- In the SLC: Ann Dee Ellis is launching her new book, Everything Is Fine, tonight at The King’s English. 7 p.m. I will be there. I will not be square.

- On the interwebs: Since I am in a self-Googling recovery program and have been abstinent nearly a year, sometimes I miss out on hearing cool stuff. Fortunately, there is my agent, who is like my sponsor, to filter results and send me links to stuff he thinks I should see. Like this. Which has given me my new favorite review quote:

“Usually, when a book is  OMG-I’ve-died-and-gone-to-Heaven-and Heaven-is Scotland-with-a-hundred-dancing-nude-Jamie-Frasers, I tend to become tongue tied. Sweethearts is such a book.”

Thank you, Lit Connection!

- Your daily diabetes tip: Okay, it won’t be daily, but since my post about that the other day, a couple of people have said yes, you should talk about it, because almost all of us know someone with diabetes and it can help us understand them better. So one thing that comes up is that people say, “But can’t type 2 diabetes be almost totally controlled with diet and exercise?” Sometimes. It’s true that you can do a A LOT with your lifestyle choices to stay in good control of your blood sugar.

However, it’s not easy, and there are no days off. For example, to stay in good control, I basically have to work out intensely an hour a day, poke my finger numerous times a day, and be very, very, very careful about the quantity and quality of carbs (and all foods, really) I eat. There’s no, “Oh, just this once, have a donut, it’ll be okay,” because every time your blood sugar spikes beyond normal ranges, IT KILLS IMPORTANT CELLS THAT THE BODY CAN’T REGENERATE! And that leads to long-term complications. Such as your feet falling off and you going blind and other fun stuff. Aiyyeeee!

So, know that your loved one with diabetes who is trying to stay in good control can’t ever just exhale and say, “Just for today I’m going to eat like everyone else/celebrate/be lazy/feel normal.” Well, I shouldn’t say “can’t” because we can all choose whatever it is we choose, but there are potential serious consequences. Even if 90% of the time, all this stuff is no problem and we just do it automatically, the other 10% of the time when you’re just so over it really, really, really sucks.

That’s one reason a lot of diabetics deal with depression or just generally being sad or angry. Sometimes you wake up and think, I just don’t want to deal with food today. I don’t want to get out of bed because that means I have to make choices and poke my finger and take my medicine and go to the f***king gym AGAIN and there’s no guarantee I still won’t get complications some day and I’d rather just skip it, thanks. And maybe if I were 78 instead of 38, I’d say screw it, but in the words of the kids from Bye Bye Birdie, I’ve gotta lotta livin’ left to do.