Diary of an Exercise Addict by Peach Friedman

Author:Peach Friedman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780762752454
Publisher: Globe Pequot
Published: 2014-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

AUGUST 15, 2002

By the time I return to work, my days in Boston are truly numbered. Nat throws a fabulous dinner party one hot night, after I give a poetry reading at WordsWorth Books in Harvard Square. We went down there a few nights earlier to see the poster in the window—it’s my face! My face, blown up huge on a poster, and I remember jumping up and down and whooping in the streets of the square with Nat and his friends, yelling at cars driving by, Hey, that’s ME up there! The reading goes well, I feel dazzling lately, and Nat’s dinner party is decadent as always. Afterward we hit the bars in Cambridge, and I dance with Tyler at the Good Life. Everyone crashes at the Cave that night, me in the guest room, and the next morning I wash the dishes, throw out all the cigarette butts, and vacuum the carpets before anyone else wakes up. I grab a coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts across the street and walk back to Nat’s apartment to sit on the stoop and call Mom on my cell. I tell her the party felt like the first of my good-byes, and we talk about how in the moment you’re getting ready to leave somewhere, it suddenly seems like it has so much to offer. But I’m adamant: It’s time to come back home.

The week Aaron and I have a good-bye dinner, I finally commit myself to taking seven full days off of exercise. Anne and I have been working on this in our e-mail sessions, and she’s still concerned that I’m doing too much. I’m scared to take a week off, but I’m in a phase where I want to do what I’m afraid of. Recovery is still exciting and fun. I’m replacing working out with social dates in the evenings and drinking coffee in the mornings. I decide I like having a little more time to sleep in, so I start eating breakfast at home before I take the T to work, which reminds me of being a little kid and eating at the table with Nat before school.

Today my hair is down. I’m working late most nights this week to finish up every last loose end for the new assistant who’s taking my place. Plus, the work focus is helping me stay away from the gym. Aaron is supposed to pick me up at 7:30, so I stay at work until then. My boss walks by my office around 7:00 and looks curiously at me as he waves good-bye. It’s the first time he’s ever left before me.

Aaron picks me up in front of the hospital where I work, and we go for casual food somewhere in Brookline. He suggests I be a cheap date and order the $5 hamburger special, and I threaten him with all the stories I’ll tell when I finally write a book. I’m not going to change your name, I say. Then I tell him, Anyway, I’m paying.

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