Never mind.

I know the norm is to be body positive now

Well, if not the norm, the hope, at least.  But we still have a long way to go if we want women and girls to be comfortable with their bodies, and social media doesn't help that at all.

Enke – sad how someone can say something like that to us and we remember it 40-50 years later.  And lead to one bad dieting idea after another.

BTY – that is an example of how some teachers and instructors can really be very cruel.

Denise – you do some great workouts, and I think you are very fit!  Certainly way fitter than me!  (at the moment, anyway)

TomWhite - good point!

Jeanne - "personal weight coach?"  That's terrible!  I know when my DD was in Junior High and started to get a little thick, I thought long and hard about how to approach it with her, if at all.  Mostly I just stopped buying so much junk food and started focusing on healthy eating - for me - and occasionally shared with my DD how I was trying to move to healthier eating FOR MYSELF, without actually aiming anything her way if at all possible.

I have noticed at conferences that women from the south tend to have BIG hair and heels, and yes, polished nails.

3.5 miles for me today in 64 degrees.  My run felt pretty good today - less effort than usual.  I'll take it!

Thanks, Jay.  Steve- that sounds like a great opportunity for you and I hope it works out.  You are such a great employee and I hope you can spend the next years doing something that is a good and rewarding fit.

I wanted to wait until tomorrow to do my 8 miler over on the path, but it might rain tomorrow, so I did it today even though it is too close to Sunday's 10 miler.  I got it done- but it was warm and very humid.  I was OK in the shade- not so much on the unshaded parts.  8.1 miles done.  At least I had water fountains. 

We are getting a new roof due to hail damage that we didn't know we had.  The whole neighborhood was hit sometime last year, apparently.  We have a $5K deductible, so I'm not thrilled about that, but I'm impressed with the contractor who is a young man with an impressive business model.  He really hustles and will be around the neighborhood for a while!  Houses on each side of us are already done.  It's a scary thing to behold- the roofs are big and steep and it's REALLY hot up there.  It's about the worst job in the world to be on these roofing crews.

speaking of appearance and the work force - I wonder if Steve's glam lips will help give him an edge with the job opportunity? 

Up early for a 4 mile run in the cool air. 

Leslie - you follow an actual training schedule more than I do so take a look at your training runs for the upcoming 50K and let me know a couple weekends when you'll be doing 20 to 25 miles and I'll try to come down that weekend to do a training run together. What is the longest distance you usually run in prep for a 50K?

  Kinda like government jobs - they know who they're going to hire before they post it, but they have to post it anyway.

 

Some years back I applied for a paralegal job with the City of West Carrollton.  I, and about 150 other people, came in and took what I can only describe as the hardest English test I have ever taken.  And I am GOOD at English - I even placed out of and got a free credit for freshman English at Wittenberg U. when I went there, based on an essay.  But this test was HARD.  Anyway, my results were in the top 10, so I was invited back for an interview, and then later a second interview.  Eventually I got a letter saying they had chosen someone else.  Out of curiosity, I contacted the person I had been interviewed by, and asked, out of curiosity, what had made them not choose me.  She said that they had already chosen the person for the job before they even posted it, and in fact she had been working in it for MONTHS, but their charter required them  to advertise, test and interview people for the job, regardless.  I WAS SO ANGRY!  Not only had I wasted a lot of time on the process, but I spent so much time thinking and worrying about whether or not I would get the job - FOR NOTHING!

A few years later, a similar experience with a paralegal position with the county Prosecutor's office.  Out of 800 applicants, 200 were chosen for testing, and out of those, 7 were chosen for interviews.  I made it to the second interview, but was not selected for the job.  I didn't ask, but always wondered if they already had someone chosen for the role and were just wasting our time.

So recently, when I saw an ad for a paralegal position for another local city, and they were going to be testing for applicants at 5:30pm last week, and I told my DH, NOPE, I'm not even going to waste my time.  Of course there must be times when they (local city and county agencies) actually need to hire someone, but I am very hesitant even to try for those anymore.

I know, whine, whine, whine...

Leslie - beautiful picture!  Also, how many people show up for your hub's family reunions?

Tammy - out of 10 50ks I have run, I have never had a LR more than 23 miles in training for them.

Leslie: I wanna walk through Fern Canyon!

Tet: Your story yesterday reminded me about one of my business trips to Tokyo (Hino City) with my boss, who was a 6'4" ex-basketball player. We stayed in a sort of company dorm several blocks from the company HQ and walked through some neighborhoods to get there each morning (which I found absolutely fascinating). I remember one morning we passed a group of cute little kids in their uniforms on the way to school. They were so startled by us and by my boss particularly that they were wide-eyed, giggling, chattering, and pointing. So we ended up laughing along with them. I'm sure they told their schoolmates later about seeing a "giant Gaijin" on their walk!

Thanks to whoever started the "fat" discussion  for making me look more closely at my body in the mirror -- something that is generally anathema to me! Not pretty and now I might have to start doing something about it. Similar to others, I'm not overweight at all and probably weigh less than I have at any time since high school. But what slight excess is there is distributed around my waist in a rather unattractive way. Not a "potbelly" but more just loose floppy flab around my beltline. I'd post a picture but then you'd not be able to unsee it. Anyway, probably not a bad idea to gain control over some slipping eating habits.

Instead of going with my Tuesday group on a familiar route, I decided to ride on my own and explore a possible new route of interest. The route-finding was a success and it was a really nice day for a ride. I was originally going to go just 20 miles or so but ended up with 26 miles, all of it off-road (trail, path, sidewalk). And I now have a way to ride from home to a destination where I used to have to take my bike on a car carrier.