NaNoWriMo Day 24- The Shoes of Baltimore
“That does sound cool,” Mickey said. And he wasn’t being sarcastic or making fun of Jen inside his head.
No. Mickey actually thought that was interesting.
But that’s because Mickey found everything interesting. He wanted to know everything about everybody. Even if he had just met you on the street, he wouldn’t be shy about telling you his whole life story if you were willing to listen. He would tell strangers things that most people wouldn’t even tell their best friends or family members.
Because he was in shape and loaded to workout, people got the impression that he was a bro. And he did bro things like talk about how going to the bar that night would be epic, and wearing a hangover the next day as a badge of honor. But he also was very sensitive, and he would play emo music on his guitar some nights after the bar. He would then sit on the steps and tell his tales of woe and not finding the right girl to his neighbors who were stumbling in from their own night out.
So it was weird that he thought Jen’s major “hobbies” were looking at pictures on Pinterest and sharing things on Facebook. But again, he just wanted to know as much about everyone as he could and make a connection. Of course, this should have been a red flag for most guys.
But Mickey wasn’t most guys.
And when she talked about her hobbies, he saw that as an invite to talk about his even though she didn’t ask. “Yea,” Mickey said. “I think it’s important to have something to keep yourself busy and that you enjoy. You could find yourself in some destructive habits if you don’t. I was always such a restless kid and they thought I had ADD. They put me on a bunch of medicine, but I think I just started to act out even more because I hated the way I felt when I was on it. But that’s when I found exercise and it helped change my life. It helped me become more focused, and it just helped me feel good about myself. I had so many people tell me for so many years that something was wrong with me that it felt good just to be like everyone else. And because I got in really good shape, people started to ask me to train them. Then, more and more people asked me to train them. So I figured if I was going to be training people and they liked me enough to recommend me to their friends, I might as well get paid for it! I don’t really sue Pinterest, I’ll have to check it out, but I do like looking on forums for new advice on lifting and eating. I was thinking of maybe making a cookbook because so many of my clients ask me what my diet looks like. But yea, that’s just me. You look like you’re in good shape. Do you work out?”
Jen begrudgingly did work out. She paid an extensive amount of money for a trainer and a dietitian. She wasn’t so much concerned with living a healthy lifestyle. What she really wanted was advice to do the bare minimum to look skinny. She wanted to know the exact amount of food she could eat and the exact amount of exercise she needed to do it look the way she did now. The food part wasn’t too bad. She never really had a major appetite. But she had to work off the sugary drinks she loved so much, which meant she had to go running the next day. She hated running. She also had to do exercises to keep her legs tone, butt tight, and stomach flat. She loathed it, but her mother had instilled in her that it was necessary for attracting a husband, especially at her age.
When she complained to her mom that her friends got to eat pizza, drink wine, and just stay on the couch and watch Netflix, Lauren asked her if they were married.
“Yes,” Jen said.
“Well then they get to do that. You don’t have a husband so you don’t. But even when you get one, you can’t slack off too much if there’s a prenup. You have to stay fit. So guess used to eating salads and being miserable.”
“Yea, I do exercise. I normally go to the gym four or five times a week. I focus on running about three of those days. I’ve been doing it for the past couple of years, so it’s just part of a routine for me.”
“Yes!” Mickey said a little loud and everyone nearby turned and looked at him. He didn’t notice.
“It just becomes a routine,” he said al title more quietly. “I think that’s the biggest thing people need to understand and what I stress to my clients. It is a routine, just like getting your car checked and oil changed. Of course, our bodies need more maintenance to run properly. But it still is just like the main thing you really need to do each day. When people start understanding that, building the routine around exercising and eating right just becomes second nature. If you eat bad all the time, you really do miss out on enjoying good food. When you eat good, you actually end up not liking all the junk. Even if you want to treat yourself, you eat less and it probably will start havoc on your body. But yea. That’s cool that you recognize that and you said that. It means we are on the same page.”
While Jen wasn’t as zealous about working out as Mickey, she was at least glad that he was passionate about it and brought up making a cookbook. The passion meant that he would be healthy and focus on health even as he got older and was married, and the cookbook meant that he was ambitious and could make extra money. It also meant that maybe he would cook for her, which was something she hated. She decided to find out.
“Yea people will spend a lot for those cookbooks. My mom has some vintage ones she’s kept in perfect condition from the 1950s that are worth a ton. Do you have enough recipes to fill a book out? Do you like to cook each night?”
“I think I do have enough to fill it out. I really just need to write it down and get the precise measurements for everything, you know? Being Italian, I learned a lot of my cooking from my grandmother, but she never wrote down anything. It was just a pinch of this and a pinch of that, but you had to pay attention to what she was doing to know exactly how to make it like her. I just need to get everything written down. I can do a whole bunch of different things with salads. Basic things with chicken, but I can do it in a way that it’s a fresh take for most people and still easy to do. I can do the same thing with tuna. And everything is cost effective, so it won’t break the bank for families or even college students.”
‘So you can kind of market it as a cookbook for anybody? Kind of like the poor man without calling the person poor?” Jen asked.
“Right,” Mickey said. “I mean, I think for one person I could have them eat three meals a day for about $200 a month. Maybe less than that, but I have to get everything down to figure out the total costs. But once that happens, I think I can go ahead and make it. I’m pretty sure I can get a deal for it if I pitch it around to some agents. If worse comes to worse, I can always self publish it. Then when I make a second one or just make one about deserts or something, I can show a literary agent what I did with the first one.”
“Maybe you should just really push for that first one though to get done by a literary agent. Because then you can sign something massive like a five-book deal. If you show that you have a following and a bunch of clients, they will be more likely to take a chance on you. How is your social media following?”
“Not to bad. On Instagram I have about 10,000 followers. So a total for all my social media accounts and email list, I probably have about 30,000 people.”
Jen nodded. “Yea that’s a start. I think if you can build that up more and then announce you’re going to publish a cookbook. Then I’m sure you will have a bunch of people tell you they can’t wait to get it. Then, you just take all those messages and show them to a literary agent and you should be in.”
“That’s a really good idea. And I do need to get in the Pinterest game. Maybe you can help me with that. That’s a huge place for food and stuff.”
“I totally could!” Jen knew that sharing food pictures would pay off. She totally knew how popular it would be if he shared it on there. She could maybe even be in charge of his social media campaigns. Well, maybe just the Pinterest part. She didn’t want it to turn into a job. He would have to hire someone to fully run it because she wanted him to stay focused on the cookbook and everything else he can do. And she was mainly just going to make sure he was on track to be successful and make money. Her mom didn’t interfere with the day-to-day business of her father. She just was there to push him when he needed it and to make sure he was always focused. Jen’s thoughts were fixated on how she could run his Pinterest campaign, and she was happy with how perfect he seemed so far. But she knew that she had to do some more digging before she could feel he was the best candidate to have her children, be the bread winner, and make her life easy.
