November 2010
November 9, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Last night there was a knocking at the door after sunset, so naturally I assumed it was a serial killer. I opened the door with the chain still on and discovered it wasn’t a serial killer, it was the UPS man. (At least, I assume he wasn’t a serial killer. I suppose he could be both a killer and a delivery man, and using a UPS outfit as a disguise would be a brilliant way to get into people’s houses. You could even hide your axe in the box you’re delivering. Okay, I have clearly thought too much about this.)
After he’d gone and I’d secured the deadbolt, I opened the box to discover this:
It’s the galleys for Chocolate & Vicodin: My Quest for Relief from the Headache that Wouldn’t Go Away! A galley is a bound edition of an uncorrected proof of the book. That means that not all the typographical or formatting errors have been fixed as they will be in the final edition. The galleys are published with the actual cover on the [...]
November 5, 2010 at 8:21 am
A few weeks ago I had lunch with Jennifer Joyner, author of the recently released Designated Fat Girl: A Memoir. It turns out she lives in Fayetteville and I live in Chapel Hill, which means we’re only ninety-something miles apart, or 1 hour and 36 minutes according to Google Maps.
We had a good chat about the publishing industry, weight, and incompetent medical workers. (While I related to many of the fat-girl experiences she writes about in the book, it was her encounter with bumbling Nurse Bob before surgery that really hit home for me. He must be the same guy who assisted with a CT scan I had last year that I’m amazed didn’t turn me into a mutant superhero.)
Joyner’s book is a memoir about her life as a food addict. After years of morbid obesity, encroaching health problems like gestational diabetes, and lack of success with other weight-loss options, she decides to go through with gastric bypass surgery. This comes with its own complications and leads to a battle with dependence on painkillers [...]
November 3, 2010 at 7:59 am
Last Saturday I attended the Rally to Restore Sanity in Washington DC. Correction: I spent most of my time at the satellite rally taking place on the orange line of the DC Metro a.k.a. The Sardine Can Express.
I must say, dear readers, I was rather disappointed in you. Why wasn’t anyone who read about my meet-up plans prescient enough to tell me that I was a bone-headed moron for expecting to get on the Metro at 11am and make it to the rally by 12pm? Evidently, over 100,000 other rally attendees had the exact same plans, and we swarmed the Metro like ants on a dead grasshopper.
After my morning meet-up at Whole Foods, I walked to the Clarendon stop of the orange line with Lisa and Katarina, blog readers who will forever be known as my Rally Buddies. We are bonded together forever like survivors of a natural disaster. After waiting 10 minutes in line to simply get a fare card, we waited on the platform with at least 60-80 other people for the [...]
November 2, 2010 at 12:04 pm
On the radio
If you listen to public radio, you might have heard me this weekend as a call-in guest on Marketplace Money. Unlike any of my other media appearances in the past few years, this one had nothing to do with my books, my blog, weight loss, headaches, or anything relevant to my online presence. Instead, I had a question about a $2600 request for overpayment on a 401K rollover from my last employer who made a vesting error on the employer’s matching contributions and oh my God do you want to stab your eyes with a rusty paperclip yet? Because I do. Anyway, I wanted some help sorting out this financial mess that was not my fault but is now my problem, so Tess Vigeland and Kathy Kristof came to the rescue. You can listen to it by clicking the “Listen to the Show” or “Listen to this Story” buttons on this page and scrolling to the 21:35 mark. I even slipped in a plug for PastaQueen.com! I’m getting much better at this self-promotion [...]
November 1, 2010 at 7:59 am
Does Jared the Subway guy only eat Subway sandwiches? Where did he buy those cool geek specs? And is he allowed to chow down at McDonalds? Find out the answers to this and more in PastaQueen’s interview with Jared the Subway guy.
I got to chat with Jared last Thursday on a conference call with four other bloggers: Courtney from My Dallas Mommy, Julie from Wii Mommies, Mindi from Moms Need to Know, and Jessica from Fringies…Knitting with One Needle. I also want to apologize to them because I was the moron who kept accidentally hitting buttons with her cheek for the first 10 minutes. As I said, I’m thirty now and can no longer operate technology.
The roundtable nature of the interview created a nice conversational atmosphere, and we got to learn a lot about Jared, his foundation, and his training as he prepares to run the New York City Marathon on November 7. (Good luck, dude!) Jared seems like a nice, down-to-earth guy, who’s still grateful for all the opportunities Subway has given [...]
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"What distinguishes us one from another is our dreams and what we do to make them come about." - Joseph Epstein
