These two images may seem completely unrelated, and that's because they are. They do a decent job of describing my night, though-without boring you with the thousand words involved. Well...decent, but not good enough, sorry. Here goes.
Mom and I went to dinner and a movie tonight-I'm sure I speak for both of us when I say we felt very civilized and organized-coordinating our schedules to do the same things at the same time. Dinner was at our favorite Mongolian BBQ where we noticed straight away that there was very little socializing going on among the guests. It seemed so strange; it was a Saturday night at a popular dinner hour, and the restaraunt was full of families, but the only voices we heard were of children, young enough to be too busy entertaining themselves to be bothered with the business of eating. We were seated in the corner, and I was facing the rest of the patrons, stealthily people-watching as one of the small, thin, deeply accented waitresses brought a pitcher of water to fill our glasses. It was all-you-can-eat-crablegs night, and the eating was fierce-you might say competitive.
As I sat there contemplating the abundance around me I started thinking about what the others must be thinking. The patrons certainly weren't talking, so there must have been some brain activity going on behind the scenes. The parents of the morbidly obese children, from 5 to 17 (their ages were hard to gauge, they were so big); what did they think of their family's furtive attitude toward unhealthy food, and did they take any responsibility? The thin waitresses, speaking in their native tongue comfortably, giggling and watching the melee ensue; were they mocking us? I guess it just distilled my feelings-clarified them as the cooks had done to the butter that was dripping off of my fellow American's chins. It's not worth it. I've been big and I've been small, and I can tell you that the best cake (pizza, chocolate, burrito, etc) in the world isn't worth to me how it feels to be strong and willful and COMFORTABLE. It literally made me watch my choices and portions. I know I sound haughty-that's okay, it's my truth.
Then there was the movie. 'Notes on a Scandal' was creepy, shocking, insightful and somehow, not the least bit overdone. I have a newfound reverence for Dame Judi Dench. Her character was calculating, opportunistic, manipulative, evil, bizarre and yet vulnerable (can you hear the gravelly, private cackle?). I highly recommend it, even though it made my skin crawl. It was a good night that spotlighted (with a gazillion candle-power bulb) some of my feelings on moderation, health and boundaries.
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