tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46513332988470894972011-10-06T10:21:34.086-05:00a quiet site of good cheer, if few ambitionsAnn Painoreply@blogger.comBlogger1091100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-91113368285370871852009-07-16T22:27:00.004-05:002009-07-16T22:41:12.415-05:00

For those of you who were digging all the recent posts about my training for triathlon and are wondering what happened: No, I didn't stop training.But I did move my writing about triathlon to a new blog. It's called In This Body and it's dedicated to encouraging readers to enjoy their physical life in the body they happen to be in, starting today. A Sunny Hello will continue to be its own grab

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-8108703614889287342009-07-08T22:36:00.005-05:002009-07-08T23:16:59.447-05:00

So for the past couple of days I've felt sluggish and undermotivated. I'm not sure what's going on; is my body just not used to so much exercise all at once? Maybe. Maybe not.Don't get me wrong — I'm not unsettled by this in the least. My response is more of a "hm, that's annoying, what's that about" than an "oh no! I'm slacking off!" This little slowdown is just something to watch and learn

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-18364629787959598602009-07-07T18:19:00.012-05:002009-07-09T07:30:15.707-05:00

I like to hang out with people who love their sports. It's fun to hear runners talk about running; cyclists talk about cycling. The swimmers I know don't like to talk about swimming as much. Hm. I guess because you can't talk and swim at the same time.Anyway, I have noticed some breed-specific characteristics. Newbies, prepare yourselves for your new friends:SwimmersSwimmers talk in workout lists

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-26209046573369913142009-07-05T22:21:00.018-05:002009-07-05T23:48:33.693-05:00

Two and a half years of running, starting with my longest distance being 30 seconds. Two years of swimming, starting from a gasping, flailing, terrified 25 yards. Ten weeks of cycling after a break of two years (and the loss of confidence after a scary fall). Eight months of strength training, little by little, building basic balance, week in and out.And one year of accepting my body, just as it

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-28290485503913628422009-06-30T22:48:00.002-05:002009-06-30T22:55:18.934-05:00

Here's a tip for summer runs that take you past a creek or standing water. If you run into a cloud of mosquitos or gnats, turn your head and exhale back over your shoulder.Mosquitos are attracted to carbon dioxide. When you exhale over your shoulder, you can clear enough space to turn your face forward and inhale without sucking in a lot of incidental insect protein.Just be sure to alternate

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-76123959740306316132009-06-30T18:12:00.007-05:002009-06-30T18:27:56.895-05:00

Why would I step on a scale? Here I am, in a journey launched from the idea that food compulsion and weight obsession are dangerous, yet I step on a scale every morning. Why?I like facts. The more the better. My entire professional life and all my training have bent me to the habit of gathering lots of data, analyzing it, and making decisions based on the patterns that the data reveal.The number

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-75878072234407762102009-06-24T12:58:00.004-05:002009-06-30T22:11:45.813-05:00

I don't think of myself as a wealthy person. Our household depends on wages and needs to save for the future. But there is no way to look at myself as a triathlete and not understand exactly how wealthy I am.Cue the soundtrack...Consider the time it takes to train (one to two hours a day for the shortest distances). Add up the gear it takes if you even just want to finish comfortably without

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-26412446870429297082009-06-22T22:14:00.002-05:002009-06-30T22:11:45.814-05:00

My favorite thing about building an athletic life as a middle-aged woman is that every day there's some new lesson, some new thought. Every day there's some new way for my brain to feel good. When I started running three years ago I felt an edge of regret that I hadn't understood this when I was young.Moving toward triathlon, new ideas hit so fast and so hard, there's no time for regret. I don't

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-62212180907266108992009-06-21T21:29:00.006-05:002009-06-30T22:11:45.814-05:00

OK, triathlon pals: here's my training plan.The brown blocks are planned training; the red blocks are actual training. The A, B, and C indicate general times of day.

Ann Painoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-85582795845854315832009-06-19T17:29:00.006-05:002009-06-30T22:11:45.814-05:00

I swam in open water for the first time this week. I joke with people that the 120-acre lake in Shawnee Mission Park is more like water left slightly ajar. In the slight breeze, the only chop was generated by the swimmers; the 200-meter triangle buoy course never takes you more than 10 or so long strokes from chest-deep water.I was nervous anyway, with the kind of nerves generated when you want

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-3094095690753917042009-06-18T23:45:00.005-05:002009-06-30T22:11:45.815-05:00

Forty-two. Graying. 185 pounds and slope-shouldered. Runs an 11:00 mile and has had to work 2 years to get to that point. Double-chinned. Soft. Round. Was forty before getting past anxiety with her face in the water. Has never in her life been athletic.An everyday woman, an everyday-looking woman, who would have laughed you off a year ago if you'd told her what she'd be doing now. Who is in the

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-34943744606352863812009-06-15T22:13:00.005-05:002009-07-09T13:43:23.550-05:00

Too old. Too fat. Waaaaay too slow. Too weak. Too uncoordinated. But just determined enough not to believe any of that. That's me, the unlikely triathlete. I hope these posts make you want to try something you don't think you can do. It might be the most fun you ever had!Triathlon PostsWhy Triathlon?Open Water : My first open water swim.My SuperpowerRich Person's SportMM, Tasty : How to avoid

Ann Painoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-32459569358725614762009-03-25T05:00:00.005-05:002009-03-25T13:50:25.330-05:00

If you live with an eating disorder now or in your past, be aware that material at these links is not friendly to your disorder.After I read this excellent post by Erica at Shakesville yesterday, then this one by Rachel Hills, about a truly vile Cosmo article, I walked around all afternoon with my memories of triggered binge episodes alternately roiling and going icy numb. I left the following in

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-33835140229363283592009-03-04T12:20:00.004-06:002009-03-04T12:55:16.883-06:00

About two years ago, my housemate (who is also my husband) staged a domestic revolution. He no longer lowered the toilet seat.He clarified for me that hinting, straightforward statements of preference, and sullen looks (the last after butt-first plunges into an open bowl) were not only of no use but were logically unfounded. This is how the conversation went over a few weeks.Me: Please put the

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-614893553778145582008-10-17T19:15:00.007-05:002009-06-30T18:04:48.378-05:00

I have invented a word. And yes, it belongs here under "Happy Body Day."The word is "splurdle."Splurdle, v.t., (splurdling, splurdled). To masturbate as a female. Curiously, she often thought of gingerbread men when she began to splurdle. Also n., the act or sensation of masturbation as a female. I could use a good splurdle right now. Oh, how we've needed this word! "Masturbate" is a seriously

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-14395308226401737602008-10-14T06:00:00.001-05:002009-06-30T18:02:20.256-05:00

Peaceful moments I have known: The obliterated space after sex when trust has displaced breathing. The half-second of propulsion underwater before my body lifts toward the surface. The pass of my hand on my sister's fresh grave in grief more pure and isolating than anything I have felt before or since. These are my basis for comparison.I'm greedy for peace in reading. It's inexcusable. Isn't it

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-15996282065716864992008-08-26T15:54:00.007-05:002009-06-30T18:02:20.256-05:00

Not sure why you love this book so much. Lacks cooking instructions.

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-25559831788196112008-08-23T16:27:00.008-05:002009-06-30T18:04:48.378-05:00

This week I was interviewed for a television news segment about fat bias in medicine and how it affects patient care. I was solicited for this interview because of my experience watching my sister, a 550-pound patient, die after a 6-week hospital stay in 2001.Before the interview, I thought long and hard about what I was and wasn't willing to say.For instance, I'm not willing to make broad,

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-66709813089730271462008-08-21T21:26:00.008-05:002009-06-30T18:04:05.741-05:00

Last Friday, the amazing DebraSY was contacted by the local Fox news medical reporter as a source for a long-form story on fat bias in medicine and how it affects patient care. Debra referred Ms. McKean to me.That's how my book and I came to be sitting, in my sunroom, in front of a camera yesterday. I had about 48 hours to prepare, so I thought I'd share with you what I'd do again and what I wish

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-62336962394439900012008-08-12T22:03:00.007-05:002009-06-30T18:02:20.257-05:00

Although I've had a volume of Grace Paley's Begin Again on my shelf for some time, her posthumous collection Fidelity is the first of her collections I've read.It's one of a handful of books of poetry I've read all the way through, late into the night, slowly, hearing the words out loud in my head, with someone half-sleeping beside me and wishing I would turn off the light.I read Grace Paley and

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-4102461535972755322008-08-08T14:28:00.004-05:002009-06-30T18:04:48.378-05:00

This week I was standing in a convenience store watching people come and go for a couple of minutes and listening to myself describe them in my mind.And I realized something wrong about how I was doing it. I was using adjectives.We're taught to do this early. "Blonde woman. Black teenager. Fat man. Poor family." We're taught that adjectives are how we describe people.But adjectives are not the

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-43955265893220199472008-08-07T22:02:00.003-05:002009-06-30T18:04:05.741-05:00

The marketing pieces I've been working on through the year are finally coming together. The first issue of The Sunburst newsletter is out to the test audience (read: my close friends who I trust not to flag it as spam).And the Sunspot Press web site is expanded and now includes an essays and poems section, with more essays to come on weight, size, fat, and eating.A couple of things about all this

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-84955458093569384772008-08-05T22:38:00.004-05:002009-06-30T18:02:20.257-05:00

When last I wrote on books and poems day, we had started a bit of conversation about the merits of translations of Dante's Inferno.Because of this, I re-read the Pinsky translation that had originally weighed so heavy on me and did some thinking about translations. I loved what Burning Prairie noted in the comments:"When it comes to translations of any kind, Italian poets, drearyRussians, Bibles,

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-83858644733697010792008-08-04T21:41:00.009-05:002009-06-30T17:58:53.172-05:00

I don't know your last name or whether you spell your first name with a K or a C. I don't know your address or your phone number.I can't give you a proper thank you for your kindness. So I'll tell the fine folks out there about it and ask them to pass a thanks to someone in their own lives in your honor.Three weeks ago, you stopped your run to help me where I sat stunned and bleeding on the

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-66108347753855742282008-06-30T21:55:00.002-05:002009-06-30T17:58:53.173-05:00

Two things amaze me about your artisan bread: how good it is and how much of it you make. It's everywhere around the city! That's some operation.I like knowing that you're a family-run company. It's not an insignificant thing to build the knowledge of a business and a craft into the raising of children who then want to contribute to the business in their adulthood.I like knowing that Farm To

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-28374483408583968442008-06-17T21:38:00.005-05:002009-06-30T18:02:20.257-05:00

Today's lesson is: when you want to read poetry in translation, don't read the version by the best translator. Read the version by the best poet.I started reading The Inferno this week. Now, I've had a beautiful Italian copy for years and had been slogging through it a verse at a time, intermittently. Finally I decided I just wanted to read the thing, my intellectual machismo be hanged, and

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-62703255921823972792008-06-16T21:56:00.009-05:002009-06-30T17:58:53.173-05:00

I looked up "caudal regression syndrome" to learn what you'd been living with since the day you were born. And I grasp the basics: your spine is shaped differently from most people's. The base of your spine wasn't formed the way mine was.That's why you move in a wheelchair. That's why your life and health have been, your whole life, uncertain in a way mine haven't. You have had to face your

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-78058993746097699762008-06-13T22:13:00.007-05:002009-06-30T18:04:48.379-05:00

It wasn't because I'd stopped losing weight.That's what I told people, because it was an easy reason to understand. Why pay $12 a week to weigh in and hear the same sessions you've already heard two years in a row if you're not losing any weight?My weight and my eating and exercise habits appeared to have stabilized (down past, then back up) at 180 pounds - well over the goal weight I'd set with

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-17750987118221802012008-06-12T21:22:00.005-05:002009-06-30T18:04:05.741-05:00

Six people have asked me this week for some form of status on my writing projects. It seems I'm due for a progress report.Category: My Other BodyThe web site is almost ready to re-launch. Once that happens, several new marketing projects can roll into place quickly. I'm working on the five hardest pages now - all landing pages, which are supposed to hold the reader and get you to click around the

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-50767120303002485512008-06-07T20:33:00.006-05:002008-08-07T22:35:54.546-05:00

OK, the news first. I tanked on the hill. I walked it up.But don't go all consoling me, 'cause I don't want it. Here. At this point in my running career it's a gain to find out where the bottom of my energy tank is. And the only way to find out is to get out there and run hard runs. I ran my run.Want to see it? Check out the slideshow, courtesy of N. and his amazing photographer's eye. Click the

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-32718908471097824252008-06-06T21:24:00.006-05:002009-06-30T18:04:48.379-05:00

So tomorrow is Hospital Hill. My goal is to make it up the big hill (that's a half mile solid on a sturdy grade -- click Show Elevation here for a peek). That's it. For me this race is about strength and about not giving up.Yeah, I'm wearing a stopwatch and yeah, I want to know my time. But the challenge and my goal is to make it up the hill. To have built the strength I need with my work over

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-66389071215126310802008-06-03T21:18:00.002-05:002009-06-30T18:02:20.258-05:00

In honor of Hospital Hill 5K week, I bring you today a few of the books that have proven as tough for me to get through as Hospital Hill is to run.I labor on, of course, in the belief that someday I'll finish each of these. I just have to train properly, that's all.#1 - The Inferno, Dante Alighieri. I've tried in English. I've tried in Italian. It's the neverending book. I want to love it, I

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-89231983808469280112008-06-02T21:59:00.006-05:002009-06-30T17:59:32.862-05:00

Thank you for your work as the Hospital Hill Race Director. I can't imagine what's involved in that job -- corralling sponsors, superintending the course, tracking funds, advertising, managing registration -- there must be fifty other things you have to think about and touch in the course of the day to pull off an event of this size.I hope you hit the 5,000-runner mark. Partly because of the

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-91470473814319637462008-06-02T21:45:00.005-05:002008-08-07T22:37:52.696-05:00

Hey! It's Hospital Hill week! Because I can hardly think about anything else, guess what this week's posts will all be related to. I can't believe it's almost here. Do you hear it? This is the excitement of the chubby girl who believed it when her coach told her she shouldn't try to run.This is the fist-pump of the woman who ran anyway -- who didn't let the number on the scale say she couldn't,

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-46525912119544177572008-05-29T22:08:00.004-05:002009-06-30T18:04:05.742-05:00

Seriously. I need one of those U.S. map puzzles. Or maybe some ginkgo biloba. "I'm driving to Minnesota on my next trip," says my spouse."What," I say, "Up through North Dakota?"And there is an abrupt pause on the other end of the line before he tells me which state is actually between our house and Minnesota. And I hate it, because he's the person I most want to sound smart in front of.I used to

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-68312877226254406852008-05-28T21:43:00.007-05:002008-05-28T22:23:57.331-05:00

So, as I do on every birthday, I call my parents. "Hello," says my mom."Thank you," I say.And, like every other year, she says, "For what?" Long pause. "Oh! You're welcome!"Then I have the exact same conversation with my dad.I also talked to my father-in-law, who informed me with great mock gravity that my birthstone is agate, my flower is the rose, my colors are sky blue and black (black and

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-87645021798372892352008-05-23T21:38:00.004-05:002009-06-30T18:04:48.379-05:00

For the last year or so, I've been reading in the fat acceptance community of blogs (start here, here, or here). And for the last little while, I've been reading everything I can find in that community and outside. It's consumed a good part of my day.I've been reading not to figure out which camp I align with and which politics and frames of reference I'll espouse, but to inform what *I* think

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-51678832112242125292008-05-21T21:15:00.005-05:002009-06-30T18:03:27.812-05:00

If you have the blahs, try making a few reverse prank calls. It can perk you right up to wield the power of raining unpredictable pleasantness down on people's poor tired heads.Here's how it works.List three businesses that a) you frequented in the past 7 days, b) provided even adequate customer service, and c) provided a product or service you needed.Look up the phone numbers of these

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-37542815505785176552008-05-20T17:55:00.004-05:002009-06-30T18:02:20.258-05:00

So. I keep going back to my bookshelves thinking this time I will find her, my lost Anna Akhmatova. This time she will be there in her light green Penguin binding. I don't remember lending her. I don't remember moving her.She's not there. I miss her. Marina Tsvetaeva misses her with me.from "Poems for Akhmatova"You block out everything, even the sun at its highest, hold all the stars in your

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-85424123423325179862008-05-15T21:13:00.007-05:002009-06-30T18:04:05.742-05:00

Because I love my cat and because the futon from which she supervises me is covered with file folders, I am writing only a short note tonight.This, too, is required in the life of a writer/self-publisher. I'm re-organizing my filing system to make room for new projects. It's a mess. I hate throwing things away. I'm not very good at deciding where to put them, either. I'll stare at some random

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-15002203791212930622008-05-13T21:22:00.006-05:002009-06-30T18:02:20.258-05:00

Because the public libraries have been so wonderful where I've lived for the past 12 years, I haven't indulged in collecting books the way I used to. But I so enjoy time spent with the books I cannot explain owning.I mean, I know why I have a copy of The Well-Wrought Urn and The Letters of Thomas Wolfe. But who knows what compels a person to own a copy of The Curious Lore of Precious Stones? Or

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-22113529501545270622008-05-12T21:03:00.006-05:002009-06-30T17:59:32.862-05:00

Though I cannot name you, I am thinking of a specific "you." You have been a volunteer for many years.I have said a volunteer's goodbye only twice now. I did not understand before I started this work what that goodbye might cost.I've said two painful goodbyes in my own life, to people too young to have imagined their deaths and too close to me not to be completely changed by their absence. Loss

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-2708931112985870222008-05-08T23:01:00.004-05:002009-06-30T18:04:05.742-05:00

So -- after the research, the plotting, the getting inside of characters' heads -- after all the figuring out and waiting and germinating -- the novel is MOVING.How does it feel? Pretty much exactly like this:Yup. I'm strapped in and can't jump free. It's moving so fast that I'm scared pantless the whole thing is going to blow up in my face and leave a huge crater and a bit of wispy detritus that

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-37773451227736148422008-05-07T23:20:00.005-05:002008-08-07T22:38:14.715-05:00

So N. took up running this week. It'll be easier for him to work out when he's on the road, running shoes being so much the lighter to pack than a road bicycle.I admit to an uncharitable spasm of jealousy at the fact that he is faster and stronger than I am. It's passed because it was stupid, really. Not only is he lighter and a 100-miler on a bicycle -- but I never cared about being the fastest

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-66746918045076017222008-05-06T22:13:00.009-05:002009-06-30T18:02:20.258-05:00

Three books to tug on whatever iconoclastic threads lie pulsing away in the dark of your heart -- no, not the top three books. (Sweet lord, what would I have to believe of myself for that?!)Nope -- just three that I found on my shelf. Read one of these when you feel humdrum and of little purpose and need to find proof of passion resonating inside yourself.The Prince, by Niccolo MachiavelliDon't

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-89589467323141223522008-05-05T21:30:00.007-05:002009-06-30T17:59:32.863-05:00

I want to say something sophisticated here and all I come up with is oh WOW sir you're so cool. How did I never hear about you before today? How glad am I that I heard of you now?You inspire me, sir, to pursue a project-based life with greater vigor. (Indeed, to pursue vigor with greater vigor.) I believe we're meant to lead lives mapped through our projects rather than inertly rolling through

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-14578882076067601152008-04-28T21:29:00.007-05:002009-06-30T17:59:32.863-05:00

I don't know whose brainchild the Couch-to-5K running program was, but it's your names in the company info and byline at coolrunning.com, so to all of you, from the bottom of my feet all the way up through my heart, thank you.I'm sure you'll be kind enough to share my thanks with the others who came up with this program and watched it grow over the years. Please count me as one of your success

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-85405215119697889242008-04-27T21:17:00.007-05:002008-04-27T21:45:24.109-05:00

Some lessons I learned from the 20th Annual Trolley Run:I can run 4 miles without breaking pace. Yes I can.Paradox: I can probably run it faster than I did and yet I did my best.If it's 45 degrees out, it might be okay to go with short sleeves, but wear gloves.For goodness' sake, wear gloves.The Trolley Run raises money for the Children's Center for the Visually Impaired. More than 10,000 people

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-76221862026576168552008-04-22T21:37:00.005-05:002009-06-30T18:02:20.259-05:00

Many happy returns of the day. Here is my laurel on the waves, a poem by Robinson Jeffers.Their Beauty Has More MeaningYesterday morning enormous the moon hung low on the ocean,Round and yellow-rose in the glow of dawn;The night-herons flapping home wore dawn on theirwings. Todayblack is the ocean, black and sulphur the sky,And white seas leap. I honestly do not know which dayis more beautiful.I

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-4180922192791384032008-04-18T21:37:00.013-05:002009-06-30T18:04:48.380-05:00

My friend and colleague Debra Sapp-Yarwood wrote this column in the Kansas City Star. (The original, much better title was "Why I Hate the Word Lifestyle and You Should Too.") Debra's one of the few writers you'll find talking with authority about living a joyful life, starting right where you are.And her article is as fine an introductory point as you could want to the ideas of the fat

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-62822131830551339992008-04-17T20:17:00.003-05:002009-06-30T18:04:05.742-05:00

If you don't write the book that's growing in your head, what happens to the book as long as you're not writing? Does it spoil like milk or does it age like wine?I suppose if you never write it you never have to find out, but friends, I'm not going to be that lucky. I'm going to have to take that first sip after all.How do I know it? Because I remember writing the first book. I remember the

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-16394669135198433262008-04-16T22:14:00.009-05:002009-06-30T18:03:27.812-05:00

So I'm finding ways to preserve my fond memories other than hanging onto unused objects. One way is to create a digital library of objects that help me recall times and places.For instance, I took this picture of my LC Smith manual typewriter about two years ago. The typewriter, on which I never typed anything, sat in the basement for years.I wouldn't part with it because (a) a dear friend had

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-14696910016317272742008-04-15T22:34:00.006-05:002009-06-30T18:02:20.259-05:00

In a previous post about the novel Kavalier and Clay, I said this:I'm still musing over the poison pill in the bon-bon of the ending: Sammy leaveshis son. I don't care if the kid knows the biology of this triangle. Sammy'sbeen his dad, and he leaves, with just a cryptic little promise of continuityscratched onto a business card. It's just hard to swallow that the kid reallydoesn't care except in

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-71462255879464012782008-04-04T22:08:00.003-05:002009-06-30T18:04:48.380-05:00

While I was down with a respiratory virus in January and February, I could hardly climb the stairs without coughing, much less keep to my schedule of 2 and 3-mile runs. And all I wanted to eat was chicken noodle soup and pineapple sherbet.With these two breaks in my habits, I gained seven pounds over two months. My clothes are still tight. But you know what?A few years ago this weight gain would

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-49789357433066866342008-04-02T22:24:00.004-05:002009-06-30T18:04:05.742-05:00

At my job as a technical writer (or as we're calling ourselves now, content specialist) there are weeks when a host of small projects swarms up and prevents me from zeroing in on the main piece of writing I need to do.I call these small projects chiggers.I'm in a similar spot at home. The characters in my novel are practically shouting at me, pleading with me. I HAVE TO WRITE THEM. It is not an

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-77228390928182680632008-04-01T21:25:00.009-05:002009-06-30T18:03:27.812-05:00

I'm a pack rat because I'm afraid of losing my memories. Objects and scraps of paper are time machines. No. They turn me into a time machine. I touch them and am peopled, am an atlas of places down to the last blade of grass, am shivering with textures and smells and with the person I was when this bit of matter mattered to me.I have invested things with myself, which directly contradicts my wish

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-49312335066329189302008-03-24T21:58:00.002-05:002009-06-30T18:01:32.919-05:00

In 1967, when nobody had dreamed of calling you the high priestess of anything, you were just Alice, new graduate, ready to travel the world.When you came back from France and you were missing your friends and the long nights of conversation over delicious food prepared with fresh, local ingredients, you were Alice, a young woman restless and active and hatching a project.When you went

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-21981709955501479172008-03-21T11:20:00.004-05:002008-03-21T11:38:08.968-05:00

And because I am channelling Lucy Ricardo this week, everything I have touched has gone bananas and my attempts at fix or cover-up have only made things worse. (Remind me to tell you the one about the curtain rod, the garbage disposal, and the superglue.)The carnival of errors did not spare my newly inherited, much faster laptop, which I promptly mucked up while copying settings from my old

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-29668446815745212212008-03-10T22:43:00.004-05:002009-06-30T18:01:32.919-05:00

I had a tooth filled last week and am writing to thank you. So you're the one! The developer of resin composite!I always wonder when I'm in the dentist's chair who's responsible for the tools, the techniques, and the exotic substances -- the gummy ones, the acid ones, the ones they claim taste like grape or bubble gum. (You know they don't, right?) As a veteran of metal braces and that awful

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-19436228319028985102008-03-05T21:54:00.006-06:002008-03-05T22:47:17.435-06:00

This past weekend I joined N. for three days in the Santa Barbara, California area. (I'll post the pics as soon as I can get them off the camera -- stop back to see them.) Our adventures:1) We walked around Solvang and Los Olivos. Solvang: Many Danish bakeries and shops of pretty doo-dads. And wine tastings, though we held out instead for an olive oil tasting at Global Gardens in Los Olivos. We

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-43575115586370594752008-03-04T22:18:00.009-06:002009-06-30T18:02:20.259-05:00

I've procrastinated writing about Kavalier and Clay, the Pulitzer winner by Michael Chabon. I enjoyed reading it so much that I sped through it with my critical commentary function on mute. I'm afraid I won't do it justice after a few weeks away, but there's no way I'm re-reading it just yet.It's worth re-reading, but there's too much in the queue. Here's my first shot at it, and I may take

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-18194719922349839732008-02-28T12:09:00.005-06:002009-06-30T18:04:05.743-05:00

Here's a quick update on Sunspot Press and on the novel.I'm working on a complete overhaul of the Sunspot Press web site. The new site will give you some idea of where I want to take Sunspot Press over the next few years. I'll be launching it simultaneously with a new, quarterly e-mail newsletter and the announcement to launch this blog.If all goes well, this will happen by March 15. It's a lot

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-23093235339645120542008-02-26T22:32:00.005-06:002009-06-30T18:02:20.260-05:00

How'd I forget to mention it?Since I've been reading and thinking about privilege and how it shapes narrative, you'd think it would have been the first thing I told you.Since I was on the lookout for the word "privilege" anyway, the first time our narrator Mr. Zuckerman used it to contextualize an acquaintance, it glowed off the page as if under a black light.But here it kept coming, faster and

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-16476102777131300192008-02-18T23:37:00.007-06:002009-06-30T18:01:32.919-05:00

As I sit writing this letter to you, I'm drinking club soda out of a plastic bottle and thinking that if it weren't for reading about your work, I might never confront the question: is it worth it?Some of my friends who read this may never have heard about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It sounds unbelievable the first time you hear about it: a continent twice the size of Texas, composed of

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-89922284230198975632008-02-12T21:19:00.009-06:002009-06-30T18:02:20.260-05:00

I've just finished reading Exit Ghost by Philip Roth and Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. More on K&C next week. Here we go:The fragility of age in Water for Elephants was of a souvenir champagne glass that might break. In Exit Ghost it is of a bone that is just about to break. You can hear it.Nathan Zuckerman pays a lot of attention to what his fetish-woman Jamie is wearing. He comments on

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-87752730471365755652008-01-30T17:40:00.000-06:002008-01-30T21:18:19.369-06:00

Sometimes, toward the end of a dark day, the sun will peel down like a long blue piece of weatherstripping. Things that are still and quiet stand oddly bright and dignified.The things that are noisy dissolve and the things that are still and quiet rule in that fading gray rafter of sunlight.And you want some way to express this and fold it up in your pocket at the same time, how much you were not

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-10571087065921690742008-01-24T23:38:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:04:05.743-05:00

Maybe the reason people believe that writing is a path to money and fame is that without a dream of payoff, the effort seems insane. So here.One of my characters is a jazz musician. Of all the characters upstairs, he's my favorite. He's a polymath. I don't know that I could ever write from his POV because his mind works so much more quickly and on so many more levels at once than mine does. I

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-66953290820402796542008-01-22T22:01:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:02:20.260-05:00

There's so much to read. Every day there's more. I'll never have time to read it all, yet feel I must or be a charlatan when I write.I visit the library, or I sit here at my desk amid piles of books waiting to be read, and feel small and ignorant and at the same time the richest woman in the world. I am the richest woman in the world. I can read whatever I choose.Yet, surrounded by untouched

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-50994860616915778982008-01-21T19:24:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:01:32.919-05:00

Thank you for being such a good neighbor to my parents all these years. Who helped my dad chainsaw up all those fallen trees after the ice storm? You did. Who's always been there if my folks needed anything? You have.It's been a comfort knowing you were there.Remember that time Mama called me and the only words she got out were: "Ann, your daddy..." before the call dropped? When I couldn't reach

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-56166497979781249772008-01-14T20:14:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:01:32.920-05:00

I can't imagine what fan letters could mean to you. After all the Grammys and acclaim, what can a fan letter mean?It's not even your music I want to thank you most for. It's your example of how to work as an artist and keep your spirit balanced.I want to thank you first for how much work you've done and how many different kinds of work you've pushed yourself to do. A lot of advice is given to

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-27006227945719155852008-01-11T22:23:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:04:48.380-05:00

I can. . .be thin . . . and a compulsive eaterbe fat . . . and never eat compulsivelyeat more than my body needs . . . yet not eat compulsivelyeat compulsively . . . yet not eat more than my body needsMy eating behavior affects my body . . .. . . but is a DIFFERENT PHENOMENON from my size. . . . . . . . .and no one can judge my behavior only by looking at my size.

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-64566305914686279262008-01-10T22:51:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:04:05.743-05:00

I've been thinking more about Tulia, the character from The Sidewalk Artist. She's a white, college-educated woman in her mid-twenties who is not yet financially independent of her rich boyfriend. Her pressing dilemmas are (1) how to end her relationship with a man who has paid for her extended vacation in Europe so he can cheat on her in her absence and (2) getting past her writer's block.The

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-35294989466372279852008-01-08T20:23:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:02:20.260-05:00

One of my book club books this month is The Sidewalk Artist, by Gina Buonaguro and Janice Kirk. It's a romance set primarily in Italy; the main character, Tulia, is a woman of moderate but informed intelligence and very little angst in her mid-twenties who has a strange affair with an artist while researching an idea for a historical novel about the painter Rafaello.Here's what I like about it.It

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-22211205512280770102008-01-05T19:49:00.000-06:002008-01-05T19:57:16.004-06:00

I cough. His hand, stretchedthrough the choked kernel of nightto my back, is love.

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-76944838597384342252008-01-04T14:34:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:04:48.380-05:00

I propose that every company, non-profit, and higher education institution do the following annually for its employees.On November 1, distribute to each permanent employee a large canister of disinfecting wipes for our hard surfaces and a full-size pump bottle of hand sanitizer, along with the reminder that we're encouraged to go home and stay home as soon as we realize we're contagious.If your

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-32310768249158867622008-01-02T16:43:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:03:27.813-05:00

The combination of heat, sweet, and tartness in this recipe has its checks and balances -- each flavor can be disagreeable on its own, but is enhanced by the other two.I learned this sore throat remedy from my Aunt Mickey, who got it from her daughter Maritha, rest in peace her colorful stories, witty patience, enormous vocabulary, and even larger heart.Two things recommend this concoction: first

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-76774482580811328352008-01-01T22:06:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:02:20.260-05:00

One of my favorite books in my library is "Translations from the Chinese by Arthur Waley," the 1941 edition (or as the title page would have it -- New York: Alfred A. Knopf: Mcmxli).It's not reasonable to say that I love Chinese poetry, having never read it. I love these translations of Chinese poetry, and I love Mr. Waley's passion for the poetry and the language and his notes about the poets'

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-70555877523860723332007-12-31T09:03:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:01:32.920-05:00

I'm intrigued by the amount of controversy and speculation over your brilliant online effort, freerice.com.Some people say that since you aren't a registered charity, your effort is suspect. Some use guesswork data to try to calculate how much money you must be skimming off the top. Some grouse that 10 grains of rice isn't that much.I am intrigued that people (a) have this need to grouse, henpeck

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-78330255962490659512007-12-27T18:00:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:04:05.743-05:00

My friend Amy and I have staged a writer's retreat for ourselves in the days following Christmas. We've rented a cabin near Table Rock Lake in southern Missouri and have spent the past couple of days making real progress on our novels.Coming into this trip, I was stuck in a tight corner. I've done all this research and pages and pages of writing about the characters and I had outlined the story

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-87501112472298508222007-12-22T15:24:00.000-06:002007-12-22T16:09:36.478-06:00

My adventure this weekend is a sort of cave exploration. I am top-roping my way down into the pile of research I've done for my novel, taking an inventory, and figuring out what to pack for my writer's retreat next week.Doesn't a writer's retreat sound glamorous? Two writer friends, two days in a lake cabin, and reasonably mild winter weather.Yes, writing always sounds glamorous until you try to

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-49853665726310067752007-12-18T21:31:00.000-06:002007-12-18T22:19:02.794-06:00

I dream sometimes of living near the library at Alexandria. In my dreams, the rooms are filled with natural light which never ages the books. At night, I can see the stars through high windows.Every book on every shelf is one that will make me glad to have read it. When I pull down a book, I know that reading it will make me feel wonderful -- challenged, stretched, encouraged, comforted,

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-4464097845834838212007-12-17T12:45:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:01:32.920-05:00

Thank you for helping make therapy dogs a reality in the United States. If you hadn't stepped up, it still would have happened -- it's too good an idea not to take root. But wow, think of the massive organizational and publicity work required to build the foundation for therapy dog programs! Think of the raised eyebrows of the first person you told this idea to!Those of us who walk around sound

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-58764494987745415132007-12-14T22:50:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:04:48.381-05:00

Anybody who's managing even mild depression or seasonal affective disorder knows about the voices in the head."He doesn't really love me.""I'm no good at my job; they can tell I'm not happy; they're going to fire me.""What if I left the stove on and the house caught on fire and the cat ran upstairs and the dog was stuck in her crate and the flames were leaping?"But I can rob those voices of their

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-333887626223269192007-12-12T21:31:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:03:27.813-05:00

You never know which way this is going to dodge, do you?It's a makeup tip. Are you kidding? This is tame enough for Seventeen Magazine. I just learned it from a dear friend who stripped professionally. Her signature song was Aerosmith's "Rag Doll." She also gave me my first and only diamond jewelry, a pendant in the shape of a heart. Leaning down from her 5'11" height, she draped its teeny gold

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-40778356233920127012007-12-11T21:58:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:02:20.261-05:00

1) Reading poems out loud will teach you something interesting. It's so cool - you have to try it!2) "The Man With The Blue Guitar" is a wonderful poem to memorize and recite to one's cat.3) Wallace Stevens is the poet to read when the world feels noisy and you feel jangled and as though everything you say hits a wrong note. When you need to feel for once as though you have laid things down in

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-46987535488565194072007-12-10T06:30:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:01:32.921-05:00

Thank you for working to de-ice the Kansas City streets. In eight years, this is the best prepared and most effective I've seen your crews. It can't be an easy job and it's not a glamorous one. But safe roads completely change the character and mood of the city.I know that Tuesday's predicted ice storm may be a harsher test. But after driving to the airport late last night and then across town

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-31364160557069950952007-12-05T22:03:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:03:27.813-05:00

But this is a good tip anyway. I didn't make it up. One of the strongest and most fun women I've ever known told it to me.Sometime you may find that an unpleasant person has worked a path into your brain. You may find yourself thinking about the person, about what they have done to you, about how you would have responded had you only thought of it. You may allow this person to cause you stress,

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-42680028069557585192007-12-04T22:27:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:02:20.261-05:00

A woman who lives too far away from me to visit has shared her life with me. She is kind, generous, ready to laugh, and deeply loyal to her friends and family. Life has tried to drag some ruts in her. She considered it plowing and planted crops.Lately she has been battling an illness that her doctors have not been able to identify. They are telling her that because no test has been conclusive

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-61781498169115897712007-12-03T17:26:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:01:32.921-05:00

As CEO of Avalon Natural Products, you are positioned to pass my thanks to the appropriate vice president, management, and marketing teams.From my ankles and all the way up, thank you for correctly executing on the single one thing that all the other shave cream and foam manufacturers have gotten entirely, stupefyingly wrong.You and the Alba Botanicals team put the shave cream in a plastic

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-25390216010432026642007-12-01T12:11:00.000-06:002007-12-01T13:21:01.935-06:00

My dog has white hairs.She's been sweet for so long now,her sugar's showing.

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-54528880615496563532007-11-30T12:12:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:04:48.381-05:00

I am not a broken thin person.My bald father is not a broken curly-haired person, nor a broken young person. My alcoholic uncle was not a broken sober person. My young friend who lives on the east side of Kansas City is not a broken suburbanite.No matter how we got to our current states, we are in this moment who we are. I am not going to wait until I am "fixed" to do all the things advertisers

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-86954193500368315242007-11-29T14:03:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:04:05.743-05:00

So I made a list of everything that I'm trying to make happen in December in my life as a writer and self-publisher. It's loooong, and of course the last item is "smack forehead" because I forgot to list actually writing the new novel.Me, to self: Well, are you surprised? Can you call what you've been doing writing?Self, to me: BACK OFF.It goes on like that for a while until we get distracted by

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-23511388820086970252007-11-28T15:06:00.003-06:002009-06-30T18:03:27.814-05:00

OK, I just heard a thousand six-year-olds in my head scream, "When it's ajar!"No, no! The correct answer is: when it's a whiteboard.This is the door to the attic, which is in my study. It was painted with Rustoleum's new dry erase paint. So you too can have a giant whiteboard! You have to mix a powder and a liquid together to make the magic happen. Prep the surface, paint immediately, wait 20

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-84883420835542317902007-11-27T21:22:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:02:20.261-05:00

Margaret Atwood, The Tent:One thing about Margaret Atwood, she doesn't spend energy on dulled characters, people who are interested in nothing. Her narrators are awake and want something, even if it's not specified in the story. These stories want something: to make connections, to find patterns from the inside to the outside of the story.These miniskirt-short stories are not palate cleansers;

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-48413188638510399782007-11-26T15:06:00.002-06:002009-06-30T18:01:32.921-05:00

How old were you when you hybridized your first rose? Did you consider going into anything other than the family business? What dreams did you sacrifice to do this amazing thing? Thank you for Desert Island:Each new hybrid takes almost ten years, and you have introduced rose after rose, as did your five preceding generations. The dedication is dizzying. More so, that you must carry each silken

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-35843593807765183792007-11-25T16:49:00.000-06:002007-11-25T17:30:57.942-06:00

The Christmas word for the week is "tinsel." It's like a Yule calendar. This week, I find a way to work the word "tinsel" into spoken conversation every day.Yesterday we assembled the Christmas tree. It's not much of an adventure since we have recreated the same tree for the past six years, give or take a light strand.I'm not sure why we put up a tree, except that it would seem sad and bleak not

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-79053190681655291182007-11-21T11:31:00.000-06:002007-11-26T20:51:13.438-06:00

So, this is our third time to visit the Pacific Northwest urban universe. We stayed a week each time. Each time I hoped it would be rainy and gray so we could get a reasonable idea if we could live with that kind of weather six months out of the year. For the third time, the sunshine has followed us. It's gorgeous in Portland this week. Again.(I'll attach a pic or two when I can.)As Promised (11/

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-75569097191308937082007-11-20T12:21:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:02:20.261-05:00

"Hills Like White Elephants," by Ernest Hemingway, 1927Why do I like this when I don't like so many other short stories?I like the parts about the beer. I like how the parts about the beer anchor the people. I like how the beer is real and the baby isn't. The beer is real in exactly the way the baby isn't.What I dislike about lots of stories is that they force me to watch an epiphany: some stark,

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-82525587815505534342007-11-19T13:54:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:01:32.921-05:00

Thank you for Palatino. The thing about technology moving so fast is that we become dinosaurs that much sooner. I remember the first time I selected a font besides Courier. I was working on one of the two Macs in the graduate school's lab. I highlighted a line of text and selected Century Schoolbook. Magic. But because I started reading as a child, and because fairy tales were so often

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4651333298847089497.post-87175657859149682582007-11-16T11:23:00.000-06:002009-06-30T18:04:48.381-05:00

"You've been a bad girl." "You're a failure.""Nobody can love you.""You've been a good girl.""You're succeeding.""You should be happy now."The scale doesn't say any of these things. These are messages we have learned to attach to numbers. The scale can't tell you who you are or why anything about you is the way it is. Your scale can't tell you what you deserve in life, or what you have to give,

Ann Painoreply@blogger.com1