Perhaps positive self-talk (or in the absence of that, positive talk from others) is the way to go. I think I listen too much to the news stories...I hear them, I hear the talk about "ideal" and "overweight" BMIs, and the way they make it sound, I'm like one Twinkie away from needing one of those carts to get around the Wal-mart. (Except I loathe Twinkies).

But then again - two things said to me this week:

Yesterday: out doing fieldwork with a student. At one point she stopped and stretched and said something like, "Man, you have to be in good shape to do this." And it's funny, because I don't think of fieldwork as particularly strenuous - yes, there is some walking, but it's not very fast and although it probably adds up to a fair amount, it's in little spurts as you go between samples. And yes, there's stooping and bending - but I'm so used to doing that anyway (cleaning house, digging in the yarn-stash under the bed, gardening) that it doesn't seem like work.

And I enjoy fieldwork, so that makes it seem less like work.

But yeah, maybe you do have to be in decent shape for prairie sampling.

And then today, doing some volunteer work at my denomination's nearby camp, one of the older ladies commented that I was a "hard worker" - because I scrubbed spider webs (ugh) off of a number of outside windows, and knocked down mud dauber nests. And then swept and mopped (with one of those giant heavy old-fashioned "string" mops) a screen-porch that was probably 8' by 40'.

(Heh...yesterday was Talk Like a Pirate Day and today I swabbed a "deck.")

Frankly, though, in situations like that, if the choice is "work" or "sit around and talk," I take "work" every time. It's not that I DISLIKE talking, it's just...it's kind of ingrained into me of "work first, then relax." And frankly, I like that kind of simple physical work where someone just points you at something and says "do this" and you just have to do it without agonizing over HOW or WHY or WHAT TECHNIQUE.

I guess what frustrates me about the whole "OH NOES OBESITY" thing is that technically I'm overweight - pretty overweight, actually, if you go by the charts. And yet, it does not "disable" me in any noticeable way. If anything, the extra bulk seems to make me more robust - I tend to resist most of the passing germs (well, except colds, but my respiratory system has always been jacked up, and it was actually worse when I was a skinny little kid), and I'm usually the one who can lift heavy stuff or work for a pretty long time without tiring.

So I think part of it is living with the cognitive dissonance of being told that I'm one step away from some kind of horrible debilitation and my actual observed reality that I'm pretty strong and healthy.

I guess not enough people smoke any more for them to make it worth harassing smokers with scary news stories...I wonder what will be next - people who tan, or vegans (OH NOES NO B12!), or people who don't get enough sleep....

****

So after the day's work (I worked for half a day - I had promised only that much and really, most of the work that didn't involve power-washing or tree-limb cutting was fairly completed. And I didn't want to power-wash because of the wet-t-shirt effect (not cool at a church camp) and tree-limb cutting is something I have zero expertise in), I decided I was halfway to Ardmore, so I decided to go the rest of the way.

I'm glad I did, because The Brown Bag was having a sale. (A store that's kind of hard to describe - it's what my friend Chris calls "One of those places that sells stuff you don't really need," except she defines "need" more restrictively than I do. And they do sell kitchen stuff, which you technically "need," though you could probably get by with cheapie stuff from the wal-mart instead of the nice OXO stuff that Brown Paper Bag carries)

And I found a bunch of stuff that will make good Christmas presents. Even something for someone who is hard to buy for. Even a less-than-$10-but-still-nice present for my CWF gift exchange this Christmas (two very nice large tea mugs - $2.50 each, and I can add in a box or two of tea from the grocery store. I was actually tempted to keep the mugs for myself, but decided I already have enough).

I also hit the bookstore there - picked up a copy of Larry McMurtry's memoirs about being a bookseller - and I went to the sort-of-sad-and-dying mall (Is this typical for the "enclosed" malls? The two nearest me - this one and the one in Sherman - seem to be dying out, either being replaced by those new long strip-type setups of big box stores, or they're just wasting away. And one of the malls in the town where I used to live wound up being demolished and replaced by a "Town Center" of shops where you have to drive between them - very inconvenient).

I did go to the Bath and Body Works (long time since I'd been except I always buy more than I really need) and the Hobby Lobby (Floss! Need more floss! Both for the sometime-to-be-started horse stamped cloth, and the second pillow commemorating the I Can Has Cheezburger? fad).

So it was a pretty good day. Part of it is, I think, I just need a change of scenery sometimes. Part of the attraction of going over to Ardmore was just seeing some different stuff - it had probably been close to a year since I was there last.