*Rolling On the Floor Laughing My GladRags Off

Periods can be a lot of things: uncomfortable, a relief, embarrassing, cause for celebration, a reminder of womanhood, taboo, and more.  But funny?  We think so — and so did Laura S. of Ohio who sent us this story:

One evening on a car ride with my parents, husband, and ten year old nephew, I started singing the song Rock Around the Clock.  When I sang the first line of the first verse, my husband busted out laughing. Only I understood why.  The first line of the verse is as follows:

“Put your glad rags on, join me hon.  We’ll have some fun when the clock strikes one. We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight…..”

Although “glad rags” can mean “stylish clothes,” my husband had only ever heard of the term GladRags to mean your reusable menstrual pads, hence, his laughter! (My husband didn’t believe that I was singing the correct words until we looked it up on the internet.)  So now, whenever he sees me reaching for my GladRags, he asks if I’m getting ready to rock around the clock!

We know you have at least one silly period anecdote — from the time your four-year-old set the table with your “special napkins” to what happened the first time you wore your Moon Cup to school — and we want to hear it!  Goofy photos, like this one of 9-month-old Max wearing a (clean) GladRag as hat, are also valid entries for the contest.  Even better, the submitter of the most laugh-out-loud hilarious tale will win a Cloth Pad Sampler Kit!

How it works: Post your story or image as a comment on this entry by 3/17/10. We’ll pick a few favorites and to be voted on on the GladRags Facebook page.  The story or photo with the most votes wins a Sampler Kit!

So come on, make us laugh!

March Monthly Friend: Mary

Name: Mary
Age: 26
Hometown: Laramie, WY
Current location: Laramie, WY
Occupation: University Staff

Interests: Dogs, cooking, coffee, travel…
Dreams: To be a great mom (in 12 weeks when my baby is due!)

How long have you used reusable menstrual products?: 1 year
Reason for making the switch to reusables: I always found regular pads to be so uncomfortable, sticky, and frankly made me yeast-prone no matter how often they were changed. I know a lot of people are worried about the environment, and I care about that too of course, but the bottom line for me was comfort. I picked up GladRags at my local organic co-op and loved them! I have since switched over completely.

Funny anecdotes, deep thoughts, or anything else you’d like to share: So I noted above that I am 28 weeks pregnant. You might think, why does she even need GladRags??? Well let me tell you… it wasn’t too long into the pregnancy that I began to realize that when you are pregnant, everything drips like a faucet. I was at the library a few months ago in an elevator, trying to crane around to look past my belly to see what was on my pants when my boobs started leaking milk too. I may not be having my period, but if I don’t wear a liner every day it looks like I peed my (stretchy) pants! No fun at all. This is the adventure that is motherhood, I suppose. Since I had used GladRags my last few periods before I conceived, they were the natural choice for protection with the increased discharge and I am so grateful! Not only do I leak but I sweat too and I think I might die of heat rash if I had to wear sticky plastic every day. Yuck. Not only have cloth pads been good for me, they have been good for my baby too. I’ve been inspired to stock up on reusable breast pads and cloth diapers! These more natural options just feel right, and that’s important when I’m making choices for the little girl I love the most.

February Monthly Friend: Teresa M. Stillwell

Name: Teresa M. Stillwell
Age: 37
Hometown: Conover, NC
Current Location: Conover, NC
Occupation: Help Desk Analyst for IT dept at a busy local Hospital

Interests: Nature, saving the environment, green living, photography, and reading. I also love to spend time with my cat baby, Gus, and my husband, Chad.
Dreams: To one day own my own company or be able to work for myself in some self-sustaining way.

How long have you used reusable menstrual products?: I have used reusable menstrual products now for 3 years, and I wish I had tried them 23 years ago (of course they weren’t marketed then). I had wanted to try them for years, but every time I mentioned to any friend or family, they would say: you can’t be serious - reusable menstrual products you have to wash - no thanks! I’ve suffered for years from irritation, infections, rashes, and discomfort and dread every month. Now since I’ve discovered GladRags, I almost look forward to my monthly friend. I’ve never felt so comforted and comfortable and not worried in my life regarding my menstrual cycle. For years I’ve worried about leakage, TSS, and other side effects of plastic and chemically altered products that aren’t meant to go in or on your body. Before my cycle was so heavy, and now since I’ve stopped using tampons and plastic pads, not only am I more comfortable, but my periods last about 1/3 as long as they did before and they are not as heavy. My cramps I’ve suffered with since I was 13 have also greatly diminished. I am in awe! I will forever be a GlaRags customer, until I go through menopause, and then will still be grasping my pantiliners till the end :-). I have told all my friends and family and coworkers about reusable menstrual products. I have even brought new boxes and packs for them to look at and have given some as gifts to get them interested in buying. I love the products and I know if every woman would try them, the disposable feminine product business would go broke! I’m on a crusade to save the private parts of all the females I know from the injustice of rayon, polyester, and plastic, as well as a list of chemicals.

A day with out a GladRag, is a sad day indeed!!!

GladRags are your friends
Up until the menstrual end
No more rash on those private parts
No more worries about those chemical darts
No leaks to ever cross your mind
As long as GladRags are on your behind!

We love hearing from women who use GladRags, and sometimes we receive emails that just need to be shared, like this Rave Review from Kiwi:

Dear GladRags creators:

Your cotton pads are so soft and comforting, it’s no short of heavenly. Compared to disposables that used to give me skin burn and made me sweaty, your fluffy pads bring me a sense of relief at a stressful time like no disposable ever did.

The fun colorful prints bring out the kid in me and I find myself collecting them all for their light-hearted, easy-going qualities… I use the pink ones when I feel girly, the red ones when I feel like a goddess, and the light blue ones when I feel calm. They are so much more entertaining and creative than pre-packaged look-alikes.

The disposables are so inconvenient and gross; the inner absorbent lining begins to displace into chunks when wet, and sometimes the plastic “mesh” will rip too, exposing the wet lining. The glue they use on the “wings” was truly annoying, if you didn’t stick it just right on the panty, it would wrinkle, stick onto itself, or stick to your pants. Your GladRags are making these nuisances and worries history.

Lastly, in a world where the female body must be shaved and perfumed and done a million things to to make it acceptable, your GladRags bring about a sense of sanity in the female element: They remind us women that it is OK to be a woman, and that a period is not some sort of shameful “condition”, but rather indeed a fascinating healthy phase.

I think it’s really great you created these products, and please make more fun prints! Maybe hearts? rainbows? trees? swirls, waves, squares, christmas prints?? Keep up the WONDERFUL work!!!

January Monthly Friend: Jamie

 Name: Jamie
Age: 22
Hometown: Egg Harbor Township, NJ
Current Location: Milford, DE
Occupation: Housewife, Bible teacher

Interests: I love wildlife, nature, BBC Dramas, Sherlock Holmes, classical movies, vintage style, and antiques.
Dreams: To live forever on a paradise earth.

How long have you used reusable menstrual products?: Almost a whole year.
Reason for making the switch to reusables: It saves money, is a million times more comfortable than disposable tampons or pads, and is a lot healthier for my body and the environment. My husband loves them too because he doesn’t have to run out last minute when I run out of my “supplies.”

Funny anecdotes, deep thoughts, or anything else you’d like to share: My husband is really cool and supported my use of reusable menstrual pads from the beginning. He is not like some other guys who are easily offended or grossed out by seeing menstrual products. He just accepts it as a normal part of life. He jokingly calls the nighttime pad “the elephant.” I believe that using reusables is much better for your body, and helps you nurture your body and have a more positive attitude.  Rather than hastily wrapping up a used tampon or pad and throwing it away in disgust, washing my GladRags, patiently hanging them up to dry, and neatly placing them back in their drawer, clean, soft and ready for my next cycle helps me feel more positive. I know that it’s healthier for my body and the planet. It almost feels “complete.”

December Monthly Friend: Dionne M. Frey

Name: Dionne M. Frey
Age: 36
Hometown: Denver, CO
Current location: Portland, OR
Occupation: Personal Assistant and Student Midwife

Interests: Midwifery, women’s health, reading, knitting, nature walks, herbs, alternative medicine and health.
Dreams: My dream is to be a midwife and help babies enter the world peacefully by empowering  women to choose how and where they give birth.  I want to change the world one birth at a time.

How long have you used reusable menstrual products?: I’ve used reusable menstrual products for 9 years and I love them!
Reason for making the switch to reusables: I was tired of ugly, itchy disposable pads and I felt disgusted when I thought of all the disposable products that I would use in a lifetime of menstruation piled up in a landfill.  I also thought that breathable menstrual products like GladRags would help stop me from having so many yeast infections and they really did help.  I really wish I had thought to search for reusable products sooner, not only because of the landfill thing, but because they are so much more comfortable and beautiful than disposable pads.

Funny anecdotes, deep thoughts, or anything else you’d like to share:  When I was a little girl my grandma told me that she got her period when she was 10 years old and that she and her sisters used to use old rags to catch their menstrual flow that they would wash and use again.  I thought it was kind of gross,  not because they washed them and used them over and over, but because they used scraps of old things that used to be used for something else.  I guess I always thought that  there should be something especially for menstruation. As soon as I turned 10, I thought, “OK, I’m old enough to get my period now!” and I was very excited, checking often and sometimes feeling disappointed when there was no red spot in my panties.  It didn’t come until I was 12, in gym class, and I had to go to the nurse’s office to get a pad. I felt so bummed out when I put on my first disposable pad thinking, “This is what I was so excited about?” The pad was thick and scratchy and I didn’t feel womanly wearing it at all.  The first time I put on a GladRag at the age of 27, I wished I could turn back time and put on a GladRag on that first day of my period and celebrate my menarche.  I also wished that my grandma was still alive to see that there really was something special to use just for menstruation, and it was not an ugly, itchy, disposable pad that had been created to clean it up, freshen it up or hide it from the world, but to be comfortable and help women feel good about their bodies.

Hello and welcome to this week’s installment of Menstrual Mondays, wherein we give you the latest in menstrual news, musings, art, and more!

• Adventures in Menstruating is a great, funny blog!  Read their latest on menstruating zombies, the period fairy, and euphemisms.
• Read How Menstruation Created Math by John Kellermeier on Tacoma Community College’s website to learn more about early calenders and how mathematics began.
• Bitch Magazine has a great post on vagina related crafts posted on etsy.com, the ebay-like craft sharing website.  Includes work by our twitter friend, vulvalovelovely, who does some intricate vulva necklaces and a super cute giant plush uterus.  Read A Vagtastic Voyage Through Etsy. Possibly NSFW.
• Are you on twitter and want to learn more about menstruation?  Follow these ladies on GladRags’ new menstrual tweeters list!
• Blogger, Badger Meets World, writes a colorful article about using a menstrual cup during heavy bleeding.
• Fashion Blogger, My Wardrobe Today, writes an article about how great and easy it is to go green with the Diva Cup!
• Bust calls out RedBook for their sorry excuse for a review on FLOW: The Cultural History of Menstruation in this article.

November Monthly Friend: Lacy Hale

Name: Lacy Hale
Age: 28
Hometown: Wolfpen, KY
Current location: Morehead, KY
Occupation: Artist/Textbook Manager at a local college bookstore

Interests: Art (making and viewing), music, midwifery, feminism, Appalachia, reading, gardening
Dreams: Becoming self-sufficient by selling my artwork. Working with a charitable organization that benefits women. Learning to play the banjo and dulcimer.

How long have you used reusable menstrual products?: A year and a half.
Reason for making the switch to reusables: I used to rue the day that my period came. The cramps and irritability were terrible but having to go out in public with a synthetic pad on (I never used tampons) was always a gamble and the worst part. I never knew if it was going to leak and let everyone know that I was on my moon-flow or if it was going to move while I walked, bunching up and showing through my pants. Athleticism was a no-no. Bending, squatting, wearing white? Never! Not to mention the terrible diaper rash that I got from wearing those horrid plastic-like pads. I got fed up with it and started researching alternative menstrual products. Upon doing so, I also found a lot of information about all the synthetic pads and tampons fill landfills and even end up on beaches. I did not want to be a part of that!! I knew there had to be a better way! My friend had started using GladRags a few years prior and being from the very small punk and alternative subculture in Southeast Kentucky that we were, most of the females I knew had heard of GladRags. I figured it was time that I looked in to this interesting prospect. Now I seriously enjoy my period. I like claiming my body and recognizing what stage of my cycle I’m in. I tend to use my Moon Cup and a GladRags liner on most days that I go out or to work, etc. but once I come home it’s out with the cup and into some fantastically comfy reusable pads!

Funny anecdotes, deep thoughts, or anything else you’d like to share:  I decided to mention to my mom that I had switched to reusable pads and she was quite appalled saying, “Are you serious? Your grandma used rags like that! I remember she’d keep them in a big heavy pot out on the porch to soak. Are you sure you want to do that?” I tried to explain that these were different, had snaps and everything, but she was so horrified that I was “reverting back” to the way the old folks did it. The old ways aren’t always bad and with a little ingenuity, they can be the best! I wish someone had told me about these alternatives when I started my period 16 years ago. If I ever have a daughter, she will be given options!

October Monthly Friend: Sarah MacGregor

Name: Sarah MacGregor
Age: 34
Hometown: Vernon BC, Canada
Current location: Prince George BC, Canada
Occupation: Virtual Assistant / BellyDance Instructor

Interests: Dancing, Painting, Gardening
Dreams: I’m living them!  I get to work at home, make my own schedule, and not bother with a car; I have a big yard now with a big garden that’s probably going to get bigger every year; I get to teach dance classes out of my own home studio; I have a sweetie that loves and supports me; I have two kitties.  The only thing I would change is to move back to southern BC so that I can ditch the long winters and have a longer growing season.

How long have you used reusable menstrual products?: Since January of this year and I’m never going back!
Reason for making the switch to reusables: I hated to think of all the garbage I was creating using disposables, and I wanted to lose the “diaper rash” that most of those so-called dry weave products always gave me.  GladRags made complete sense as soon as I heard of them, and once I learned that I could use my soaking water to nourish my plants I was completely sold!

Funny anecdotes, deep thoughts, or anything else you’d like to share: My favorite quote that I like to remember whenever I’m hesitating about trying something new: “Don’t worry if you fall flat on your face – at least you’re moving forward” - Anonymous

Here at GladRags we love all things sustainable!  This includes bike commuting to work for all of us.  There are more benefits to biking than just sustainable living.  You feel good, spend less money, and get to enjoy the scenery of your town.  And now this!  There was a delightful little add-on to the stimulus bill:  The Bicycle Commuter Tax Provision - a $20 a month tax credit to employees for riding their bike to work!   We GladRags employees love it! See more information here.  The provision was heralded by Portland's very own bike commuting representative Earl Blumenauer.

If you ride to work a substantial amount of days, ask your employer to offer it!

Do you ride your bike to work or around town?  If not, what are your major barriers?  If you do, what do you think is the best part?