Monday was great. Rejuvenating.
Hanging out with The Tornado/her friends and just *laughing* with moms I didn’t know well before yesterday.
For this misfit who can work too much & verge on being a hermit it was a *very* welcome weekday change.
Ill spare you the majority of the conversation details (oooh forshadowing! hints of post to come!), but as often happens when women gather our conversation turned fitness and weight-loss.
Fitness, weight-loss, and awkward life moments (to differentiate from negative self-talk, fat talk and other sorts of conversations this blogger works to avoid and/or turn to the positive).
And, as often happens with people who arent aware Ive not always been fit & healthy, one woman looked over at me and joked:
Can you even relate to any of our stories? I bet you cant, can you?
“Oh Sister,” I longed to say yet knew I didnt know her well enough for said sister reference. “I can relate. Ive been there, experienced that, and yes he thought I was pregnant.”
It would make for a better story, perhaps, to say Id entirely forgotten about these interactions until yesterday’s conversation, but I’d be lying.
I may have moved past—but I definitely remember.
The first was so predictably awkward & verging on trite it still feels as though it belongs more in a trashy TV sit com than in a real occurrence.
I was car shopping. I owned a large dog. I was aware I probably didnt want to own an almost-minivan sized car, but thought I’d wander around the *entire* lot before committing to a test drive.
(do you know where Im going with this?)
The salesman followed close behind making a valiant effort to spark & keep a conversation flowing.
(Im sure you can guess now?)
I approached the ‘too big for my needs but would rock with a dog’ vehicle. I opened the trunk, peered inside & tried to imagine my canine leaping into the back.
(now you know, yes?)
“Oh!! I see! Youre expecting!! How exciting!!” the salesman said as he scampered to my side.
I wasnt. And of course being who *I* was, I grew embarrassed for HIM.
The next interaction was far more humorous even in the moment, but also transpired in front of someone (someone I eventually married) I wanted to impress.
Ouch.
Three of us were hanging out and the conversation eventually turned to tattoos (shocking, I realize).
My then-boyfriend Ren Man said to his friend:
You should see the tattoo around her navel! Show him your Star of David!
Before I could we were distracted by something and it was only later I remembered I was going to show Ren Man’s (very fit) friend my navel art.
I got his attention, lifted my shirt slightly (just enough so he could see the ink) and waited to see what he thought.
Without missing a beat he glanced at my belly and said (loudly):
That’s not so bad. You can probably lose that pretty quickly.
Ouch.
Whats my point with all this?
In a small way it is a reminder never to judge a book by its cover a person by how s/he currently looks.
In a bigger way yesterday was a reminder for me of the positive-power of being able to laugh at situations & ourselves and how contagious laughter can be.
I didnt laugh back then. I only mildly chuckled a year or so later.
Yesterday, as we normalized each other’s experiences & laid witness to how far we’d each come (emotionally and physically), all of us were able to find at least some small humor in the awkward life experiences we shared.
Do you find yourself over-sharing these days or am I the only one whos apparently lost her filter?
Do you ever spy a fitleanbuff woman & assume she’s always looked that way?
Anyone wanna join me in calling a good, hearty belly laugh her exercise for the day?
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