But when I first saw Shapely Prose, I hated it as much as I hated myself, so avoided it for about a month.

I ... can't read Shapely Prose. I love the idea of it, and I absolutely agree with everything they're saying. YES, accept who you are, be the healthiest person you can, and don't kill yourself to try and reach some societal standard that hardly anyone can maintain! But I can't read it. Because even though I agree with what they're saying, reading the posts about "diets don't really work, and most people gain back what they lose" facts upsets me. And makes me feel like I shouldn't try to maintain the weight I'm at, because it won't work, and I'm a big moron for trying.

Totally my messed-up issues, and I know that. I also know that I've stayed at the weight I am over the past few months of, erm, not-very-mindful eating and sloth, so I really should ignore the mutterings of the Body Image Demons. But it's hard, and sometimes reading Shapely Prose makes it harder.

t /me me me

{{{Nora}}} Still thinking of you.

Dude, this surgery stuff is whacked. My belly just aches. The only thing that feels good is to get Vicodined up and sleep but I can't just do that. I have to walk around and stuff. I thought I'd be back at work next Monday but I'm really not so sure now. I need help doing almost everything and I don't want to think about trying to drive my (stick) car in LA traffic. Ugh. I can tell you one thing: since (I hope) I'll be going through this again in about a year, I really want to get into better shape. I want to eat right and get some exercise going as soon as I possibly can. This is not on.

GC, my experience with abdominal surgery (kidneys, appendix, c-section) is it will heal MUCH faster than you expect. There's lingering soreness for a while, but you'll be able to sit up and laugh and walk up stairs within the next week for sure.

Oh that's good to hear, Jess. My surgery was Monday and I am feeling a little better each day, but not as quickly as I thought I would. Of course, the surgery was a bigger deal than originally anticipated (fibroid that ended up as big as a baseball [!!]). Doc said it was basically a c-section.

Did you know there's a huge volcano under yellowstone that could erupt with less than one week's notice ending life in North America as we know it?

That's going to make Cass just giddy.

Um, ya.

Okay, I have to share this. Whenever I read "ya," (as opposed to, I suppose, "yeah" or even "yea"), I hear it in that really exaggerated Fargo/Prairie Home Companion accent.

There are a LOT of people on the Internet who have that accent. At least, in *my* mind's ear. I can't help it -- I "hear" everything I read, and "ya" comes out as pure Fargo.

Omnis -- and I'm not picking on you, because you're far from the only person on the interwebs that spells it that way; I'm just asking because it caught my attention and you happen to be the lucky fellow who posted it -- do you say it out loud that way, too? The Fargo accent, that is? I don't know anyone who does, and I'm curious.

t edit I realize that I'm a big freak for things like "hearing" what I read. I can't explain it. But then I also have a whole issue about people who type "he" for "hee" (as in laughter). I cannot stand it. Because "he" is a goddamn pronoun, people!

Ahem. Right. Like I said, BIG FREAK.

I'm just poking my head in here briefly because it is slow at work, but it looks like GC and Nora, especially could use ~ma.

Steph L., I hear it the same way. I also have a problem with "yanno". I was pronouncing it like "yan- oh" for quite some time before I realized it was "y'know"

I guess my more entertaining self could always do that naked.

Oh, my dear Shir, you are so in the right thread. Somewhere, omnis is smiling and he's not quite sure why.

And Tep? You look amazing in that picture. Thanks for going through teh guest-pass hullabaloo to let us see it.

Everybody else: Happy New Year. May it be as good to us as we are to each other.

I also have a problem with "yanno". I was pronouncing it like "yan- oh"

That's how it sounds to me, too.

"Ya" doesn't bother me the way that "he" (as an expression of amusement) does, because "ya," while not the colloquial form *I* choose to indicate the affirmative, is an acceptable form.

But "he" for "hee" will never sit right with me because it's abuse of a pronoun, and SOMEONE has to defend the poor pronouns!!!

t edit Like I said, I know I'm a freak. I'm good with that.

Whenever I read "ya," (as opposed to, I suppose, "yeah" or even "yea"), I hear it in that really exaggerated Fargo/Prairie Home Companion accent.

I do this, and I also hear "yea" pronounced as "yay" in a kind of Olde Timey Englishe accent.

It would never in a million years occur to me that "he" was a laugh unless it were a string of them like hehehehehe.

The acronym I see almost everywhere but here is KWIM for "know what I mean?" and I hate it because the K in know is silent and so the acronym is totally nonintuitive for me.