(no subject)

[jademermaid]

So busy lately!

Today I got my ass into the living room on time to do my 3 mile walk DVD and even did all the weight training on the last mile! This week I have been rotating Maya (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 45 minutes cardio/weights))with Leslie (Tuesday, Thursday, 3 mile walk/light weights), and doing very well. I've not missed any of my cardio time this month, I've been resting on Sundays and doing an hour or more on Saturdays.

Rose came by right when I finished my workout and we did some studying, we are currently reading this book:




We had a couple of really good discussions. Some of what they say about the way women were viewed in ancient times is a little hard to read, but then some of it makes quite good sense. It's hard to explain. I'm not agreeing that women should be quiet and stay at home, mind you, but there are a couple of things about striving toward a virtuous life that make sense for all sexes, and some of the philosophers were far ahead of their time in their thinking. Anyway, this is a good book so far, very thought provoking.


Then menuetranit came by for a bellydance lesson (it was a pleasure to meet you!). I had a lovely time and I hope she stays with dancing, she will look lovely doing it, I couldn't help but dress her up in gorgeous costumes in my mind. Is that wrong or weird? that I imagine what ladies will look like in full costume? Anyway, whatever, I'm weird.

Then I was off to meet a guy who lives local to me that is involved with doing educational work involving the local stream systems. I think he does a lot of work with tree cover, something that a lot of the streams lose pretty quickly in urban areas. Anyway, he was very nice (wish I'd dressed for the pool, I was sitting there sweating in the crazy heat). Then Melinda and I went to meet her folks at O' Charley's for dinner. I don't really go out to dinner much, I guess because I cook so much, I'd just rather cook things myself, but I had a really yummy chicken with rice and mango salsa that was awesome. Now I want to figure out how to make it myself. I was a good girl and only ate half of my order of chips and salsa, and half of my dinner, the rest I put in boxes. This is part off stage two on Sparkpeople, you work on cutting portion size. I've been doing well with that, mostly because I have realized that a lot of my problem was stuffing my face without waiting for my belly to tell me when it's full. Now that I am trying to eat a little slower, and knowing right from the start that half of my plate is going home for tomorrow, it makes things easier to control. I know I'm boring you guys to tears with thsi stuff, but one day I'm going to look all fit, and you'd better not say something like, "Wow, what's your secret?" I'll just laugh at you.

Comments

[cucumbereater.livejournal.com]

I am fairly certain that I read that self-same book when I was writing a term paper for one of my college classes. From my understanding of both Greek and Roman culture, women were either property, wealth, or sexual objects. Women did a lot of textile work that made them add to your wealth. Thus, if you owned the woman, you owned her skills, which increased your wealth. And there is nothing like being stinking rich to increase your sexual appetite.

Interesting stuff. Mayhap I will have to re-read this book and others like it to see if my understanding of the material has changed at all in the intervening years.

[menuetranit.livejournal.com]

It's not weird. I look at costumes a lot and think of what I might look like in them. *laughs* The aesthetic adds to it I think...adds to the whole "drama" of the dance.

Portion control is so hard to learn. It was something that took me forever because my eyes are always bigger then my stomach. Finally, I found a way to combat it. Even if I am seriously hungry, I put less then I think I want on my plate. If I am still hungry, I can get more..but, I wait a bit and see what my body tells me it needs.

[msninacat.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's weird. I see stuff all the time and think, "so and so would look good in that." It helps that I did two years of Ren Faire and about 3-4 more costuming friends for it.

[erl-queen.livejournal.com]

I'm not agreeing that women should be quiet and stay at home

That was really only true for the upper classes anyway. The average peasant woman would have been very active and had to be out in public a lot, simply because they couldn't afford to keep half their resources locked away in the back of the house - the women needed to be able to work the fields, go to market, etc. I'm not saying it was all wonderful equality or anything, but it was better than the life of a rich woman in Athens, as far as freedom goes.

What I have always found interesting, though, was that even though women were not considered equal in matters of politics or other such things, they *were* equal in matters of religion - they could be priestesses, make offerings (even large expensive permanent ones), set up new temples and cults, participate in sacrifice, etc. Guess having half your deities be female kind of makes that inevitable!

If you're interested, there's a great new book called "Portrait of a Priestess" that dispels quite a few myths about what women could and couldn't do in ancient Greece, especially in matters of religion.

[gentledaddy.livejournal.com]

HEY! I have a copy of that book! We read it for latin class back in college. It was a pretty good book.