Lucky (maybe)

I always hated my body. Runty, last to be picked for any team, uncoordinated, skinny. Being a skinny man is unique, in that people feel free to comment on it. It's hard to imagine complete strangers saying to an overweight guy, "Holy shit but you're fat! Don't you ever stop eating?" but fall a few pounds below normal (okay, fine, a few tens of pounds), and it's like you have a target painted on your wee shallow chest. I actually love food, and one of the biggest frustrations I have is that people will say things like, "I'm going to bring in my world-famous perogies every day and fatten you up!" but show the slightest sign of enthusiasm at this idea and they quickly lose interest and wander off. I think they like the idea of saving me from my "obvious" dislike of food, and when I reveal that actually, I love perogies (and especially "fat-load" perogies that include artery-hardening quantities of butter, cheese and bacon) and maybe a double-helping would be a great idea, their plan is completely spoiled.

I was at the climbing gym yesterday, though, and Yuval noted that while I can't let it go too far, I have a natural edge in that I can climb relatively seldom and still manage to pull off relatively hard routes. This started me thinking about this runty body, and how maybe it really isn't such a rough gig after all. It does everything I ask it to (with the glaring exception of any climbing route harder than 5.12a) and I ask a fair bit, allows me to eat truly prodigious quantities of food without risking "Holy shit but you're fat!" comments, and really, as I approach 40, having a 28 inch waist seems much more desirable than it did at 25.

So maybe weights at the gym have far less effect than I would like, but I suppose I have to say that I'm lucky nonetheless.