Long Day, Long Week

A loooooong week of school was capped off by a looooong day today.

It was supposed to be fun, and now that I'm reflecting and blogging, I guess it pretty much was so. We got tickets to King's Dominion Theme Park through my wife's work; they were half price and the park was only open to the employees of her company (which would be around 40,000 people total). I figured we'd pretty much have the park to ourselves. What I didn't count on was that the tickets were open to friends and family of employees...so there were a lot more people than I anticipated. Basically, it was about as crowded as a normal summer day. But then I noticed that, since they were open for a private event only, and not the general public, they didn't have all the rides open...and only a skeleton crew working the available rides. So the lines were loooong and slow-going, and of course I'm ever the impatient one.

There were some cool coasters there, I'll give them credit, but not worth the wait in line, and not worth the drive. I've got Busch Gardens just 5 minutes away. Yeah, they may be owned by the worst beer company in the world, and yeah they may serve Pepsi products (grrrr...) but their park is quaint, close by, and well maintained. And plus I know where everything is.

But She's Not Fat

I'm no fan of Britney Spears.

In fact I think she's a talentless hack. She reminds me of some people I grew up with back in Tennessee, and every time I hear her talk I think she's coming straight from an episode of Jerry Springer. Yeah, I'll admit she's cute, although not as much as she used to be (neither am I), and like any 20-something guy, if I were single...and found myself alone with her...and we were both drunk...or not...and she didn't smell like cigarettes...well, I'm sure things would happen.

I didn't watch the recent MTV Video Music Awards. Like most people of my generation, I haven't watched MTV regularly since puberty, and besides I've always been more of a VH1 kinda guy. But I've seen the snippets of her performance. It was horrible. It was shameful. She acted like she didn't want to be there. She acted tired, or at the very least, high on something. Even the lip-synching was messed up. It cemented the idea in many a person's mind (including mine) that there are some serious issues going on in her head. And of course the talking heads on TV have raked her over the coals about it, which is perfectly typical. But I have taken exception to one of their charges: no, she's not fat.

Yes, she performed horribly. Yes, I'll agree she's not as skinny or fit as she used to be. Yes, I'll agree she's in no condition to wear an outfit like that (although the inner 17 year old in me thought it was perfectly fine). But, come on, people cut her some slack: she's not fat by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, she looks pretty damn good for someone who's had a couple of kids in as many years.

How far gone are we as a society when we look at her as she is now (who I would guess looks to be a size 8) and think she is too fat? What on earth does this do to our self-esteem? And what about those of us (and yes, me too) who are really and truly fat? I suppose we should just throw ourselves under a bus...if we can fit under one.

I wonder about all this talk about how we're becoming statistically more and more obese. I wonder if we truly are getting fatter...or the health industry has changed the definition of what obese is to a more stringent standard, and thus skewing the statistics. I've taught and supervised over 100 9-10 year old students in the past three years, and out of all of those, only three or four looked to have weight issues. That doesn't sound all that earth shattering.

If Britney's fat, then I want to be fat like her.

My Happy Place

This was taken this summer in Portland, Maine. God willing, I will retire somewhere near here.

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