weird

[dragonlady7]

This is unrelated to anything, and sort of apropos of nothing, but I've been spending all this time lately looking at lingerie sites on the Internet, and I see that Spanx are this big fad. I didn't know what they were-- apparently they're trendy control panties. So that your belly flab doesn't jiggle.

Am I the only one who kinda thinks it's sexy when you can see a little bit of jiggle around the hip of a girl's string bikini briefs under tight clothes?

I don't know why, but looking at the product photos of shiny neutered beige crotches made me feel decidedly unsexable. I'm not one to object to control undergarments-- don't I love corsets and girdles? Yes I do-- but the high-gloss nylon-spandex beige things just... Waah! I never knew I loved hipfat so much.

I know, I know, I'm a freak. Anyway.

Had roller derby practice this morning-- a bunch of the women are going to go to Rollercon in July and I just wanted to weep. Did I mention, no I haven't blogged this yet. Ok. Old Scheduling Manager is being demoted to doing the scheduling for the cashiers instead, and the asshole who was the bar manager when I started is back in charge of the bar. I do not say asshole lightly: his first action was to tell the union steward to sharpen up her grievance pencil, because he's going to be a lot harder on us than the old manager was. Now, given that under the old manager, no less than eight of us were fired, four of whom had been present for longer than 4 years each, I have no idea what we're supposed to have been getting away with. But this guy has power issues, and his favorite thing is to deny people the time off that they request.
What really gets a bee in my bonnet over this is the fact that forcing someone to come to work when they don't want to is unlikely to result in a good thing for anyone. We have new people who are ecstatic to pick up some extra hours, and when the more senior people get some time off, their attitudes improve immensely. It's a self-limiting kind of deal-- people aren't going to ask for zillions of days off, or they'll go broke. They're just going to ask for days off that they need. The old manager had gotten to be quite good at working to get us days off we wanted, and it made so much difference for so many of us. [She was no angel, but she did me enough favors that I would do her favors in return, and the same went for almost everyone, so she could pull strings and get us shifts switched, and she could usually get shifts covered.] Now I'm staring at a spring from Hell, and the fact that I can't rely on getting days off that I need has me in knots. I need St. Patrick's Day, a Saturday, if I am to help the rollergirls in the parade. I need March 31st, another Saturday, for the Knockouts/Saucies bout. I need April somethingth for the Knockouts/Dollies match. I need May somethingth for my cousin Maureen's wedding. I need all kinds of days off, and this fellow is such a gratuitous asshole I have no faith I'll get them. So it's completely out of the question to even think about going to Rollercon this summer-- this is the manager who gave one coworker a shift on a Wednesday when she'd told him she'd be in Cancun from Sunday to Friday, and then was actually surprised when she didn't show up that Wednesday.

So I think when we re-bid the schedules (as we're bound to do) I'm going to approach him and say, I'm sorry, I've started another part-time job; I can no longer work five days. I can only work for you on Weds, Thurs, and Fridays. And then I'm going to spend my weekends in Cortland starting a lingerie website with Fiona. Fuck this bartending shit.

Comments

[galadhir.livejournal.com]

The thing that gets me on the control underwear is that they never show them on anyone who could concievably feel that they needed them. (Because if they did, of course, it would show that you just bulge out of the top instead. Give me a corset any time, because it makes no pretense at all of looking natural. A woman in a corset is not a woman trying to look as though really she's a size smaller - she's a woman trying to look as though she's wearing a corset, and that makes all the difference :)

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

It's true, very true.

I don't object on principle, I just don't think that they look very attractive, and I just don't think I would feel sexy wearing them, which is sort of a requirement I've developed of intensively-structured foundation undergarments.

I want to learn to sew well enough to make my own custom corsets, because most of the ones I've seen have either been too weird to wear as a top layer, too thick/odd-shaped to wear as an underlayer (even if something relatively matching went over the top, you could see the bones and straps and the like and it wouldn't look intentional), or too insubstantial to do what they'd set out to do.

I really think I could come up with some sort of funky breast-support garment that would work for sports. But I have a lot of seamstressing to learn first.

[galadhir.livejournal.com]

Yes, I initially thought that I was going to wear mine under things, but the silhouette is very wierd, and the ridge at the top and the bottom shows up pretty obviously through everything. So I now tend to wear them on top of a shirt but under an open jacket. That seems to work.

I saw a programme once about all the research effort that went into creating sports shoes, and thought that someone ought to do an equivalent amount of serious thought into sports bras, cos the stuff you get at present either doesn't work or stops you from breathing. Good luck with that!

[taoflaherty.livejournal.com]

I recommend asking about what you want on http://community.livejournal.com/corsetry/
I've seen corsets that weren't too thick/odd-shaped to work as an underlayer and I've seen corsets that weren't too weird to wear as a top layer and I've read about corsets that were designed to properly work during certain sports. You want a custom done corset so that it's in your size, in the material you choose, by a corsetier who makes patterns that you like. Figuring out what you want does take a lot of research, but figuring out how to make what you want will probably take even more.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Also, it's not like I'm a chubby chaser or anything (my boyfriend of 4.5 years is severely underweight and I think his razor-like hipbones are sexy), but there's just something about a woman's jiggly bits. Corsets allow for there to be jiggly bits-- controlled jiggly bits, but jiggly nonetheless. These spandex panties only allow unintentional jiggly bits, and that sort isn't very sexy.

I do regret that I have stopped writing fanfiction because I had a bit planned for an Eomer/Lothiriel story where she's gained some weight and he gets totally distracted by a bit of her bodice where the laces are straining and the flesh underneath is squishy, but unfortunately that was the only really coherent bit of the story. Me = not so good with plot. I may have to stick that bit into some original writing somewhere, but I just don't know where yet.

[galadhir.livejournal.com]

Well, for there to be no jiggly bits at all, the spandex would have to cover the entire body, like a wetsuit. And then quite possibly you wouldn't be able to walk :)

Yes, you should definitely stick that bit in some original fic - there needs to be fic in which the men are skinny and the women are not!

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

They already do that (http://www.barenecessities.com/Spanx-Slim-Cognito-Shape-Mid-Thigh-Bodysuit_product_Spanx067_,search,.htm). I haven't tried one on, so wouldn't know if you can walk in it, but I do know that the product description makes a vague allusion to having an opening gusset, presumably so you can pee without peeling yourself out of it.
Mm. Not sexy. I'm sorry, it's just not. My idea of sexy 'shapewear' is something you wouldn't be ashamed to be seen in. But then, my idea of sexy is not being ashamed of anything about your body, so...

The Barbarians-novel has a bit where she's a bit chubby, having recently given birth, but I don't make a big fuss over it. I meant to, but I'm not sure there's time. I'm trying to cut that one down in length.

Mm, the next one doesn't have much room for that sort of thing either.

Well, there'll be a time. If I were more organized I'd make it a recurring motif. It's certainly a recurring motif of my life.

[heebiejeebie.livejournal.com]

do it! lingerie website!

ps - could you "call in sick" on the days he refuses to give you off?

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

We only get to call in sick six days a year, and we're officially blacked out from calling in sick on days we've requested off and been denied.

That latter point is a relatively new policy; I remember I called in sick on Z's graduation day after I asked it off and the new manager, who was our old manager before our old manager took over (less complicated than it sounds) denied me because he didn't feel like asking anyone else to work that day. I didn't get in trouble then. But if it happens again (which I'm sure it will; he knew why I wanted the day off, and I think the graduation of a man you've been supporting while he finishes his bachelor's degree is a pretty good reason to ask for a day) then I would be in trouble.

But then, what are they going to do, fire me?
Oh no!
You mean... all the days off I want???
That would be terrible.
...

The tragic irony is that they seem to only fire people who don't want to be fired. This happened to me once before, when a manager tried to order me to do something I felt I shouldn't have to do, and I told him right out, "I don't care if you feel within your rights. I would rather be fired than do what you say." And when I showed absolutely no fear... I was not in any way disciplined.
Then the next week he just happened to give me a poor performance evaluation on an unrelated aspect of the job, but that's how things work.

[heebiejeebie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, peaceful noncompliance seems to be the way to go.
If they fire you, I would reccommend applying for a bunch of call center jobs. I'm not sure why you think bartending "clears up" your mind for writing. It seems it actually creates more stress.
Having a secure job and income might calm you down enough to write. Even Franz Kafka worked for an insurance company (like me). You wouldn't believe how much free time I have to think, garden, play music, and other fun stuff.