Random Thursday

Here is an awesome picture of the Iron Horse Criterium, taken from our prime place of seating at the Durango Diner. I forgot to post it in my post Iron Horse post. I love the way my iPhone skews the image - makes him look superfast! We sat in the diner eating an obscenely large breakfast after the Narrow Gauge Race, and had an excellent view of the crit.

You can see that there is no snow in this picture.

On the wall above my head in the diner was an article about Bob Roll, a Durango Local. Inspiring stuff.

The first day of La Luz training was today. Although I didn't sign up for La Luz (because I'm doing something else on the day), I still figure it's useful training - all that hill climbing, variable terrain, hanging out with other crazies - it's gotta be good for something.

Today was a 1 hr effort: we hiked/ran up an unimproved goat trail for 35 minutes, then prayed not to fall on our way back down for 25, for a total of 1hr 6 minutes. Wait. How did we get more than an hour? Because, in true La Luz training fashion, we got lost.

I love trail running!

Geekgirl told me recently that there will be new airport scanning methods coming into place which will involve security people seeing you semi-naked. When you go to the airport, they'll either do x-rays of your whole body, or have a semi-visible scanner - which means they'll be able to see you under your clothes.

This brought up some interesting thoughts for me.

My first thought was of all the women who evidently have body image issues -- and I think that would be most of us. I'm no supermodel, and most women I know have some part of their body that they're maybe not 100% accepting of, no matter how much they love themselves. Even so. but I can't remember the last time I truly gave a crap about anyone seeing me naked -- especially in the women's locker room.

Oh wait, I do remember. It's coming to me now....I was in the "junior" locker room with the kids - they're not allowed in the grownup locker room, because they have rules. Since I am a rule follower, and they are rambunctious little people, I take them back to the "junior" locker room, also known as the 'red headed stepchild's locker room, due to its constant state of disrepair, which I'm sure is due entirely to the herds of teenagers who also use the room.

Anyway. There we were, minding our own business, changing our clothes after a swim when an Entourage comes in. By Entourage, I mean several adult women, two relatively older women, and some others, I lost count there were so many. They appeared to be of foreign extraction. They brought with them a young man. He was approximately 8. The matron of the Entourage says to me, "He can't change on his own I hope it is OK that he is in here."

I was tired. My kids were hungry. I was so hungry I was about to eat one of my young. Swimming plus hungry makes for a cranky pirate and a pair of less-than-well-behaved children, who I was wrangling as patiently as I could manage. I was pre-occupied. Let's just say, the usual filter between my brain and my mouth was not on.

I also happen to know there is a men's/boy's junior locker room right next door, and it is empty. However. I don't have time to interview this woman and ask her why she is choosing to parent her child in this way, or investigate why she thinks her 8 year old son is incapable of using the locker room next door, or do a complete inventory of the cultural differences there were between me and her, or question her on why she thinks it's OK for an 8-year old boy to see some strange lady buck nekkid.

I turned to her son and said, "kid, as long as you don't point and stare, I'm fine with it. OK?"

He looked at me, bewildered, and said "OK."

Back to my point. I have been tired and hungry enough not to care about a strange boy seeing me naked - but I am generally not alarmed by other women seeing me naked. I got nothing to hide. As I've heard other women reflect, once you've had a couple of kids - and you've breastfed them - you get over the stigma of nakedness, especially in female company.

Yet at the gym (my other place of residence), I often see women take all their clothes with them so that they can change in a toilet stall, or in a shower stall. I can only guess that it's because they don't want me to see them naked, for reasons I can't relate to.

I also think about the time that I saw a woman with her daughter in the locker room. She made her daughter turn around while she got changed into her swim costume. Her own daughter.

So when Geekgirl tells me that the airline security people will start seeing people naked, I think about all those women -- those seemingly neurotic women, who seem to get stressed about their flab (or non-flab) -- and I think about the airport, and what a stressful place it already is, and how this is going to put the already freaked out people who have body image issues right over the edge. And I think about Diana Ross, Naomi Cambell, and all those other nice ladies who've had to endure Heathrow's airport security people - as I have myself.

And I think yeah, this is really going to make the airport a fun place.

Guys, by contrast, seem to live in a different world. Sure my locker room stories are fun, but I hear waaay better stories about people in the guy's room.

...Like the guy who dries his back hair with the blowdrier.

...Like the other guy who dries his crotch hair with the blowdrier.

...Like the guy who stands there talking to you, wearing nothing except his dress shoes and socks.

...Like the guy who was in the locker room, stark naked, reading the bible.

And other stories I can't remember anymore. Surely you've heard some good ones too? Please feel free to share them here - because I need to laugh!