one evil preppie (original) (raw)

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laurajacquez

September 21st, 2013

sooper-quick bra review @ 03:10 pm

So while I was pregnant, the Freya Millie -- my go-to workhorse daily wear bra when NOT pregnant -- was discontinued. I've been questing after a replacement, reading every large-cup bra review site there is, poking around in Bratabase, analyzing what did and didn't work for me about the Millie's fit and shape...yeah, it's a project, when your usual bra size is 32JJ (UK), OK?

I remeasured carefully (still measure at a 32JJ) and ordered 3 bras to try:

Faye, by Freya. According to Bratabase, this is cut similarly to Millie. I think it has a stretchier band, because it hooked up on the smallest hook easily; I could still pull it away from my back and I could feel the straps digging in for support. I usually find Freya's bands to be stretchy, and so I think for this to work I'd need a 30 band or possibly smaller. That seems not worth the effort, so it's just going back. If you like stretchy bands, this might be good for you.

Inspire Sports Bra, by Bravissimo. I was super excited about this, because sports bras do not come in my size. They come in "close enough". I tried my usual size in this, 32JJ. If I can find my actual correct size in it, I think it will be great. The inner lining fit perfectly, the straps were comfortable, and the band was snug and firm without digging in. The outer cups seemed to be a different size than the lining, though; I could make little eyelids for my nipples with the excess fabric. That was...super strange. Very little bounce, even with that. I might need to go down a size; it's possible that the inner lining is stretchier than the outside. I will try it and find out! Definitely worth looking at if you are a small band/large cup lady, though.

Melrose, by Bravissimo. This was head & shoulders the winner of this set. I wish it came in ALL THE COLORS, because I would buy ALL THE COLORS. It is super, super comfy, and it does what very few bras do for me -- handle the actual narrow, front, high set of my breasts. It scoops them in & out of the way of my arms (no east-west problems!), the gore tacks perfectly, and the band is firm and supportive, but comfy. I would say the cups on this are fairly narrow, although the measurements in Bratabase indicate it's wider in the cup than Millie or Faye -- it certainly FEELS more narrow, which might have to do with the narrowness of the gore. Anyway. Love it. Would order it in ALL THE COLORS.

September 17th, 2013

half-marathon @ 08:00 pm

So on Sunday, I ran (well, limped, more on that in a moment) a half-marathon. I trained for it with thwomp and when the one we were originally signed up for was canceled, we registered for the Erie Half-Marathon instead. I am a slow runner at the best of times, and Erie was...not my best of times.

Friday night, I did my last short run -- one mile -- before the race, and I did SOMETHING to my left hip. I don't really know what it was, but it made the half-marathon quite difficult and it affected my pace; by around the 10K mark I was in a lot of pain. My RunKeeper entry for the race wiggles around and is longer than 13.1 (GPS not-quite-accuracy + I didn't run the exact line of the measured course, I assume), but you can see that I really started to struggle after mile 10. I think it would've been easier on a different course -- the Erie course is pretty, and flattish, which is nice, but it's quite same-y the whole way through. This prevented me from using my favorite psychological trick, which is "Hey. That post. Run to that post. See? Now run to that driveway. That car. That pole. That mailbox. See? You ran there. Now that car." Instead I had to invent a new psychological trick ("Hey. You know how much is left? A 5K is left. You can run a 5K three times a week and twice on Sundays. Go on. Run the 5K. DO IT.")

It's not as great a psychological trick, folks. Just flat-out doesn't work as well, particularly if you are already injured.

The weather was very cooperative (cool, breezy, dry) and the race seemed well-organized and well-run. I think if I hadn't been hurt, I might've been able to keep up with thwomp and beat Those Chicks (two women who we swapped places with a few times) and Italia Guy (a man in a blue shirt that said "Italia" on it), both of whom she managed to pass & keep behind her by the end.

I did manage to catch and get into a one-on-one race with a woman named Katelin. If you register early enough, they print your name on your bib, so that people can cheer for you by name -- this is really nice, actually! -- so I learned her name as we side-eyed each other and hobble-sprinted past each other for the last few miles. I first saw her ahead of me around Mile 8 and first caught her around Mile 11. We swapped a few times, and then she caught me right at the mile marker for 13, and all I could think was "OH HELL NO, KATELIN" and started BOOKING IT. (You can see the last 0.1 mi pace on the RunKeeper report -- my pace gets a lot faster very abruptly.) We ran to the finish together, and I could hear the spectators screaming "GO LAURA! GO KATELIN!" and NOT TODAY, KATELIN, I thought, and kept hobble-running as fast as I could.

I crossed the line 1 second ahead of her.

My other major success was that my not-longrun-tested solution to my bra clasp scraping my back raw worked almost perfectly. I had to tug it to adjust it a few times, but overall, I'm pleased with how well it worked. For reference, my usual bra size is a 32JJ (UK); as you can guess, this presents sports bra challenges, especially for high-impact activity. Both Freya Active and Shock Absorber make bras I can wear, though the fit is imperfect -- I take a 34H (UK) in both brands, and they are fine up until about 5-6 miles, when they proceed, despite BodyGlide, to turn my back into an abraded mess. Shock Absorber is less abrasive -- with BodyGlide, I can get up to about 8 miles before the pain starts -- but neither is fun times. So, I went to Target, and I bought a two-sizes-too-large seamless boob-sling racerback "sports bra". I then wore this interwoven with my real sports bra (real bra on the bottom in front with the sling over top, then the real band out the sides where the sling was cut away for the racerback, and clasped over top of the racer instead of against my skin). I figured, look, if it DOESN'T work, the worst case is that I have to stop & take it off after I've gotten a few extra miles of not-rubbing out of it. As it turns out, I have finally found a use for those weird boobslings -- huzzah.

I was sore the next day, but 90% of the soreness was in the injured hip. It's much better today, so I hope it'll be well enough for a 5k on Friday, perhaps.

So! That was my half-marathon. Winter goal: drop my 5k pace by at least 1 min/mi.

August 20th, 2013

PSA: for people who don't like dogs @ 11:15 am

This is inspired by a comment on Captain Awkward from someone who didn't care for dogs, but who assumed that dog owners LIKE jumpy dogs and think jumpy dogs are great, and that:

- dog jumps
- owner tells dog not to jump
- jumped-upon person protests it is ok and pets dog, regardless of their personal feelings on the matter

is the proper, polite exchange that you do in this situation.

IT IS NOT. It is really, really not. If you are not a dog person, please, please, don't think this; what is happening is that by trying to be polite, you are actually being rude and doing the opposite of what the dog owner would like. You are making that dog more dangerous (even a nice dog can hurt people badly by jumping on them -- imagine an 80 lb dog jumping on a toddler or a person with frail bones), you are making it harder to train, and as a bonus, you are having to put up with something you don't even LIKE.

Very few dog owners want their dogs to jump on people. I promise you, we don't think it's cute, and we don't think people enjoy it. Most of us want our dogs to be well-behaved and polite; we want them to be safe around all people and around other dogs; we want people who don't particularly like dogs, or are afraid of dogs, to find our dogs calm and unthreatening.

If a non-aggressive* dog jumps on you, the best, politest response is to keep your hands at your sides and turn your shoulder to the dog. Don't speak to the dog if the owner is there and is telling the dog not to jump; if there is no owner there, or the owner is being a dick and not saying anything, you can say "NO" in a deep, serious voice.

Except in the case of the rare, dickish owner, this is what the dog's owner would prefer. You are helping the owner and the dog AND yourself! You are helping all the people the dog will encounter after you! I am not joking not even one little bit.

* If you are attacked by an aggressive dog, try to sacrifice your non-dominant arm. If at all possible, get your non-dominant arm across your body (back, bonier-side out -- remember you have arteries on the soft side!) and into the dog's mouth. You do NOT want an aggressive dog getting your throat, dominant arm, either hand, crotch, face, legs, or feet. Your non-dominant forearm is your best chance for getting out of the situation with wounds that will impact your life as little as possible.

June 18th, 2013

For reference: migraine changes @ 12:26 pm

Mostly so that I know/have a record.

About 1 month ago I noticed that I had a migraine, an hour or so after I woke up. This was a surprise because usually migraine onset would wake me from a sound sleep, but this morning I woke up as normal -- except already in the middle of a migraine. I only realized it was a migraine and not something else when I realized I was unconsciously pressing my "migraine eye" against the corner of a sofa.

Since then I have had...a lot of migraines, way more than I'm used to.

Old migraines:
frequency: infrequent. Less than 1x a month, more like 4-6/year.
symptoms: Sudden sharp stabbing pain behind right eye, strong enough to wake me from sleep.
treatment + progression: no meds necessary, because stabbing pain was first symptom -- cold pack on eye + caffeine + some salt + a little rest usually solved problem w/in a couple hours, with a slight "hangover" feeling lasting maybe 6 hours afterwards. If I ignored the stabbing eye, progression to full light sensitivity, nausea, major headache located in/around right eye; I hadn't ignored the symptoms in a very long time for obvious reasons.

New migraines:
frequency: frequent. since last month, 6 days of migraine, in 2-day chunks.
symptoms: dry mouth, vision sparklies on sitting down (unlike w low bp, when I get sparklies on standing up), slow subtle throb behind right eye.
treatment + progression: progresses to nausea, intense headache, clumsiness, making lots of typos, slurring speech. Not much light sensitivity, some sound sensitivity. It takes longer to recognize the symptoms because they are milder and I haven't had success so far at early intervention. Might need to get meds? Caffeine + salt help. "Hangover" lasts 12+ hours and bleeds into next day, or maybe it's just that the migraine doesn't end and recurs? So far all of these have either lasted 2 days or been 2 migraines on consecutive days -- don't know which.

Don't know why the change. Would vastly prefer old migraines back. Suggestions from fellow sufferers welcome.

June 10th, 2012

White people: still scared of the Wampanoag after 400 years @ 12:17 am

So on this road trip we went to Plimouth Plantation and part of it is the Wampanoag Homesite, which is a recreation of the family homestead of the guy who was, essentially, the Wampanoag ambassador to the English. It is staffed entirely by Native people* (most of the ones I spoke to were Wampanoag, but one woman was not) who, unlike the role-playing staff in the English village section, are there to answer questions from both historical and modern Native perspectives. (Does dealing out Racism 101 classes all day get less old if you are paid to do it?)

Anyway I was talking to an older woman there about the homesite and asked how long it had been there, because N used to go for school and he had no memory of ever seeing it before, but lots of memories of the English village. She said that it's been there since the 1970s, and that "for some reason" lots of the teachers skip it. The younger woman (perhaps my age) said that sometimes the teachers hustle kids through it while telling them incorrect information about the Wampanoag and not letting the kids stop and look at any of the buildings or talk to the Native staff.

Racism in action, folks.

* I am using "Native people" (etc) in this entry because there is a little placard at the homesite discussing what the staff would prefer to be called, and this is the stated preference on that placard. I know not everyone uses this terminology.

March 26th, 2012

MS Walk @ 06:59 pm

This year, once again, I am walking in the MS Walk as part of my friend Amy's team. Amy is one of my oldest friends; she was diagnosed 5 years ago now.

If you can, please donate to our team.

March 9th, 2012

to tumbl or not to tumbl @ 09:33 pm

I wonder if I want a tumblr, but I hear that it is hard to navigate your own stuff on those. I'd mostly use it for RL projects -- things like process notes/pics for my garden, occasional snaps of my kids, that kind of thing. It would be fairly important to be able to see everything tagged "garden" or "family" without jumping through a zillion hoops.

Maybe I should just make a new blog on the wordpress install we have on our personal server?

December 11th, 2011

(no subject) @ 10:39 am

Hey local women,

If any of you need new work-or-dressy clothes, my sister Molly works at the Shadyside White House Black Market, and does appointments. So if you've ever wanted to try personal shopping/appointment shopping, let me know & I'll give you her details! (she says its easiest to call her directly, but I don't want to post her cell unlocked here. You can also contact the store at 412-687-3647 and request an appointment with Molly Valentine, and your contact info, and she'll call you back.)

September 18th, 2011

how do you grow? @ 09:09 pm

I've been finally really really for real writing out the plans for my garden. I have drafts of various beds taped to the wall of my pantry now, and a final plan for Bed A. Bed A is really two beds (plus a third, but the third does not count because it is very simple: it has a maple tree in it, and I'm underplanting that with blue hosta and that is all). These two beds run from the side of the porch to the side door of the house, from half-sun to mostly-shade.

When we moved in last fall, I brought with me divisions of some plants from the old house -- anything with sentimental value, like the phlox mecurtin gave me and the blazing star from our old kitty's grave -- plus things I loved and didn't want to let go. I just shoved it all in empty spots of the yard so it would live, and so I could watch the garden this year and see what was already there.

A lot of what's there is staying, but changing location. For example: there was a forest of peonies in Bed A, but they were too far back in the shade and didn't do well. There are lots of hosta all over, including in full-sun beds, where they get burnt up and washed out; they're all moving to at least half-shade. There are some quite nice roses, but not where I would have put roses at all -- they're lining a path, and I like roses more in the background. That kind of thing.

Bed A will be: irises, peonies, and perennial sage in the sunniest part; daylilies behind that, fading into astilbe, phlox, and hosta, with a Limelight hydrangea anchoring the bed.

Bed B is a half-sun to full-sun bed across a footpath from Bed A; it will be daylilies, bee balm, blazing star, roses, and clematis.

Bed C is a half-sun to full-sun bed across the main path from Bed B. It's much more up in the air, partly because more of the extant infrastructure (two small trees, the peonies, and a clump of decorative grass) is staying, and I haven't figured out quite what I want to work in around that yet. More daylilies, move the roses, blazing star, clematis? It's all tentative. The flag irises are going; I do not like flag irises but they are a good plant for streams, and we have one of those in the back -- so they're just shifting back there. I like them better in their natural place.

The last bit in the front of the house (look, we bought this place partially for the yard; you don't get a lot of double lots in the city but this has one) is the memorial garden for my aunt and grandmother. That one is dictated more by what my Aunt Pat and Grandma liked, and of course it's influenced the plans for the rest of the garden because I want it to be harmonious. I think it'll be lovely when it's done (probably the final pieces will go in next fall, and then it'll take a few years to grow in and fill out -- so by the time my toddler is in kindergarten, most likely). It runs from mostly-sun at the front to mostly-shade at the back.

Aunt Pat's corner: yellow rose, white rose, pink hydrangeas, clematis. (She was always trying to grow hydrangea, and planted roses for her children.)
Grandma: stone triskele, thyme path + triskele filling, white musk rose, clematis, possibly more hydrangea (the last gift I got from her, the Christmas five days after she died, was a gold triskele; my mom says she had a huge old musk rose out back and loved the New Jersey "hydrangea trail").
Unfilled areas: phlox (to tie into the shade part of Bed A).

My goal for this fall is just to get Bed A done. I need to pick up some more phlox, astilbe, and sage for it; everything else I have. I've already moved the irises and peonies, and made a start on the daylily arrangements; there's at least another two hours of work there. Getting the Limelight in place and moving all the hosta will probably take another three hours of work. If I keep my wits about me it'll be finished and mulched before October...

August 27th, 2011

Delaware Water Gap @ 03:49 pm

On our way back from vacation, we stopped in Matamoras, PA, and stayed in The Cleanest Hampton Inn Ever. (Seriously. It was extremely clean, and I've paid more for much worse rooms many a time. Hampton Inns needs to give these folks some awards.)

We chose that location so that we could go to Dingman's Falls, in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. I'd heard for years how pretty the Delaware Water Gap is, and we wanted a place that we could let a 2 year old run around -- we'd forgotten our carry pack, so we couldn't do more challenging trails. Dingman's Falls supposedly had a flat boardwalk to the falls, and was not far off our main route, so it was the winner!

In case any of you pass that way and need a travel break, I'm going to do a pretty complete review...

Facilities
There's a visitor center, which has some educational displays and whatnot, and I really liked it. There was a little streambed tank, with worms and minnows and so on in it, which my kid loved. There are animal pelts displayed inside, and I know some people don't like that, so be aware.

Outdoors, there is a set of pit toilets, with individual rooms with locking doors. They are clean and well-maintained, with hand sanitizer dispensers in each room. The rooms are large enough to change clothes in, if you need to do so.

There is a drinking fountain between the visitor center and the toilets, and on the side, low down, is a spigot. I don't know what it's FOR, exactly, but I hate hand sanitizer, and hand sanitizer is no good at removing mud from toddlers, so it came in pretty handy.

Accessibility
"Flat boardwalk" is not precisely correct. It has one longish uphill, and part of the trail is hardpacked gravel. That said, the lower part of the trail is most likely accessible to people in wheelchairs. We saw one woman with a cane managing it, and it's definitely fine for strollers. If you are using a manual wheelchair and are wheeling yourself rather than being pushed, you will probably want to wear gloves, even if you don't normally -- the area is quite damp and even though the trail is elevated and scrupulously maintained, your hands will probably get gunked up if you skip gloves.

The top of the falls can only be reached through an extremely steep and narrow staircase:

This is the very first part of the staircase. It gets worse later on.

It is very beautiful up there but I would not suggest that anyone without full use of at least 3 limbs, 2 of them legs, and a fully-operational cardiovascular system try it. Also, don't take any children under 5 up there unless you are capable of carrying them a good portion of the way and you have enough adults/older kids with you to run interference with the railings -- it is perfectly possible for a small child to climb between the railings and fall over the edge.

The visitor center and toilets seemed to me to be fully wheelchair accessible, and the toilets had enough room for someone to be in there with you to help you if you need it.

Working/assistance dogs are permitted (but no other dogs).

Scenery

( Flippin' gorgeous.Collapse )

Overall: A+ would visit again.