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Toni's Log This is my attempt at a weblog. It will more likely be rants and raves about things going on in the news or in my life than a list of links. I really don't plan on starting any long discussions, as I don't really have time for that. I just want to let off steam and get my opinions out there.
This is part of www.petoni.org, the site my husband and I share for our personal stuff. It is very undone. Please excuse the mess.
7.24.2001
I may be back. I'll let you know soon.
So, I guess I'm back. Sorry for the sudden disappearence. Machines crashed, I got lazy, etc.... I have had lots of stuff to say about the election, but most of it is moot now. My message now is: unless you are absolutely in love with either Bush or Gore, and I don't think many people are, VOTE for a THIRD PARTY!!!!!! Any third party is fine with me, but I lean heavily towards the Libertarians.
So The Gap (and Banana Republic and Old Navy) have added a size 20 to their clothing lines in order to "expand" their market. While I think it's a wonderful step in the right direction, it doesn't solve the problem that those size 20 clothes still won't fit quite right on the women they are intended for. I have found that clothes are designed one of two ways. Either for Calista Flockart and other size 2's, 4's, and 6's. This assumes a flat stomach and a slim, tall figure. Or they are designed for Camryn Manheim and other size 18's and up. These assume little or no waistline and large hips and bust. To get the sizes 8 - 14ish, they just add length and width to the 2's-6's. To make those sizes petite, they subtract the length. Now a 5'4" woman who wears a 10, 12 or a 14 has a body shape very different from a 5'4" woman that wears a 2. While the 12 "fits" (it's neither falling down nor cutting off oxygen flow), it doesn't look right. It doesn't feel right. It draws attention to things that it shouldn't. We've heard for years that some women are pears and some are apples and most are somewhere in-between, but the clothing manufacturers haven't managed to figure this out. The Lands End Personal Model feature describes the kind of clothes that would flatter my "figure", but those clothes do not exist. (Note - Only very brave women should enter their measurements into that program. Trust me - you don't want to know what it thinks you look like!!!!!) So they are designing for the skinnys, they are designing for the obese, when are they going to design for me - a normal, average height woman with curves!!!!!
Pete and I did something yesterday neither of us have done in many many years. We went to our local public library and came out each with an armful of books. Now Pete and I are both avid readers and have been since we were kids. I remember using the library in Deer Park quite alot when I was little. I'm sure that's where the books came from for my yearly reading contests with my dad. This probably continued through about 6th grade. Up til that point my school was right across the street from the library and I didn't have many, if any, after school activities. Once I got to junior high school, I was far away from the library and had many after-school activities. So most of my books came from a new place, the mall. Books were way cheaper than clothes. This is when I switched from all those Newbury Award winning novels to SciFi/Fantasy, Horror and Trash. I was still reading quality books for school, like: The Hobbit, Death Be Not Proud, Hiroshima, Old Yeller, etc.... But outside of school I was reading Jean M. Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear books (would she write the next one already, it's been almost 10 years!), VC Andrews' Flowers in the Attic books, Dean Koontz and Stephen King, and all the DragonLance Books, etc... With these books I was introduced to D&D (Dungeons and Dragons), scared out of my wits, and my sexual education was completed. In highschool I had less time for pleasure reading and in college even less. While on breaks I would raid my mother's Danielle Steel collection. After college, I was dating Pete and I started to raid his book collection. I had never read Heinlein, Asimov, David Brin, etc... Pete has felt little need to raid my collection. :) Now I've been wanting non-fiction information books. At first I would go to Amazon and personally try to insure they turn a profit. But this was getting way too expensive. So, yesterday, we finally went to the library.
Sorry for the lack of updates. My forearms and wrists have been bothering me on and off lately, so I am trying to cut down on typing time, reserving it for work.
From the "more than you probably wanted to know" department... When out and about I will often try to avoid using public restrooms. Not because I'm embarrassed about someone hearing me doing my business or whatnot. Travelling with a stomach flu will take care of that real quick. It's more that public restrooms seem to be designed to annoy me and to make my life difficult. I won't even go into cleanliness. Below I list many of my restroom pet peeves and my proposed possible solutions. 1. The stall door Since stalls are often very narrow, and to prevent traffic problems, the doors open in, it is almost impossible to maneuver in and out of the stall without your legs brushing against the sides of a possibly wet toilet or even without tripping and killing yourself. This is especially true if you have luggage or shopping bags with you. I hate this! I propose a door that is more like a pleated vinyl curtain that folds like an accordion against the door jam to open and then is pulled across the doorway to shut. Anything that would create more of a pocket door effect will do. 2. Give me a ledge as well as a hook! Some stalls now offer a fold-down ledge just inside the door to place your purse on so it won't get stolen off the hook. Unfortunately, you purse ends up in about the same place anyway, where it can be stolen, and woefully out of reach! I want the ledge on the side of the stall, preferably right above the toilet paper dispenser. Basically I want a surface where I can place either a new or used "sanitary item" while I deal with the other. We've only got two hands and our laps are not well suited to this task! 3. The toilet seat I hate wet toilet seats! I'm not really worried about catching anything. I'm pretty sure they are caused more by splashing caused by flushing, then women that hover who have bad aim. But, the possibility of a wet butt is about the most annoying thing about public restrooms. I just don't have the quad muscles necessary to hover well. I guess women in Italy are in better shape! One of the good things about the restrooms at O'hare is that they have the automatic plastic cover devices. You go in, press the button, and the old cover goes away and the new cover comes out. A guaranteed clean dry seat! It's absolutely wonderful! 4. The toilet paper dispenser Most of the restrooms I encounter now have the really big rolls and snag free dispensers. They're basically okay. I still run across the annoying "round tube over an oval holder" dispensers that only allow you one sheet at a time. If I have the time and the energy I'll take much more than I need just because I'm pissed off by their little gadget. Or I'll just wind the paper around the holder instead of trying to spin the roll. Now that i'm done with the stall... 5. Give me another ledge!!!!! I want a ledge over the counter or sinks where I can place my purse or whatever. No matter what, the counter around the sinks will be wet. 6. Faucet operation Ah, the other biggie. What started this rant was a faucet I came across in the restroom of the Naperville library. You turned the knob and it worked just like a timer, complete with ticking, as the knob turned back around to it's starting point, at which time the faucet turned off. Of course, it wasn't enough time for me to complete my hand washing. Our movie theatre and O'hare have the sensor faucets. No choice in water temperature. And, for some reason, they seem to never work for me. I make a fool out of myself waving and moving around and such, trying to get it to recognize that I'm there. Eventually, I get my hands sort of washed. I'm sure there must be a very good reason why they don't use a foot pedal to operate the faucet. It would automatically turn off when the person left. You wouldn't have to re-touch the faucet during or after you're done, you wouldn't have to touch anything at all. If temperature control was desired than a lever could be provided near the faucet that would do only that. *Sigh* 7. The paper-towel dispensers I hate that I have to reach up to operate most paper-towel dispensers. This always leads to water dripping down my arms and onto/under my sleaves, etc... Why don't they turn the things upside down and mount them at about waist level? I've actually been in a restroom that did this. They had a pop-up towel dispenser, rather than a pull-down one. It was marvelous! There are other things that bother me about public restrooms, but these are the major ones. Hopefully, things will get better.
Via Now This * Ain't Fallin' For That One Again [Grassroots] Okay, I'm sick of people confusing this issue! Just because something is legal does not mean you have a "right" to it. Roe v. Wade does not guarantee you access to an abortion clinic within walking distance of your home. You can't force doctors to perform abortions if they don't want to. This is an issue in that many Catholic hospitals are merging with/or buying out non-Catholic hospitals in the Chicago area. They are considering legislation to force the now Catholic hospitals to provide abortions, since now there won't be a convenient hospital that does them otherwise. This is ridiculous! What we have to do is protect the "rights" to life, liberty, and property - guaranteed by the constitution - of the doctors and clinics that do want to provide abortions to those who want them, so they won't fear for their lives. This same confusion has often been used by those that are against legalizing drugs. They say that if they are legal it's saying that they are okay, good, or that you have a "right" to do them, etc.... No, No, NO, NO!, NO!!!!!! It says nothing about them being good or bad, it just acknowledges that by using drugs you are not infringing on the "rights" of other people, so there's no reason for them to be illegal. Government is not our parents. They exist to protect our rights to life, liberty, and property - and that's it! If you want moral guidance as to how you should behave (other than not infringing on other's rights), seek out your local church, synagogue, gaming club, your parents, whatever.... But don't look to government for it. It's not their job, and boy, are they lousy at it.
OK, so I can't spell. It's never been my strong point. On standardized tests in grade school, I always scored very high in everything, but spelling. Usually, I screw up words in such a way that spell checkers aren't much help. Or, I just use the wrong spelling of the word - as below in my "heel" story. Since this is my personal log, I'm not going to worry much about it. It won't be fun to write if I have to worry too much about spelling and grammar. Think what you will, but this is Me and I don't spell very well.
We are having some of the most gorgeous weather EVER! For the past week and for the next week the weather is - highs: 70's - 80, lows: 45 - 60's, and partly cloudy. I really love it when the sky is a very deep blue, with white fluffy "fake-looking" clouds, and the trees and grass just take on this unbelievable green hue. It's just wonderful!
Ooh! I swam .75 miles today! That's 54 lengths or 27 laps. I did it in under 50 minutes! I normally do about 45 lengths in about 40 - 45 minutes, so I was pushing it! I might never move my arms again, but at least I know I can do it. One of the women I swim with recently did a mile in 45 minutes, so I still feel slow and pathetic.
So I inherited my dad's hands and feet. This means that I got these wonderful finger-nails that grow and grow and are shaped very well. I consider them my best physical feature. But, it also means that I got small hands with short fingers, and medium sized, wide, flat feet. Well, the long nails make up for the short fingers. But, finding dyable dress shoes that fit me is a nightmare! Sure, they make the shoes in wide widths, but the stores don't carry them and they have to be special ordered. If they come in and they don't fit, tough! Sure, you can exchange them, but I don't have that much time. Luckily, I found a pair of shoes for my brother's wedding after hunting all over creation. The heal is much higher than I would have liked, but it's a chunky heal. Since I'm walking down the aisle with the bride's brother, who is like 6'3" or so, it's not such a bad thing to have a high heal (I'm 5'4" on a good day).
So I was thinking of going to some garage sales today, and I was annoyed that I would have to go get some cash if I planned to buy anything. Then I thought... I wonder if any of the sellers would have a computer set up with an internet connection so people could use PayPal or something similar to pay for items with their credit cards.
I have finally, for the first time since I spent summer '97 in California, been able to keep up an exercise program for over 2 months - long enough to start to see results!!!! The secret - a group of 3 other women that are home during the day that gently bully each other into going to the Y 3 days a week. We also pack a lunch and eat on one woman's patio afterwords. I have lost about 1.5 "sizes". My weight on the scale has only changed 5 lbs, but that's fine with me. Now that I see things working, it's much easier to stick with it. But, the group definitely makes it more fun! We swim twice a week and treadmill/weight train once a week. I also start a yoga class on Monday.
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© 2000 Toni Beth Reiss
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