When Singled Out was first published, I had a fantasy. I guess you could call it small-time, but had it ever happened, I would have been thrilled. I always wanted to walk onto an airplane and see someone reading my book.
That never did happen, but last night, I confess to getting a thrill from something else that I suppose is also a pretty small deal. I was with a friend I met in grad school (Karen), who moved to Santa Barbara a few years ago. We had gone to a talk by the tiger-mom author, Amy Chua (who is a fabulous speaker, by the way – engaging and hilarious), and then headed to dinner.
At the restaurant, Karen gave me a copy of the most recent print issue of Psychology Today. That’s the February 2012 issue; you can see the cover image at the top of this post. She thought I’d like an extra copy because my two-page article, “Are you single at heart?” appeared in it. The story includes a quiz you can take to see if you qualify as single-at-heart. (The article is not available online yet, but it is a revised version of a popular Living Single post that you can access here.)
The waitress approached our table just as Karen was handing me the magazine. She looked at it and exclaimed, “Oh, I love that magazine!” So I immodestly told her that I had written the article in it called “Are you single at heart?” Well, not only had she read it, but she even remembered her exact score!
Like I said, I’m easily amused. And the title of this piece is Dream Small, not big. Still, you should feel free to make fun of me for telling you that this little exchange made my day.
