August16
I am sorry for sort of disappearing last week my darlings. It was a strange and crazy week. It was a week of surprises, disappointments and then total elation! I had begun to write a post about fats and hair and then it sort of fizzled out and I left it alone, I could come back to it, who knows. I do have some thoughts to share with you this fine (cold & gray in the SF Bay) Monday. (And yes, I am the Queen of the Run-on sentence, yo! You have been warned.)
I own a small (tiny really) cafe near SFO (it’s an airport) and across the street is a hair salon geared towards kids, but they do everything. The woman who owns the place has become not just a customer and business neighbor, but a friend and mentor. I was helping her with her English for awhile and she’s been ever so encouraging of me in general, but specifically style & beauty. I have since become her “hair model” or so she calls me. Basically, I let her do whatever she wanted with my hair back in March and now it’s sort of a regular fun/free-for-all thing. I love it! I mean, I get free hair cuts and a bit of color (I freakin’ love the splash of black in my red hair). This last week she wanted to try something truly radical and I went for it head first. Ha! Well, the result was exactly what we had discussed and there was a mini freak out on my part, but I not mad at her. She was trying to shave a heart in the back of my already short hair. Well, this caused her to have to really shave it down and in the end it’s more of an upside down tear drop than a heart. I panicked and wore a bandanna on my head, but then I finally gave up and just rocked it.
A couple of days later Marilyn Wann (author of the zine & book “Fat! So?” and inventor of the “YAY! Scale”) came into my cafe for lunch. We’d been trying to meet up for a year! We just kept missing each other at various events. So when she came in with her love and a good friend and she said she liked it? I nearly died, you guys! I was so excited that she came into my humble little cafe. We chatted and they all seemed to enjoy my offerings and I was elated! She signed my copy of “Fat! So?” as well…it was already a prized possession, but now? It’s my precious! Ha-ha! Her book just inspired me so and then seeing the Fat Fly Girls in June and all…it was all so amazing!I feel so very fortunate. I cannot believe that this world famous author and fat activist came into my shop and ate my food and drank my drinks and enjoyed it all, too! She even wrote up a yelp review! I nearly died, I tell ya!
Yes, we talked about all things fat. I told her the short version of how I found FA and discussed some of the more negative aspects in the fat-o-sphere and I explained how I am committed to putting out the positive only. There were things I had forgotten to mention, but no worries as she has said she’ll be back for sure. Squee!
Okay, so I tried super hard not to be a big geeky fan-girl and I think I succeeded, but I was also just super fucking stoked to meet some local FATS! I love meeting new people of all sizes, don’t get me wrong, but I have no fat friends and meeting fats is just the greatest thing ever. I’m not expecting to become BFFs with every fat I meet or anything, but it’s so comforting to talk with people who understand what it’s like to be fat in a world that says it’s not okay to be so. *sigh* So good!
There are plans of a “Yay! Scale” making session here at the cafe (OMZ!) and I really would like my little place to be a safe and comfortable space for fats. I dream of meet-ups and swaps and whatever! I’m currently putting together a fat band (know any drummers?) and cannot wait to rock everyone’s socks off! What began as a bummer week turned into a surprisingly awesome one. Even saw “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” on Saturday with my BFFs and it was great!
Now, to put together a goth outfit for this weekend…
ETA: The lovely Claudia of http://fatbodied.wordpress.com/ has request pics of my hairs, so here it is:
That’s me & my hairs, today. The left is of the shaved bit and the right is my do du jour.
