It was now twenty years ago. Actually, nineteen if you’re going to be exact. I had just finished my four year degree in nursing, of all things. (I know..it’s strange to think I could have been pulling bedpans and crying about overtime all these years!) I didn’t really know what to do with myself after high school. But in my family, college was a must. And, my parents were paying my tuition. And so, I embarked on my academic journey at Rutgers, not really a super-expensive school, but pretty reputable, nevertheless.
The four years flew by. During that time, I dated quite a bit. While a larger woman, more than a few men have commented on my beautiful baby blue eyes. And I must say, though larger, I do have quite a feminine figure. I was quick with a comeback, and between my sass and wit, and my mammary assets, I was approached quite a bit by the guys on campus. So much so that I was the one doing the choosing, which wasn’t half bad.
In all that time, I had two serious relationships. The first was Jerry. He was a year younger, and a few inches shorter. What he lacked in height he made up for with his infectious sense of humor. Thankfully,that’s all he had that was infectious, because we were alone all the time with no supervision, and at nineteen, there aren’t that many options of what to do or where to go for entertainment. The relationship ended when I met Harvey. Harvey was in graduate school at Rutgers studying engineering, and he came from a family with money. Plus, being older, our entertainment options included more than just hanging out in the back seat of a fifteen year old car.
The breakup with Jerry wasn’t anything to speak of. He started an intensive program in teaching which included working as a student teacher, and he had no time, between lesson plans and classes. Soon, the days we spent apart went from one, to two, to eventually a whole week. The same happened with talking on the phone. This was before the days of texting, so we would leave each other messages on our answering machines. But eventually that stopped. So, the relationship died a natural death. Then came along Harvey, very tall, very rich, and very much into the nightlife.
While studying engineering, Harvey worked as a real estate agent. I know it sounds like a lot, but even with that full plate, we were together six nights out of the week. So, it was an easy choice to move on after Jerry. After all, which takes more time, studying to be an engineer or a high school history teacher? Plus, I couldn’t imagine myself wed to a teacher. But an engineer, that was far more prestigious. Harvey brought me down to his real estate office a few times. The owner, a bald older Italian guy with round gold-rimmed glasses, kept telling me that I should come work for him.
Each time I would politely decline, but after my four years were over, still not quite enthused to seek work in a hospital, I finally said yes that summer. During my month of training, Harvey quit. He had been accepted to a program at CalTech, and he was moving in two weeks. He didn’t say much. He didn’t offer to bring me along. I felt like he knew that I would say no anyway, as I was sort of close with my family and had many girlfriends (in the 1990s platonic sense). And so, on the day my training finished, I celebrated by myself. Harvey had already been gone over a month, and I didn’t feel like dating.
Looking back, I realize I was in love. I also realize he probably didn’t feel the same way. As they say, one door opens as another closes. And, that’s precisely what happened. My scholastic career was done; I had zero intention of going to graduate school. But my real estate career started booming, right from my first week out on my own. I was given some horrible properties to move, and somehow, each was being sold in record time. Even a warehouse in Linden that had been on the market for five years. It only took me three buyers and a few steak dinners to get it sold.
And so that’s how my real estate career began. Totally by accident. It’s also how my full-figure which many men had called voluptuous, started growing to the point where no man would say anything to me about my shape. If they had, and they were honest, they’d have had to tell me I was shapeless. I began drinking to cope with the loneliness. All the while, I sold more and more, bought my first small home in Nutley, and was on my way to becoming the top seller in my office, then my state, then among the best in the region.
All the while, there was an emptiness inside that money and success could not fill. Neither could pies and cakes, cookies and confectioneries, all of which I enjoyed like there was no tomorrow. I was depressed, but I did not know it. And, my recent success began isolating me from my friends and family, all of whom were of relatively modest means. That’s when I began going to AC. Like most everything in my life, the way I became a slot queen was mostly by accident. I’ll explain that in another blog.
The Healthy Whale 