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I take off my clothes and all these ties
The physical therapist I am seeing for my back has now referred to me clinically as tall and middle-aged. I have no issue with my age, but I have always thought of myself as on the shorter side of medium height and anything else an illusion of the way I carry myself. My family made me look up the average AFAB height in the U.S. My mother has offered to get me a cardigan for being tall and middle-aged in. In high school she was devastated when she grew that quarter-inch taller than Mickey Rooney, because now he would never ask her to dance. She is not very sympathetic.
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At 5'6" I also think of myself as medium height, perhaps a bit small, but I live in Minnesota, so I'm aware I'm wrong.
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I am five-seven, therefore more than one standard deviation out from the average height. As an older child and younger adolescent, I was projected to come in at five-nine, but it did not in fact happen, which is probably one of the reasons I think of myself as not tall. I had been comforting myself for years that Peter Wimsey is canonically five-nine.
At 5'6" I also think of myself as medium height, perhaps a bit small, but I live in Minnesota, so I'm aware I'm wrong.
I can see how that would skew the statistics a bit.
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It's important no matter what.
(I understand the mechanics of why people shrink, but I still find it very weird to be around.)
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I thought of myself as ordinary height (at my tallest, I was 5' 6.5"), but when I was in Japan, I was exceedingly tall for AFAB and found myself needing to conjure up role models of tall-and-proud (rather than tall-and-wishing-to-be-smaller-and-cuter). I decided to carry myself like a Zulu princess.
If I can ask (I'm curious because of my brief stints doing PT for shoulders), does the PT involve exercises only, or do they do manipulations/massage/whatever as well?
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I am glad you were able to!
If I can ask (I'm curious because of my brief stints doing PT for shoulders), does the PT involve exercises only, or do they do manipulations/massage/whatever as well?
So far it's almost all exercises. There was a little physical manipulation in terms of testing my range of stretch at the beginning, but otherwise I acquire more exercises (and take them home) by the week.
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You're absolutely a tall person, I confirm without remembering the number of feet and inches in height you are. It's more of a vibe, or mood, if you will, than anything else.
It can work the other direction too. One of the voice teachers I worked with when I was into acting was a kindly British woman who must have been 6'1" at least, but you wouldn't have noticed it because she had Short Person Energy.
My mother has offered to get me a cardigan for being tall and middle-aged in. That's a great line.
Mickey Rooney didn't deserve your mother anyway.
I began to accept that I was middle-aged when I started getting really into different ways to prepare oatmeal. The next phase often involves carrying a copy of Richardson's Field Guide to Birds and a pair of binoculars everywhere. Will report back.
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I approve of the idea of carrying a birder book where you go. I should carry an insect ID guide more often (I am very short, so birds are too far away usually)
~Sor
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My physical therapy has also referred to me as "long." That may require less mental acclimation, since it is an adjective I associate with cats.
I should carry an insect ID guide more often
I support this idea! I had recourse recently to a guide to North American amphibians and reptiles.
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Thank you. I trust your eye.
One of the voice teachers I worked with when I was into acting was a kindly British woman who must have been 6'1" at least, but you wouldn't have noticed it because she had Short Person Energy.
I am familiar with actors whose height I have no actual idea of, because it varies so casually and impressively from role to role.
Mickey Rooney didn't deserve your mother anyway.
Aw. I will tell her!
Will report back.
Please do! In the meantime, I would unironically like to hear your opinions on oatmeal.
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To begin with, rolled oats are where it's at, and steel-cut oats have an unpleasant texture that one is not obliged to like. I like oatmeal mixed with three times its volume of water (so, half a cup of oats to one and a half cups water) and a pinch of salt, the more so if it's been put in a covered saucepan and left to soak on the top of the stove overnight before cooking it in the morning. A two-to-one ratio of water to oats is best if you like it thicc, which I used to, but am now more into slightly liquid oatmeal. No need to use milk at the cooking stage: it'll just make it burn more easily. Make the basic oatmeal of oats and water plus a little salt, then, if you want milk or cream, add it later as a topping after the oatmeal portion is done cooking. To my mind, though, it's best with just jam or cut-up fruit, plus a little butter.
Savory oatmeal is legit. One or more mix-ins from this list will produce exciting results: shredded cheese, black pepper, garlic chili sauce, nutritional yeast flakes, Marmite, relish, pickle (as in "mango pickle" or other fruit or vegetable preserves with spice and vinegar). One of the above, plus chopped apple, makes a good sweet-and-salty experience.
Oatmeal is the perfect meal for when you're hangry and have zero energy to put into thinking about what to eat. It may be eaten for lunch or dinner if necessary. It's also good for dealing with (some kinds of) disordered eating, as it's so simple that it can often bypass food-related anxiety. It has decent amounts of fiber, calcium, and B vitamins, which I for one can always use. If one is concerned about meal moths or about food going bad, rolled oats can be kept in the freezer and stay good almost indefinitely. I've also heard that people who experience a sugar-crash feeling after eating cold cereal find that oatmeal doesn't provoke that.
The one thing to avoid is eating it so often you get sick of it, but that's the case with any food. In conclusion, rolled oats are helpful in life.
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(I have been told that I carry myself on the internet like a short person. I chose to take that as a compliment, but I fear it was some variant form of fuckor where in fact a person's inference about you was not true but now you feel like it's exposed some deeper truth all the same.)
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Heh. Thank you.
I have been told that I carry myself on the internet like a short person.
I have absolutely no idea what that means! Like, my first thought is little but fierce, but . . . ?
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If the average height has shifted over the decades, you probably were!
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I was once told by an internet friend that I have 5'3" energy, though. They did not elaborate. I still think about this.
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That is annoying! I did not have to deal with that exact timing, but I was also taller than most of my peers until I wasn't.
I was once told by an internet friend that I have 5'3" energy, though. They did not elaborate. I still think about this.
. . . Have you come to any conclusions?
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Nope! I just think it's hilariously specific and also incorrect. Like when other people are like "oh, you look like a [name that is not yours]."
It was wild starting grad school in-person after my first year was totally virtual and discovering how tall/short people were after spending eight months staring at them as little Zoom squares. I still think we should have taken bets beforehand.
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I am a big fan of sensory experiences, but more ambivalent about the delivery system.
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Unsurprisingly you phrased this perfectly.
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Pfui. I hope there are some in your life who are not so insecure, but no love for the rest of them.
Meanwhile my children, who would prefer to be ambiguously and androgynously shaped, are strongly sexually dimorphic.
Please send them my sincere sympathy.
Embodiment is a shitshow.
I have complicated feelings about it!
*hugs*
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(You are tall, and you wear it very well.)
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I'll tell her! (You can tell her! She texts you!)
(You are tall, and you wear it very well.)
*hugs*
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I can never remember what average AFAB height is for my generation in this country. Granted, my brain tends to reject anything labeled "average" or "normal" as a matter of course, unless I can get a good story out of it.
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I am your post-osteo height, and medical sympathy on general principle.
Before age shrunk all of us, my parents were 6'2" (dad) and 5'3" (mom), and my sisters were half an inch over 5'9", 5'10" exactly, and just shy of 5'5".
That is such an interesting distribution!
I am shorter than my father, my brother, and my uncle, but taller than my mother and my aunt, and would have been taller than my grandmother, the same height as my grandfather, and equivalent to or taller than most of my father's brothers. I think I'm having a mild paradigm shift. [edit] The paradigm shift is "Apparently my idea of short is normal."
Granted, my brain tends to reject anything labeled "average" or "normal" as a matter of course, unless I can get a good story out of it.
Well, that's reasonable.
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My husband is five-ten and says he enjoys my height, unlike all the guys who were five-ten and confidently said they were six feet or over and then were flummoxicated by my existing in flat shoes.
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Good for Captain America!
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I know I'm taller than other people! I'm just also shorter than other people, which makes it hard to estimate from, like, crowds.
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You are the same height as many people!