Short & Cranky, thankyouverymuch

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Word du jour: Neoteny.

A term found in biology textbooks referring to juvenile characteristics that are retained in adulthood. In most of those textbooks, you'll see my picture next to that definition.

For the record, I can't help the way I friggin' look. It's not my fault. Yes, I do have the following infantile characteristics:
- full round face
- clear skin
- round blue eyes
- snub nose

But damn it, none of those are a good reason for calling me 'hon.' Everybody does it: the woman at the Max station asking when the next train was leaving, the waitress at the restaurant who wanted to write down my order, everyone. The other morning, I stopped at the coffee shop on my way to the Max. The young guy, barely 20 I'd swear, gave me the coffee with a "here you are, young lady." It was all I could do to stop myself from saying "I'm old enough to be your mother, you twerp!"

If I lived in the South, I'd put it down as a cultural thing. But Oregon is pretty far removed from that part of the country, damn it. And maybe it's not supposed to be unkind, but it comes across as condescending.

I realize once I lose a bit more weight, the youthful plumpness will fade (O please God) from my face. Frankly, I'm ready for it. I'm getting older. I accept that. I mean, it's been over a year since someone carded me. Considering that when that happened I was a week past my 45th birthday, I'd say it was about damn time.

The youthful looks thing is partly hereditary. Until a couple years ago, my mother was routinely taken to be about 20 years younger than she is. Sadly, osteoporosis has now rendered her frail, and she looks like a little old lady. She used to be a couple inches taller than I am, but she's shrinking almost daily. It's really annoying her, and a great motivation to make me do yoga more often.

Study du jour: Physical Activity Ups Women's Odds of Healthy Aging

Elderly women who follow a program of exercise are less likely to have falls and can improve bone mineral density compared to their non-exercising counterparts, according to a study in the Jan. 25 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, while another study found that higher levels of physical activity in middle age are associated with better health later in life.

Exercise du jour: Jog 3 miles.

Crap. I can't decide if this is a win or a fail.
Basically, today was an eerie repeat of yesterday in almost every detail, except that instead of not cycling, I didn't jog. Otherwise, virtually identical right down to the long confused attempt to untangle a computer problem involving a software engineer (in Sydney), a project manager (in Quebec), and a French marketing dude -- who was actually just down the hall but was busy with Frantically Important Marketing Meetings and couldn't be interrupted. He mentioned this as he was rushing past for an equally important meeting with the men's room.

I did manage to get five miles of walking in, and indeed as part of that I did jog for half a mile as I tried to catch my train home. (I missed. Perhaps the Max train also had an important meeting.)

Should I put the star up or not?