Oprah Is Changing My Life! Well, Sort of.

All right. So it's maybe time to come clean. I am a certifiably straight woman (I could give you a couple of numbers) but I'm sort of a little in love with Oprah. And well, Tina Fey too, but that's it for my female love.

Many years ago when I was going through a painful divorce (is there any other kind?) I would come home every day from my job at a charter school and jump on my treadmill and watch Oprah. My bedroom began to resemble a self-help library as I bought book after book she recommended. I swear Oprah was responsible for all my personal growth. I lost weight, I took responsibility for my life and I at least tried to balance my chi - I never got too far with that one. I'm still a bit unbalanced.

Now, thanks to her own weight gain, Oprah is reassembling a team of experts to help us all lead our Best Lives once again. Doctors, spiritual leaders, fitness specialists have been summoned, and even Suze Ormon is there to help us all get our money straight. For that one I think I might actually have to HAVE some money, and for that to happen I'd need to change careers. So, here I am on day two and doing swimmingly if I do say so myself!

Yesterday I realized that Oprah and I have much more in common than I ever thought possible. We've both burned ourselves out over the last couple of years. Of course my stresses have not involved amassing a huge fortune, opening an academy for girls in South Africa, or acquiring a television network. I've just been trying to keep kids alive, pay a mortgage and publish a book, but still, it's hard!

Something did occur to me though as I decided to pull myself out of this funk I've been in - we really do have a choice. It was actually an e-mail from a friend that started me down this path. He always used to call me "Suzy Sunshine" and when he addressed me as Suzy in the e-mail it struck a chord. I couldn't even remember what it felt like to be that perky, sunny woman. Losing both my parents, my only remaining aunt, and having a child in crisis all within less than a year took a toll on my perky-factor. But now, as we begin a new year it occurs to me, thanks to Oprah and my Suzy-reminding friend, that I have a choice in how I feel.

So for two days in a row I've been salad-ing, working out and all in all trying to re-perk myself. I don't want to be a bitter, despondent woman who is always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Unless somehow I could squeeze a best seller out of that role. But then again, who'd want to read that? Maybe the best book would be the one with the happiest of endings, the one about how you can go through hell, come out on the other side, and even have a firmer butt in thirty days. I bet lots of folks would want to buy that one.