It has been fun looking through old photo albums lately, remembering things the way they never were. Everyone is shiny and new and unbroken. Look, there’s Bob before he succumbed to soul-darkening depression! He looks so happy! And there are my parents, hugging each other in front of the dogwood tree. They’re not divorced after all! Oh, and look how cute and skinny I am at four years old before I ever discovered my compulsive eating problem!

It is kind of sad knowing these people’s futures, almost as sad as looking at what they’re wearing. Wow, a poncho. Really? But it can be happy too. Look, there’s Uncle Terry before he met his wife and made his beautiful babies. He’s got good times to look forward to. And there is Aunt Kelly the day she found out she had uterine cancer. She’ll be happy to find out they get it all during the hysterectomy. I wish I could tell Aunt Karen she will be so much happier after she divorces that man.

So many pictures. So many [...]

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I was clicking on pictures of my high school reunion on Facebook yesterday, feeling about 70% sad I wasn’t able to attend. I saw a couple faces that looked familiar, but slightly different, like the updated logo on the Pepsi can. People were older and fatter and had less hair, but they seemed to be having a good time, or faking it rather well. There were at least a handful of people I would have liked to have seen in 3D instead of on my flatscreen monitor.

The other 30% of me was glad I did not have to question every life decision I’ve made in the last 10 years, that I didn’t have to wonder what my life could have been like if I’d turned left instead of right, if I’d met a guy or had a baby, if I’d started a business or gotten another job. I’m pretty happy with my life, even with my headache and the recession and the toilet that seems to be breaking again. Yet, everyone can fall victim to [...]

• Continue reading "Your life in ten years and 100 characters"

There have been a couple times in the past year when I have snatched too many bagels from the break room or eaten far too many slices of cake and pie at family gatherings or I’ve eaten a lot on the weekends for no reason at all. Whenever these things have happened, I’ve thought to myself, “Why am I like this now? What happened to the old me who was so good at dieting?”

Then I went back and read some of my blog entries and realized that’s a load of crap.

I’ve always had issues with eating on the weekends. I’ve always eaten too many M&M’s at baby showers. Food has always been an issue for me – when I was fat, when I was losing weight, and now as I am maintaining my loss. Yet, for some reason, I make myself believe that I was more perfect in the past, that I was better back then, when my blog stands as proof otherwise. The human brain is tricky like that, remembering things as we [...]

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