Someone asked me today how my book tour was going, and I found myself answering, “I’m alive.” As soon as I said it, I realize how negative that sounds. When someone asks how we’re doing and we say “I’m alive,” it implies that we’re barely more than dead. But when I said it, I honestly meant that I feel super-duper alive -- in the full realm of human experience way. As in, I feel real. I feel raw. I don’t feel numb or flatlined, in any way.

What this means is that I’m good -- and bad. I’m giddy and grieving. I’m excited and disappointed and passionate and sexy and self-reflective and curious and frustrated and open. I feel vulnerable and uncomfortable. I feel called and appreciated. I am ALIVE. What more can we as humans ask for?

When I approached my book tour, I decided to focus on living in the moment. After all, how many people get to actually go on a 20 city book, traveling the country and meeting their readers? I wanted to really be present on this book tour, rather than freaking out about what might be ahead or reliving what might have already happened.

So when I finished my chat at Connecticut College in New London, I was shocked when Editor-in-Pink Lauren (who is also my roadie on this leg of the journey) said, “You can relax now. You don’t have to do any public speaking for the next week.” Say what? We were about to hop on a train to spend six days in New York City! What did she mean I didn’t have any public speaking? But apparently, she spoke the truth.

Last week, just before blasting off on my 20 city book tour for my book What’s Up Down There? Questions You’d Only Ask Your Gynecologist If She Was Your Best Friend, I got a call from a guy at CBSNews.com. They had posted a piece called 15 Crazy Things About Sperm and it has been a slam dunk, runaway hit on the website. He wanted me to write a similar post about vaginas. He loved my style, thought I was funny, and they were trying to spice up their health news, so he thought I’d be perfect (*Lissa blushes*). I was running around like a crazy person trying to get ready for my tour, but how could I turn down the opportunity to write 15 crazy things about the vagina? Vagina vagina vagina!

So I dropped everything and wrote a badass piece -- 15 Curious Things You May Not Know About the Vagina. The guy at CBSNews.com loved it and promised to post it on the day my book launched. Which he did. But when I went to look for it, it wasn’t there? What happened?

Book tour, we have lift off! What's Up Down There? Questions You'd Only Ask Your Gynecologist If She Was Your Best Friend hits shelves TOMORROW, Sept 28! Lissa wrote this post today en route to our very first stop on the book tour - Chicago, which as it turns out, has particular meaning to Lissa... Read on to find out!

Returning to the Scene of the Trauma

As I write this, I am on a plane, flying to Chicago where I start my book tour. The irony of this fact is not lost on me. You see, I lived in Chicago for four years while I did my OB/GYN residency at Northwestern. But I haven’t been back in more than a decade. Why? Well, it’s not that I don’t love Chicago. And it’s not that I don’t have good friends there. But my four years of residency were the hardest four years of my life. I honestly think I have post traumatic stress disorder because of my residency. It’s been more than ten years since I finished, and the nightmares only stopped last year.