I work in a strange and rather amusing place.  I live on the coast, and on a tiny island near my hometown, 8000 wealthy and upper class residents have chosen to either have a permanent or vacation home.  It makes for an interesting day listening to complaints and working diligently to fix whatever imagined slights these bored housewives and delusional ex-CEOs have.  I truly don’t mind it, for one it is a little  funny; but it also reminds me each time I answer that phone that those with wealth truly are no different from those who don’t have it.

So because many of these residents are either retired or living on their investments they are an eclectic mix of the intelligent, the trophy, and the hard worker.  Often, although I have no idea why, they like to come to my dinky trailer-like office to sit down and talk to me face to face about their grips.  Truly doesn’t bother me, it is an excellent exercise in dealing with people.  But those that drive me nuts are the ones that come in to share their wisdom with me.

You have to imagine a bunch of retired, or otherwise richer than sin men and women who have worked in the past, been successful and otherwise have had it all.  Now they are on this island, and while many of them probably still raise and gain their wealth, they seem to be missing the pleasure of ordering others around…so of course, they come to me.

There are two gentlemen specifically who like to mess with me.  They both are determined to fix my problems, at least health wise.  And neither of them know the secret I keep – and I will never tell them about the disease that I guard so closely.  Both are either former scientists, or somehow have worked in the health industry because they are both full of advice; such as, what vitamins to take, what kind of breakfast bars that I should eat, and what kind of minerals I should take to make my life rounder.

Most of my co-workers just laugh at me, and for the most part I secretly roll my eyes; but there is also a part of me that simply loves to learn, so I listen.  I listen in the hopes that I will understand something new, that I will learn something I didn’t know that will of course, magically make me something more than I am.

One of the gentleman have been repeating over and over that I need a multi-vitamin.  As one of my many doctors also makes this suggestion, I decided to try it.  Hell, sit in my seat for a week listening to why you need this amazing vitamin and you would to.

But there is a side effect no one told me about.  It completely and totally takes away any desire I have to eat.  And this is an issue.

I already hate to eat (I know weird).  But I simply don’t like the taste of food, the texture of food, nor the time it takes to eat the food. I would much rather read a book.  My doctors in the past have put me on certain meds because some of the side effects include gaining weight, so that my 97 pound skeletal self could get some help (this was after they checked my throat and fingers to make sure I was anorexic or bulimia – which is embarrassing).  And they would work for a period of time, but then I would be right back to weighing less than a hundred pounds and looking like a walking, talking skeleton – it is not an attractive look.

I don’t know if it is the disease or if it is simply my body.  But once again, I find myself unable and unwilling to eat.  This time, I know I am getting some of the vitamins I need, but still I don’t like the skeleton look any more than I like the fat look.  So what do I do?

The truth is, I am not going to do anything.  I will still take the pills because I like the idea that I am getting vitamins that I need, and I like the idea I will be more healthy because of it.  The truth is, I will probably lose weight again, and facilitate between being happy about that fact and wondering if I look dead.  The truth is, the mind is so much greater than the body, and one little side effect from a giant pill is not going to make me change.

Just don’t tell those men who come to visit.  They will probably have some strange advice like encouraging me to drink wheat grass.