The (NOT SO) Skinny Girl

One year ago today I was in Italy. We went to Rome, Naples, the Amalfi Coast, and Florence. Last night, earthquakes ripped through the area. They occurred closest to Rome. Photographers and journalists rush to the area to report on it. side note-I'm glad you can make money off of other's misery. What I see in their photos is heartbreaking from all angles. First and Foremost- lives lost. God Speed. Secondly- history lost. Italy is full of beautiful old world charm. I can see it in the buildings reduced to rubble. They say they don't make them like they used to, but maybe someone should have done some inspection on those buildings and given them the support they need :( It doesn't matter what region, what town, what nation that tragedy strikes. It happens. And it makes you stop and think "what if". Photographers take pictures of bodies being extracted and carted away. Of broken people being rescued. Of broken buildings hiding sorrows. We think we are saf...

So I saw this today: And you know what my response to this meme is?? "What I would eat and what I care about other people eating are two different things" What I have eaten in that picture: chicken, cow, pig, duck What I would eat int hat picture: chicken, cow, pig, duck, rabbit, horse... dog or cat if that was a local specialty/delicacy Not pictured that I've eaten: Goat, fish, alligator, deer, bugs In my eyes, I do not believe that anyone should tell me what to eat and I shouldn't tell other people what to eat. YOU think dogs and cats are fuzzy cute companion animals. YOU think horses are companion animals. What YOU think and what (NAME ANY OTHER PERSON) thinks, believes, or knows is not the same thing. I think my micropig Tito is a family member and I would never eat his adorable little fat bacon filled body. But I eat bacon and pork in general. I think my Nigerian goat is a pain in the ass and I wouldn't eat his sinewy old ass even though he annoys me...

So there's a video on facebook (  https://www.facebook.com/attn/videos/1079636055405186/ ) That I saw and it really made me think.   After graduation and well into their 20s and 30s, many of today’s millennials continue to live childishly, so much so that the idea of behaving like an adult has become a joke with its own hashtag: #adulting. Per Urban Dictionary (because that's the only place to find definitions for stupid made up words- like BAE) Adulting   (v): to do grown up things and hold responsibilities such as, a 9-5 job, a mortgage/rent, a car payment, or anything else that makes one think of grown ups. Doing something grown-up and responsible (**MY FAVORITE**)  Being a responsible adult. Used by immature 20-somethings who are proud of themselves for paying a bill. Most appropriately:  Adulting (v): to carry out one or more of the duties and responsibilities expected of fully developed individuals (paying off that credit card debt, settling bee...

Someone shared this with me today and it evoked a lot of emotion in me. Maybe it will for you,too. The Awakening (Author unknown) A time comes in your life when you finally get…when, in the midst of all your fears and insanity, you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere the voice inside your head cries out…ENOUGH! Enough fighting and crying and blaming and struggling to hold on. Then, like a child quieting down after a tantrum, you blink back your tears and begin to look at the world through new eyes. This is your awakening. You realize it’s time to stop hoping and waiting for something to change, or for happiness, safety and security to magically appear over the next horizon. You realize that in the real world there aren’t always fairy tale endings, and that any guarantee of “happily ever after” must begin with you…and in the process a sense of serenity is born of acceptance. You awaken to the fact that you are not perfect and that not everyone will always love, appreciate or...

I was not against a black man for president. I was FOR his charismatic speeches that had grand ideas, which never came to fruition. I was also young and dumb. I also did not like the other candidate as much. So I cast a vote and hoped and hoped this man, no matter what color his skin was, he would hold true to his word. And there was a lot of disappointment. But there will always be. And I will remind the American public why- there is only so much the President of the United States can ACTUALLY DO. There is a system of checks and balances set up that restricts the President : That's just a little flashback to grade school when they taught us this.The president as a person does actually very little- but they are our elected representative to carry out the overall will and laws of the people and country as a whole. That being said... Now it's an uproar and a celebration because the first woman has won the presidential nomination. I'm a woman, girl power! But did you know?...

I have been catching up on this topic of a young woman who got drunk, and while drunk, was sexually assaulted by another drunk person-- who turns out to be a an outstanding student athlete at Stanford.  That being said. Let me tell you about a young woman who was sexually assaulted at a D 3 school.... That didn't make any headlines. In 2005 an 18 year old woman was drinking in the freshman dorms on campus.  She and a few friends went to a party in a 6-man suite. At some point, someone forcibly poured vodka down her throat from a handle. That's when things got out of control. (Now some may ask "How was she forced to drink??" Have you ever had someone bigger and stronger and taller than you make you do something? Even if it was the stupidest thing, other people can MAKE YOU do things. They can force you to do things. That is a reality. You didn't want to jump in the water- but it was a better alternative than being hit by that train/bus/car/person running at yo...

The question is- is getting skinny while trying to (or thinking about) getting pregnant futile? I mean, you will just gain weight while pregnant, right? I think there is no simple answer. I FEEL THAT (and most doctors would agree) no one should gain 80 freakin' pounds in their face, arms, thighs, and ass while pregnant. That is just the result of using pregnancy as an excuse to eat whatever you want and not think about the consequences. It may feel awesome to eat yourself into oblivion and blame it on the child growing inside of you- oh yes, I get it, you're "eating for 2"- but in reality that's not the truth. When you are pregnant, you should be just as aware IF NOT MORE about what you are putting into your body BECAUSE IT IS ULTIMATELY ENDING UP IN YOUR CHILD'S BODY. That being said, I read an article about two pregnant friends that had very different pregnancies. The model on the left is 4 months pregnant and her friend on the right is 5 months pregn...