Saturday, August 27, 2011

What is with all this back bacon?

Despite being sick as a dog I decided to go to a car show today. Being decidedly short on common sense - I popped an antibiotic, and off we went. To walk in the sun.

We left at noon, which is the witching hour when it comes to food and blood-sugar levels. I'm sick - I say. We will just whip through this show really quick. Grab a corn dog and leave.

We get there, and the place is effing packed. Packed. I think I've only seen it this way once. "Why today?" I find myself pleading. I haven't eaten anything and all the food vendors have lines many dozens deep. This is course causes a full on melt down. You can't believe how sick I am, and the sun is making sweat gush from everywhere. I'm a horrible mess. And did I mention I haven't eaten anything? Nothing looks good at all. Mr S. just starts making executive decisions. He finally acquires us food, and we sit down in a shady place.

"What is with this crowd?" I ask. The demo is really old, and has oddly distributed fat. I mean, when did we evolve to have a back gunt? I understand if you have a front gunt and a corresponding back gunt - but how do you get only the back fat?

After we leave I tell Mr S. "I think I might be becoming fatist". My family were some pretty heavy people. I thought I had grown up being acclimated to fat people. It never bothered me. Really poor people are often very heavy.

For the longest time when people talked about how fat Americans were getting - I'd roll my eyes. It isn't until you go to one of these shows that the demo comes together in a way that scares the shit out of you. And I'm fat. Just normal fat.

I don't' care what these people do with their lives. I'm not really even judging. The only reason it's been bothering me at all lately, is because as a 5'3 woman - if you get stuck behind these people - you have to do some serious maneuvering to get around them. I'm not even being dramatic. The last couple of times I've gone to a street fair I always get stuck behind "the massive couple". Sometimes it's three or four of them. With a junior SUV stroller or two. I can stretch my arms out to the sides and these people would literally take up the whole space from finger tip to finger tip. And the are always like 5'11 tall, and 5'9 wide.

A few weekends ago I got trapped behind a jumbo foursome, blocked on one side by a miniSUV aircraft carrier of a stroller, the other by a line of people. You try to slow down to let them advance so you can keep walking in a forward motion rather than a sideways motion. I swear, you've never felt so much like cattle in your life. Because they don't move fast. About the same speed as cattle.

Finally I got so pissed I said "I wish I could get around these people". Right then, I found a side slot - only to hear the girl in front of me say "well, go around". By the time it registered I was in front of her, and I swear I wanted to punch her in the neck. "If I could have gotten around your fat ass, I wouldn't be bitching" filled my head.

Now, I hate bitching about fat people. It's cheap and easy. My family was really heavy so I have a sensitivity. I always will have to watch what I eat and exercise harder. I don't have good genes. Still, on some level we have to take a good look at ourselves. These people actually start inconveniencing the lives of others. I've resisted taking pictures to show just how bad this has gotten because I think these people deserve dignity. Still, my patience is getting thin.

As Mr S. points out - if you are tall (like he is) there are some commonly accepted ways of being considerate of others in a crowd. You try to not block other peoples view of things. You are always on-call to help shorter people "get things" from high places.

We haven't come to any similar common rules for fat people in regards to politeness. Fat people just consider their condition a handicap - you deal with it. Which is complete bullshit.

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