no boys allowed in the room!!!!

Truly!

I was a tomboy for most of my childhood, too (to the extent that some kind, concerned girls tried to stage an intervention to make me act like a girl in fourth grade (sarcasm, fyi)), but I love to be petted. Well, by certain people. Not by like, strangers on the train.

Oh god I just gave myself the creeps.

me and two of my friends in first grade used to braid each others hair during story time. we all had really long hair. vivid memory.

we also used to draw pictures and write on each others backs and guess what was being written/drawn. i had forgotten that. clearly remember drawing an apple on my friend rebecca's back now

I did the writing on each other backs. I must have done braiding hair.

OMG Erica, I was just talking about the assembly hair-playing thing to my dateboi the other night, thats so freaky! We were talking about odd things we did as kiddies and I said I used to love it if someone sitting behind me in assembly started braiding/playing with my hair! I was like, 8, so didnt understand why it made me feel so ... er... NICE.

We also used to write on each others backs with our fingers and make one another guess what we were writing.

me and my brother used to do this! also a thing where you 'played a tune' on the other's back and they had to guess what it was (nigh impossible).

Trayce - how funny!

I know right?

haha c# I did the "guess the tune" tapping thig too. Its nice to know how universal this stuff is!

I think "widespread" would perhaps be a better descriptor than "universal" ?

well yes I meant universal in the "happens everywhere" sense rather than "to all" of course :)

there was some discussion upthread about people (mostly parents) commenting on your eating habits....just wanted to chime in and complain that i am so sick of people commenting on how much or how little i'm eating. i get hungry really quickly and frequently, but i tend not to eat a whole lot in just one sitting, so to some people (coworkers) it looks like i'm basically eating all day, since, if i'm not eating a full on meal, i'm probably snacking on some almonds or something at any given moment--and they feel free to be like WOW you sure eat a lot! And then i'm out somewhere and i eat not that much and people are like "wow, you really don't eat a lot, do you" and it BUGS ME. Especially with the latter, there is this weird sense of judgment wafting from the people who say that.

like, i feel the need to be like "no, i actually do eat like a regular person" and justify my eating!

I don't know. I find it deeply strange that someone would feel the need to comment on a colleague's eating habits. It seems completely unnecessary. But I find that usually when people comment on your eating habits, it's down to their own weird issues about food, and naught to do with you at all.

Completely unrelated, but I do feel this slight sense of, I dunno, vindication, when a person who has been giving you grief over something reveals themselves to be such a fantastical flaming douche that you actually feel something almost like relief that they dislike or disagree with you. What is the opposite of schadenfreude?

yeah i agree it has to do more with them. still, it's happened a few times recently and now i'm like, i've had enough! just last week i was prepping food with someone all night for an event and was eating throughout the night--and then once we sat down to have a proper dinner, i ate till i was full, and she was like wow, you really don't eat a lot. i'm like, did you not see me eating like 3 slices of pizza over the course of the evening?? it has more to do with her, but still makes me feel self conscious in a way that bugs. like i'm annoyed at myself for being bugged by it, but remain bugged nonetheless.

Are they just trying to make conversation and don't know how to do small talk without turning it to food?

I usually try to remind myself that whenever some woman makes a comment about my food intake (usually along the lines of "omg, an overweight woman who dares to enjoy food and eating it!") that they have probably been on some hardcore diet of denying themselves nice things their entire life and they are projecting their anger about that onto me.

Supposedly it's actually much much healthier to eat small, frequent meals throughout the day than to have a massive meal. But I don't want to go all "this is how our ancestors on the savannah ate" etc. etc.

yes, it's possible! (re the smalltalk) also korean culture is such that your ability to eat massive amounts of food is directly positively correlated with your ability to be awesome at life and generally a good person, so i think i have a knee-jerk thing when people comment on how much i eat.

anyway, onwards!

Onwards to dinner! Or maybe a light snack in case I accidentally have beer for dinner and regret it.

Was this where we were talking about dermatologists ambushing patients with cosmetic treatments? Prob not but anyway, I was at the ENT today (Ear Nose Throat specialist) and after taking a hearing test they put me in an office to get the results (all is well except for slight noise induced high frequency loss LOL live music) and I looked up and there were TONS of posters and ads for shit like juvaderm and facial resurfacing and all sorts of crap to inject into your face. Blind sided!

I was at a party today where there were a few kids and the two little girls were doing each others hair after they got out of the pool.

Okay, big old trigger warning for anti-fat bullshit and all around utter BMI nonsense, but this is hilarious: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18781786

According to the BBC I am fatter than 100% of women in my age group in the world. Y'all! I am the fattest woman in the world! I am so stoked about this. I have to think about what to do with my new found status.

Profit?

does it inspire you to move to Tonga?

I have a BMI greater than 90% of other women in my age group in the world, and I am most like a person from KUWAIT, Y'ALL.

Did you know?
If everyone in the world had the same BMI as you, it would add 88,183,522 tonnes to the total weight of the world's population

FFFFFFFFF UUUUUUUUUUUU

You're most like someone from Jamaica*
* Compared with other females aged 30-44 in Jamaica
Share your result

I am totally gonna share this result, thanks BBC News

FAT SHAMING AND ALSO RACIST! SEE THE REACTIONS OF BRITISH PEOPLE ON THE STREET WHEN THEY ARE COMPARED TO CITIZENS OF TONGA!

I just can't even

I shared this result, proudly tweeting that I am the fattest woman in the world. I am totally going to apologetically take up both seats on the train tonight, because I am the fattest.

A friend of mine got the result that she was fatter than 94% of Americans in her age group, but fatter than 100% of woman in her age group in the entire world. STATISTICS!

FAT SHAMING AND ALSO RACIST! SEE THE REACTIONS OF BRITISH PEOPLE ON THE STREET WHEN THEY ARE COMPARED TO CITIZENS OF TONGA!

OTM

oh wait, i actually weighed myself after a relatively sedentary weekend involving numerous beers and ice cream -- I'm as fat as a Samoan now!

AGREED THAT THIS IS GROSS

Damn, I'm only fatter than 57% of US ladies and 89% of all the ladies in the world. I feel like an underachiever.

i never know what I weigh. do you guys all have scales? Or just get weighed at the docs a lot?

It says im 50% more than other aussies. I thought aussies were all supposed to be gigantic fattybombahs so I dunno what that says considering I'm only a size 12. (thats a UK/au 12 ... US 10?)

i never know what I weigh. do you guys all have scales? Or just get weighed at the docs a lot?

I stayed away from the scale for a long time. Once I became The Fattest Woman in the World and reached a stable weight, I started weighing myself sometimes at the gym just to take the power away from the number. It's been w/in ten pounds up or down of the same number for like five years. (It's also good for me to know so when I get all dysmorphic and become convinced I gained 50 pounds I check and lo. It's the same and I've just been reading women's magazines. )

That's more than you asked!

Also I generally refuse to be weighed at the doc's office but that's just to be contrary.

I don't have a scale and I never go to the doctor. I guess I'm just guessing based on what it's been around for at least a few years? I think I'd basically have to give up alcohol to lose much weight at this point.

I am below average for women in my age group in the US but fatter than %74 percent of women in the world. I am most like someone from El Salvador. This is so weird and, yes, also BS.

my results are similar to enbb except i am most like someone from grenada. this is dumber than shit

Liberia.

i got liberia too.

The whole ting is silly.

Also I generally refuse to be weighed at the doc's office but that's just to be contrary.

Argh, last time I went for a blood test I got an especially arsey nurse and was forcibly put on the scales and then I wasn't allowed to have my blood test until I had uttered the magic incantation "yes I have thought about portion control"

I was also told that I had applied for the blood test WRONG which is, like, too bad, my appointment was set up (at my request) last week by the nurse who was checking my blood pressure, who by the way was a whole lot nicer than you, ma'am

I shall not be clicking on the link but I am glad you ladies have done so for me and brought me fresh lols in the process

I wasn't allowed to have my blood test until I had uttered the magic incantation "yes I have thought about portion control"

...jesus fucking christ!!!!!!!!

HOLY SHIT

I am speechless with rage.

Two doc visits ago I got a nurse who got saucy with me about my scale refusal. She kept saying, "Well, I have to take your vitals." I told her what I weighed and then told her that I was there for an intractable ear/sinus infection and my weight was irrelevant so she didn't need to weigh me. She slammed the folder shut and stalked out. Ha.

(fyi, kate78, RN here: yes that nurse was a dick, but some blood tests need to know your weight for the formula to be accurate)

Again, that nurse is a total dick.

The most annoying thing from my point of view was that she said we couldn't continue with the appointment until she'd filled in her form to say that I was "taking measures" about my weight, except she didn't say what measures I had to agree to, so I spent a few minutes listing things I was already doing like walking every day, to her complete indifference, until she said "well have you considered portion control?"

oh... uh, yes? is that the right answer?

I don't think I have actually "taken" any more "measures" since that appointment so it was a big success all round

xp I guess she probably did have to know my weight for the blood test measurement, but she didn't say it was for that, she just said it was to "update their records"

unnecessarily trying to humiliate/degrade you sure as hell isn't required for an accurate blood test.

Damn straight.

And I'm happy to get on the scale for a valid medical reason, fyi. If a nurse explains why (other than "but I need to know"), no problem! I'm not afraid of my weight. I just think it's nonsense that an adult who is not at the doctor for something weight-related needs to be weighed as a matter of course. You can tell I'm fat by looking at me (I'm practically Tongan, it turns out), you know?

It's a little bit of me taking the power back at the doc's too.

Here I will share a childhood anecdote: my mother has always been a little slim thing, and while looking back at pics of myself, I was anything but fat but somehow it got decided that I was. Anyway, she took me to the doc once and the nurse, who my mom knew b/c small town and my mom is a nurse, weighed me and then looked at my mom and said, "Well, I guess she gets her weight from her father."

Here is a representative photo of me at the time:

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3240/3151636735_94542acb56.jpg

The point being, this shit runs so fucking deep, y'all. Like way down into the bottom of our brains.

Yes, yes it does.