What you've all been waiting for!

This is currently the best picture of my tattoo that I have. I took it myself in the mirror with my camera phone (I photoshopped my fingers out of the picture because it looked like I was holding a phantom phone).

Until I get someone else to take one for me this is as good as it gets.

Edited:July 8, 2006: I had to chnge the picture of my tattoo. What is here is atually the henna inspiration. Apparently where I had the picture hosted shutdown, or it closed my account, or something. So rather than photoshop a new picture, this is what you get fo now.

Empowerment is a wonderful feeling.

I work at a reference desk. It's essentially a customer service job and I deal with many kinds of people. I get the unappreciated, the very gracious and thankful, those who want me to do all their work for them, and the proactive kind. My very least favorite are the ones who think they know me, or who want to get to "know" me. There are the ones who ask for my number, who want to give me their number, who call me baby girl, sweetheart, princess, or darling. Those are bad, but the very worst I think are the patrons who think they can make whatever inappropriate comments they want about my appearance, my clothes, my hair, my glasses or lack there of, even the way I talk.

Well I finally stood up against it today.

Someone wanted a book and in the midst of me finding it he kept making comments like "You've lost even more weight than I have" paired with "My family thinks I've lost too much weight."

First of all, I do not know this person. Maybe I've helped him in the past, but I see so many patrons a day it is hard to say. Second, I am sick of these back-handed "compliments" about my weight loss. Yeah, I got healthier in the last few months it was my New Year's Resolution, weight-loss was the side effect. But calling me a "skinny heifer" (that's a cow in case you didn't know) or saying that I'm disappearing are not nice ways of telling me that you've noticed a difference. (And yes, those are both real comments I have gotten.)

But...the story at hand: I ignored the comments and stayed on topic about where to find this book, after the third or fourth time he asked "Why are you being so administrative all of a sudden? Last semester you were so nice and friendly."

At which point I had had enough. I looked him in the eye and said point blank...

I'm always friendly.
But I'm not going to discuss my weight with you.
It's none of your business.

Wow...I feel so much better.

Who wants a relaxing vacation? Not me.

I just spent my spring break week in Utah, and (the library trip aside) it was possibly the most painful vacation I have ever had.

First off, I couldn't be in Utah during the winter with out going skiing. So through a friend, my brother, his girlfriend (who grew up in Park City), and myself got free lift tickets to the Canyons (a resort). I don't really ski. I went maybe three times as a teenager when I would get to the top of the bunny slope barrel straight down as fast as I could and fall because I didn't know any other way to stop. And let me say that skiing in Utah is nothing like skiing in Michigan. Apparently in a desert even the snow is dry; they call it "powder." I've never been skiing in it before and I did horribly. Three runs on the novice run did not prepare me for the next level, because as soon as we hit the next one I was on my ass…a lot. I kept getting stuck in the powder, which you're actually supposed to ski through. Now, granted powder is pretty soft and if you land right it doesn't hurt when you fall. Too bad I can't land correctly. The upside to all this falling: I got really good at pulling myself up. In fact, I don't think I've ever had a better work out for my arms. I swear they were sore for two days after that.

Second, I made my brother take me to his tattoo artist. If you're ever in Salt Lake City and want a tattoo go to Big Deluxe Tattoo they are the best everyone I know in Utah went there (and I actually know a good number of people there). I have had a picture of this particular tattoo for almost 2 years I just wanted to be very careful about where I went to get it done. My brother has gorgeous tattoos on his arms so I felt comfortable going to his guy. I'm sure everyone knows someone with a tattoo who says "Oh it didn't hurt at all. It just felt a little uncomfortable." They were lying. To themselves, to you, to whom ever, but it's a boldface lie made to make them seem all tough and to convince you that it's no big deal, because it hurts. It hurts like hell. It felt like some one was stabbing, cutting, burning, and generally flaying the skin off my back, only worse because besides the cutting and stabbing there is also the blood—the lots and lots of blood running down my back and staining my shirt (and later my brother's car). Luckily it only took 45minutes. I didn't ask for a break in an effort to finish faster, but I also never felt that adrenaline rush that you supposedly get and which makes people jones for more than one tattoo. So don't bother asking me what I'll have done next, because the answer is nothing. From now on I stick to Henna, that stuff looks great and is pain free.