[Gossamer's Scrapbook] The Ethereal Canyon I

by **Gossamer** on October 23rd, 2011, 4:40 pm

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I Don't Believe You
A mini rant, of course....

I routinely read Scrapbooks. There are some that I love to read and I bet you know which ones those are because you love them yourselves. There are other scraps I read because I want to see what the person writing them is going to say next, mostly because I have a hard time believing what some of the folks who talk to themselves in their scraps write. Yes. It's true. Why lie in a scrap? It's pretty obvious when its going on. Why make up stories of abuse and terrible happenings? Why post huge images that draw the readers attention and then bombard them with made up bullshit? When you do this you disgust me. You don't fool others either. What's the point? Do you need attention or sympathy? Do you want people to feel sorry for you or talk to you? Why the hell can't you just be yourself and talk about your average day or dream about the future or wax eloquently along about the past? I promise we'll like you all the better for it.

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by **Gossamer** on October 23rd, 2011, 5:03 pm

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Underwire Bras
Oh stop groaning... this story isn't for you guys.

I love underwire bras. Evidently a ton of other women out there do as well. About half the girls you talk to will wrinkle their nose at underwires and claim they are the most uncomfortable things in the world and march over to the cheap little softy section and refuse to manup when buying foundation garments.

About half the women out there have no idea what their cup size really is. I have really petite friends that wear F's and had no idea until they got a professional bra fitting and discovered this was why their D cup braws always wore out before their time. Now, guys, you don't have to deal with bras like us ladies do, but let me tell you bra maintenance is a pain in the ass. First you spend anywhere from 25-50 on a good quality bra that then needs to be hand washed and hung up to dry. Some of them you can get away with putting in the wash machine on gentle but its a sin to put them in the dryer. So we must hang our lingerie up all over our bathrooms on wash day and make sure they are good an taken are of.

Now the reason why I like underwires is simple. Once well fitted, they keep you in shape and allow you to go batshit crazy in terms of moving bending twisting jumping and the girls aren't going to move. They are rock solid with only a slight bounce. You feel protected, like your warm loving guy is standing behind you with his arms around you guarding them fiercely with splayed fingers. I won't buy anything but an underwire bra.

Scarred yet? There's a story here, I promise.

So I was wearing my favorite bra the other day and the one thing... the most incredibly horrible thing about underwires... is that sometimes in all this bending and flexing protection the underwires in the lower circles of the cups can break. This usually isn't a problem if they break high on your side. You just retire the bra and move on. But if they break low near the lowest part of the dip, it can be a problem. This can be a double threat if it breaks at a time where you have no opportunity to either switch out the garment or remove the offending wire.

So lets go into detail about this wire. Its generally a flattened piece of metal that's coated on either end with rubber. This flattened metal strip is about as long as your bra cup and thick. Its probably a quarter of an inch wide about 2 mm's thick. So we aren't truly talking about metal that's say pencil lead shaped or pipe-cleaner style We're talking something far more deadly. And all the flexing and bending and jiggling the girls do tend to flex the metal underwires, stress them, and they develop a weak spot where they break sometimes.

So when they break, they are nestled in this channel of fabric that holds them in place. However, after breaking they leave two sharp edges at the break that tends to wear at the channel of fabric until one or more of the sharp edges break through. Then, as you move and twist, the wire works more and more of itself out of the channel until you have an inch or more of this sharp pokey thing digging into the underside of your breast.

It blows. It hurts. It puts you in more pain than I can even describe because it feels like this piece of wire is going to dig a hole into your heart or puncture a breast.

We affectionately call these incident's wardrobe malfunctions. I had one thursday. And sadly everyone at work knows about it. An underwire broke early in the shift and an hour later it was digging a hole in my skin under my breast. It was incredibly painful and I was so swamped at work I could do nothing about it. I didn't have the time to stop and grab the key to the trailer, dig around for a filthy pair of pliers and dig out the offending broken underwire. That's really the only option when you have a breakage and no recourse to a wardrobe change. But you can't grab the wire with your hand and pull it out. On good quality bras they are near impossible to hold onto or tug out of their tight-fitting channels. You really do need pliers. So two hours pass. My mood is getting even worse. I feel like blood is going to be dripping down my ribs at any minute, and I'm drying.

An old friend pulls into the yard, one I drove with for years and was best buddies with. He stopped to chat and I think I went a little insane. There... on his belt.. was the symbol of my salvation... a multitool. I grabbed it without asking, claimed it was an emergency, and turned my back on him flipping the multitool open. I dug my tshirt tails out of my belt and proceeded to fish around under my shirt until I grabbed the underwire with the pliers part of the multitool and yanked with all my might. Meanwhile, my buddy being married and recognizing immediately whats going on just starts laughing his ass off. He's laughing so hard hes thumping me on the back which is not helping my quest to get a good grip on this underwire. I'm cussing a blue streak while I did this too and finally almost in tears, I get a good grip, give a good yank, and the dreaded underwire is free. I do the only decent thing I can do then.... I throw it on the ground and stomp on it a few times to make sure it's dead.

My buddy, who's still laughing, takes back his multitool, refolds it, resheaths it, and then pretends to bend over and check the underwire's pulse. He declares it dead, grabs my arm, and in the style of boxing thrusts my arm in the air to declare me the winner. I am now pain free and smiling.

Thank the Gods for buddies with Multitools and good senses of humor. He's convinced bras everywhere now fear me. I hope hes right. I don't want to ever feel another one break on me and come through the channel to torture me again. My girls are fine. The bra has been disposed of. I'm putting the whole thing behind me now.

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by **Bolden Denusk** on October 23rd, 2011, 5:10 pm

When that happens in the barn, you'd be amazed how well a good hoof pick works!

Long live the undewire!
I <3 you. That is all.

by **Cachet** on October 24th, 2011, 1:18 pm

lol Goss you always make me smile....just when I need it!

by **Aidara** on October 25th, 2011, 6:36 am

Just Because.
And it seems like you need it.

by **Oracle** on October 25th, 2011, 8:07 pm

Gossamer wrote:
So I was wearing my favorite bra the other day and the one thing... the most incredibly horrible thing about underwires... is that sometimes in all this bending and flexing protection the underwires in the lower circles of the cups can break. This usually isn't a problem if they break high on your side. You just retire the bra and move on. But if they break low near the lowest part of the dip, it can be a problem. This can be a double threat if it breaks at a time where you have no opportunity to either switch out the garment or remove the offending wire.

OMG, worst feeling in the world right there. No one wants to be out on a busy shopping day and feel the cold hard snap of defeat.

I'm cussing a blue streak while I did this too and finally almost in tears, I get a good grip, give a good yank, and the dreaded underwire is free. I do the only decent thing I can do then.... I throw it on the ground and stomp on it a few times to make sure it's dead.

I am loving the imagery here.

He declares it dead, grabs my arm, and in the style of boxing thrusts my arm in the air to declare me the winner. I am now pain free and smiling.

You are the champion my dear.

by **Jameson Kindle** on October 25th, 2011, 8:32 pm

I’ve been having computer issues and have been swamped with classwork for a while but I’m back now… And can I just say, the first thing I did was catch up on reading your scrapbook. I’d like to say a few things:

First of all, your mini-rant. I completely agree. I wish I understood why people thought it was necessary to boil a situation out of proportion. I know a girl, an ex- friend of my sister’s, who finds it absolutely necessary to tell everyone every little detail of her life. I have no idea why. Do you? I remember like it was yesterday, she called Heidi sobbing and choking and wailing that her parents were kicking her out of her house. Heidi, trying to be sympathetic and understanding, told Hannah (we’ll call her Hannah) to please calm down and explain. She went through this big long explosive story about how her parents never cared about her, and that she was just minding her own business, doing her chores, when her dad came into the room and back handed her. Her mother took all of her things and threw them out into the yard of their populated neighborhood home and told her to get her ass out. She said she had nowhere to go, so Hannah had to move into her boyfriend’s house. Heidi went out and bought her lunch and consoled her. Hannah’s Facebook account was a bulletin board for support letters and insults directed at her parents. They said awful things about her mom and dad and someone even busted out the window to her mom’s Explorer.

One day, I’m out working (I’m a carhop for Sonic) and up pulls Hannah’s mom and dad. Without thinking before I opened my mouth, just trying to be polite and conversational, I said “So how’s Hannah?” Oh shit. My bad. I felt the blood rush into my cheeks and I just knew they would explode….

But they didn’t. As it turns out, his dad just chuckled and shook his head. He said, “She’s out doing her thing with that boyfriend of hers.”

I just looked at him funny and finally, when I felt the territory was clear, I told them what I had heard and asked what the heck was going on. Something just didn’t match up. He hadn’t any idea what I was even talking about! I looked like a complete moron. Her dad and mom explained to me that Hannah had taken her mother’s Explorer without permission while her parents were out doing errands, and went to visit her boyfriend. Her parents came home sooner than expected, and when they saw that the car was gone, along with Hannah, they knew exactly what had transpired. When Hannah got home, they got into an argument, and Hannah threatened to move out. And that’s exactly what she did. But her parents warned her, if she left, not to expect to walk back into their house like nothing had happened. Well Hannah moved in with her boyfriend and his family, and they eventually wanted her to pay rent. What did Hannah do? Of course, she went running back home. When her parents told her no, she had gotten herself into this mess, she bashed her mother’s car window out.

So. What all started as a little misbehaving child turned into a whole mess. All because she didn’t get her way. Sad thing…

But as for Miza (since I went off on my own little rant there)… I have noticed something. While a vast majority of the Miza population appears to be my age or older, I have noticed some youngsters here. Youngsters being, younger than 16, and even some who, by their actions, obviously lie about their age. I mean, come on. We’re not stupid, we can tell by the way you act in chat or in your scrapbook how old you probably really are. Don’t lie about being 20. Act 20, if you want to be 20 so bad. And these youngsters have posted in blogs and scrapbooks just how awful their lives are and how much they hate it and don’t know what they are going to do, blah blah blah…. Wait until you get into the real world, where no one wants to hear you moan and bitch, kids. Really. And I’m only in college! I don’t even wanna know what’s waiting for me in the business world!

Not to mention, if you’re so depressed and no one loves you, what makes you think crying on a forum is going to make anyone love you? It won’t. It annoys most of us, actually. You have to help yourself sometimes, and blowing up your Miza blog and scrapbook isn’t going to save your life. None of us here want to hear about how you’re going to kill yourself. Chances are, you effed up and pissed someone off on Miza, you apologized, and everyone is still irritated with you, so you think you can put on Miza how left out you are and everyone will feel sorry for you. Nope! Doesn’t work that way! It’s just sad, really. And not awwww sad. Pathetic sad. I can’t even imagine what you, Jen, as a Founder, have to deal with. I know you get a lot of Miza-related questions and concerns, but I bet you get a hell of a bombardment of people bitching about each other. I admire your perseverance and dedication enough to put up with it!

NOW, the bra story. Wow. I’m a man. I’m a young college guy without much experience with girls. And I read the whole story. Not only did I find myself smiling as I read it, I feel like I learned a very valuable lesson that I may have to resort to later in life! Now I know if I see my future wife digging at her chest with a multi-tool, pliers, etc. that she isn’t committing suicide, she’s PREVENTING IT!! Haha, I really enjoy your scraps, Jen. They’re full of wisdom, some in their own hidden way, but it’s definitely always worth the read! Thanks for the read!!

Daniel

by **Gossamer** on October 28th, 2011, 7:08 pm

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What's On My Bookshelf Currently
Well, at least all the good stuff...

Jules asked me for a list of my favorite books last night. Then later on chat we were all talking about all our favorite books. So another person asked me to post the list of what I have on hand to read and what I really liked that I've read in the past. Here we go.. its by no means complete, but its what I have on hand and really love. This is by no means all, but its some of it that's currently on shelves and accessible. I tend to read all sorts of books so I have a lot of non-finction books too. I won't bore you with their titles because most are stuff in my field of expertise, or in my hobbies.. like greenhouse gardening, herbalism, photography, and photoshop.

Maria v. Snyder

Touch of Power
Karen Marie Moning

The Weather Warden Series – Rachel Caine

Outcast Sries – Rachel Caine

Kushiel’s Series – Jacqueline Carey

Alpha & Omega Series – Patricia Briggs

Cold Iron – Melisa Michaels

The Jaran Series – Kate Elliot

Sword of Truth Series - Terry Goodkind

Anything my Anne McCaffery - I have them all Pern and Petabee are my Favorites

Dragonsbane – Barbra Hambly

Anything she Writes – Mercedes Lackey

Various - Robin McKinley

Dreamsnake - Vonda N. McIntyre

A woman of the Iron People Book I, II – Eleanor Amason

Chronicles of the Chysuli - Jennifer Roberson

(Thankfully you can get all these books in four omnibus’ now via amazon)

D&S Novels and Hunter Kiss Novels - Majorie M. Liu

Lords of the Underworld Series - Gena Showalter

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by **Oracle** on October 31st, 2011, 3:33 am

Gossamer wrote:
Kushiel’s Series – Jacqueline Carey
Kushiel’s Mercy
Kushiel’s Justice
Kushiel’s Scion
Kushiel’s Avatar
Kushiel’s Chosen

I simply love this series! I'm so glad to see someone else who has read them.

A lot of your list I have not sadly read, but all have been marked for later checking outs.

How do you feel about long epic fantasy novels? I have a feeling The Wayfarer Redemption might be up your ally. If you aren't into epic long fantasy....then ignore the link..it never happened.

Also, Gena Showalter is awesome. Just never read that particular series.

by **Gossamer** on October 31st, 2011, 4:15 am

The longer and the more epic the better, Oracle! I'll definitely give The Wayfarer Redemption a try. I need to read a series Jules recommended for me as well. And well Gena Showalter is awesome... you have to like your hot men REALLY REALLY bad to enjoy her Lord of the Underworld series but then again I love demons. Lies was my favorite badboy demon. He's just too unbelievably cute. You have to get a kick out of a character that walks into a room, sees a gorgeous lady, and opens his mouth to tell her she's beautiful and says something like "You are so unbelievably ugly you make me want to vomit." Kudos to Gena. You can tell she was laughing hysterically as she wrote the entire series.