I'm guessing that you guys have noticed by now that I really haven't blogged in about two weeks. And I want everyone to know not only that I'm back to blogging, and to tell you about where I've been.

For the first week of my absence, I was finishing the first draft of my book on the science of anorexia tentatively titled "Body of Evidence: The New Science of Anorexia Nervosa." That was due on February 17th, although I still have one last interview to finish up and put in the final draft. For the past few months, I have been working pretty much non-stop, and it was hard to work up the energy to blog in the evenings since I had literally spent ALL DAY writing about eating disorders. The last thing I wanted to do was write anything else about anorexia.

I handed it in on Friday afternoon, went to my book club meeting on Saturday evening, and then on Sunday morning (early--very early!) my mom and I went on a weeklong cruise to the Caribbean. I got her the trip as a birthday gift and to say thanks for sticking with me all these years. We left from Florida, and then went to Belize, Honduras, and Mexico. We were supposed to hit Key West, too, but the waters were too rough to dock and so we stayed at sea.

It was a really nice trip. The ED wasn't totally gone, but it was absent about 75% of the time. I still struggle with buffets (the idea of "all-you-can-eat" really baffles me, as does shoveling as much food into your gullet as humanly possible to increase the "value" of your meal, regardless of whether the food is actually any good) and having to choose between so many different foods. Our dinners were also four courses, which is a really different setup than I eat at home. I tended towards larger meals and smaller snacks, which was fine and was the best option for the trip, but not the way I'd personally choose to eat if there weren't other outside constraints.

I also survived wearing a bathing suit three times. I'm self-conscious in skimpy clothing for reasons that have nothing to do with anything, and then you add on all of the ED neuroticisms, the scars on my legs from cutting, and the fact that my skin has only two shades (pasty and lobster), and I'm pretty much the world's worst candidate for a sun bunny. Generally, if I was wearing a bathing suit and not in the water, I wore a cover-up or t-shirt to both relieve anxiety and prevent sunburn. But I wore the damn suit and went snorkeling in Honduras and had lots of fun. The other times I wore a suit were after climbing Mayan ruins in Belize, and I was hot and sweaty and had about eight pounds of sunblock and DEET all over that needed to come off, and then in Mexico, when my mom and I spent the morning on the beach at a small fishing village.

I got home late Sunday night, after a long day of traveling that included having some guy accidentally walk off with my luggage on the pier. Thankfully, I had my carry-on with me that had my laptop and my meds, but I had most of my clothes, some really nice coffee, and a small bottle of mango tequila in my big suitcase. The irony is that I had my name on my bag, and the other guy's suitcase had his name and a burgundy ribbon to help him pick his back out of a crowd. Um, fail.

Anyway, I'm back and ready to start blogging again.