Ode to Sampson: I Type At You, My Vigor Diminished

Do not even ask me to hold a kettle ball for you right now, much less to swing it around and jack up my triceps.

As long as we’re on the point, incidentally, how come you’re always asking me to hold your kettle balls?

At any rate, I couldn’t heft even the lightest of your ubiquitous kettle balls, for I am vewwwwy weak, and all my muscles are shrively.

You see, the source of my strength underwent a heat-induced chopping today, and, no, I am not referring to hot flashes, although I understand that particular pleasure loiters just around a very dark corner and down a long, menacing alley.

Rather, it’s been, like, a kajillion degrees here during the hours of ye olde daytime, and the humidity has been at ninety-seventy-twelve percent. With such conditions in force, what sweaty, limp, and crabby redhead wouldn’t trot in to see a perky stylist named Rosie at the nearest air-conditioned Aveda salon?

…all of which (em, right about here, please do a little smeary motion with your hands in front of your face, and also make a little “woo-dee-woo-hoo” noise down in your larynx, the effect of which is time transport, back to the year 1997 or so) reminds me of a story about my bestie girlpal named Pamm.

See, back in 1997, Pammy had some ovarian cyst problems. And it wasn’t even humid then.

Her ovary was cystic to the point where mean doctors with anger issues planned to attack her with three-foot needles and lance the boil.

In a certain way, and thanks to laproscopy, it was to be a fairly non-invasive surgery.

However, since Pammy’s body manages to turn everything from bee stings to dairy ingestion into cause for high drama, she was justified in worrying about complications.

Once you anticipate complications, even before you get to see Doc Lancelot, you get a leeetle bit, um, nervous. Anxiety-ridden. Barfy in the mouth.

Pal that I am, my solution to Pamm’s emotional angst the day of her surgery was the time-honored technique known as “I am distracting you now, so look at these dancing puppets!”

Specifically, my distraction before the surgery was to tap into another body-based angst, one termed in the medical books Eff-All If I Wasn’t Born With No Metabolism. Indeed, Pammy and I had always been able to bond over the fact that someone in a Honda Accord could drive by, eating a cake donut, and we’d gain four pounds.

So here’s the puppet I trotted out for her during her pre-surgery anxiety: knowing she had to drink a gallon of vile bowel cleanser before the lancing (in case her intestines suffered a nick), I urged her to weigh herself first…drink the stuff…do a lot of reading of The New Yorker whilst on the toilet…and then weigh herself right before the surgery. “Nothing,” I hollered at her, “will ever again give you such rapid and dramatic weight-loss results, even if it’s hawked to you on a late-night infomercial by one of the trainers from THE BIGGEST LOSER, a show that isn’t even on tv yet because it’s only 1997! Empty your bowels, Love, and then take those numbers from the scale into the operating room with you!! Do it!! Glory in the power of those pounds peeling off…er, flushing away!!!”

Damn if she didn’t lose six pounds that afternoon. The poo came out, and Pammy went supermodel, moved to Brazil, and married a soccer player.

Okay, now do the smeary hand thing in front of your face again, and make those woo-dee-doodle sounds in your throat, ’cause we’re flashing forward to the epoch known as Right Now.

HI! How are you? Dizzy? Choose a focal point on the wall, and stare at it to center yourself. It’s 2009 now and, most importantly, Bush is out of the White House. Isn’t it nice here?

Back in 1997, my buddy Pamm lost weight from her innards. Sort of like that–but not–today I lost some weight, too; it didn’t happen because I had a cyst but because my entire self was spontaneously combusting thanks to that tart named Summer. Check out my “hell, but I need to cool down before I strangle the innocents” rapid weight loss technique, which I believe the French call Une Chop de la Tete:


Yup. Lost two pounds.

From my head.

Point of pride: only one of the dropped pounds was from poo (it squozed out of my ear when I laughed too hard at a passing clown).

The other lost pound? Entirely follicular.

Comments

comments

Comments

22 responses to “Ode to Sampson: I Type At You, My Vigor Diminished”

  1. flutter Avatar
    flutter

    I lost one of my kettle balls, can you hold this one real qui…..

    oh.

  2. AmyTree Avatar
    AmyTree

    Very, very nice!! I'm all for a redhead with a neat bobbed 'do (being one myself) – you wear it well!! (And it's far less complication-tastic than trying to poo off the weight). 🙂

  3. Casdok Avatar
    Casdok

    6lbs is impressive but i prefer your way of loosing weight!

  4. lime Avatar
    lime

    quelle belle chop de la tete!

    since i have all sorts of neurosis about hair stylists and scissors it has been a year and three quarters since my last hair cut. i'm thinking til i work up the courage i may be able to have the sort of rapid weightloss you just had. the poo squoozing will occur due to my nerves before the hair cut.

    your new do is adorable.

  5. Jeni Avatar
    Jeni

    Although the poo cleansing route is quite effective, to be sure, in the weight loss department, I'd much rather go with a follicular clipping. Matter of fact, I need one of those right now but any trimming there isn't going to result in any great loss since it's not long enough to count for much. Got any other suggestions in the "in-between" range that would make for a few pounds disappearing?
    BTW, the loss system you employed looks great!

  6. Shieldmaiden96 Avatar
    Shieldmaiden96

    I LOVE IT!!!
    It feels great, doesn't it?
    I had long, wavy hair down to the middle of my back until a year ago February. One morning I woke up and decided it had to go; I was tired of pulling loose hair out of the velcro of my fire gear/buckle on my helmet/patient's faces in the ambulance and I went to a salon and donated three fat braids to little kidlets with no hair (though I'm hoping those wigs don't smell faintly of kitchen fires, the other reason I needed to cut it off). I've since found a stylist who does the 'stacked bob' for me and I love it. A bottle of shampoo lasts much longer now!

  7. Becky Cazares Avatar
    Becky Cazares

    Love the new 'do'! Too bad your students are all onliners this summer cuz I think even Mindy would be impressed! With 'circles' resting comfortably, it seems more than la cocina is getting a modern upgrade!

    Ahh, humidity… I remember it fondly. When the temp equals the humidity, time for a trip to the Southwest! It really IS a dry heat! Yours: 83+83=muggsville. Ours: 101+23=breathable.

  8. Jazz Avatar
    Jazz

    Noice! But had you really wanted to cool down, you shoulda shaved it all off…

    However, since you didn't I must say that you look hot, and speaking of hot (flashes), I understand that particular pleasure loiters just around a very dark corner and down a long, menacing alley.

    Oy girl, you have NO clue the joys that await.

  9. secret agent woman Avatar
    secret agent woman

    I could growm my hari untilI die and still not have two punds to lose. But great hair cut – hope it helps!

  10. phd in yogurtry Avatar
    phd in yogurtry

    luv the new do! now pass me a kettle ball.

  11. jess Avatar
    jess

    Oh my, you look beee YOOO tif ful. Do I want to ask what a kettle ball is? Or should I just be glad I've never been asked to hold one?

  12. Shania Avatar
    Shania

    Pllleeeease tell me that's not your natural color! If your hair can look that gorgeous without any chemical enhancement, I'm just going to crawl in a hole and pull the dirt over me. (I understand the point is the cut, which is fabulous btw)

  13. Lisa (Jonny's Mommy) Avatar
    Lisa (Jonny’s Mommy)

    I love your hair!

    I was so confused about why you were telling your friend's story.

    It all makes sense now.

    Doodle-do-doodle-do (What? I'm making that sound from Wayne's World when they do a flashback.)

  14. Lucy Filet (tafka Kylie) Avatar
    Lucy Filet (tafka Kylie)

    Love your new look! And that was possibly the most random roundabout way of saying "I got a haircut!". It's why I love you! 🙂

  15. yinyang Avatar
    yinyang

    Wow, Aveda? Compared to the places I usually get my hair cut, that's pretty high-end.

  16. geewits Avatar
    geewits

    It can't be that hot or you would have your hair in a ponytail. It's so hot here that I have to clip my hair up just as I step out of the shower. It can't be down for even a minute. Nice cut.

  17. chelle Avatar
    chelle

    hehe …. I love you hair!!! It looks awesome!

  18. kmkat Avatar
    kmkat

    That do is verrah, verrah nice! Stylish, young, and certainly cooler than the long locks!

  19. Pam Avatar
    Pam

    Wow. And Wow again!!

  20. Hannah Avatar
    Hannah

    Awesome haircut! I am also jealous of the colour.:)

  21. Midlife Jobhunter Avatar
    Midlife Jobhunter

    Jocelyn,

    The heat has sincerely twisted you.

    I do like the new hairdo. I am definitely going to weigh myself after my next cut.

    And with the heat, Lake Superior just might warm up enough to stick your toe in.

  22. Patois Avatar
    Patois

    Quite the looker you are.

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