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Blogs by Lisa Adams
Tall, tall tallllllll ARGH 1/30/2008 7:15:18 AM
Ok, I have had it....I am officially sick of being tall. I don't know when this whole tall thing started either. My best recollection is that I was a really small kid. Skinny, gangly...goofy in general. Because my family moved a lot while I was in grade school, I took the obligatory ass kicking, you know, being the new kid and all....plus being VERY small. One memorable initiation involved my then long, long hair and being basically swung around the playground and let go like a slingshot. A couple of scraped knees later, I survived. That was all that was required...survival. I recall my violin case in first grade being as tall as I was.
Junior high on Long Island was really no different. I was not all that tall. I went through a goofy clothes phase as everyone had in 1975, but what the hell, right? Who ever said disco fashion was heinous? Oh yeah....I did. Never mind...ANYWAY....ok, ok, so it lasted until 1977...whatever. :)
When I hit high school, though, something dramatic happened. Suddenly the doctor was all, "She'll hit at least six feet..." WHAT???!!! NO WAY. That is WAAAY TOO TALL. I was dancing ballet, swimming, playing volley ball, soft ball, raquet ball and tennis...no freakin' wonder I was good at serving the dang volleyball - according to doctor dire prediction, I was going to be as tall as the net. What's up with that? Eeek.
After a short time (as in kid terms - a couple of years) I realized that "normal" Levis were WAY too short; and a LOT of leg was showing when I wore skirts. What the hell? The male dancers could not partner me because I was as tall as they were. Ouch. I suppose had I stuck with ballet, I would have been as tall as Sean Lavery en pointe, and he was some insane height like 6'3". Thank God for Isadora Duncan and bare feet. Still, I began to tower over my classmates and that skinniness was replaced by lean muscle. Ouch. Even worse, many of the cute boys became...SHORT! NOOOOOOO!
Let me tell you what, it is HARD to be tall when all the girls in your class are NOT. It really gives you a complex. Of course if my feet were smaller, I would fall onto my head fairly regularly; and if my legs were shorter I would look all out of whack. SO I settled into my height in college with the occasional nightmare about dating a boy I could hold in the palm of my hand...scary.
After a while, I came to realize that being tall was actually somewhat of an advantage in certain areas and a disadvantage in others. Oh yeah, and I never hit six feet - I stopped growing at 5'9.5". But there is definitely a petite conspiracy in the clothing industry.
I still have to have some pants altered to be long enough and finally jeans come in a "tall" leg length; and shirts come in a "tall" arm length so the sleeves don't stop at my elbows. I have taken a liking to being called an Amazon but still become very insecure when I am around a plethora of short women all looking up at me while smaller men's first eye contact is, er, chest level. Egads....focus guys, please. :)
I won't wear heels - why bother - because I am spastic and have sprained more than one ankle; once while doing the bunny hop when I definitely should not have on one memorable occasion. I prefer Vans and sandals to fancy shoes. Tall came into fashion once, and I am pleased that there are women floating about who are much, much taller than I am. But I still feel awkward sometimes and wish I could just be ever so much...shorter. Darn those swedish genes anyway.
I had a dodge neon once that caused me physical pain when I got into or out of it, but I slid into mom's 580SL convertible JUST fine, thank you very much. Also had a blast going WAAAY too fast back in L.A. when I visted one year. Hell, even mom got a speeding ticket. Gotta love it. Ok, so now you know one deep, dark secret - I love to speed around. Thank you, Mercedes. Mom, can I have the car? Ha! Ok, ok, I'll wait...anyway...I am taller than my mom, not as tall as my dad or Mel....this is good. Sure, you can't tell looking at the photo on this site...it would be more in perspective were I to stand next to, say, Mount Everest or a camel or something...but being tall isn't always wonderful and the weather is different up here.
Sigh, well I WAS sick of being tall when I left the hosue this morning. Now, I guess it doesn't seem so bad after all. Let me stand up and check the high altitude weather before I grab another cup of joe. Cheers.
