Glacial PJs

I have to admit that checking my blog and finding all these old pictures of myself is a tad disconcerting, but I will leave them up for a little while longer.

I want to draw your attention to Salon.com's new "women's blog", Broadsheet. I've been a Salon fan for a while, and now I am hooked on this new addition. You might have to watch a short commercial to enter if you don't have a subscription, but I don't mind. For those of you that don't want to do that, here's a recent submission in its entirety:

Glacial pajamas for the menopausal
I get weird press releases. The one I received yesterday arrived under the subject line "Nightwear for Hot Flashes/Night Sweats" and was about a company called Wildbleu. "HOW COOL IS THIS?" began the release. "Performance PJs Take On Hot Flashes and Night Sweats." Apparently this company -- Wildbleu -- has decided to tap into "one of the market's largest growth segments -- baby boomer women who are pre- and post-menopausal, and thus candidates for the hot flashes and night sweats that go with the territory."

Yay! A generation of women are now menopausal! Let's sell them stuff!

The sleepwear is made of Dri-release, a wicking fabric that draws moisture away from skin and to the surface of the garment, where it evaporates. The pj's, a cotton-polyester blend, have "a soft feel" that makes them "exquisitely comfortable to sleep in." They were invented by Helen Rockey, who made running shoes, and then wicking T-shirts for marathoners, and then used the Dri-release for menopausal women and those undergoing chemotherapy.

But here's the thing that really stuck out about this press release: The new line of Wildbleu garments -- gowns, tees, boxers and capri pants with a short flutter hem -- is called the "Glacier Pansy Collection." Whose idea was it to call a clothing line aimed at menopausal women "Glacier Pansy"? And does that person also write for the Onion?

-- Rebecca Traister -- [17:41 EDT, Nov. 3, 2005]

There's lots of other good stuff there too. Happy reading.

In news about me (and let's face it: it's all about me), I've had a good couple of days. Thursday I went to visit my friend T., she offered to be a surrogate for us then changed her mind, now she has a 2 month-old baby girl and a 2 year-old boy. The boy looks like his Dad and the girl looks like her Mom, perfect, happy children. I played with them, held the baby, all that stuff, and you know what? I was perfectly OK with it all. Never felt one pang of jealousy or sadness or anything, just enjoyed them. WTF? As I was leaving I hugged her and told her she'd done good - again - but I couldn't resist leaving her with these last words: But I still hate you. She knows me well enough to be OK with me saying that.

Friday I went to the gym, I haven't been in about a month what with being sick and all the other craptastic-ness that's been going on. I usually do between 2.75 and 3 miles on the elliptical but I lost steam at about 2.50 miles, still pretty good. Then the ab crunches and the weight machines. Best of all, my weight has come back down to within a couple of pounds of my goal, I guess being sick helped.

Today I visited the convalescent home with my dog, the residents were in good spirits and Bailey got lots of love.

After months of feeling like Bad Luck Schleprock, I feel like I'm coming out from under a dark cloud. Join me in the sunshine, won't you?