Inspiration Saturday: A tutu tirade

Today's post is part inspiration, part rant.  I'm warning you now.

I don't know how many of you might have heard about this already.  My sense of what I read about online and what is actually water cooler conversation to the rest of the world is not that sharp.  But I first found out about it last week, and it continues to irk me.

Self, a women's fitness/lifestyle magazine, included this nugget in a feature called 'BS Meter' next to a photo of two women running a marathon wearing superhero t-shirts and tutus:

New Running Tulle: A racing tutu epidemic has struck NYCs Central Park, and it’s all because people think these froufrou skirts make you run faster.  Now, if you told us they made people run away from you faster, maybe we would believe it.

Let's completely set aside the horrific detail that one of the women photographed, a cofounder of a company called Glam Runner that sells these kinds of poofy running accessories, was running the LA marathon having been diagnosed with brain cancer.  Because obviously making someone who has cancer the butt of your joke is not generally a great PR move.  Let's assume that these had just been two healthy women running a marathon with complementary Superman and Wonder Woman outfits.  Because even if that were the case, I would still be fuming.

I love tutus.  When I was a little girl, there was nothing better than a frilly skirt that would fly up to my waist when I twirled around.  If it were not totally contrary to the generally accepted dress code of adult society, I would probably still wear tutus in public.  Because they are fun and irreverent, and they make me smile.  Like anything else I put on my person, whether it's shoes, jewelry, or makeup, a silly or colorful detail lets me feel like a kid and a grown-up at the same time.  Like this amazing linen skirt my mom knit for me for Christmas:

It's colorful and fun, and the best part is that because it's linen, the more I wear it, the softer it will get.  I love hard-wearing knitwear.  Especially when it's pink and evokes those wonderfully-spinning skirts of my childhood.

But wearing an actual tutu while I'm out, say, grocery shopping, would make me feel kind of self-conscious.  So I refrain, and save the tutu-wearing for some of my races, like a 5K turkey trot a few years ago:

It's not a full-on tutu, but there is tulle, and a bright pink bobble hat to complete the look.  And you know what, I don't think anyone has the right to try and make me feel ashamed or ridiculous for it.  Because when you are running, at any distance, you have earned the right to wear whatever makes you feel comfortable and gives you the motivation to cross the finish line.

No one wearing a tutu really thinks that it's going to make them run faster.  It's the kind of smart aleck comment that a cynical observer makes while runners pass them by.  It's the kind of comment that keeps some people from going out and doing anything, because they feel like someone is always going to be there to make fun of them, because they aren't fast enough or skinny enough or wearing the right thing.

And it's not the kind of comment I want to read in a magazine.  I'm offended not just by the judgements they are making against me, but by the sheer stupidity of casting this kind of aspersion on a not insignificant percentage of what should be their target market.  I've seen many women at 5Ks, and some at the marathon as well, wearing what might be better described as costumes than outfits.  And given today's publishing environment, I wouldn't have thought that Self could afford to alienate these women.

So while I decide on what magazines I will be starting up subscriptions to, because I still enjoy reading while running on the treadmill at the gym every week, I know Self is never going to be on that list.  Maybe I'll read some knitting magazines instead?

Were you a tutu-loving kid?  Do you still like to add girly frills to things?  Like some of these projects, perhaps?  For more inspiration, go to Woolen Diversions.

WIP Wednesday: Rant forward

We're all over this whole daylight savings time thing, right?  I mean, why do we keep putting ourselves through the Chinese water torture that is shifting the time by an hour twice a year, making it either impossible to fall asleep because it feels too early or truly painful waking up in the morning, again because it feels too early?  Why do I now have to drive to work in the twilight and eat dinner in the sunshine when I didn't last week?  And we can't even agree when to change the clocks, or whether to do it at all, so any meetings with people in other timezones get completely thrown off depending on who hosts them.  Chaos, I tell you.  Chaos.  I think this speaks to a deep-seeded masochistic streak in our culture that we should deal with and move past.

Anyway, now that we're all on the same page there...on to the knitting!  Despite suffering from daylight savings trauma, and still being in a post-Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream haze, I managed to make progress on my Up for Anything Cami:

Not quite done, but I just need to finish this strap and knit the second.  Who knows, I might have it finished by Friday!

Until then, you can read about more WIPs at Tami's Amis.

A summer's eulogy

Commiserations, students of the Austin area.  Tomorrow is the first day of school.

Instead of wandering towards your bed in a leisurely fashion sometime before the sun comes up and sleeping until high noon, tonight you will have to set an alarm which will force consciousness on you at a time you may have forgotten existed with an 'a.m.' next to it.  You will drag yourself out of bed and into what you hope will be the outfit that will set you onto the path of popularity this year.  It will be just the start of a terribly trying day that will end only with the certainty that you must repeat it again and again for nine more months.

This is difficult time, I know.  And I also know that recognizing the trials of others is not something younger generations are praised for.  But I feel I must attempt to impress upon you that you are not the only ones who suffer.  Perhaps the knowledge that we are joined in this struggle will give you strength as you step onto the school bus or make your own way to class.

Because while today is your first day journeying in the wee hours of the morning, this is a trek that us poor cubicle dwellers have been making day in and out all year long.  And while we don't get three months off, we do enjoy the three months when school traffic dissipates and leaves a relatively open road for the morning commute.  Tomorrow our briefcases, purses, and lunch totes will feel just a little heavier as we know that along with the 9-to-5-ers, we will be bumper-to-bumper with a whole new batch of road warriors.  My own time from driveway to desk will increase by 50%, which is depressing since I can't even knit in that time.

So Godspeed, young students.  I will attempt to console myself, as my car crawls along the road, by telling myself that it is all worth it for your education.  So please, go learn something.

A Morning Edition of frustration

I try not to get overly political, because that's not the point here.  But this morning I experienced one of those annoyances that isn't about politics, it's just the reaction any time that you hear something that you know to be untrue.  It just happens to involve politics, so forgive me the faux pas.

I've taken to listening to NPR in the morning, taking in the day's news and generally easing into another work day.  This morning, there was, as there has been every morning since Todd Akin made his, umm, interesting comments, a report on the fallout.  The Family Research Council is one of the few standing behind him, and the head of their political action committee, Connie Mackey, came on to talk to Steve Inskeep about how partisan the media was, because while this blew up, no one had covered how Obama had said that men shouldn't be involved in any women's legislation.

Here's the thing: the comment she's referring to...I heard it.  On NPR.  It was covered, in fact it was covered in its full context rather than the extrapolation Mackey offered.  And thus, an angry tweet was born.

And just to emphasize the non-politics of my pet peeve, I had the same reaction when Michael Kors told a designer he didn't understand why he had put a turban on his model.  Michael, it was because he was in the bottom the week before, he was wearing a turban, and you told him you loved what he was wearing and that you wanted to see that style in his designs for the runway.  Did you mean 'slap a turban on your next look'?  Probably not, but don't pretend you have no idea where that came from.

See?  My irrational desire to yell at people who live in my electronic devices knows no limits.  We won't discuss last night's episode of Project Runway.  I'll just say: Ven has just as much trouble talking to/about real people as he does designing for them.  He should halt his attempts at either.