Picture Comparison – 1 Year

One of the neurosis that you develop when you are ‘morbidly obese’, is the fear of cameras. The skinny people reading this may not realize it, but most FAT people are delusional. We live under the delusion that we aren’t as fat as ‘that guy over there’. A key part of this delusion is to avoid reflective surfaces, scales and cameras. Anything that would give you an idea of how big a tub o’ goo you really are.

During Round-Up the National Guard brings in a race car that apparently is driven by someone that I’m told I should know. Since I couldn’t care less about NASCAR, I don’t know who drives this car. But apparently, during the 2nd week of September each year, nobody drives it, as it is sitting on Pendleton’s Main Street with random people leaning against it.

The kids, who want EVERYTHING, discovered that having your picture taken with this car is FREE. Wow! Something they don’t have to beg money for! The catch… if you are under 13 the soldiers require an adult in the picture. Their mother refused, I’m not sure what her neurosis is, and I will probably never know. So I was hooked.

The kids and I, September 2006:

Since I have spent much of the time since that picture was taken one year ago making myself LESS of a man. I actually wanted to get my picture taken to see if I could see a difference.

The kids and I, September 2007:

I like this picture a whole lot better, but I don’t see the difference. I KNOW that I am 70 lbs lighter here. I KNOW that I am wearing a 2xl shirt vs. a 4xl in the 2006 picture. And, I KNOW that I may never get the little one in front of me to smile in a picture. The others are very good at playing the ‘look at me’ game.

But, we don’t have any pictures of the little one smiling. Trust me… its a beautiful smile.