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Summary: "You have such trouble living in the moment," says The Counselor, sighing, I believe she's losing patience with me. I have been here for four, going on five years now, clutching the small throw pillows in her office against my stomach as if they were life preservers."Have you looked around at the moment?" I say, "I have a huge credit card bill, I'm thirty and single.""It sounds like a wonderful place to begin," she says."To be an adult. To earn your keep. Thirty is not as old as you're making it sound."Welcome To My Planet is a novel that happens at the most neurotic point in one's life--when not dating is as acceptable a social form as dating; when early-morning NPR, infomercials, and VISA provide more thrill and companionship than grad school or one's day-job colleagues, and the daily struggle to get out of bed and interact with higher life forms than the plants or the TV remote takes on near-cosmic significance. Welcome to a center of the universe that's not London or New York, but Minneapolis, USA, where life just isn't The Love Boat for thirty-one year old Shannon, our tongue-in-cheek heroine. Between trips to Target and her parent's house to do laundry, Shannon visits a therapist called The Counselor and tries to get her life together. In a voice that's funny and as raw as your sister's bachelorette party, Shannon Olson brings an up-front perspective on issues of family and love, therapy and debt, and the occasional comforts of a few drinks. She speaks directly to young and not-so-young women who know that Mom's a great place to visit when you can't quite find yourself.