Because we all love a cat in a box.....

It's true - the internet is full of images and videos of cats in boxes. Forget porn, comedy moggies are the true reason the internet was invented!

Anyway, please bear with me...I'll get to the cat-in-a-box in a minute....

I'm 3lbs down since Jan 1st, which means that since October (when I got sick), I have gained 6lbs. Porca puttana! 

I'm not sure that's entirely accurate however because my scales have been rather temperamental for the past few months (even with a new battery) - I have to bash them a bit to make them work...which is probably not good for them! I think they are still under guarantee, so I shall see if the manufacturer will make good on it. Plus (and this may be TMI, for which I apologise profusely), I'm having 'digestive issues' right now, so perhaps that's a contributing factor too. It might be time to up my daily dose of aloe vera, and eat more live yoghurt...I'm feeling very bloaty and whale-like right now.

Having said all that, there is no doubt that I have actually gained a few pounds...on my bust! Really, it doesn't need to be any bigger.

Here comes the cat in a box....

Amato mio bought me this tee shirt (the best tee in the world, I hasten to add)...

Photo shamelessly stolen from ThinkGeek.com...because no way are you ever going to see me actually wearing pink!

I wore it for the first time on Saturday, when we went fruit and veg shopping at the market. OMG, I felt so self-conscious! Not only was I out in public, wearing pink, which in itself was pretty traumatic (and it's more baby-pink in real life than that photo would have you believe), but every time I glanced down, there was an enormous chest staring up at me! Everyone who knows me, knows I always wear black...which means my chest never looks huge...therefore I must surely have a quantum chest - it is both huge and not huge at the same time! 

Almost my entire wardrobe is black. I don't really do colour unless it's socks and hats (well, you can't have a black Jayne Cobb hat, can you?). I do have a couple of red jumpers but I don't wear them in public....c'mon, we all know what happens to members of the away team who wear red jumpers! Besides, Bad Horse is never going to allow me into the Evil League of Evil if I'm wearing pink. Or red. Or Hitchens forbid, beige! **shudder**

I was actually surprised by how much out of my comfort zone I felt, just by wearing something different. A little while ago I was considering writing a blog post about moving out of my comfort zone in order to see just what I can do - I feel I have been stuck in mine for so long, and I think it's what's been making me a bit restless of late; I've just not felt I've achieved anything recently. I've certainly not pushed myself, and I feel I have become podgy, both in mind and body. However, I didn't get around to writing anything because, frankly, I was still there in my lethargic little me-zone! Duh. 

So this, as it turns out, is it (at least in part); this is how I moved out of my comfort zone, and as Lev Vygotsky recommended in his Zone of Proximal Development theory, I had amato mio to hold my hand... and I did indeed learn something - that I really should not wear clothes which make me feel psychologically  uncomfortable! 

I am not a pink person, not by any stretch of the imagination, and I never will be. More importantly, Saturday's little experiment made me realise how just integral to our well-being what we wear is*. Because I felt uncomfortable, I was preoccupied, and certainly not able to concentrate as well as I could. Later on, during dinner with friends, I was more concerned with not splashing anything on my tee shirt than actually enjoying my food....which is an awful thing, especially given that Chrissy had given much of her time and effort to cook for us (which is a very beautiful thing). I should mention that I did enjoy the food - very much so - but I wasn't as relaxed as I normally would have been.

This led me to wonder how on earth we can expect people to do and be their best when we insist on them wearing corporate clothing, school uniforms, etc. (yes, I know there are good arguments for it too)? When we constantly pigeonhole people and expect them to be the same as everyone else. To be just another part of the mass. It makes no sense. Surely we should be encouraging people to think for themselves, helping them to learn to be themselves, and not chastising, punishing, and denigrating them for not being the same as everyone else? And we should be teaching our children that they don't have to wear the same as their friends, celebrities, what magazines tell them to wear, in order to be popular and accepted. I would say nobody likes a clone....unfortunately, that would be a lie. Society loves clones. Which is incredibly sad, don't you think?

BTW, just in case there's anyone reading this who doesn't know about Schrödinger's Cat, here's a handy little print-out-and-keep card!

Yep, I stole this from ThinkGeek too because I was too lazy to actually type it in my own words!

~~~

* And to a greater extent, our overall appearance. There is a school of thought which claims it is vain to be concerned with our physical appearance but I believe this is tosh; vanity is not a bad thing - it is what keeps us clean and healthy, and if you want to take it further, helps us not only survive but actually get on in life. For example, who is more likely to get the job - the person who looks and smells like he's not bathed for months, or the smartly-attired, clean person? The scruffy one may be more qualified and capable but it's the clean person who will get the job. For better or worse, we all judge others on appearance; in the absence of detailed knowledge, it's very often all we have to go on.