The daily question

If you could be anything in the world, what would you be?

Thinner.

It happens all the time, but I never see it coming. It happened today. I was volunteering at a community event, when a couple came over to our booth. They were fairly generic, two small kids, nothing out of the ordinary. There was the usual chit-chat related to the event when someone else in the booth suggested that the woman get involved with the program I oversee.

She said she had already been a part of it years ago, but felt it wasn't a good fit now. I asked her to tell me her name, and when she did, I said, "Well, of course, Nicole! I had already taken over the program then." She looked at me and was puzzled.

"No, it wasn't you."
"I'm sure it was me. It wouldn't have been anyone else."

She looked at me again and said, "Wow. I just don't recognize you at all."

That's when I understood. Of course she didn't recognize me. I had gained 50 pounds since then. She wasn't the first person who couldn't recognize me post-2003.

"Oh, Nicole, I do look a lot different since then (and I'm not so hypomanic I'm spiraling up into the stratosphere). I've gained a lot of weight since you saw me last. I had a neurological event and the medication I take now causes rapid and inescapable weight gain. Trust me, though, I am the same person you knew six years ago."

It was actually a friendly conversation. It was still better than our former neighbor who saw my husband and I about two years after I started the medications. When I say "saw," I mean from a half-block away. The neighbor saw my husband again a weeks later and asked, "Has your wife had her baby yet?"

Yeah. It's like that. Again and again and again.