Odd duck.

[merimask]

 Today it struck me that I am a very strange bird, indeed.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  I'm just strange.

I haven't written much because there's not been a lot to say.   Just more of my usual oddness, really.  I've been working on the Best Damn Dragon Keychain I Can Possibly Make and it's driving me batty.  I can't stop futzing with it.   I put three different eyes in there 'cause I couldn't make up my mind which color looked best, and I ripped out the chin gussett twice because it wasn't "quite right".  I need to just finish the damn thing & be done with it...it's destroying my equilibrium.

I went to my 6 week evaluation at the gym and it was a sobering experience.  I still have such a long way to go.  :-(   I feel all strong & special until they do that damn body fat analysis and my poor ego just crumbles.  Damn you, Nature!  Why'd you have to go & make me so short??   I'm not overweight.  I'm undertall.  My ancestors, generation after generation of squat Mediterranean people, point at me through the aeons and laugh.  All I can do is stand here in my shorty-mcShort petite size 12 jeans and sulk.  I'll never ever be a two no matter how hard I work at it.  Woe. 

For those of you who are curious, here is how I explained "Getting thrown under the bus" to Takao.

" Your English skills are very good!  I'm impressed.  I thought I'd find a pen pal who might want to brush up on their English skills, but you don't need any help there, really.  So!  I have decided to help you in another way.  Here in America there are "sayings"...pop culture phrases that catch on and everyone uses.  Here is one of my favorites.  I'll pass it along to you and you can use it and impress your friends.  It's called "being thrown under the bus".  You use it like this...

 

Let's say you are out at a bar with a guy friend of yours.  You are relaxing and along comes a pretty girl, and she starts flirting with you.  You flirt back.  Just when you're thinking about asking her for her phone number, your friend asks you in a LOUD voice if you remembered to call your girlfriend.  Your friend just threw you under the bus."

Takao says:
"I wish I knew this sooner.  I think I get thrown under busses all the time at work!  It is a great thing to know!  You are a good friend."

We also discussed at length how very funny it is that there are two popular Japanese expressions that are used all the time.  One is "do your best!!"  (ganbatte!)  and the other is "Don't strain yourself" or something like that.  It's funny 'cause they kind of go together.  Really, you need to find a balance between the two, somewhere, I think.  Ideally.

 

 

Comments

[ramblinsuze.livejournal.com]

Ugh. I can totally empathize with the "undertall" problem. I was just looking at a plus-size clothing catalog today and thinking how annoying it is that the "plus size" models they use are, like, 6 feet tall and *maybe* a size 12. How the heck am I supposed to know what the clothes look like on much shorter, much fatter, me??? Annoying.

I meant to tell you that I loved the...what was it...a cheetah mask that you made custom for someone? The tiny eyeholes and the chin piece just make it so much more realistic. Awesome!

Thrown under the bus. Heh. XD

[merimask.livejournal.com]

I know! Those catalogs always feature such slim models. I saw a program once about "plus size" models...none of 'em are bigger than a size 12 and they all have to use clips to pinch in those clothes so they don't "swim" in them...it's very misleading.

Oh yes...the cheetah! It was a special order. I should throw a pic of it in here. It turned out pretty neat, though it was a bit frustrating to wrangle because cheetah's have a wide space between their eyes and it doesn't work well as a mask that way (had to do some serious tweaking with that one).

[empath-eia.livejournal.com]

Muri shinaide! (I think.)

He sounds brilliant. XD ♥

Also, I'm not overweight. I'm undertall. made me laugh kind of hard. I have the same thingie, I think.

[merimask.livejournal.com]

lol...is THAT the saying? Every single one of my Japanese pen pals have used that one on me. I think it's so freaking cute. ^__^

Undertall is the story of my life. Alas.

[empath-eia.livejournal.com]

It's certainly very common everywhere I've hung out to improve my Japanese skills. It's usually translated as 'don't push yourself,' but a more literal translation (hard, because it's very slangy and doesn't make actual sense as far as I can tell) is 'don't do/try to do impossible (things).'

XD

[zannachan.livejournal.com]

Hee, I love your discussion of being thrown under the bus :)

"I'm not overweight. I'm undertall."

Hee, I love this! But I confess, I'm a bit worried about all this pressure you put on yourself to lose weight. I can understand the need/desire to be thinner, to look trimmer--last fall I not only put back on the weight I had lost toward the end of Canada, but I went up another pant size (sigh) and it frustrates me because I am trying to be as good as DB's diet restrictions, my responsibilities, income, and body will allow. And there's so much pressure to not just be fit, but to be really skinny. Not just the tall, size 0 models, but socially (nothing flattering like having your father tell you that your face looks fatter these days. Thanks dad. That makes me feel really good about my 30-something changing body).

But I'm also worried because you aren't eating that much--didn't yous say you were averaging about 1300 calories a day?--and you do all that walking/biking/skiing, weather permitting. The exercise is good for you--but it needs not calories and a balanced diet to go with it. I've always thought you looked great. And I think it's great if you want to make yourself healthier, fitter--but sometimes I wonder if you aren't pushing yourself too much, set your standards too high. Just make sure that you aren't losing weight at the expense of your health.

By the way, I sent you a message on Etsy but I don't know if it went through properly, but I'm back on-line again.

[merimask.livejournal.com]

Apparently in the business world there is a lot of "throwing under the bus" being done in Japan. I told Tak to be careful who he says that to. ;-)

Don't worry about me, really. I'm not dieting as strictly as I was last year...I've decided it's more like a lifestyle change than a diet change for me, because I already eat pretty well. I am exercising more, but I have to 'cause once you hit 40 your lean muscle mass just wastes away without work.

Now that I know I have anemia I'm being extra careful. My doc says that to get the same amount of oxygen to my cells (when I work out) my heart is working extra hard...he did a stress test on me to prove this. It takes me longer than it should to "recover" from a strenuous activity. Until my iron levels begin to approach "normal" (and that's going to take awhile) he doesn't want me to get my heart rate over 125.

[golden-meliades.livejournal.com]

The 1300 calories was probably me anyway. As I recall, YOU were on 800 for a few months...not 1300. (Which is my permanent intake...it's not a 'diet', for me, it's just what I have to stay at...forever. Blah.)

I try to remember to ignore my weight and go by body fat when I can, as weight really has no correlation with health unless you are exactly average...if you're at all off in any way, weight can't be used as an indicator of health/fatness. Body fat percentage, on the other hand.

I'd like to be at 22, but it's tough to get the last few percent, damn it.

Whoa, 125. I can't even FEEL my pulse at 125...that must just about be killing you, to have to stay there. My breathing doesn't pick up until I hit about 145 and it doesn't feel like it's working hard until over 150. But maybe it feels different with anemia as well? Maybe at 125 you feel like it's hard work, right now?

[merimask.livejournal.com]

Seriously, I'm in such good shape (cardiovascularly speaking) that I can do 75 rpms for about three miles and not break 120 beats per minute. I only start to creep into 130/135 when I am heading up a steep grade or sprinting or heading into a stiff wind.

For my weight and age, 135 is my target rate anyway. It changes as you get older. *is old* My resting rate is 65 which is very good, but if I go too high (anything over 145) when I work out, I take too long to recover. There's not enough oxygen being moved around by my blood because of the anemia...that's the reason my doc gave me. He wants all my workouts to be "moderate" until we get those iron levels up.

It's funny how I was compensating for this, even before I knew about the anemia. I always know when to back off. My rule of thumb is I want to be sweating lightly and just breathing deeply but not gasping, with my heart rate up but not pounding. That's an aerobic exercise, for me.

[golden-meliades.livejournal.com]

Cardiovasularly speaking, I'm a superstar as well. My resting heart rate is 52. Fifty-freaking-two. That's superfit for a GUY and their hearts have a pulse rate naturally 5 to 10 beats lower than a woman's. I take after dad, I guess. We both have super slow pulses.

I don't know anything about heartrate vs RPMs because I don't keep track of my RPMs at all...I cycle by effort, by 'feel', rather than anything else, especially since my strength varies so much from day to day. (I can tell even before I get on my bike if my heartrate is going to be pushed up further that day or not...some days you just wake UP totally exhausted.) I can't really afford to go by RPM, as this area isn't flat even on the flat-looking sections, except on the highway itself, which I avoid due to traffic. So I'm always stopping, turning, and going up and down hills...so how fast I can peddle constantly varies. Today I was going 21 MPH on a flat for a little while, then I turned into the wind and it went well down...it's just so hard to keep track of that way, so I just go by 'effort'. Heartrate, really, though my monitor is currently broken.

Weirdly, my breathing doesn't accelerate even when my pulse does, unless I go above 150. I don't know why. I can go up to about 166 before I'm actually breathing HARD. Seriously I do not understand my cardiovascular system very well, it seems peculiar.

I had trouble with my heartrate going to high all summer last year but I think it was because I'd never factored in windspeed while biking...I never even bothered to check how windy it was when I went out, and thought it was ME who was off on those days when biking suddenly felt like cycling through glue.

[zannachan.livejournal.com]

That's a big relief. All that aerobic exercise is really good for you, but it places a lot of demand on your body and I confess that I was especially concerned because of the anemia. The iron is necessary to make hemoglobin, which is the part of the body that collects the oxygen, so it makes sense that when you're anemic your blood isn't getting as much oxygen as it should. I'm glad to know that that's being accounted for.

That's great that you're in such great cardiovascular shape! I never was, even when I was a lot more active than my hip and other factors in my life will allow now--probably in part because of my asthma. I was more fit back then in terms of muscles, but even with walking/riding/rollerblading/dancing regularly, I often find myself gasping for breath after a brisk walk across campus. Now I sometimes feel like a beached whale--can't breathe, hip inflamed, and about 40 pounds heavier than I should be.

But I am getting better--last week I sent up north with a friend and we went on a number of hikes, one of which was a little over 3 miles--and while I had to take ibuprofin before and afterwards in order to do it, and I am still paying for it now, I did it. 2 years ago, I couldn't walk more than 15 minutes at a time without my hip flaring up. 6 years ago, I could hardly walk at all without incredible hip pain. So I'm slowly getting better--frustratingly slowly, but better. And it's almost summer, which means I can start swimming--good for a bad hip--and I can play tennis again, and am walking more, usually with friends as there's no where to walk really around here. And I'm also thinking of taking up belly dancing, if I can find the time--it's a lot of fun and it's supposed to be really good for people with hip problems like mine, as long as you don't over do it.

Anyway, I'm glad that you're taking it easy--taking things in moderation.

And one of these days, I will have to figure out how to come out to visit you so that we can go biking together!

[merimask.livejournal.com]

Oh! And I got your Etsy message by the way. ^__^ I finished the butterfly part, I just have to find time to do the beading. My Etsy shop has been CRAZY busy lately...I guess everyone's stimulating my economy with their tax rebates! Whoot!