Doctor Z
Doctor Z is Ruby’s therapist. The descriptive imagery that Ruby provides of her is uncharacteristically terse and lacking in her usually zestier sense of snark.
“Here’s Doctor Z: African American. Fortysomething. Seriously fashion-challenged to the point of wearing horrible crocheted ponchos and patchwork skirts. Cozy office in a generic office building. Mistress of the shrinky silence.”
Emotional Rescue
A tragic car accident takes the life of a friend of Noel—one of Ruby’s boyfriends—and his emotional reaction is a wild ride on a rollercoaster to say the least. One minute he is sobbing her into her should and the next, well, he is not.
"Then he kissed my eyelids. Kind of licked them. And if you’ve never had someone lick your eyelids, you should know that it’s not exactly romantic and it’s even a tiny bit gross, but it feels like the other person really likes you and accepts you somehow. Like he wants your updates. Even your boring ones. Even your mental ones.”
What Is Love?
Parts of the book are snatches from a documentary the protagonist is making. These are presented as little excerpts inserted usually into the chapter as its beginning. One of them features Meghan being asked her definition of love.
"Meghan: (twisting her hair with her fingers) Okay. Love is … Um. Love is this feeling. It’s a big feeling. It’s like listening to music, you know, like a ballad or even religious music—because it fills you up and you can’t think about anything but the other person and it all seems like a dream. Finn took me out in a canoe the other day, and we had a picnic and watched the sunset. That’s like love in action."
Noel in New York
One of Ruby’s boyfriends is Noel. And everything is going great guns for awhile; she even refers to him my real live boyfriend with that italicized emphasis being her own. But then he goes away to the Big Apple. And, for a while, things remain pretty cool, especially with creative e-mails which at least her know she’s on his mind despite the New York being on open display all around her:
“Number of pizza slices consumed while walking, since arrival: 6.
Minutes spent staring at the water lily painting in the MoMA: 13.
Number of Spider-Man-shaped ice creams bought from the truck on the corner of Broadway and Prince: 1.
Number of guys actually dressed as Spider-Man I saw while eating the ice cream: 1.”
