if it's june

...that means it's time for more "post a bunch of random crap in one entry"!

First point of order. I have to emphasize that there is nothing that will make you feel more normal, more full of good judgment, and more in possession of general life skills than eavesdropping on public transportation. I highly recommend it when/if you start thinking, "Gee, everything in my life is so fucked up right about now." Today's example? A gentleman (probably my age) taking his son (probably in first or second grade) to school. Child does not have his spelling folder nor his glasses since they are at "mommy's house." Some discussion ensues about the fact that no one knew he was going to stay with dad last night, but it is mysteriously absent of details that would allow yours truly to figure out just why that is. Such a pity. Anyway, dad says, "Do you remember when I went to court? That's when the judge said dad could visit you." Um, okay, not sure that the MBTA is quite the venue for explaining to your seven year old about custody battles, but what the hell do I know? Anyway, then dad is talking about picking the kid up this afternoon. "You know Jennifer***? Who has dad's baby? [Ed note: look into a vasectomy, buddy] Jennifer who lives with Crystal? I'm going to have Jennifer give me a ride to come get you, so you're not stuck there. I don't want to go to mommy's house in case she's there, so we won't argue." Sadly, then we were at my stop and so I did not get to hear any more explaining of domestic difficulties to a child whose age is in the single digits. But that's some good parenting right there!

Secondly and still about the MBTA, I want to talk about manners and courtesy and so forth. The other day on my way back from Marcy's, on a packed rush hour Green Line train, I saw a woman who was probably in her thirties get up and give her seat to another woman who was holding a young child on her hip. What particularly impressed me about that was that the woman giving up her seat was dressed in "office clothes" and had on probably 3-3 1/2 inch heels, and it is not easy to stand on a Green Line train in heels. They take a lot of corners! It got me thinking that over the past several years almost**** every person I have seen give up their seat on the subway for someone else who needed it has been a woman in her mid-twenties to fifties. (This does not hold true for the prison bus, however. Those felons are pretty considerate towards the elderly and mothers with strollers.) I don't know why the college kids and men of all ages are generally so selfish and rude on the train, but that has been my observation of late. On the other hand, this morning at my bus stop, the (Central American) gentleman waiting with me stepped aside so I could board first. This always surprises me when it happens; it's certainly not necessary from my perspective that I board first 'cause I'm a chick, but it always makes me think, "aw, you've got lovely manners!" Occasionally I even say it! When I was in massage school and often taking the bus into town very early in the morning, there was a 40ish businessman that sometimes got that bus at my stop too, and he *always* did. Then the first time he actually spoke a sentence to me, I realized why. He was from the south. Ohhhhh.

And now for something completely different. I think I may have mentioned that since I started my little lose weight and get in shape mission, I've been reading some online forums about weight loss and low carbing and such. It keeps me from having to bore you all and my other family and friends by endlessly discussing what I'm eating and when and why and how many miles I did last week and blah blah. And I have to say, I'm pretty disturbed about some of it. There will be people who post who are at perfectly normal-to-low weights for their heights asking for tips on how to lose more because they are "stalled." Occasionally someone will pipe up and say, "uh, your body is probably trying to hold onto the weight because you're thin enough already" but five other people will suggest ways that someone who is (for example) 5'5 and 123 lbs can kick start their diet. I also see people posting their daily menus consisting of four or five hundred calories a day and *no one* says "um, hey, that's anorexia or at least very disordered eating." In particular there's one woman, frequent poster on one of the forums, who has gone from a size 26 to a size 14in four months eating, like, one bunless cheeseburger a day, and all she gets is congrats on her weight loss. It really makes me uncomfortable, because I have seen young women recovering from eating disorders post in totally non-diet-related venues about how because they started out at two hundred pounds or whatever, their doctors *praised* the fact that they were starving themselves on like an apple a day and some lettuce. Because OF COURSE weight loss is the be all and end all of "health." Jesus wept. I am so tempted to start a thread and point this out--how people are ignoring and in some cases encouraging what are almost certainly serious eating disorders--but you know how I don't like to make trouble. Heh. But seriously, it does really bother me. There's supporting other people who are attempting to reach the same goals you are and then there's enabling dangerous and unhealthy behaviors, and sometimes both some clarity and some tough love are needed.

Okay! That's it. For now.

xoxo

***names changed not to protect the innocent but because I don't remember

****"almost", not "every single solitary"