Music, Corsets and Dentists

Do you love my music choice? I love David Soul and Bobby Sherman. Even though Bobby Sherman is old now, I think he's a stallion. I used to walk my gassy babies to "Julie-Julie-Julie do ya love me?" I love his voice, and David Soul is a complete babe. My sisters used to be "in love" with him.

I am getting another corset. My first is a basic one that I ordered from Romantasy. My waist, in spite of having not worn it every day or even half as much as I should have to break it in because even though summer was cool it was too hot for Tea, is down as far as the corset will go at 24". I started at 28" and had a deflated abdomen-- not fat by any means, just loose. Contrary to what doctors think when they hear of my corseting, it doesn't squeeze in my organs. Ann, the proprietress of this company, doesn't want her clients in pain.

The corset that I want will be leather-- a Sue Nice Victorian underbust, and my husband hates-hates-hates that I am doing this. He loves the results and the clothes that I wear with them, but he really doesn't like that I lace myself in to these things. I would like to get down to a 20" waist-- a little freaky, but not as small as I was before having children. I often wear conservative clothes-- I got scolded at church by a hen about not dressing mmodestly (I was fine-- she just thought I could do better than professional suits) and I think that when you get that hourglass figure, you really show off the modest clothes better! Could this be why women corseted in the earlier centuries? They couldn't show their legs or arms so instead of looking gender neutral, they corseted? I love how I look and feel in these. I'll probably be 60 wearing these things. (If I look like my mom, no one will know that I am 60!)

I'll be going 23/7 as soon as this gets broken in-- ordering takes a few weeks or months to get here. Hopefully I can be tightlacing by January.

I took the kids to the dentists today. I had 7 of them with me and we were there for 3 hours. They wanted me in back when the kids were being worked on. The assistant was really nice and she said that last time my children were there they told her why I hate dental assistants! Word for word! I can only imagine her amusement upon hearing my 8 year old tell her that they hire the most insipid bores who like to talk at dental offices! Oh dear goodness, that must have amused her! She is from Canada, recently learned to play violin (she is my age) and is quite intelligent. I was very happy to have spoken with her. She said that they would love to have me as a patient and I said I couldn't because she is too interesting and would complain of chatty patients! She is very dedicated and does a lot of volunteering in a community south of where I live that is renowned for it's drug use and parents passing the kids to the grand parents so they can stay stoned. I was very much enjoying her discussion and hearing of what she does.

In the wait room there was a drama going on-- they have a room for TV and it has three doors-- one to the regular waiting room, one to the main hallway of the business office building, and one to the dentists' offices. My six youngest thought the doors were really fun. They were not clamming thembut apparently opening them and sneaking around in to the room through the other ones. There is a window so the receptionists could keep an eye on them and they said that while the kids were not angels that they were at least original in how they teased one another.

I'm buying Guy a clarinet. Kids cost a lot of cash.

Stylin' in my Corset

(This may be TMI for some of my guy readers. It is, however, informative.)

When most people hear the word corset, they think of feminine bondage and uncomfortable dressing. After I had my ninth baby, my abdomen was loose and t seemed as if my insides were pouring themselves out of my body, over my pelvic bone. It wasn't that I was in bad shape; the muscles were like a deflated balloon and just tired!

I surfed the internet and not knowing what to buy, I found Ann at Romantasy to be the best and most informative seller. When I told her what I needed to do, she suggested a few custom designs. Being very budget conscious, I chose a basic model in black cotton duck. Romantic? Yes, it is actually! Even in duck, but my husband says it's the woman in the duck, not the duck on the woman! It was an investment of several hundred dollars and I wondered about my sanity in buying the contraption while I waited several months for it to be made.

I have been doing yoga for years, but my muscles were just flabby. Shortly before my corset was done, I bought one off of Ebay for $60 that they said was worth $300. I felt stupid for having ordered the custom one, but the Ebay one was worn out in five wearings. When the custom one arrived, it was stiff, and I don't know if I'd have appreciated it or even worn it had I not bought my inferior one first.

I lied about my actual measurements because I wasn't able to admit how flabby my waist was and I was glad that I didn't live in California to have it measured. I don't advocate lying, especially because you are taking the several hundred dollars you are investing into your own hands, but my 32" waist was able to be compacted into the 28" corset. Since it was spring, I walked as much as I could, and I only wore the thing a few times a week for an hour or two. (Lacing it is another story-- I am glad that I do yoga!) I am now down to a laced down 25" waist. My body is slimming down quickly with it and it seems like the corset has reminded my body what it is supposed to feel like and where things are supposed to be. I took off my corset yesterday and my husband came home and ran his hand over my waist and was surprised that I didn't have it on. My "tummy pooch" is now almost eliminated, and my waist on the sides is now an hourglass. It's been less than 4 months that I've been wearing it and I still don't wear it more than a few times a week due to the heat. I am VERY lucky that my body has done as I thought it would with slimming down as fast as it did. I'm at 28" now sans the corset and I am very, very close to closing it. I'd like to get a 20" waist. My organs are in great shape and what people don't realize is that if these things harmed people, the corset makers wouldn't stay in business!

One of the unexpected bonuses of this is that I had needed surgery to correct a sagging bladder but don't now. This comes fromthe corset only allowing me to stoop, just as I was taught in finishing school, as opposed to simply bending over. Over the years I quit stooping and got sloppy and started bending because it was just easier on my legs. Because I stoop many times a day picking up children, toys and putting things away while I tightlace, it's tightened those muscles up. Forget the 200 kegals the OB/Gyn tells you to do-- they are pointless when you are not strengthening other muscles that support them.

For wearing and holding up nice stockings, I advocate getting at least four garters on each side of the corset. The garter belts with only two belts on each side are no good as they don't hold seamed stockings in the right places.

My husband works with diseases and he hates the thing. He does not find it romantic in any way, shape or form, which is really a drag but since he also doesn't object, I won't complain. He is one of those awesome guys who'd really still genuinely love me if I didn't stay slender.

I do not advocate dieting when you tightlace. I used to model and I had an agent who said you don't diet, you develop habits. You don't start developing habits, once you feel "fat" you cut back on the extras. Have a piece of chocolate every day if you think you need it, but limit how much you have. If you know you are going to a birthday party that night or planning to have a few drinks, don't eat the chocolate. It's about balance. You need to get your heart rate up a few times per week, too. I think the best advice that she gave me was when I told her that I would start "tomorrow," she said that "good habits start today, this very moment." She also told me to never discuss dieting socially which I did at the age of 18, because the purpose of a good party is to indulge a bit, "to eat, drink and be merry." The advice has never failed me.

Tight Lacing

I am about to start corseting. This isn't a fetish for me-- I have a 28" waist and it is just too much. I decided to start corseting when I was looking for a $50 one (not knowing what they will cost-- haha) and a pretty, cheap confection at Fredericks of Hollywood had in it's description, "Not for tight lacing." Hmmm. I decided to look "tight lacing" up. Getting through the stories that are hopefully fiction-- eek-- I found a legitimate site called Romantasy. Ann, the lady who runs it, got into it because as I recall her telling me, she needed a medical corset and they were not very pretty and she went from there and has been in business for 18 years as of 3 January. (Happy Birthday, Ann! May God grant you many more years of success!)

As fate would have it, the corset that I am having her make me is white duck on one side and black duck on the other-- probably not unlike her first ones! It's a Bella made by Sharon of Altered Thyme. I will be getting it very soon.

Fortunately for me, Ann knows more than I do and has guided me from going over-the-top, " I want a mini skirt in denim!" to helping me realize that wanting to jump head first into this could ruin my chances of success with it. The Bella goes under my bust to right above my pelvic bone, shaping my abdomen or "tummy." I'll start out a few hours a day and work up. I won't wear it to school because I will be dancing and won't have time to remove it. It's expensive and I also don't want to lose it. This is how you get started! These are some of Ann's off the peg corsets. Very tempting for up the road!

My husband is cool about me waist training. The first thing he asked when I told him of it was, "What are your limits?" We looked at some women who have done this who are almost into self mutilation about it. I want to have a noticeable and slender waist, but I don't want to be freaky. 22", if I get back to that, is the limit. I am at 28" right now-- the result of 81+ months of pregnancies, 12 conceptions and nine births. (Three miscarriages.) I read of some women who tell their husbands when they lace them up in the morning that they won't unlace until their husbands unlace them at night. My husband said, "If I lace you up, how easily can you undo it if you can't breathe?" He remembers too well my pregnancies where I wasn't getting enough oxygen and doesn't find that romantic at all and he wants me to have air. Air!