lyn drops in (m)

Lyn and I have been talking about getting together for a while.  She's eager...I'm not.  I'd like to be down 100 pounds for dramatic effect (and to be sure it's noticeable).

On Tuesday, Lyn calls to tell me she and Alexander will be in my neck of the woods touring Tufts....can we get together, she asks?

I think about this.  Why not?  Who knows if I'll even make the 100-pound mark (yeah, I know, be positive). "Great," I say.  "Let's do it."

Lyn and Alexander arrive just ahead of us as I had to get Harrison from the rink.  I beep the horn as I come down the driveway, announcing our arrival.  I tell Harrison to make sure he notices Lyn's weight loss.

They come to the front of the house from around back.  I feel like I'm on The Dating Game where you get to see the contestant who won.  I'm startled by Lyn's weight loss.  It's pretty dramatic.  She's not thin...she's skinny.  Her stomach is concave.  Her arms are very thin.  Her face looks great...smooth, tanned, happy.  Even though Lyn has posted many photos of herself on the blog...it's very striking to see in person.

We have a mutual admiration moment (Harrison rolls his eyes...he's sick of the obsession on dieting and weight loss).  We go in the house and talk for a little while, catching up.  Lyn asks me to take a look at a mole on her back and lifts her skirt (in the bathroom).  Her legs are like a teenager's.  Skinny.

How thin is Lyn?  Angelina Jolie thin.  Hollywood thin.  She'd look great in any outfit in the world thin.

Now, let's back up for a minute.  All the way to 1981.

Lyn was one of six interns at Gillette that year.  V and I were two others.  Lyn was striking. Thin. Dark curly hair, big smile, upbeat.  Fun.  A head-turner everywhere we went.  (By the way, V is very attractive, too, but doesn't like to call attention to herself).

In fact, one of the great practical jokes of all time was when another one of the interns, G, wrote a letter to Lyn on corporate stationery, posing as an HR person, and telling her she'd been selected as 1981's "face of Gillette" to be featured prominently in the annual report.  The rest of us had to suffer through a month of Lyn's preparation for the photo shoot...outfits, hair, make-up.  The beautiful African-American woman next to me was pissed and threatened to sue for discrimination ("Why couldn't they have picked a person of color?" she lamented). The spoof wasn't revealed until the day it was supposed to have happened.

Through the years, while my weight kept creeping up, Lyn managed to stay thin.  In 1989, she added fitness to her life.  She had one of those George Costanza jobs where she had plenty of free time...so, she worked out all the time.  She visited me in the hospital right after I had Sam.  I remember being in the hospital bed....huge and sore from the C-section.  Lyn was in tight black jeans and a light pink sweater.  The smallest I've ever seen any adult. Incredibly fit.  I looked like the Goodyear blimp.  I took Polaroids of all the visitors for baby Sam's scrap book.  Lyn happily posed (I'll find the picture and post it later so you can see, too).

Since that time, Lyn has put on a few pounds.  A couple of years ago, I visited Lyn in New York and she had gained a noticeable amount of weight.  Still, not fat by anyone's definition.   If she had stopped there, you would think she was perfectly fine.  However, she did gain some more weight.  Last summer, in August, I stopped by her parent's home on the Cape on the way back from a nearby skating competition.  By then, Lyn's weight gain was too much.   It wasn't Lyn.  One of her sisters even commented to me that she was surprised that someone in her family was heavy.   I think it was the first time I was grateful for having been born into my family.

I give Lyn alot of credit for the discipline she's exercised in getting herself back to where she wants to be.  She's played a big role in keeping me on track and motivating me to stick with it.  Without this blog, without the pressure of having a friend who's so successful at the program, I might have given up a while ago.

Thank you, Lyn.