for dancers from "Thunder Down Under". OMG! These guys were totally gorgeous. I didn't care who won, I didn't care who lost, just show me the guys and let them parade around shirtless and dance. Yowza!

The full cast of one of several groups of Thunder Down Under.
Someone hand me a fan, please...

Just hand me that tape measure while I look....and look...

I'm not really sure what it is about menswear that the designers on Project Runway find so difficult. Can anyone really become a designer without understanding the basics of tailoring? Really? There are some basic things in the clothing for either sex. Things like darts and gussets, collar stays and boning, bias cuts and cutting on the grain are basic to any clothing. Why would making something wonderful be so different for a gorgeous man as a beautiful woman?

Tailored clothing was the only way to get clothes
at all historically. It wasn't until the Industrial
Revolution that off-the-rack clothing was availablel.

Today's contemporary tailors are expert at fit and design with an array
of fabric choices at hand to make every suit perfect. They know how to
use a tape measure and a pair of scissors.

Every season of Project Runway features at least one alternative materials challenge and one menswear challenge. Do these contestants never watch the show? Do they not know that there will be a menswear challenge? Why don't they take time to do some homework before appearing on the show? Why don't they at least spend a bit of time examining tailoring techniques and how to design appropriately for men? But, I did get to look at wonderful male bodies for 90 minutes, so my night was happy - LOL.

We Have a Pope...Oh Goodie!

So, we have a Pope again. The smoke pouring from the Sistine Chapel was white and a dark horse, a cardinal from Argentina had been chosen. Not only is he a non-European pope, he chose a name that has never been picked before - Francis.

Pope Francis. I wish I felt better about his policies.

Now, I love St Francis of Assisi. What's not to like? The statues and pictures show a humble man in a cassock surrounded by happy birds and baby animals. St Francis was cool with the fur and feather bunch. Hopefully the new Pope, who is no youngling at age 76, can become popular with the human contingent while discussions about the two seagulls perched on the smokestack top have me laughing this morning.

Saint Francis was a friend to the feathered and furred. Now...will Pope
Francis be a friend to the people?

He inherits a church deeply scarred by pedophilia and other abuses, as well as divided by issues like the ordination of women and homosexual marriage. He has a long platform behind him of denial of homosexual marriage rights and I doubt he will change that. So once more, while trying to discuss the issue with my DH (something that I really should know better than to ever talk about with him) we argued. He is dogmatic and firm in his denial of marriage rights for non-heterosexual couples, I am adamant that Gay Rights are Civil Rights and that religious marriage is up to the individual church/denomination but that the legal rights should not be withheld.

So after ranting about how the government is taking away his choices he barricaded himself in the upstairs bedroom watching on-demand stuff for the night while I watched my ghost shows downstairs in the computer room. He's like a stone - firm and hard, but the world is like a river and eventually the water will turn the stone into mud.

Eventually opposition will be worn away, but it's uncomfortable
while the battles are being fought.

Yesterday was my day off and I toured one of the local health clubs - actually very nice but I don't think I can do anything about joining and getting my money's worth until after I have retired, so that's back burner. After groceries and errands I pulled out my pastels and while doing laundry, continued colorizing the inks I had already prepared for CB's Big Bang. I had so much fun! Three more panels have now been colored with one more to go, then a photo montage and finally a pencil/charcoal piece that I will start later this week. Oh...and chapter headings, but I already have an idea for that. It's all coming together and it's so much fun!

LA Fitness is a nationwide company with a large location
very near my home. I'm so tempted...I really miss belonging
to a health club.

Have fun today. Choose something that you love doing and allow yourself at least 30 minutes to do it. We all need something positive in our lives....

Errands, Appointments and Postal Again

Running late (at 5:15 am!) so this is quick and dirty.  Today is a day of errands - breakfast (making sure that it works within my Weight Watchers program - easier said than done), the bank, the post office, a 9:30 am appointment for a tour at a local gym to see what they have to offer, grocery shopping, and finally sitting down to continue the colorizing on CB's pieces and begin the pencil work on her Erestor --- oh...the PERFECT image found!

I'll be surrounded by color today - happy me. So I'm sharing this
wonderfully colorful picture with all of you. Ohhhh...pretty!

Thanks to everyone who commented on yesterday's "Women's History" post. I've been so focused on this issue for so many years that it's second nature. To have so many of you tell me that it is also important to you makes me very happy.

Yes, it came back a THIRD time! I'll be speaking to the postal
supervisor for my area today. GROWLLLLLL...

At the Post Office I will be attempting to speak to a supervisor about....yes....THE CARD! which was returned to me again, Monday night, in my mail. So this is time three! I really want this person to receive her mail, and I could drop it off to her directly (it's not that far away from me) but really.  I mean REALLY!  Is my postal sorter that completely inept???? Time to shake things up a bit because this is really beyond the pale. (Image altered to protect address specifics.)

And for those of you who want to look at something that just totally sweet, I have a short video link for you to a very sweet less than five minute video of a young gay couple - This Is Our Year. I link to this in celebration of Colorado's passing the legal right for gay civil union yesterday (Bravo!), and Minnesota passing their law into the full Senate yesterday (another great step toward equality!). This, from a state (Colorado) who had voted to ban gay marriage seven years ago. We're getting there people - slowly but surely we are admitting that love has no gender.

A Look Back at Personal History

Last night I turned on Public Television and got caught. They are in the midst of the funding drive, usually one of those times when they show some of their more popular programs, and they were showing a show called "Makers". I don't know why I had never seen this one before, but I was truly hooked. "Makers" is a three-hour program about the history of the Women's movement. Now many of you who read my blog and daily post are young - born in 1980 or later. But those of us who are older remember the various fights for equality that occupied the 1960's and 1970's, among which were racial equality and sexual equality.

Did you know that airline stewardesses could only work until
they were 32 years old? After that age they were considered
too old and unattractive to be employed in that position.

I wish this was an unusual ad for the 1950's/1960's, but
it was actually fairly common. Women were expected
to be subservient to men and were also expected to
like it and buy into that image.

I was involved in the Women's Liberation movement, a member of NOW (National Organization of Women) and a subscriber to MS Magazine. I attended rallies, listened to speakers (even one magical night when Gloria Steinem spoke at my college) and fought hard for the right to have a meaningful career with reasonable pay and expectations of job advancement.

Gloria Steinem was the perfect spokesperson at the perfect time.
Beautiful, articular, and well educated, she took the movement
one step farther and was key to the success.

This was Gloria Steinem's first poster and it was beautiful
in its simplicity and staging.

Although women in World War II took up the jobs that men left behind as they joined the military and the war, when they returned from the European and Pacific theatres, the men picked up their hammers and wrenches again and the women returned to their homes. Throughout the 1950's and into the 1960's the primary purpose for women attending college was to obtain their MRS degree. Their BA or BS was considered secondary. After marriage (often while they were still in college) they were expected to stay at home, give birth to and raise the children, and be the perfect 'Holly Homemaker' for their husbands to return home to each night. Many women were happy in that role, but all too many felt that the world had suddenly been shut away from them and that they ossified in their new roles.

Apparently we could only do it while the men were away....

Things like spousal abuse were never discussed, indeed they were shoved under the carpet and simply didn't exist in the 'real world'. Jobs outside of the home, women handling financial responsibility of any kind, women in any corporate positions - they were more than rare. Into this vacuum came Betty Friedan and her book "The Feminine Mystique", first published in 1963. Suddenly someone had put the words of frustration and emptiness onto pages. If I had asked who of my mother's generation had read this book, I'm fairly sure it would have been almost 100% of my mother's female friends. At this time Help Wanted ads were separated into "Help Wanted - Men" and "Help Wanted - Female". Those jobs available for women were generally low-paying secretarial or waitress jobs with little or no chance of advancement. Into this came Betty Friedan followed later by Gloria Steinem and the voices of women were raised in joint concert to improve their futures and their choices.

Such a small thing - just a book. But it inspired
a generation of women and is still held in
high regard, even today.

I couldn't turn away from the television last night as I watched this. I even ordered the DVD because I want to see all three hours of the show. I remember those days and I'm so proud of what we accomplished. Today's women have a world of opportunities open in front of them. There are still glass ceilings. There are still challenges and issues to be faced, fought and conquered. But the world of fifty years ago was far different than the world of today and I was a small part of that. I'm very proud of my generation and my sisters in the Women's Liberation movement.

One More Small Step Toward Equality

On the news this morning it was announced that Queen Elizabeth will sign a document today taking a stand against discrimination with emphasis on women's rights. The document states opposition to '...all forms of discrimination, whether rooted in gender, race, color, creed, political belief, or other grounds.' This will be the first time that she will publicly support gay rights. Bravo Queen Elizabeth!

Bravo, Queen Elizabeth.

The Queen usually does not make political decisions or declarations and her signature on this document is a break with tradition. It will occur in public and be televised. She will also show support for new laws that will give equal rights to boys and girls in the royal succession. This is significant because of Prince William and Kate's expected baby. I have to say that I have not always supported the public decisions of the Queen, but I have always admired her courage and stamina. She's quite an amazing person. Now if we could just get equality for GLBT through the courts and legislatures in the United States...*sigh*.

Douglas Adams would have turned 61 today. He is being honored by a Google interactive heading. Click on the keypad several times and enjoy the cartoons. They'll make even more sense to you if you're familiar with his books, but even if you don't, they're fun. Just for the sake of it, I think I'll re-read "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" again today.

Coloring a solar system like this pink one would have been
impossible for me yesterday morning, but I could now
accomplish it! Yippee!

I did take advantage of a 20% off everything coupon at Dick Blick Art Supplies on Sunday. When coloring in my inkworks for CB's Big Bang story I realized I didn't have a pink or a black. What was I thinking? I filled in a few gaps with the coupon so I have a good run on the colors that I needed now and I'm happy once again. I wasted most of my Sunday just sitting at my computer or reading books on my phone. A lazy Sunday is sometimes a very worthwhile thing to experience :-)