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dragonlady7man o man.
work; ran around a bit, not too bad. Back hurt so much this a.m. that I not only took handful of ibuprofen, but also put on my retro-chic girdle. why, you ask? the pressure it puts on my lower back feels awesome when I have sore lower back muscles. And indeed, i had much less back pain today than yesterday. (pulled a muscle slightly yesterday, was v. sore, don't remember if i blogged it.)
downside? rang in the metal detector at security. Oh yes. Started my day off by getting frisked. how awesome.
my knees hurt a lot today. it's not something i can't work through, even at its worst, but it was driving me mad by the end of my shift. and then practice-- oh yes. I got home from work and then had just over an hour to eat dinner and get ready for practice.
Fortunately, Z had already made dinner. We ate dinner at 4:30. I was starving. It was perfect. I do not deserve him, despite all the whining I do-- he came up with this plan all on his own and it was such brilliance I can't even explain.
Anyway.
Practice. At the secret private facility the Knockouts have secret access to. It's not quite big enough for a regulation-size track, but it is a large space with a painted concrete floor and it is perfect.
My knees were hurting. Mostly I could ignore it because I was distracted-- we were doing very different things, very helpful things, very funny things. Doing sit-ups is twice the workout when you are also laughing hysterically. Lizzie is just so funny, not always entirely intentionally-- she has this air of complete earnest innocence and enthusiasm and then these things come out of her mouth... "You see, you see how Holly's arms look? They're all red and blotchy. We want that! It means she's hitting properly. We want our arms red and blotchy! It's our meat we want tenderized! Beat that meat! Do it right!"
But my knees hurt and I feel very heavy and tired now. Ugghhhh.
And now I am going to talk about some very TMI things so anyone who's not into periods or menstrual blood or anything, don't click the cut; it's very interesting and unwhiny and not at all the usual moaning about cramps, but it is, well, what it is, so don't click if you're squicked.
I have to say, I am completely blown away by The Keeper.
I followed a link to Clean Undies a couple weeks ago (or more? don't remember)-- they were linked to from that bra-maker's blog. Their undies are unbleached organic cotton, but what's far more interesting than that, is that they're far better-made than your run-of-the-mill underpants-- more attention paid to where seams are placed, for example. I have four pairs, and love them. Comfy, breathable, wedgieless.
Anyway, while browsing around the site (hey, I needed some underpants, and I like the idea of non-wedgie-causing boy shorts) I noticed that they're the ones who sell that weird rubber cup thing. My baby sister, the environmentalist one who is maturing into not really that wacko a person at all, has a Keeper and said that it was initially uncomfortable but she's very happy with it now. Mom was totally grossed out.
I was buying some undies anyway. I have never really done very well with either tampons or pads-- always running out of the one size I need, always have a zillion of the size I don't, never have one of whatever when I need it. And tampons give me awful cramps, don't know why, while pads irritate my skin.
So, somewhat on impulse, I ordered a Keeper. And for $4 you could get a free set of reusable cloth pads too. So I figured, why not, and bought that too.
I started using it last night-- got my period, somewhat unexpectedly, at work, and when I got home, I was rummaging and couldn't find any pads of the right size. So I retrieved the Keeper from the pile where I'd put my new stuff, washed it in the sink, ran it under warm water, and figured, why not?
Wore it with a pantiliner the first night. Nary a smudge of a hint of a leak. Emptied it in the morning. Made a godawful mess. Put it back in, cleaned things up, went to work. Emptied it toward the end of my shift. Did not make a mess. Hurrah! I got the hang of it!
Wore it to roller derby practice. Forgot I had it in. Went out afterward. Thought perhaps I should empty it. Waited until I got home. Slight smudge of sweat-diluted blood in underwear, but not enough to indicate a real noticeable leak. Less than a bled-through tampon. And that was after three hours of roller derby.
I figured it'd give me cramps like tampons do-- I figured they give me cramps because my vagina is displeased with having a foreign object wedged in there.
But the Keeper doesn't give me cramps. It gives me a weird feeling of pressure sometimes, and I can see how my sister could describe it as painful. It almost hurts. But not like cramps.
I've had no cramps at all really since putting the Keeper in.
What's more, I have to empty it way less frequently than I have to change a tampon. And once you get the hang of not making a horrific gory mess, it's actually a lot less messy than a tampon or a regular pad. This is honestly the least aware, least worried, least pained by my period I have ever been.
Best $30 I've ever spent. I'd pay twice that.
I think I'm having a pretty heavy period, but honestly I wouldn't know. I could probably monitor the flow a lot more accurately with this thing than any other method, but I sort of don't care to. I don't even have to look at it. I can empty it without even looking at it, and not even see the mess.
You don't have to be some kind of hippie earth goddess type who loves menses etc. to like the Keeper. You just have to be comfortable with your vagina, and with putting things into it-- it's harder to insert than an applicator tampon, but you have to do it a lot less often.
I am incoherent with weariness so I'll stop there.
work; ran around a bit, not too bad. Back hurt so much this a.m. that I not only took handful of ibuprofen, but also put on my retro-chic girdle. why, you ask? the pressure it puts on my lower back feels awesome when I have sore lower back muscles. And indeed, i had much less back pain today than yesterday. (pulled a muscle slightly yesterday, was v. sore, don't remember if i blogged it.)
downside? rang in the metal detector at security. Oh yes. Started my day off by getting frisked. how awesome.
my knees hurt a lot today. it's not something i can't work through, even at its worst, but it was driving me mad by the end of my shift. and then practice-- oh yes. I got home from work and then had just over an hour to eat dinner and get ready for practice.
Fortunately, Z had already made dinner. We ate dinner at 4:30. I was starving. It was perfect. I do not deserve him, despite all the whining I do-- he came up with this plan all on his own and it was such brilliance I can't even explain.
Anyway.
Practice. At the secret private facility the Knockouts have secret access to. It's not quite big enough for a regulation-size track, but it is a large space with a painted concrete floor and it is perfect.
My knees were hurting. Mostly I could ignore it because I was distracted-- we were doing very different things, very helpful things, very funny things. Doing sit-ups is twice the workout when you are also laughing hysterically. Lizzie is just so funny, not always entirely intentionally-- she has this air of complete earnest innocence and enthusiasm and then these things come out of her mouth... "You see, you see how Holly's arms look? They're all red and blotchy. We want that! It means she's hitting properly. We want our arms red and blotchy! It's our meat we want tenderized! Beat that meat! Do it right!"
But my knees hurt and I feel very heavy and tired now. Ugghhhh.
And now I am going to talk about some very TMI things so anyone who's not into periods or menstrual blood or anything, don't click the cut; it's very interesting and unwhiny and not at all the usual moaning about cramps, but it is, well, what it is, so don't click if you're squicked.
I have to say, I am completely blown away by The Keeper.
I followed a link to Clean Undies a couple weeks ago (or more? don't remember)-- they were linked to from that bra-maker's blog. Their undies are unbleached organic cotton, but what's far more interesting than that, is that they're far better-made than your run-of-the-mill underpants-- more attention paid to where seams are placed, for example. I have four pairs, and love them. Comfy, breathable, wedgieless.
Anyway, while browsing around the site (hey, I needed some underpants, and I like the idea of non-wedgie-causing boy shorts) I noticed that they're the ones who sell that weird rubber cup thing. My baby sister, the environmentalist one who is maturing into not really that wacko a person at all, has a Keeper and said that it was initially uncomfortable but she's very happy with it now. Mom was totally grossed out.
I was buying some undies anyway. I have never really done very well with either tampons or pads-- always running out of the one size I need, always have a zillion of the size I don't, never have one of whatever when I need it. And tampons give me awful cramps, don't know why, while pads irritate my skin.
So, somewhat on impulse, I ordered a Keeper. And for $4 you could get a free set of reusable cloth pads too. So I figured, why not, and bought that too.
I started using it last night-- got my period, somewhat unexpectedly, at work, and when I got home, I was rummaging and couldn't find any pads of the right size. So I retrieved the Keeper from the pile where I'd put my new stuff, washed it in the sink, ran it under warm water, and figured, why not?
Wore it with a pantiliner the first night. Nary a smudge of a hint of a leak. Emptied it in the morning. Made a godawful mess. Put it back in, cleaned things up, went to work. Emptied it toward the end of my shift. Did not make a mess. Hurrah! I got the hang of it!
Wore it to roller derby practice. Forgot I had it in. Went out afterward. Thought perhaps I should empty it. Waited until I got home. Slight smudge of sweat-diluted blood in underwear, but not enough to indicate a real noticeable leak. Less than a bled-through tampon. And that was after three hours of roller derby.
I figured it'd give me cramps like tampons do-- I figured they give me cramps because my vagina is displeased with having a foreign object wedged in there.
But the Keeper doesn't give me cramps. It gives me a weird feeling of pressure sometimes, and I can see how my sister could describe it as painful. It almost hurts. But not like cramps.
I've had no cramps at all really since putting the Keeper in.
What's more, I have to empty it way less frequently than I have to change a tampon. And once you get the hang of not making a horrific gory mess, it's actually a lot less messy than a tampon or a regular pad. This is honestly the least aware, least worried, least pained by my period I have ever been.
Best $30 I've ever spent. I'd pay twice that.
I think I'm having a pretty heavy period, but honestly I wouldn't know. I could probably monitor the flow a lot more accurately with this thing than any other method, but I sort of don't care to. I don't even have to look at it. I can empty it without even looking at it, and not even see the mess.
You don't have to be some kind of hippie earth goddess type who loves menses etc. to like the Keeper. You just have to be comfortable with your vagina, and with putting things into it-- it's harder to insert than an applicator tampon, but you have to do it a lot less often.
I am incoherent with weariness so I'll stop there.
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no subject
Date: 2007-04-15 08:23 am (UTC)/Eva
no subject
Date: 2007-04-15 07:39 pm (UTC)It's definitely working for me. And I do feel kind of nice, not filling up the garbage can every month. It's seriously a lot of trash to generate on such a frequent basis.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-15 08:24 am (UTC)As to knickers, I couldn't really be more boring - all mine come from good old M&S (http://www.marksandspencer.com/gp/node/n/42966030/026-1817197-2146839?ie=UTF8&mnSBrand=core) and nearly all of them are these (http://www.marksandspencer.com/gp/product/B000NVFYE8/sr=1-40/qid=1176623957/ref=sr_1_40/026-1817197-2146839?ie=UTF8&node=&m=A2BO0OYVBKIQJM&keywords=&mnSBrand=core&size=9&rh=n%3A43266030&page=5).
no subject
Date: 2007-04-15 07:45 pm (UTC)Still and all, in the past I have found ibuprofen profoundly unhelpful when I have cramps, so I would tentatively say that it isn't the medication that has eased my cramps this time.
I don't tend to get terrible cramps-- every two or three months I'll have a bad few hours one or two days, but they're never incapacitating, just annoying.
Marks & Spencers-- I really don't know why there's no US store like them. What drives me crazy is that all the stores that just sell underwear sell it in so few sizes!! Argh. I am so so so jealous when I look at Marks & Spencers website and note that they sell bras in 34G for like ten quid, but don't ship overseas. Argh!
no subject
Date: 2007-04-16 06:50 am (UTC)M&S must do themselves out of a lot of business by not shipping overseas, it seems daft. However, if you're interested enough, I'd happily order stuff for you here and airmail it on to you at cost; I think that would work easily enough for undies as they seem to have a 90-day returns policy and free UK postage for orders over £30, and it would be no big hassle for me as I'm always ordering stuff online (though not from M&S before because there's a big store not 10 minutes walk away) and I'm at the post office pretty much daily for work anyway. You could refund me via Paypal, or Amazon gift vouchers, or, well, whatever... So just say the word.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-16 12:09 pm (UTC)I'm really just envious of the existence of M&S in the UK. I went into a specialty underwear shop yesterday and it was advertising, in the window, free fittings anytime for bras. I went in the door, intending to ask if they could help me, as I've been trying to find 34G bras in the US for some time now. Then I read the bottom of the sign. "Sizes up to 42DD!"
I looked at the sign, looked at the women standing behind the counter, said out loud, "Well, that answers that question," and walked right back out.
There is nowhere within 300 miles that I can go to physically try on a bra. Given that bra sizes are wildly inconsistent and the only way to know what size you are is to try it on...
I have finally found a place that does free return shipping, so I'm probably just going to order from them. But thank you for the offer, and I may take you up on it sometime.
Meanwhile I'm just jealous that your country hasn't institutionalized body shame to the degree that ours has.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-15 09:39 pm (UTC)I should try a Keeper. I think I'd like it. I used to use sponges for birth control, so I am not scared of my vagina at all. Even if it does have several rows of teeth and an electric wire fence.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-15 11:13 pm (UTC)Me - I'm past that sort of thing, but dead jealous that I didn't have something like that.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-16 12:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-16 06:59 am (UTC)These days my only fear is that my vagina will shrivel up and atrophy from lack of, er, stimulation...
no subject
Date: 2007-04-16 12:15 pm (UTC)How's this for a terrifying picture:
My roller derby team has started to do this.
AAAAUUUUGGHHHHH.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-16 12:12 pm (UTC)That's what I want to know.
Phooey.
(I wonder if I could come up with an excuse to visit the UK besides just underwear shopping?)
An electric wire fence! That's pretty intimidating. I thought I had a pretty badass vagina, but I see I have little to brag about.
Crazy lady
Date: 2007-04-23 05:58 pm (UTC)Secondly: what am I if not an excuse?
Thirdly: I'm happy to do some M&S shopping for you and ship it over.
Fourthly: what are you doing around (but not on) the 22nd of July? I have to go to a dramatically posh wedding in Rhode Island and I'm figuring I should kill several birds with one stone.
Re: Crazy lady
Date: 2007-04-23 07:19 pm (UTC)I have not heard from you in so long!
You are an excellent excuse, but I feared I had lost track of you. Which is, as ever, your cue to pop up, now isn't it? :D
Firstly, yes, I am rather pleased with it. They call it a mooncup over here too, sometimes, but I choose not to.
Secondly, you are indeed an excellent excuse, and I shall have to think on that. I have been pining away for a trip to Europe for some time now, but, if I quit my job, then I can't afford one, so, bah humbug. We shall see what I can get up to.
Thirdly, I shall definitely let you know about Marks and Spencers. I remain hideously jealous of your shopping. Also, Bravissimo-- I bet there's one near you, and you could go in there anytime, and see all their pretty things in one room, and my head would explode.
[Incidental aside: Do you remember how I wanted a leather corset back in 1997? I still haven't found one. One day when I am famous I will have one made.]
Fourthly, at the moment I have no plans for the days in the vicinity of 22nd July, as I *do* have plans to quit my current job, and do *not* have plans to get a new one yet, so I can be sure when looking for a new one to specify that I need some days around that time off.
Fifthly, how the hell are you??
Re: Crazy lady
Date: 2007-04-23 07:53 pm (UTC)Bravissimo is not in favour in our household because their serving staff are as surly as they come and work on the assumption that if you are more than an F-cup* you're after a Triumph Doreen or equivalently sexy garment. We're Rigby and Peller girls for the most part.
I'm still at work, with no end in sight for today, so thank your lucky stars that you at least know when your shifts start and end. Fucking office work. I'm working two jobs at the moment because the charity sector is increasingly fucked when it comes to being able to fundraise for core staff. It's financially genius (I'm working a three day week on a contract and a two day week freelance for an equivlent salary, which invariably means I work a six day week and get paid handsomely for it), but it's knackering. Still, it means I'll be able to afford to get to Rhode Island (soon to be famous for me!) and maybe pooch around seeing you and random things for a week.
Nonetheless, it means I have no time that isn't spent fixing our flat, which is about half-finished, or at work. And I have so much other stuff I need to do. The enormo-scale graphic novel is on the back burner (might as well be on the actual burner for all the likelihood I have of finishing it at the moment), as is the children's book. I've managed to finish writing precisely one six hundred word story since Christmas. I think I'm just going to have to suck on a pay cut later on this year and make the time.
By the way, what the fuck is roller derby? It sounds hideously dangerous but I haven't a clue what the rules are. You got a cheatsheet?
Must get back to w**k. They are after all paying for it...
* Not me, natch - things have changed, but not *that* much
Re: Crazy lady
Date: 2007-04-23 08:57 pm (UTC)So that's too bad that they're idiots. But their website is fabulous, at least...
Ach, you never did know how to take it easy...
The reason I'm quitting the job is that I no longer know when my shifts start and end-- they've started randomly keeping us late, and I just never know when I'll be let out. I don't own a car, the public transportation is limited, and I cannot live my life on "maybe" anymore.
It's good money, but I've got a lot more to do than pay for things in this life. Also Management has an official policy of fucking with the bar staff, and I have *much* better things to do with my life than play their games. even if I win the game, I still lose, for playing in the first place, so screw that.
Roller derby! Where to start...
It's a bit of a fad, of late-- there was an American TV show about it a few years back, and after the show was cancelled, a bunch of girls in Texas somewhere decided they wanted to try doing it themselves, and it turned out to be a hell of a lot of fun. Five years later, there are amateur women's leagues all over the US and indeed, a few all over the rest of the world. It's the only women's full-contact sport that's widely played in the US, and it's become wildly popular as a grass-roots kind of thing.
The sport is simple-- it consists of two teams, each of which has five members on the track at any given time. Each team has a pivot, three blockers, and a jammer; the blockers skate in a pack which the pivot controls, while the two jammers try to get through the pack, getting one point for each opposing team member they pass. Both jammers skate simultaneously, so the object is to get your jammer through while preventing the opposing jammer from getting through.
Which basically means that you hit the shit out of each other-- but it's like hockey in that there are certain legal hits, and other hits are fouls. The violence can be largely incidental to the actual progress of the game, but when it happens it is spectacular. (A more succinct and accurate summary of the rules is here: Roller Derby Rules (http://madrollindolls.com/rules.htm))
When you add in that we're all wearing oldschool quad rollerskates, moving very fast, and generally wearing very short skirts (long ones get caught in the Velcro of your kneepads; trousers are uncomfortable because of kneepads too), and also we're all super-hot because we spend so damn much time skating, it's an undeniably appealing sport.
Never thought I'd be any good at sports! But it's so much fun you don't have time to notice how much it hurts.
My team is the Nickel City Knockouts, and we just got our pictures taken so here they are:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8011073@N08/
It's kind of taken over my life.
More on roller derby:
http://www.queencityrollergirls.net is my league
http://www.wftda.com central website of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association, the organization that oversees all the participating leagues
(http://wftda.com/leagues.html is a listing of all the member leagues. Ours isn't a member yet because you have to have a full season under your belt before you can join, and we're still halfway through our first season.)
All the good videos of us skating are on Myspace and you have to be a member there to see them, which sucks and is stupid.
Any of the league websites linked to from there give a pretty good overview of the sport as well. The best leagues are the Arizona Rollergirls, the Texas Rollergirls, and probably NYC's Gotham Girls, just in terms of antiquity, venerability, and sheer momentum. (Though our league manager [Sweet Pea (http://www.flickr.com/photos/8011073@N08/469897405/)], while skating for the Madison Roller Dolls from Wisconsin, helped beat the shit out of the Gotham Girls at a tournament, so that's what venerability gets you.)
Oo this is getting long, so I'll shut up. But you see how it's eaten my life...