When Mama Met Papa

The next morning was a slow one for me. Yeah I had coffee but I just couldn't get myself moving. When I finally was able to get to the computer and get working, I found myself blank on how I wanted to twist things to the forgone conclusion. I decided to say screw it and go to the gym. I went and did my workout and felt _so_ much better. After my shower at home I had exactly how I needed to fix everything to the end and was able to quickly outline it so I would remember it as I worked my way there.

After finishing up my outline I called my editor. "Mike Parenti's office, this is Sandra, how can I help you?" After Id-ing myself I got transferred to Mike quickly.

"This is Mike, go ahead." I loved that about her, she never asked who it was.

"Hey Mike, it's Steph. I have news for you." We talked for a little while about the book and the possibility of a book tour. I hated book tours, I didn't mind conventions as much but book tours never gave me enough time to look at the city before I was gone again.

I got off the phone with Mike after agreeing to no more than 2 conventions this summer. I told her to send the ones she thought I might be interested in to Sara and we would get the fan mail dealt with as fast as we could. I then texted Sara, my assistant, and let her know that the book should start being written Wednesday. She texted me back with many smiles and ‘See you at 9 a.m. Wednesday!'

After that I began tackling my fan mail. I opened every letter and read them all. If they had a S.A.S.E. I set it aside for Sara to read and prod me into answering personally. Most of the year I couldn't do this all on my own, but at this time and space I could. It gave me a chance to tackle some of the things my readers wanted to know. As I read I got an idea of how to write back to everyone, do a question/answer blog. I rounded up some of the best letters and went into my office.

I wrote for a couple hours, writing what I wanted to say in my answers. I then posted it and got on Twitter. I looked at the time and found it was 4 p.m., bad author for not eating lunch. I decided instead to have a large dinner a bit earlier than I normally would. I brought the computer out with me so I could chat while cooking, trust me that takes talent. I made sure everyone knew about the new blog and that I was intending to do more. Of course I said if you _had sent a S.A.S.E. that you WOULD get a personal response. I had a few more people ask questions as I cooked which I took the time to answer. By the time dinner was ready and I was ready to happily log off for the night, my readers were thrilled that I would begin the next book soon.

I ate without a single electronic device near me. That was one thing I had always done, it helped ground me in the real world when I was writing. This way when I did have company over I was engaged with them instead of someone else. I don't understand why people have to be so locked into their phones and such, probably because I know how to walk away from it all and have time for being human.

After that I grabbed my phone and headed up to my closet. I was worried about my date tomorrow night and needed the time to figure out what to wear. Walking into my closet I sighed. I had worked hard to keep myself looking good while basically sitting on my ass working. My closet showed it. Many items that were too big now were still in their places. I kept wanting to clean out my closet but always found reasons not to. Looking at the disaster it had become I figured screw it and began taking everything out in order to do a full clean out.

I knew I wouldn't get it all done tonight but I would get a good start if I worked at it, not to mention I should find something I'd look great in for tomorrow night. I took everything into the closest bedroom I could, so I could still sleep in my own bed. Then I began sorting out shoes. Yes, like many girls I like shoes. I had so many I couldn't find what I wanted sometimes; it was time to change that.

As I was trying to decide what the criteria for me getting rid of shoes were, the doorbell rang. I dashed downstairs and pulled open the door. Deb was on the other side with a smirk on her face. "Hey sis. I see you're not doing anything important." She was teasing, of course.

I closed the door and snorted at her. "Shows what you know. I'm working on cleaning out my closet." She turned and gaped at me.

"The closet you said you couldn't clean? The one that mom and I were ready to put you on Hoarders for?" I rolled my eyes and lead her upstairs to the room I had put everything in. Seeing it all, she then tugged me into my room and checked the closet. "Oh my god, it's completely empty. Can I help?"

I chuckled. "Sure, maybe you can come up with a way to decide what shoes to keep and what to give away." We went back into the other room and that's when Deb had an idea.

"Instead of starting with your shoes, start with the clothes that don't fit anymore. This way we know what we have to work with when we _get_ to the shoes." I felt dumb then and just nodded. We then set to work organizing by size, I _had_ just dumped everything on the bed after all.

At my height of being "chubby" I was a size 22, between then and now had been a lot of re-learning how to eat and exercise. I was now a size 8. Yep, I had worked and lost 7 sizes. I felt and looked a lot better. Unfortunately I hadn't really changed my wardrobe in the years it had taken me to do this transformation. By just cutting down to the things that were size 8, my wardrobe was cut to 1/5 it's original size.

We put those clothes back into the closet and I found I had so much room now! "Maybe I should have done this sooner." I said laughing a little bit. We hadn't touched anything but sizes so far. My shoes were still in the other room.

"You think? We've been telling you this for months Steph." She tugged me into the closet and began looking through what I did have in there. "We'll find or go tomorrow and buy you something you feel great in for your date." It didn't take her long to figure out I had nothing date worthy in my new closet. "Well shit, you've got nothing." She pulled out her phone and looked at her schedule. Can we go to lunch tomorrow and then spend the afternoon doing some damage to your credit card?"

I laughed, she was right. I had done a lot of hard work to lose and keep off this weight; it was high time I showed it off. "Sure I'll meet you at your office at 11:30 and we'll decide then?" She nodded and pulled me out of the closet.

We walked down to the door and she laughed. "You know I came over to see if you had talked to him more today but the closet distracted me. You realize I want all the details right?" We kissed each other's cheeks and she went home.