hormones

Caught a snippet of a Suzanne Somers interview on the radio, where she started off by saying that we are, basically, our hormones.   Eh, I think I'm a bit more than just that, but I know that they effect our lives.  (affect?)

Daisy is past her bleeding part of being "in heat," and is on with the "desire" portion.   She's a beagle, about 4.5 years old.   It's been 8 months since her last session, and I'm just fine with this one being more mild, less blood, less intensity in her obvious internal compulsion to hump some other living creature.   She'll try to play like a puppy with her favorite male dogs, one quite elderly who adores her, a bit of flirting going on, and of course, sigh, the presentation of her bottom.   Dogs have no sense of dignity, they just do what feels right to them innately.   And she is very scent-focused.   She'll try to mate with one of the cats, but her feelings are not so intense this year apparently thankfully.  This year, when I tell her no and try to release the escaping cat, Daisy will try to stop and listen to me.   And then go back at it, sometimes.  

Yesterday I walked into the suite of offices next to mine.   A woman was leaving, "Yes it is HOT in here, it's HOT down here (on this floor)."   The woman she'd been talking to laughed back, saying something about how she had been feeling really hot and had wondered if it was menopausal-related.   Two people were feeling hot, but, I wasn't.   It felt lukewarm to me.   Could it just be hot in the one woman's specific office in that suite, which is quite possible in our building, or am I having a peri-menopausal sympton oh no, wait, I wouldn't feel colder, I'd feel hotter, or am I sick?   Or, lol, perhaps they are both menopausal!    (As I still felt quite chilled last night walking Daisy all excited to be back outside, I did starte debating, am I just worn out, or am I getting sick?)

Preteen girls.   They're at the edge, still maintaining a lot of their childhood innocence, and yet developing, physically, mentally, etc.   Their hormones and bodies are all in whack.   One of M's friends broke down after the feis on Sunday, also 12 years old.   She and her mother are great people, not competitive sorts, and always get along well with each other, too.   I suspect the length of her day (various dancing from figures 8am to her particular hornpipe close to 5pm, with many breaks), with being all hyped up, tired, but happy, if she was running partially on adrenaline like M was, then bam.  Her hornpipe was conbimed with U13's which wasn't truly fair according to Ma (and us but hey).   Students are not to "toe" (go en pointe for ballet) in competition until U13 or older, so obviously there was an advantage for those dancers.   She'd gotten 5 medals, she and her mom were happy and having fun, but the girl misheard a comment and it just all came crashing onto her, sobbing crying.   Even said she'd been having fun, and she really wants to do it again (with her mother going, not for anything this long in one day).   This isn't typical of this girl to have a meltdown, but it is not atypical for preteens in general to occasionally have them.   (M is more likely to after returing from her father's, for example, or if she and I are both tired, not full meltdowns, but what seems to be a touch of PMS stuff even if, well, she's not yet PMS'g.)   All the parents understood, and I suspect the girls did, too:)   She wasn't talking with her mother right then, so I went over and put my arm around her and tried to get her calmed down.  I'd hoped to "break the moment" by taking her for some water or a restroom break.   She's just fine now, as I suspected, and her mother confirmed.   Beautiful wonderful young women, who are still, in many ways, girls, too.   They'll cling one moment, and race off into the world independently the next, torn on that divide between little girlhood and young womanhood, like the divide between being developmentally ready for toeing, or reading certain books and seeing certain movies, and no longer finding many books to chose from at the school book fair geared towards the younger ones.

Ah, to be female:)