Me at my desk, discussing my lack of progress with various figures, real or imagined. "Bob" is my mentor ( Read more... )

Sometimes Muriel gets bored.  I can tell because she gets the strained look of someone stifling a yawn and it's impossible not to feel devastated when it happens.  I think we all fear boring our therapists, but does the therapist fear the boredom?  Muriel doesn't.  She knows she's supposed to reapply herself, train her energy, reconnect, but she ( Read more... )

One of Muriel's big themes is not lumping everything with everything.  One B in Spanish does not mean you suck at everything, she says.  Or even that you suck at Spanish.  (Muriel is very hip in her use of language, despite her age and the fact that she's been wearing the same horn-rimmed glasses since the late 60's.)  It always annoys me when she ( Read more... )

...agrees with me that the self-help stand at the bookstore, the one stationed near the front & loaded with boosters for middle-aged women, is a bummer.  She agrees that I need not consider "reshaping my life" or shedding pounds in weeks or how to find the real me through yoga and vegetarianism.

Actually, I do need to reshape my life, shed pounds, ( Read more... )