I did something last week that I normally don’t do – I actually left work in the middle of my day to run an errand. I never leave work because once I leave, I don’t want to go back. Why put myself through that? I had to run to the bank so I decided to just do it - CONSEQUENCES BE DAMNED! My little errand also gave me the chance to go to Starbucks for some “liquid love” – an iced vanilla caramel latte. I decided to go inside because I wanted to get some coffee beans for the Moms. As I walked into the store, I got my normal greeting from the barista “Welcome to Starbucks – Can we help you find anything?” I looked around to see if I saw a familiar face, my barista crush Nick, but I didn’t see him so I figured he wasn’t working and went about my search for Mom’s decaf. As usual, I was completely distracted by the coffee cups and tumblers and as I sat at a table looking at a few cups, I heard someone from behind me and ask how I was doing. As I turned I saw Nick walking towards me, I laughed (as my little heart fluttered) and asked how he was doing. He sat at the table with me and we talked for a few minutes. Nothing big, just small talk and chit chat. (No, we aren’t planning a wedding or naming kids). As we talked, a Tiny Tammy came into the store, walked to the counter and asked if Nick was there. I pointed in her direction and said “Looks like you have a fan, better not keep her waiting.” He laughed and told me that he was on a break and someone else could help her. We continued talking and Tiny Tammy came over to the table, stood between Nick and I and began talking to him. Tiny Tammy acted as if I didn’t exist, like it was not possible for Nick, the cute Barista, to actually want to have a conversation with a fat chick! Oh no, can’t have an attractive guy talking to someone who was not 5”6’, 110 lbs, blonde hair and blue eyed – that would be just uncivilized! I went back to looking at the coffee cups that I had at the table with me when Nick looked past Tiny Tammy and asked if I could excuse him for a minute. I smiled and said “sure, no problem” and minded my own business again. I guess all the world would be made right again, the cute Barista walks into the sunset with the boney bimbo. About a minute later, I heard Nick tell Tammy that one of the girls behind the counter would be happy to help her, he was on a break and chatting with a friend. I heard this and figured that one of the people who just walked in was a friend of his but, to my surprise; Nick came back to the table and sat with me again. Could I be that friend that he spoke of?? Me? Be still my beating heart… He apologized for the interruption, explaining that the Bimbo comes in a few times a week and throws herself at him (his words, not mine) but he had no interest in her kind. Hmmmmm, no interest in a young, attractive woman? What was his interest? Old, hideous sea hags? Or maybe hairy, smelly trolls? But a FAT CHICK?? It couldn’t be!! We chatted for another 15-20 minutes and then I had to get back to the office – Darn this adulthood and all of its responsibilities!! He took the coffee beans for the Moms and ground them for me. When he rang up my total, it seemed low – AGAIN! What a nice guy, he only charged me for a ½ pound but I got a full pound. When I went by Mom’s a day or 2 later to give her the coffee, it was hard to part with it but I did! I didn’t like it but I did it.

I have been a BAD FAT CHICK and not blogged like I should... well, I am going to really try to change that for you...... Is anyone out there? Can anyone hear me?? DOES ANYONE CARE???

It is Feb 2, 2008 and I am sitting at my desk at work STEWING over the crap I just witnessed at Wally-World (that's Wal-Mart in Fat Chick-ese). I ran over there during my lunch break to grab a few things for a Superbowl party and didn't make it past the women's clothing when I saw and heard the most horrific thing. There was a young girl, maybe 13 or 14, shopping with her Mom and Dad. She was looking at clothes and was showing her Mom a pair of pants that she liked. Sounds like a normal thing to see in WallyWorld, right? Well it was what I heard next that made me want to scream. Her father says to her "Oh no, you can't wear that! You're too fat for that kind of clothes. That is the stuff that you see pretty, skinny girls wear and you are not that!!" This was not a "fat" girl, she looked like she was a healthy girl with some meat on her bones, not an anorexic like we so often see on TV and in movies. (You know the girls I am talking about - Keira Knightly, Natalie Portman, Victoria Beckham to name a few. These are the girls that you want to cram hamburgers and pizza's in their mouth in hopes that they will gain a pound and look normal. I know I am not the only one with that fantasy, I can't be.) She was a very pretty girl, a very YOUNG girl. Her mother just stood there and stared at her father in total disbelief. This poor girl looked as though she had just been beaten but the abuse she had just received was far worst than any beating she could have gotten. She was humiliated in public by her own father. She turned, walked away and probably cried her eyes out. Her mother followed after her but her father just stood there with a confused look on his face. Now, he was no prize! He was short, tubby and balding so what room did he have to talk? As I watched this young, wounded girl walk away from her father, I had to fight the urge to run over to him and squish him with my fat chicky-ness or go to my car, wait for him to leave and ACCIDENTALLY run him over in the parking lot. But I didn't do any of those things. Instead, I walked out of Wal-Mart with nothing that I went in for, came back to work and started writting this. Such therapy!!

What is wrong with the world that we live in? I am not saying that being overweight is great because it isn't. If it were, the diet industry would not exist. But overweight people are human - they bleed, cry, sweat just like everyone else. Why is it so hard for so many people to realize that? I guess now I go on and continue my little crusade for FAT CHICK RIGHTS!

I am at the office today (yes I do work, writting a blog makes me no money at all especially since there is probably no one reading it) and we have a vendor coming in for a visit so they have provided a bunch of t-shirts for some of us to wear while they are here. How nice of them, right? Well, as usual, they had a bunch of small and medium's, a decent amount of larges and a few x-larges. Wouldn't you know it, these little skinny chicks go and grab all of the x-larges! I guess they needed new dresses or nightshirts! This really aggravates me because this means when the larger people go to get the larger shirts THEY ARE GONE and all that is left are small and medium, which would fit the skinny girls just fine. I don't wear t-shirts so I was in no rush to go get one but one of the girls in my group is a larger girl and went to get one but all that was left was large, which would not fit her. She came back saying that they HATE FAT PEOPLE, as a joke but still!! It wasn't her fault or even the vendors fault, it was the fault of the skinny chicks who show no consideration for the larger people in the world - why should they, no one else does!
Life as a Fat Chick is not easy in this Skinny Chick world!!