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Friday Links
1. All about grunting, bros:
When you exert yourself at or above your physical limit, as in lifting something heavy, you will reflexively close the vocal folds of the larynx in an attempt to seal off the respiratory tract. By doing so, you give yourself a slightly enhanced degree of trunk stability and therefore slightly increased leg and arm strength.
2. Funny, but also maddening, but also true: 17 Real Life Would-You-Rathers I, A Woman, Have Had To Ask Myself.
Summer Poem
This is from Robert Hass’s “Santa Barbara Road” (in Human Wishes) and it popped into my head this morning as I was thinking how nice it is that it’s light when you wake up and warm when you get out of the shower.
Everything rises from the dead in June .
There is some treasure hidden in the heart of summer
everyone remembers now, and they can’t be sure
the lives they live in will discover it.
They remember the smells of childhood vacations.
The men buy maps, raffish hats. Some women
pray to it by wearing blouses
with small buttons you have to button patiently,
as if to say, this is not winter, not
the cold shudder of dressing in the dark.
Me, In Conversation
Insert “roller skating movies” or “weightlifting”for “current thing I’m obsessed with.” From the amazing feed of Sarah Andersen.
Summer Of Basics #1: Art Teacher Pants?
The Arenite Pants pattern has been taking Instagram by storm since it was introduced earlier this year, and it seemed right up my alley: elastic waist, interesting shape, big pockets. I put them on the Summer of Basics list right away.
Reader, take heed to the pattern designer who says that you need fabrics with excellent drape for these. I thought my Brussels Washer Linen blend would be OK, but you need something really slinky to avoid having the pockets stick out about six inches. In the photo below, I’ve added a pleat to the center of the pockets to take in some of the volume and I’m still not quite convinced:
About those pockets: they looked magnificently large in the pattern photo, and they are indeed wide. But they’re surprisingly shallow–just the depth of my hand, and definitely not the vertical depth of an iPhone.
If I were to make these again, I’d use 100% rayon (or this, gah, but I do not need silk harem pants, right?), add a couple inches to the pocket bag depth, and probably cut a size down–these run fairly large. (You can probably get away with far less yardage than the pattern designer calls for, too. This was 3 yards of 60″ fabric and I easily had three-quarters of a yard leftover. And that’s from a size 10.)
For all of the reasons above, I wasn’t sure what I thought of these, but seeing them in pictures has convinced me that they work. I just need to pile on the jewelry, mess up my hair, and pretend I’m an art teacher who can’t be constrained by ordinary pants.
All The Hikes
We did a 4th of July hike up in the Uinta mountains last week that I didn’t post about because I was too busy talking about my workouts.* Yesterday we did a normal jaunt up Millcreek Canyon (the upper canyon is open again!) so here’s double the hike pictures for Monday.
From Millcreek yesterday–we got some afternoon rain so there were good cloud shadows:
And from our holiday hike–we did the Lofty Lake Loop trail again with my brother and his family. It was indeed lofty (11,000 feet top elevation) with many lakes:
*Turns out that when you push a heavy sled at the gym, everything else that does not involve pushing a heavy sled gets easier! Including hiking! Also, DID YOU KNOW I GO TO THE GYM NOW?!
Friday Links
1. Fashion bloggers Tom & Lorenzo are doing a deep dive into the costuming of women heroes and it’s excellent (if you’ve never read their Mad Men style analysis series, do it). Here’s the Star Wars one–Black Panther is coming soon!
2. My friend found what is perhaps the best gif of all time…
…
…
…LASER HARP RACCOON
My Life Is Now Just One Big Sports Metaphor
Since I last talked about swoleness, I’ve started working with a personal trainer at a gym and it takes everything I have not to tell all and sundry about it. (Trader Joe’s checker: “Got any fun plans this weekend?” Me, internally: “Yes! I’m gonna get my ass kicked at the gym! I never thought I’d like it! It’s the weirdest and best thing!”)
I have never been sporty. I never thought I would ever enjoy “the burn.” In fact, I did just about everything in my power to AVOID feeling any prolonged or extreme burn my entire life–but now I’m at a gym three days a week working towards a goal of lifting my bodyweight. No one is more surprised than I.
Every session with the trainer is literally the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I do things I never would have considered on my own (push a hundred-pound sled?! I SAID GOOD DAY, SIR!) But after every session–once I stop feeling like I might die–I feel invincible. If I can do [whatever Extremely Challenging Physical Thing I just did], I can do anything.
It’s like I’m in my own training montage in a movie.
I know–from a non-sporty lifetime of pretending to care about sporty people talking about their sport–that no one cares about your workout but you. But I can’t stop talking about it! It’s not even like I can brag about how much I can bench (12 pound dumbbells, bro!); I’m just so excited about my own action movie montage that I assume other people want to know about this too.
So if I know you and all I talk about is my workouts, or how sore one muscle is, or how another one might be getting bigger, or how far I pushed the damn sled: I’m sorry.
And have you considered powerlifting? It’s really fun.
My New National Anthem
I wasn’t going to post anything today but then Even Cleveland shared this Woody Guthrie song:
Also: ‘God Bless America’: 100 Years of an Immigrant’s Anthem
Tuesday Project Roundup: No Sleeves Allowed
I’ve joined a gym (more on that Thursday) and the itty-bitty baby muscles in my arms are getting ever-so-slightly bigger! In my head, of course, I look like a young Arnold. So clearly I needed to make something sleeveless to show off these guns:
This is another True Bias pattern, the Nikko top. It’s a beautiful pattern with perfect proportions on the mock neck and just the right amount of cutaway on the arms (to make your shoulders look bigger, bro). I made it up in some light rayon rib knit from Stonemountain and it’s lovely to wear–cool and soft.
I already have more fabric coming for another one and as soon as I can find some nice black rib knit I’m going to make the dress version–all sleeveless, naturally.