At the Grocery Store

Today as I was exiting Walmart, an obnoxious lady noticed my height from the entryway where she was getting her cart. Even though I hadn’t even noticed her, she started talking to me as if we were in the middle of conversation.

“Well, look at you. You are damn tall.”
She was definitely not humble, she was rude. So I ignored her and kept walking.
“Hey! Excuse me!”
I continued to ignore her and walked on past and out of the sliding doors. I could hear her muttering behind me.
“Well, she’s too damn tall.”

The more I thought about this encounter, the more upset it made me. What had she expected me to do? She was the one who had called out to me in such rude fashion. No doubt if I had stopped to talk to her she would only have said more rude things. And what the heck did she mean that I was too damn tall? Like it’s something to be ashamed of? Like something’s wrong with me? Like it’s something I had any control over?

It took me a while to cool down from that one.

Renting a Video

I saw Wall-E in the theatre and loved it. I had an urge to watch it again this weekend, so today I went to the video store and grabbed the last copy. Lucky me! As I was reaching into my purse to find my credit card, the clerk asked somewhat timidly (or perhaps in awe),

"How tall are you?"
She sounded appropriately humble, so I decided to answer.
"6'2"
Sometimes I say 6'3". I like to vary it.
"I know what it's like to be tall." She didn't look tall to me. "I'm 5'9" and I remember the things the kids used to say about me back in school when I was taller than everyone else."
She sounded like she wanted me to commiserate with her, so I commiserated.
"Yeah, I know what that's like."

I shouldn't have said it though, because it's a lie. I never got made fun of in school for being tall, at least not to my face. I was known as the smart kid, or the bookworm, but never the tall kid. Oh, people recognized that I was somewhat above average in height, but I can't recall a single time anyone in school said anything negative about it.

However, I have heard this sentiment from several other tall women. A lot of them were talked about or made fun of in school for being tall. And honestly, probably also for being large, a logical side effect which sometimes comes with being so tall.

Do people really think that their height/size is something these women had control over? To anyone who ever did this, shame on you.

Do I Embrace my Height?

A friendly commenter wished me well on my new blog and said that she hoped I embraced my height. This got me thinking, and doing a self-analysis that I haven't done in quite some time. Do I embrace my height? I'm sure that everybody has something about theirself that they need to learn to accept. And I know that I have met other tall women who it seemed to me were struggling with this very issue. For my part, after a very short analysis, I already knew the answer. Yes, I do.

Now this wasn't always the case. I distinctly remember being uncomfortable with my height during my awkward teenage years. I was very, very shy, and I hated that people always stared at me because of it. I also remember feeling clumsy, as if my soul wasn't big enough to fill up the body that it was in. But somewhere along the way, as the years passed, I finally grew into my skin.

I don't even think about it, really. It's just who I am. And to be honest, most of the time I even enjoy the attention it brings. I usually find myself walking down the street with a confident step and head held high, because I know that people notice me. And from the many comments that I've heard over the years, I figure that it's the good kind of noticing. Who doesn't enjoy a little attention? It's the same sort of confidence as knowing that you have dressed particularly well today.

It's just who I am. It's my share in life. And I have to say, it's not half bad.

Say What?

As I was walking the 4 blocks from my work to my car downtown this evening, a scruffy-looking man fell into step beside me. He turned to me and eyed me from head to toe and back up again, and then remarked "I bet when you was in high school your nickname was Shorty!" This sort of remark falls into the category of the "less-annoying" things that people usually say to me, so I laughed cheerfully and kept walking. Then he eyed me again and said "But I bet you changed all that though" before he walked on.

I generally brush off these sorts of encounters as they are very brief, but I couldn't help wondering as I walked the rest of the way to my car: what the heck did he mean?

Sitting Still

I have been working in my office job for a little over two years now and noticing that more often than not during that period, I just feel worn out after a day of work. Sore neck muscles, back hurts, just tired. At first I thought that my body was getting worn out before its time. I'm only 25 after all. Then I decided that the cubicle life of an office worker just wasn't for me. Sitting and staring at a computer screen for 8 hours a day was driving me mad (anybody seen that Hoops & Yoyo e-card from Hallmark? Classic.) Then I realized that it was in fact the sitting that was driving me mad, but not in the way I thought: its the chairs. Chairs that are not designed for tall people.

Granted, I haven't sat in a chair that has been designed to accommodate my height since I was 12, but this is also the first time in my life that I have been confined to a chair for 8 full hours (and sometimes more) out of my day. It's never exactly been comfortable, but usually I don't have to sit in the same spot for more than an hour or two. Except at work. Imagine that you are sitting in one of those kindergarten chairs where your knees are taller than the seat of the chair so they kind of stick up in your face when you sit down. That's what it is like for a tall person. I only had this revelation a few months ago, but now I find myself gazing enviously at seated people. People who can comfortably sit up straight in their chair because their legs fall naturally to the ground and balance them out. I cannot sit up straight in a chair for any period of time because it is too short for my legs, so my body wants to naturally slouch in order to balance out the weight. Which is what I find myself doing at work.

Now as soon as I identified the problem I began working on a solution; namely, how to sit in a chair so as to maximize my posture and reduce soreness. So far, I haven't come up with any solutions that are ideal, but I intend to study this problem diligently at work on a daily basis. I'm hopeful that given enough time - which I have plenty of - I'll be able to come up with something that I can sit back, relax, and enjoy.

Hard to get out of bed today

My blankets just wouldn't let me go. I have pretty poor circulation in my hands and feet (I'm not sure if this is because I am tall or not) which means that I am generally cold all the time, and especially in winter. So I finally went and invested in a down comforter. I've only had it for 4 days, but I'm already sure that it is one of the best investments I've ever made! Cold air is powerless against its defenses. Ahhhh……

Hello to anybody who has stopped by to read this. I suppose the title of this blog is self-explanatory. I am tall, and I am female. For those of you not blessed with an overabundance of growth horomone, you may not realize some of the subtleties of how my life is different from yours. So I have created this blog as a place for all my rants, musings and amusements of being 6'3" in a 5'6" world.