Sloth, celery, & a people-watching extravaganza!

What the heck kind of a blog title is that? Well let me tell you, I have had a bunch of random thoughts moving across my consciousness over the Christmas Holidays. I decided to put them all together into one seemingly incohesive package.

First, I have been thinking about sloth, that nasty deadly sin that we all sidle-up beside from time to time, and ESPECIALLY over holidays. Having that extra helping of something when you are already busting at the seams, because it just tastes soooooo damned good. Having that extra drink even when you have a buzz-on already, ...and you are "trying" to lose weight ....and you KNOW that a drink packs the calories of a chocolate bar or more. I have been thinking about sloth in a slightly different light though. I have been looking at is as a mental health/addiction issue, which is just a bit more serious than "I'm at the buffet table again!"

I have jokingly said: "food is love" when I pass out cookies amongst girlfriends at work. But in all honesty, there is some truth to that statement as many of us women will attest to. I sometimes find myself munching (NOT like the After-School-Special on binge eating) at night before bed when I really don't need to. Its as if I am trying to soothe my various and sundry work/parenting/life-anxieties with food. Of course it doesn't work, of course it makes it worse in the long run. But, like the addict, I guess I do it because it feels good for the moment. Hmmm.

When I was running between 5&7km/day I was rarely hungry and I would eat good meals 3x/day - my portions then were much smaller than they are now. I rarely exercise now. I don't feel as good physically or emotionally as I did when I was running and eating properly. So whats up with that?

It doesn't make any sense, its as if my body&brain are working to lull me into an increasingly destructive lifestyle. Sounds like an addiction, eh? Hmmm.
It does not sound like the perfect design of something Godly does it?.....Hmmm.

About celery: Whilst rolling my grocery cart (yeah, the one with the wiggly wheel) yesterday, I inadvertently eavesdropped on a conversation between a man and a woman in their 40s in the produce aisle. It went something like this:

Mildred: (leaning toward her husband with a furrowed brow,& hands clasped) "Bud, I was thinking that maybe we should get some celery for the three layer-dip I have. I was thinking that thats what we could eat with it." She pauses and looks at him as if he is the all-knowing Guru of dip-decisions.

Bud: (stands up straighter, purses his lips, pauses for effect, then says while nodding slowly) "Yeah, I guess that would be ok".

Mildred:(seems to breathe a sigh of relief and then smiles, moving toward the blessed and approved celery stalk area)

Ok. I know that I am reading a lot into it, and I know that the couple's manner of decision-making could have more to do with health or monetary concerns than with the bias that I present............However....its my blog...heh heh so...

What gives!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?
Why do us women constantly put ourselves into the position of deferring to our men on every-bloody-thing? Buy the friggin celery if you want it! Tell him that its gonna happen! Its celery and not a house or a lazy-boy chair (something requiring a joint decision) When women start to consistantly prefer a partner's ideas over our own ideas we eventually lose ourselves entirely, and give the partner cause to first believe and then treat us like we are inept.

Why am I so whacked about this?
I guess because I grew up with it, and then I became it. Most of my friends grew up with it too. We watched our moms defer to our dads on everything. Dads were the kings. Dad got the good chair. Dad chose bacon over sausage for the meat ingredient in the hot endive salad even though the rest of us preferred sausage. Dads were kings. Moms were symbolically patted on their heads like good but stupid lap dogs. My marriage slid in this direction too. I must have contributed to it happening, I know I did. AAAUuuuuuuggghhhhh!

A people-watching extravaganza: The late-show on New Years Eve: Oh my goodness.
A friend and I were settling in to our seats as the new Will Smith movie "I Am Legend" began. In front of us there was a family of four: (from left to right) teenaged daughter, prepubescent brother, mom, then dad on the aisle seat. About 10 minutes into the movie the daughter got up, walked past her brother, past her mom and then finally past her dad. Then she high-tailed it down the aisle, around the corner and out. I didn't notice any reaction from the family probably because I wasn't looking for it, I just assumed she had to go pee or something. But, I did notice that the girl was very very skinny (like a skeleton with clothes-on skinny) that her hair was greasy and messy.

About 30 minutes later the dad got up and left, and I thought that he must be going to look for her. As a mom, I would have been worried too. They returned in about 5 minutes and the girl went straight to her seat and settled into a nap. I finally clued-in to the possibility that this might be a family dealing with a young heroin addict. An hour later the daughter, the son, and the mom were in a 3-heads-close-together hushed conversation, the dad looked disgusted as he leaned away from them in his seat with arms folded.

Suddenly the girl got up and left again - dad and mom followed her out this time. The brother looked so very alone, head down at first and then he looked up and watched the rest of the movie. Eventually the mom came back, and then later the dad and the daughter together about 5 minutes before the end of the movie. All four of them were, I'm sure, in their own type of hell-on-earth this New Years Eve. I said a little prayer for each of them, but I confess I did think selfishly, quietly, to myself: "God, please, please, don't let MY daughter be seduced by drugs"

While the sad mini soap-opera with the drug-crisis-family was playing-out in front of us, there was another family seated behind us who had chosen to bring their 6 year old daughter with them to this frightening and violent movie. WHAT THE HECK WERE THEY THINKING?, Pick another type of movie if you can't find a baby sitter! Anyway, later, when Will Smith's character was doing chin-ups in the movie, the little girl piped up and said "nice body", my friend and I cringed and looked at each other. I suspect that the girl's parents have exposed her to not only violent and scary material but to highly sexualized material too because it is not normal for a 6 year old to make such a comment unless she has been socialized to do so. Ick... Poor little thing.

Let me tell you folks, the people watching opportunities at the Movie Theatre did not stop here. To the left of the sexually inappropriate family, (just above and to the left of the drug-crisis family) there was a social worker with his adult-aged Downs Syndrome life-skills student: out for a nice night of Hollywood viewing. NOT. Through the whole movie, this young Downs Syndrome woman kept nervously giggling and saying loudly(regarding the bloodthirsty zombies) "Oh WOW, there gonna GET me!"

Then my friend commented that maybe the Movie Theatre was the only place that dry-drunks could go on New Years Eve because everyone else in their family and in their circle of friends would probably be out drinking. I wasn't sure what she was talking about until I looked over to her right on the opposite side of our aisle.

There were 3 separate men (all with baseball caps on coincidentally) not together, not with anyone else, just sitting each in their very own row watching the movie. Wow. Yeah, New Year's Eve would be difficult for an alcoholic wouldn't it?

We all struggle with something don't we?

Christmas blessings and happy New Year's wishes to all.