SUSANAGRAM #1: BEEN THERE, DONE THAT...

Let me introduce myself. My name is Susan. Friends call me Susie. I’m a native New Yorker, born and raised in Manhattan. Upper East side. My dad was a handsome, well-respected labor lawyer, mediator, arbitrator and judge. Our family basked in his glow. I was blessed with many gifts, good looks, brains, fun, funny, jock, golden girl. My blind, brunette ambition, liberated from cookin’, cleanin’, by other Smithies, Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, was sex and drugs and rock and roll. Although on paper I had everything, I had nothing, a serial underachiever.

My love life was a disaster, the nice guys, Mr. Rights, who loved me, worse, wanted to marry me, I unaccountably rejected, while obsessing over a series of Mr. Wrongs, who’d reject me. After being  dumped, I’d gain 35 pounds. Then I’d go to Dr. Robert Atkins, lose it, till the next catastrophe, when I’d gain it back. And go back. In advertising, I was a hotshitsky copywriter, (FCB, Clairol, Frito Lay); in fashion, a stylist, (Cosmopolitan Mag.), press and p.r. writer, (Arnold Schwarzenegger in Pumping Iron), all great jobs. Somehow, I was fired every time, not for lack of talent, but for being late or insubordination, unaware that I was shooting myself in the foot. A series of shrinks put me on pills to calm down in the day, to sleep at night. I was stressed, depressed, a nervous wreck. What was wrong? Everything.

It would take living with a rejecting man for four years to bring me to my knees, the bottom and yes, finally a way out.  Recovery Road would begin in the pink and pignon hills of Santa Fe in 1986. I've been walking the walk, talking the talk, since. It's time to give back what I've learned. Thru my Susanagrams I'll share my experiences across the board, East and West, mental, spiritual, physical. I'm in recovery, baby, from everything. And I'm feeling faboo! Stay tuned.