Monday, June 18, 2007

Plus People Are Here To Stay

This week we stopped in Nashville to have lunch with Vicki and her kids. While at the table, inhaling pizza from the newest place in town (that claimed to have NY style pizza and actually did, in Nashville, if you can believe that!) we were talking about dieting; big surprise.

I was relaying how lately I just can't wrap my head around the whole "eating better" thing, and that this week I was feeling totally fat. Vicki joked about not using the "F" word in front of the kids, as Mina, Vicki's daughter, was hanging on our every word, as she usually does. Also as usual, she was mesmerized by everything about me. She always sits so close to me, we touch from her shoulders to her knees and she gazes up at me, taking everything in; my eyelashes, my hairstyle, my earrings, my sunglasses, my lipgloss, my jewelry, my purse, my nail polish; anything and everything that at some point, we know she is going to emulate. At six years old, she is truly my biggest fan.

At the utterance of the word "fat," Vicki took the opportunity to quiz Mina on her manners and what she's been taught over the years. "Now what is it that we call someone who might be a little larger than the average person?"

Mina blinked and looked back, searching for the word because she knows she's not supposed to say the "F" word when decribing a person of size.

"You know what it is, Mina. What is it that we say a person is when they are heavier?"

Mina's eyes were huge, looking intently at me and Vicki, trying to rack her brain for the word she's supposed to remember.

Vicki helped her along by saying, "Pluhhhhh"

"Pluhhhhh," Mina repeated.

"Pluhhhhssss...." said Vicki, trying to clue her in to the word.

"Plus Person!" Mina shouts out enthusiastically, thrilled that she remembered.

"Well, plus sized," Vicki corrected. "If a lady is a little bigger, we call her plus sized."

"Right. Plus SIZED." Mina enunciated, proud of herself.

The next day Vicki called me to say that they were out shopping and Mina came up to her and said in a voice of amazemet, "You know what Mommy? You were right."

"Right about what, baby?" Vicki said.

"There are plus men too."

That's right, Mina Bean. We're everywhere.

1 comment:

Michelle | Bleeding Espresso said...

In Italian, it's common to say that a plus-sized woman (in Italy, that'd be someone who wears a US size 8/10 and up) is "piena," or full. Kind of ironic in that "piena" also means when you're full from eating, but it's much better than hearing "grassa" (fat).