I found this photo of myself this morning, in a glass cabinet where I stuff important stuff. I don’t remember putting the photo in there, but here it is. I wore hats even back then.
I am working on a middle grade novel, so that provides me with an outlet to write daily. My blog posts have suffered because of it. I’ve been running re-runs for weeks now, six and a half years of blog posts to choose from. Every time WordPress changes its layout, I have to relearn how to retrieve old posts. My readership is way down, so maybe people got frustrated with the new layout. I know I did.
But I digress.
Judging from the background, I’d say this photo is from college. I see posters and string lights. I don’t think it was my dorm room. I didn’t have Raggedy Ann and Andy on a shelf and neither did my roommates.
I think this was Cheryl’s dorm room next door. She was a year ahead of me. I was in a triple on the top floor of Barton Hall at ISU in Ames. My hair is curled at the ends, so I think I was headed to a Halloween party. In those days, it was okay to make fun of fat people, nowadays, not so much.
Americans as a whole are overweight. There are weight loss prescription drugs now, and they are popular. WeGovy and Ozempic come to mind. I see commercials for the drugs nightly when I watch the national news. David Muir is my favorite, and Lester Holt just announced his retirement. I’m sorry I left you for David, Lester. You’re not quite as hunky. I want my bed news to come out of the mouth of a hot guy, I guess.
That brings me to Ally McBeal. I’m watching the final season on Hulu, via my Disney/Hulu bundle. It’s way cheaper than Netflix, at $11 per month instead of soon-to-be $18 for Netflix. Ally McBeal has a great soundtrack to it, featuring real live super stars like Al Green, Elton John, and Mariah Carey. The latest episode has Bon Jovi as a construction guy and Ally’s love interest. She is pining for Larry (Robert Downey, Jr.) who was written out of the show because of his drug problems back then.
The show is getting weirder and weirder. I abandoned it back in the 90s when I was raising little children since it is mostly about sex, litigation, and litigation about sex. A chiropractor has a vibrating chair that gets the women in the office in a tizzy. Ally McBeal was a groundbreaking show for its time.
Back to weight loss. Everyone is this country, except Calista Flockhart, could lose a few pounds. See what I did there? Nowadays, she is Calista Flockhart Ford, Harrison’s main squeeze.
As I squeeze into my too-tight jeans, I hear the voice of my chorus carpool buddy, “Susan, stop eating sugar! No more chocolate, only dark chocolate! It’s much better for you.”
My mom turned 95 this week, and she eats a lot of chocolate. She’s got a sweet tooth which I inherited. She says she has good DNA. I hope I do, too, because I can’t give up my M&Ms. I’ve never had much of a weight problem, being so tall. But could I be skinnier? Absolutely.
I look at that Halloween photo and think, how many people did I offend by making my costume about being fat?
Sorry, guys. At least there’s WeGovy, Ozempic, and other weight-loss drugs out there now for you.
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 