Last week the nurse practitioner in my doctor's office tells me that my triglycerides measured 2000. (Triglycerides are part of "bad cholesterol." Normal is 150. 200 is high. 400 is "heart attack." Mine are 2000.) This means, if the test isn't somehow screwed up, that my blood is probably white from pure fat and thick as sludge. The nurse practitioner who called me sounded like she was in a panic for us to do something about it.Now, four days earlier I had had the same test done and the result was 600. The reason we did the second test was because we were going to start me on a new drug, Tricor, for the triglycerides. I'm already on Lipitor. (The pharmacist who dispensed the new drug warned me to watch for arm and leg pains taking both.)
I have not been eating an excessively fatty diet, although I'll admit to two super Tacos from Jack In The Box the week before. Then I remembered that I eat sugar free cookies. I looked at the bag and sure enough, there's some fat. I've become "fat detective," reading the labels and pulling off chicken skins.
Oy.
"Eat grains," she told me. But of course, "grains" are carbohydrates which raise my blood sugar.
Double oy.
"And exercise!" she demanded.
So, now I've turned my loft into a little exercise den. This morning I lifted my 20 pound hand weights and did a ton of push-ups. I would go out and run but it's too microwavey here for that. Maybe I'll run up and down our staircase and drive Jimmy crazy.
I found a bunch of chicken breasts on sale at Ralph's yesterday. A $14 pack for $4 so I filled the freezer with them. That and the sliced turkey and the veggies plus my oatmeal, metamucil and non-fat cottage cheese pretty much define my whole eating existence right now.
PLAYWRIGHT CLASS!
The outside observer watching and listening to Jim Brochu, my partner in crime, would never be able to see it. Jimmy is too cool. Jimmy projects authority. At the GLAAD Media Awards several years ago, after giving his thank you speech for TLS, he was approached afterwards by someone asking him if he'd consider running for public office. There is a personal power in his voice? Demeanor? Age? Experience? that just captures people. I've seen it time and time again.But, see, I know the real Jim Brochu.
In a casual dinner setting with conversation floating and people telling stories, Jim Brochu is the absolute best. He has the best stories. The best delivery. The funniest punchlines. But that's casual. He's even very good at talkbacks after shows. So, it's remarkable to me that he actually is petrified to be in front of people speaking off the cuff when the subject gets serious or he has to go on the record.
But that's why we're a good partnership. I have absolutely no problem speaking off the cuff -- and in fact, I'm more comfortable doing that than I am using prepared remarks.
My friend Sarah from Columbus loves to see the palm trees.The setting this week was a Lutheran Church somewhere in San Fernando Valley. A playwrighting class/workshop run by a very attractive playwright named Lisa Soland. She had just read an interview with us in the current edition of the Dramatist's Guild official quarterly. It's a terrific interview because the writer, Dan Berkowitz, had seen and obviously loved The Big Voice in LA during its initial "award-winning" run. She remembered having met Jimmy at the El Portal Theatre so she invited him to come and speak to the class.
I felt it was only appropriate, given the fact that in The Big Voice we demonstrate how church and theatre are, if not the same thing, then very much alike, that this class would be taking place in a church with all the religious iconography appearing in all the photos.
