Blog Block

I realized it's been a while since I've blogged....with the holidays, busy season at work and just life happening I just haven't really found the time to sit and write something. 

But I have one I'm working on about shhhh.....Secrets. ;)

So hopefully I'll be ready to upload and publish it soon. 

Until then Happy Holidays everyone!

(...and don't forget to check out my other blog for yummy holiday cookie ideas...)

Makes Me Sick.

It just makes me sick that we still live in a world where this discrimination and hatred exists. 

"In a move to "promote greater unity" among its body and the Pike County community it serves, a small Kentucky church voted to ban interracial couples from membership and from participating in certain worship activities, Kentucky.com reports.

Though reminiscent of some Jim Crow-era mandate, the Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church actually made the decision earlier this month, following a visit from 24-year-old Stella Harville, daughter of the church's secretary and clerk, and her 29-year-old fiance, Ticha Chikuni, a native of Zimbabwe.

According to Harville's father, Dean Harville, Stella brought Chikuni to the church in June where they performed a song for the congregation. 

Following the visit, former pastor Melvin Thompson told Harville that his daughter and her fiance could not sing at the church again. Thompson later proposed that the church go on record saying that while all people were welcome to attend public worship services there, the church did not condone interracial marriage.

His proposal, which was accepted by a 9-6 vote last week, also suggested that married interracial couples be prohibited from becoming members and used in worship activities, except for funerals.

"It's not the spirit of the community in any way, shape or form," said Randy Johnson, president of the Pike County Ministerial Association, according to Kentucky.com.

While Pike County and the surrounding community come to grips with the church's decision, researchers at Ohio State University and Cornell University say black-white marriages in the United States are soaring, increasing threefold, from 3 percent in 1980 to 10.7 percent in 2008."

Did You Know?

Since moving to Portland two years ago I've tried to do what I can to make the best of where I'm living.. Visiting touristy and local hot spots alike. Trying out and exploring the culinary scene that makes Portland a foodies-wet-dream. Just generally trying to familiarize myself with the ins-and-outs of this new town. 

So when a friend forwarded me this "9 Facts You Might Not Know About Portland, OR" I was so up for the challenge!!

Here they are:

9. Portland is the only city with an extinct volcano within city limits. Yep. Mt Tabor. Not too far from where I live too. 

8. Portland has more movie theatres and restaurants, per capita, than any other city in the United States. Now while I didn't necessarily know this exact fact it's hard to not believe it. Especially where McMenamin's often times combines both in one establishment.

7. Portland has the second largest hammered copper statue in the world (the first is the Statue of Liberty). I did know this. Her name is Portlandia and she lives on 5th in Downtown. Depending on what angle you look at her she's either beautiful or a bit scary. 

6. More than 20 Farmer's Markets and 35 Community Gardens provide access to fresh, locally sourced food. Yes I did know that. And I've been to a number of them. :)

5. Saturday Market is the Largest continuously operating open-air crafts market in the United States. So while I did not know this I also don't agree with it...mostly because Saturday Market does shut down January and February (understandably so). So does that still count as "continuously"? I think this is a prime example of Portland just wants to be #1 at whatever it can. 

4. Portland's International Rose Test Garden is the oldest in the Nation. Believe it or not, I did know this. Mostly from my time working at the Portland Rose Festival. The garden was opened/started in 1917 and is actually 5 gardens in one.

3. Portland has more microbreweries and brew pubs than any other city in the nation. Again, I did know this. And because we're the microbrewery capital of the USA that means it's damn impossible to find a freaking liquor store anywhere!! Actually I have no idea if one is because of the other but it sounds like a good blame.

2. Portland is home to the nation's largest urban park - the 5,000 acre Forest Park. Look at me go! I knew this too!! I also know that Portland houses the smallest park in the WORLD!! Mills End Park. It's a whopping 452 sq. inches

1. Portland's nicknames include "Rose City", "City of Bridges", "Rip City", "River City", "Stumptown" and "Puddletown". Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes! Although the "official" nickname is "City of Roses".

So in the end. I'm very proud of how much I've learned about my new town in the last two years. :)

Big Butt Blog

I love when things just fall into place sometimes. Not wrong place wrong time but instead right place right time. For me today the right place right time was reading an essay by Erin J Aubry, called "The Butt: it's politics, it's profanity, it's power" (part of the "Body Outlaws" anthology.

As I write this I'm sitting on a small plane headed from Portland to San Francisco (eventually making my way to San Diego). When I say small plane I mean put your carry on luggage below because the overheads are the size of a bread box, four seats across small.

The airline doesn't matter.

What does matter is today, this flight, was the first time I EVER in my nearly 10 years of flying as an adult, had to ask for a seat belt extension.

I was mortified.

Despite being size 26, and having good ol' fashioned birthing hips and a big butt I've always been able to wear a standard airline seat belt. 

Yes they've always fit snug over my hips but it's supposed to. Sometimes I've had to sit up straight, slip the belt under my belly to

have it sit across my lap.

But never have I had it not fit.

Not click into itself.

Thankfully I was one of the first on the plane and there were not that many people in the back of the plane when I slipped beside the flight attendant and had to ask for a "belt extension". The flight attendant smiled and politely asked what seat I was in as she handed me the balled up belt.

Did it have to be a different color?

Did she have to ask what seat I was in so everyone around knew the woman in 11D didn't fit in her seat?

Now to be fair to myself I fit in the seat. My hips and thighs don't spill over into my neighbors seat. It's just the combination of my hips, butt and stomach just were two or three inches too big to fit into the airlines expectation of "maximum size".

No matter how you look at it. No matter what spin you put to it. It was still the first time I had the thought "I'm too fat to fly".

Enter Erin Aubry's "The Butt".

Now while I cannot claim to know first hand the social stigmas and perceptions the country/world puts onto woman of color and their butts. A number of things that Aubry discusses in her essay spoke to me and I could relate my own personal experiences of being a big butt

woman.

"I have a big butt. Not wide hips, not a preening, weightlifting-enhanced butt thrust up like a chin, not an occasionally saucy rear that throws coqettish glances at strangers when it's in the mood and withdraw like a turtle when it's not. Every day, my butt wears me...."

I often feel this way. That no matter what I wear, how I try to camaflage it, there is no hiding that I have a BUTT! Although (perhaps) unlike Erin Aubry I also have wide hips. And there are days when I'm convinced my butt and hips are teaming up and flirting with strangers when I'm not looking. Winking and giving come hither looks to every man on the street.

I have no control over it and it gets me in trouble. My butt/hips are out there socializing away and then when the men come up to me and use such original come-ons like "Hey there Momma" and "Mmm. Damn girl"- I have to be the bitch that turns them down... It also doesn't help that

I think my breasts are in on the scam with my hips and butt.

There are days when I just cannot stand my butt/hip duo and want to vote them off the island.

Days when it doesn't matter how many pairs of pants I try on I just can't find a pair that fits. Either they fit around my waist but have too much fabric in the seat so it looks lime I've got a load back there. Or they fit fantastic over my butt, with curves in all the right places but I can't make the button up. Because I'm telling you now I don't do elastic waist bands unless we're talking pjs or lounge pants.

Days like today when something as insignificant as an airplane seat belt makes me hyperaware that I have a "larger than average" sized body and society isn't sure what to do with it.

"I'll admit: For all my hand wringing, I'm growing accustomed to my butt. It's a strange and wonderful development....as I've gotten heavier I've actually gotten more comfortable with how I look....So what if America, in it's infinite generosity, wants to hp me get rid of this bothersome behind....More and more, my response has been: I am going to eat cake. I will wear the things that fit-whatever ones I can find-with impunity. I will walk this way. I don't have an issue, I have a groove thing. Kiss my you know what."

This last piece of Aubry's essay is really what sang out to me. I am currently near the heaviest weight I have ever been (actually the heaviest was approximately three years ago but only by about fifteen or twenty pounds more) but I believe I'm also the most comfortable with my body...until days like today.

(End Note. I returned via this same airline on my way home from San Diego. This time on a standard 747 and my seat belt fit just fine)

Heart and Brain