No Chaser

The joy of a properly fitted bra

Since I was around 15, I have had difficulty finding bras that fit right and support me effectively. I've had a few over the years that seemed right, but far more that really weren't at all helpful. If the bra is supportive enough, my boobs often push up out of the cups. Most of my bras have tended to ride up in the back, and the straps always fall off my shoulders. If anyone wrote me as a character, they would inevitably include one of my most obvious quirks -- constantly reaching in my shirt to pull up my bras straps.

Bitch PhD wrote a great bra post a while back, and in it she provided the formula for measuring bra size. Finally! I thought, I now have the magic answer to my bra problem! Plugging in my measurements, I came up with the same bra size I've been wearing unsuccessfully for years. No magic there.

Then, about a week or so ago, I realized I needed to get some new bras, and I thought maybe there was some key information I missed on Bitch's original post. So, I went back and read it again; I even recalculated in case I had screwed up the first time. But, no, I was still a 34C according to the formula.

However, since my first visit to the famous bra post, a second post on the oh-so-heated bra issue had been added because someone whose wife is the "bra wizard" had read the original post and forwarded it to her, and the bra wizard had sent in her alternative expert advice, which, as it turns out, gives me a different size . . . two possibilities in fact, neither of which are 34C. I couldn't wait to try it out.

There is nowhere to shop for bras in Cornlandia, so when I drove a friend to the airport in nearby big city on Monday, I decided it was time to shop for bras. I have learned that my new (undisclosed) size is not one manufactured by many companies. Those companies who do produce this size generally do so in only a few styles, so finding a good bra in my size is very difficult. However, after trying on several of those new foamy pad bras, which are becoming ubiquitous [I had a long conversation with the saleswoman on this topic. She said those are the most popular bra now because people are looking for "coverage." I fairly quickly, although not as quickly as you would think, deduced that "coverage" meant nipple camouflage. Why on earth in a fashion moment when people's asses are hanging out of their pants are they worried about their nipples showing?], none of which fit, I found two cotton styles that fit perfectly and support wondrously. I bought two of each.

I am wearing one for the first time today. After 22 years of ill-fitting bras, my breasts are finally being properly cared for. They have never been happier.

posted by: NoChaser at April 26, 2006 09:28 | link | comments (2) |

Clonk really is great

Clonk is off in a different city considering a new job. This is one of the most rotten things about academia: jobs quite often take one away from their loved ones. We grow to expect being drawn away from family and friends by jobs and school, and I've moved from city to city seven times in my life. But, being separated from your partner by a job is simply wrong.

Since we've been here, most of the couples we've met have had to live separately for at least part of their careers, and if they didn't, one of the partners is either not an academic or has dramatically compromised his or her career expectations.

Now, I realize that many couples prefer this set-up: seeing each other once a month keeps the romance alive or, in some cases, prevents them from killing each other. But, you know, I actually like my partner. Clonk can be irritating, and I totally know how to drive him crazy, but, to quote a happy pop song, "It's always better when we're together."

We have a hell of a lot of fun, and spend as much time goofing around as possible. We even have minor competitions to see who can tell the first joke of the morning and pull the best hijinx of the day.

When he's gone, I get more work done, sure, but I don't have nearly as much fun. And Monkey freaks. He stays up nights, barks at everything that moves, and becomes super clingy. This morning he puked on the couch because he spent all night working himself up about the whereabouts of his ClonkDaddy.

While I'm not puking on the couch, it's only because I know Clonk is coming home tomorrow night. If I knew it would be a month before I saw him, and that would become standard operating procedure, I might easily become as annoying as my chihuahua, living my life in anticipation of Clonk's next arrival.

posted by: NoChaser at April 17, 2006 18:27 | link | comments (3) |

Clonk is Great! Long Live Clonk!

My name is No Chaser and I am writing on my blog again. This is me writing, No Chaser, and it is not someone else. But it is me. No Chaser here, reporting for writing on this blog duty. I have to say one thing: CLONK IS GREAT! I'm not sure if you have been to the thing called Clonk, but you should go there because Clonk is great. No Chaser (me! the one and only!) would also like to report that this is me writing that Clonk is extra super. That is he is great plus some. Go Clonk! I like to write mainly about Clonk being good. Signed, No Chaser, the author of this post

posted by: NoChaser at April 14, 2006 05:59 | link | comments |

Gardening in the Heartland

Let me say first that I have a hard time using that term, "Heartland," without scare quotes, but I figure I need to get over it.

Anyhow . . . when we moved here last summer, we were so busy with work and major home improvements (like remodeling the kitchen) that we never got around to doing any gardening. I did severely prune what turned out to be three different small trees fused together so we could build a fence next to it, and Clonk pulled out two dying juniper shrubs and a layer of rocks out of the front. That was the best we could manage.

Now, gardening season is upon us again. We were ready to start a month ago, but it was still too cold here. So cold in fact that less than a month ago this beautiful ice ring formed on one of our garbage cans. You can see the snow in the background.



So, Clonk yanked out four or five enormous juniper bushes from the side of the house and dug up some sod to make a really nice, fairly large vegetable garden plot. He also started some seeds inside.

The soil here is incredibly rich and dark, with not a hint of clay or sand. There's also lots of sun and not much rain. This means certain things we had in abundance in Seattle will not grow well here: lavender, camellias, rhododendron, garlic, onions. But, lots of things we wished grew better there just go crazy here: tomatoes, peppers, lily of the valley. We're also excited to plant native prairie grasses and wildflowers.

My friend Prairie Flower gave me lots of lovely things from her garden this weekend. I brought them home and replanted them, and our beds in front are now full of loveliness minus some large space for grasses once those come out of hibernation. I've got echinacea, hostas, lily of the valley, coreopsis, and lamb's ear. One other plant she gave me is a celandine poppy, which I've never seen before, and it just bloomed yesterday. It is a midwest woodland native and is truly gorgeous.


Photo courtesy of http://www.grownative.org/.

I felt very sad about leaving my mature and wonderful garden in Seattle, but I am finding new gardening pleasures here, and I am happy that Spring has finally come so that I can explore new planting and growing options.

posted by: NoChaser at April 13, 2006 09:36 | link | comments (1) |

Why working in the library is cool, pt. 2

I should probably note that this entry is specifically about why working with rare books is cool.

When I walk into the stacks, I walk into the smell of old paper and leather bindings. It smells of earth, and worn linen, and smoked hides. It semlls fundamental and for that reason is quite grounding.

I'm currently working with Elizabethan-era books, and many of them have writing on the flyleaves. They are pen or quill and ink drawings and words, sometimes long, erudite notes, but more often something entirely pedestrian.

Sometimes, someone seems to be practicing their penmanship; other times, they are deciding how to spell something: "Oh, love mee my Lorde," "O, love mee my Lorde," "O love me my Lorde" is one example from today's set of books. A common thing to write is "Harriet Pierce, her booke" or "Thos. Dobson, his booke." Occasionally, someone will try their hand at drawing, copying a coat of arms or capturing the head of a friend or family member. What I like about all these is how very everyday they are, how they make me feel connected to the mundane elements of the fairly distant past.

And, this is probably cliché, but I also like the way all these incredibly old books and sermons and manuscripts make me feel as though our own moment is transitory and, while interesting inasmuch as any moment is, not nearly important as we sometimes believe.

posted by: NoChaser at April 07, 2006 14:53 | link | comments (2) |

No Internet

So there was this tornado thingy thing happening this weekend, which knocked out a lot of people's power and knocked over a bunch of trees and blew some people's roofs off, and the only thing that happened to us thankfully was our internet connection went down. Try going one day at home without your internet connection. Even when you know you are super plugged in, going cold turkey can teach you a lot about your use.

I am a fairly moderate user, in relation to some people I know. I check email probably three times a day on average. I have my regular blogs and news pages I go to. And when I am writing, I go on-line to check facts quite often. Days that I volunteer at the library, I am on even less.

Still, I had this sort of bad, sort of nervous feeling when the internet was out, like I was missing out on something. Remember the feeling you had when your parents had company over but sent you to bed before people left; it was like that.

posted by: NoChaser at April 04, 2006 13:44 | link | comments (2) |