three things still make a post

Someone in the elevator was wearing my mom's favorite perfume this morning. She was also wearing a suit my mom would have loved -- but she was my age, which is probably the age she was when I imprinted on that perfume.

My current favorite reusable coffee mug at work looks like a disposable paper cup. I actually love drinking out of the squishy silicone lid, in exactly the same way that I love smooshy rubber keys on calculators and easy-grip handles. Occasionally it gets admiring comments, but I have to wonder if appearing to have a throwaway coffee cup reduces the quiet advocacy potential of reusable mugs in a workplace that strongly encourages the use of disposables.

aroraborealis sent me an adorable image, and now I want to paint little things like this all over:

conversations with Natalie

My hungry bee:



A conversation on the way to the Friendly Toast on Saturday, as we were both squeezing through a hole in a bench:

N: We're squeezing through a bench!
M: Yup!
N: And it's easier for me because I'm tiny and small, and you're big and... well, I mean, is it okay if I say "fat"?
M: Sure!
N: And you're big and fat!
M: That is exactly why it's easier for you.
N: Some people don't like it when you say "fat". But you don't mind.
M: Yeah, some people don't like it, especially if you try to use it as a mean word. I don't mind, though. I think it's just descriptive.
N: YOU'RE STEPPING IN LAVA! DON'T STEP IN THE LAVA!


(Most serious conversations with her end sort of like that.)

Complicated! Complicated. I really don't mind if she says I'm fat, because I am more on the round side than, say, dilletante; all I can do is model being happy and active and healthy in my body how it is. Conveniently, this is pretty easy for me. But, seriously, all the big conversations happen when you're doing and expecting something else, don't they? And they're gone so quickly.