A couple of days ago, I had an experience which got me thinking.

Setting: train station. I'm wearing a pretty dress (green!), pretty peep-toe shoes (even greener!), and in general, feeling pretty.

Characters: me, and a bunch of teenage girls

Now the thing is, I know myself. I am wary of teenagers (hello childhood bullying, my, what deep marks you leave!). I regularly take a train which many teenagers take to get to school in the morning, and go home in the afternoon. Said teenagers are often very loud, make dumb remarks (hard to translate from Hungarian, but imagine stoner voices, obligatory swearing to seem "cool", making fart noises, you get the gist of it...some things are universal) and are in general, a pain in the ass.

Add to this that I have a rather strong persecution complex, and I think you can see where I'm going with this.

What happened was simply that I was standing around waiting for the train, and so were they. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I could see one of the girls looking me up and down (my trigger is hands down that glance) and whispering something to one of her friends. Cue her friend glancing over, and pretty soon they had a conversation going which seemed to be centered on my dress and on my legs.

I was on the phone at this point, but my ears perked up and my palms started sweating. Immediately, a million assailed me - all negative.

"Are they talking about my legs - did I miss a spot when I was waxing?!"

"Are they talking about my toes - did I miss a toe when I was putting on nail polish?!"

"Are they talking about this dress - I'm sure I don't look as good in it as I thought, maybe I should have worn the other one..."

"Geez, I'm like an amazon next to them, damn petite teenagers..."



So on and so forth. Not one positive thought. And then I caught an actual sentence:

"I really like those shoes. Those are the kind of shoes I want!"

There you go. All the poor kid was doing was praising my shoes, and I heaped all my insecurities and preconceived notions on them. Instead on focusing on feeling good in myself, and approaching my looks from the view point of, well, me, I chose to put words in the mouth of a teenager.

I guess my point is just that whilst often the world can indeed be cruel, stupid, and shallow, sometimes it is we ourselves who put words into the mouths of other people, who perhaps in their heads are praising us at that very moment. It is a heartening thought, no? Sometimes we just have to let go, and dare to believe in people.

Hey all! A few weeks ago I hawked cotton candy as my alterego Kitty Von Quim for a burlesque show in San Francisco that was themed "Sideshow." So I raided my closet for something that exemplified sticky and sweet...

( Slightly NSFW for lots of cleavage and short shorts. )

http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~3/43eYi7ltWoM/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/07/11/jackson.custody/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

A custody hearing for singer Michael Jackson's children scheduled for Monday has been pushed back for a second time.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/failblog/~3/rkzfJgqCScA/

http://failblog.org/?p=21943

http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~3/O70kSCSJ5Mw/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/07/11/china.uyghurs/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

At least 184 people died in last weekend's violent protests in China's far-west Xinjiang region, state-run media reported.

http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~3/86582Vm8bqA/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/07/11/obama.ghana/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

For too many Africans, "conflict is a part of life," U.S. President Barack Obama told Ghana's Parliament today. "There are wars over land and wars over resources. And it is still far too easy for those without conscience to manipulate whole communities into fighting among faiths and tribes," Obama said. "These conflicts are a millstone around Africa's neck."

http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~3/t4HxJyANMvw/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/11/arizona.plane.evacuation/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Officials said a British Airways jet had to be evacuated Friday at a Phoenix, Arizona, airport after smoke was reported in the cabin.

http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~3/PPwEib5G2Ko/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/07/10/jackson.gary.tribute/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Michael Jackson was the pride of Gary, Indiana, growing up and on Tuesday his hometown paid tribute to the late entertainer with a memorial and celebration in his honor.

http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~3/i2NEPyy8QCU/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/07/11/ukdeaths.afghanistan/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

The British military marked a grim milestone Friday as the number of troops killed in Afghanistan surpassed the death toll in Iraq.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7669135@N08/3708917126/in/pool-50392831@N00

Girlchile has added a photo to the pool:

Don't you just hate it when you hit the timer and then the camera decides it doesn't want to stay upright so by the time you sort it you don't have enough time to get into position? This accidental shot turned out better than the planned ones but no feet.

Top- New Look
Jeans- Avenue
Bag- gift- don't know where from
Necklace- Topshop

http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~3/ndOrc7bP2NI/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/10/philly.pool.response/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

The president of The Valley Swim Club has strongly denied charges of racism after his club canceled the swimming privileges of a nearby day care center whose children are predominantly African-American. "It was never our intention to offend anyone," said John Duesler, who said he underestimated the amount of children who would come to swim at the club.

I haven't seen anything that fit my measurements today, but I figured that I'd throw this out there and double-check!

I need jeans pretty desperately. I typically wear about a size 24 (or maybe a 26, depending on cut) these days; my waist measurement is about 47 1/2" and my hip measurement is about 55". I'm not sure about my rise measurement, but I'll double-check it if anyone's got something close.

I don't care too much about color, and I'm flexible on cut to a certain extent. If you have any jeans that might work for me that you're looking to sell (preferably relatively cheaply, as money's a bit tight in the summer), please let me know!

----- Forwarded message -----

Hi everyone!

Amnesty International has just released a VERY URGENT action on Lithuania where the Seimas (parliament) is going to vote on Tuesday (July 14) on whether to put into effect a very homophobic law that would ban a lot of materials from schools and even from public places and the media in general.

Fortunately, Amnesty UK has set up a webpage where you can just click to send a submission to the Lithuanian authorities. It's very quick and easy! So, PLEASE go to this link and make a submission. It will take just 60 seconds. And please send this link to your other activist networks so we can generate as many messages as possible over the next three days.

Here's the link:
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/lgbt

Thanks everyone!

All the best,


Tony Pitman
Amnesty International LGBT group convener, Melbourne, Australia

Hey fellow fats, I'm Sylina and this is my very first OOTD!!!
( Thar be pictures )

The PBS documentary on Sister Aimee had a video of her and 300-plus white clad lady evangalists singing "When We All Work Together", with hand gestures

I DIED

Hey, y'all. It looks like I'm going be helping out with the "De-Stress/Accupuncture" part of the Allied Media Conference next week. Nora and I will be giving free ear accupuncture from Noon-ish to 1:30ish on Friday and Saturday.
Ear accupuncture is great for that stressed out, i-didn't-enough-sleep, i-can't-process-all-this-cool-info, conference craziness that tends to happen.

Hello Fatshionistas!

First-time post, as I just recently stumbled upon this community, and I have a question for you guys. I'd just like to get some objective, impartial opinions on something I've recently had to deal with.

( Come for the fatties, stay for the drama: A little background info. )

So, my question is - am I wrong for this? Am I overreacting? How would you feel if something like this happened to you? I really want objective opinions on this, so please, speak your mind.

On a final, unrelated note - I spent a few hours last night going through almost all of the OOTD posts, and all of you are gorgeous and FIERCE as hell! Kudos to each and every one of you. :)


**EDIT**
For clarification, because several of you have asked me - yes, he has seen pictures of me and he knows what I look like. He hasn't seen TOO many body shots, simply because I don't HAVE very many, but he's seen my body, yes.

Hey everyone! Today I felt particularly sexy and filled to the brim with attitude, and I wanted to show you all.

( 3 Large-ish pics under the cut. )

Your model is 20, full of herself, probably around 270-280lbs, size UK 22/24/26 and about 5'7".

Oh also, I don't know if this is common knowledge or not, but if anyone is like me and likes the G-21 range, but couldn't fit into it because it only went up to size 18, I've recently seen a few of their pieces going up to size 22, so I'd suggest checking it out, because hurrah, maybe they'll have it in your size!

http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~3/lB9qhRwsqFs/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/10/toll.house.dough.e.coli/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

The investigation of the E. coli outbreak linked to Nestle Toll House cookie dough is nearly over, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The cause of the contamination has not been identified.