Cross Dressing Cow Promotes Breast Cancer Awareness

NaBloPoMo Day 3: On a recent outting, I spotted a Pepto Bismol colored cow statue standing by a shop. Took me a moment to realize that the words on its legs read, “Hope,” not, “Hype.” On closer inspection, I realized the fiberglass bovine was there to promote breast cancer awareness; you know: breasts, cows, milk. It’s all very stream of consciousness, right? I get the connection.

What I don’t get is that the cow in question has no udders. Sadly, the Susan Komen office was not open, so there was no one to pester for the train of thought behind this queer steer. Perhaps they are trying to heighten awareness of male breast cancer? Hey, it happens…

Or perhaps this fiberglass cow was the bovine equivalent of Barbie, who (in case you’ve never played with one) lacks genitalia. One quick peek beneath dashed that theory, as you can see in the third photo. This was definitely a male.

Interestingly enough, Barbie’s creator, Ruth Handler, originally intended her dolls to be anatomically correct, but toy company executives objected, and even though Barbie catches a lot of flak for her big boobs, Handler went on to design her own line of realistic breasts for women who have had mastectomies. This time, she won; her prostheses have nipples.

Speaking of breasts, why is it so hard to find a non-padded bra? As I mentioned yesterday, it gets hot in Texas. In triple digit heat, who wants to wear a brassiere with the, “lightly lined foam cups,” that every single bra seems to have these days? I guess if you’re someone who needs lots of support, cups made of heavy duty material make sense. But in my case, a comfy cotton bra is perfect. Nowadays, I keep my eyes out for nice bras at thrift stores. I have found some “vintage” Victoria’s Secret bras that fit really well, and are 100% cotton. How about it, ladies? I can’t be the only chick out there who has noticed this.

Timers help me focus on writing: Ding, ding – there goes my timer for today’s post. Actually, it was more of a croaking noise than a ding. I like to use the Timberfrog free web countdown counter for timed free writing. What’s nice about it is that it works right in your browser. There’s no need to download anything, and you get your choice of different alarm sounds. Quite a useful little web app. I open it in its own tab, pick an alarm sound (I like to change it up), input the time, and I’m set.

Another reason I like using the timer is that I get more done if I don’t spend too much time on any one particular task. If I have 2 articles to write, I get more done if I divide my focus between them. Maybe this is a writing-specific way to get things done. I don’t know if it applies to other things as much. At any rate, if I do a big, messy freewrite for one article, then let it marinate for an hour while I do something more straightforward, like researching another article, answering emails, or running errands, when I come back to the first article, I have a fresh eye and can see what needs to be done. I’m able to wrap it up much more quickly than if I try and research and write it all in one go.

Speaking of, I’m off to do some bread and butter work. I’ll come back later and edit what I’ve rattled off, then make the NaBloPoMo rounds and see what other folks are blogging about this month.