holiday cards in february (m)

Here's how I look at it.  If you can't send your cards out by the first week in January, don't bother sending them.

This week, I get two cards.  One from my next door neighbor.  He writes the newsletter for his family (his mother is a retired English teacher).  It's two, single-spaced typewritten pages.  All drivel.  I feel like I'm living their boring lives in real time.  These are the neighbors we've spoken to face-to-face about six times in twelve years.  I want to send the card back with a sticker that says, "No recipient by that name at that address."  It's not like they'd know since they don't engage with anyone on the street.

The second card is more interesting.  It's from this woman with whom my husband used to work.  She's brilliant.  She has written many popular business books, has a vibrant consulting business ($10,000 a pop per speaking engagement) and has a working farm which she tends in her spare time.  I almost don't read the card as it usually talks about her over-achieving offspring and jet-set lifestyle.  Let's face it, after two funerals this week and a weight gain of indeterminate amount, I was not in the mood to be kicked when I was down.

But, something catches my eye.  The note is the usual two-page update.  The accompanying page of photos is not.  T, the woman, appears to have lost a ton of weight.  She was huge and now, there's a photo of her in riding pants, just like the ones Jackie Kennedy wore.  You know...tight...beige.  She looks good in them!

I see more pictures of her....T is in jeans in one of them with her dog who took first place in a French dog show (whatever that means...is the dog French?  Was the show in France?)  I want to know what she did to lose weight.  I read the letter (a last resort) and she mentions "being under a doctor's care to lose 150 pounds in 16 months."

I couldn't sleep last night.  How did she do it?  Was it a vegetarian diet from her working farm?  Salads? Exercise?  Did she suddenly come up with all this resolve to lose weight?  Such dedication.  Such determination.  Such focus.

My husband gives me her email address and tells me to write and ask her what she did. 

She writes back this morning.  Answer: gastric bypass surgery.

As jealous as I am of her stunning weight loss, I feel virtuous that I've lost my weight the old-fashioned way.