Craving Murray's Bagels

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Craving Murray’s Bagels

Whole wheat everything bagel with scallion cream cheese and tomato. That’s my order. We’ve lived in Chelsea for a decade or 500 weeks. I’m guessing I’ve pounded that particular combination approximately once a week including all the weeks I haven’t been in NYC. Let’s call it 500,000 calories or somewhere around 6 months worth of total required calories @2500 a day.

I didn’t really eat last night. Perhaps this is one reason I moved area codes from Maine (207) with a quick stop in Seattle (206) and temporarily ended up in Birmingham, Alabama (205). Then I realized I wasn’t fully standing on the scale and I hopped back across the country to Seattle.

After 12 days, my area code has dropped from 212 to 206. God knows it could be worse. If my mother had lived another two weeks in pain, I think I could have gone as high (shudder) 219, Northwestern Indiana — a region I know only because of John King’s fast hands on his plasma screen map during elections.

I’m lying in bed dreaming of bagels and reading the newspaper before the kids get up. This is the modern dad fantasy.

I’m 30 pounds and 20 years removed from making eye contact with the sullen, but gorgeous hipster sitting in the corner of every bar in Williamsburg.

I dressed, spent 20 minutes hunting for my keys and heard the song of Murray’s sirens. Then I felt something strange, something unfamiliar — I think it might be called “discipline”. Actually, it might have been guilt. I ended up having 300 calories of cereal and Kefir — my secret weight loss weapon.

Now it’s off to the gym. I’m 4 pounds away from the hometown 202.