Gen X

Ode to flip-flops

~ MaryG ~ 4 Comments

Tell us about your favorite pair of shoes, and where they’ve taken you.

My feet don’t match. The women on both sides of my family have severe bunions. My genes, combined with too many pairs of pointy shoes in the 80s, led to me develop large, painful bunions by the time I was 25.

One day, in my mid-twenties, I had to cut short a walk home from work and hop on the T because my feet hurt so badly. That was it. I loved walking in Boston and I decided this was no way to live. I made the decision to go under the knife and get the worse bunion removed surgically (my left one). I figured I’d go back and get the other one done later.

Well, the pain was SO bad after the surgery, I never went back and got the right foot done. (I was in a big surgical boot for 6 months and then I had to have a screw removed from my newly straightened big toe.)

In the grand scheme of things, a bunion is pretty minor, but my right foot still causes me a lot of pain, especially when wearing any kind of a dress shoe. When I have to get dressed up for something, the dilemma is always the shoes. What shoes could I possibly wear with this outfit that won’t hurt? There really are no comfortable dress shoes for me.

Consequently, I have worn flip-flops to more occasions than I care to remember. I have gold ones, silver ones, sparkly ones, beaded ones, leather ones, plus the usual plastic/foam ones. Flip-flops are really the only shoes that don’t hurt at all.

So, here’s to my numerous pairs of flip-flops. They don’t hide my ugly bunion from the world, but at least they showcase a nice pedicure.

A fancy pedicure I got once. Also, I just discovered there’s a flip-flop emoji 🩴

My 50th Birthday

~ MaryG ~ 9 Comments

Share one of the best gifts you’ve ever received.

My dear friend Susan made my 50th birthday special. (She makes every occasion special.) Not only did she help me plan a dinner in a restaurant, but she also invited my guests back to her home afterwards. She and her lovely daughter created thoughtful touches like chocolate covered strawberries, a sign, and birthday confetti. I really felt special!

And then, on top of that, Susan gave me my first Apple Watch. A very generous and EXCITING gift! It was June 2015 and Apple had just come out with watches that spring. I remember they seemed so weird and futuristic at the time. I really didn’t understand what they were or how they worked, but it was so cool to have one of my own! It was silver with a white sport band. I’m sure I never would’ve bought one for myself (or I would’ve taken many more years to try one).

It was a very exciting gift and I ended up loving Apple Watches. I’ve upgraded to new models several times. As I’ve mentioned, I’m a good candidate for digital health products. I’m motivated to “close my rings” daily and I like getting the colorful little “medals” for special challenges. I was thrilled when Apple came out with the waterproof version, so I could wear it in the pool and get “credit.”

So, not only was it a generous and thoughtful gift, but I truly believe it’s helped me stay healthy in my fifties.

Thanks Susan. I love you!

My 50th birthday sign in Susan’s apartment
Special touches by Susan 💕

Related post:

Digital health target audience

Experiences over stuff

~ MaryG ~ 11 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Write about your approach to budgeting.
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Budgeting is hard. In the old days, when we first bought a house and got a mortgage, there was no extra money at all. We already had one child. My husband got a second job delivering newspapers at the crack of dawn to make ends meet. When we moved again, we had two kids and the expenses were even higher, so I went back to work. In the old days, when we felt like we were low on money, the solution was always to work more.

Now that we’re empty nesters, I am able to budget for optional stuff like travel. Typically, I make a list of expenses on the notepad in my iPhone. I plan for the big stuff (airfare, hotel, car rental), book it (so I know what it’ll really cost), and then determine how much I feel comfortable spending on other stuff (dinners, excursions, etc). Now that I’m older, I’m prioritizing experiences over stuff.

For example, when we went to Paris, we had dinner IN the Eiffel Tower. It was very expensive, but it was amazing! It was such a special setting and the food was delicious. We sat next to some Germans and a young American couple from the Bronx who were clearly splurging too. We had a lot of fun chatting with them and it was surreal to be eating in the actual Eiffel Tower. I could’ve purchased a nice French designer bag for the same price, but this was so much better.

Now, when I watch the Paris Olympics this summer, I’ll be thinking of that night whenever they show the Eiffel Tower.

We got lucky. Our table was right next to the windows. And yes, of course we sprung for the €25 souvenir photo.

Related post:

Bucket List Progress: PARIS

Hot air balloon flight

From Sea to Shining Sea

~ MaryG ~ 11 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Are you patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you?
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One thing that makes me feel patriotic is beautiful, sweeping American vistas. I have been known to break out singing “America, the Beautiful” in public. I think it should be our national anthem. The words are better than the “Star Spangled Banner.” And most people can sing it. It’s not as hard.

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountains majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

I’m also a big fan of “This Land is your Land.” I can – and will – join in singing harmony whenever I hear it.

This land is your land, and this land is my land
From California to the New York island,
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters;
This land was made for you and me.

Here’s the Woody Guthrie original version from 1940.

Other countries have spectacular scenery too, but ours is so vast and varied—from sea to shining sea.

🎵 🇺🇸 🎶

Maui, Hawaii, 1993
San Francisco Bay, California, 2012
Palm Springs, California, 2010
The incredibly blue Lake Tahoe, California, 2012
Moonrise, Lake Tahoe, California, 2012
Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, 2009
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, 2009
The hallowed ground of Gettysburg National Park, Pennsylvania, 2017
Taughannock Falls State Park, Trumansburg, New York, 2022
Lake Cayuga, Ithaca, New York, 2021
Saratoga Springs, New York, 2019
The Green Mountains, Stowe, Vermont, 2014
The White Mountains, Bartlett, New Hampshire, 2013
The rocky coast of Maine, Kennebunkport, 2022
Nantucket, Massachusetts, 2007
Walden Pond, Concord, Massachusetts, 2023
The beach border of Westport, Massachusetts and Little Compton, Rhode Island, 2006
Newport Harbor, Rhode Island, 2023. This is the 1970 America’s Cup contender Heritage.
Watch Hill, Westerly, Rhode Island, 2021
The Outer Banks, North Carolina, 2003
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 2009
Delray Beach Florida, 2021
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, 2014
The aquamarine Gulf of Mexico in Longboat Key, Florida, 2022

LAST ONE: the iconic Grand Canyon, Arizona, 2023. Pictures don’t really do it justice. There’s a quiet awe to the place that perhaps this video captures just a tiny bit.

If you made it to the end of this post, THANK YOU for looking at all my pics. I loved taking them.

🇺🇸

Related posts:

Family Road Trip: Colorado edition

TO READ list

Got what I deserved (finally)

~ MaryG ~ Leave a comment
Daily writing prompt
Have you ever unintentionally broken the law?
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In the distant past, I used my white privilege to break the law intentionally many times with no consequences. I’ll chalk that up to youth and the too-high age requirement of 21+ for American nightclubs. (It really should be 18.)

I have been pulled over by the police a few times for doing stuff unintentionally. The worst was when I nearly ran over an older woman with a cane in a crosswalk. I just didn’t see her. I was pregnant and rushing to an appointment with my obstetrician. Thank God I saw her at the last moment and swerved.

I got pulled over immediately by a Boston cop on a motorcycle, as I should have been. I got a citation for “failure to yield to a pedestrian.” I did, of course, try to get out of it. I played the pregnant card, the woman card, the dumb card…all the cards. I don’t remember if I cried, but I might have. The cop did the right thing and gave me the ticket anyway. That one moving violation jacked up my car insurance premiums for years. I deserved it.

Related post: My life of crime

GenX Mom Not Calm

~ MaryG ~ 14 Comments

If there was a biography about you, what would the title be?

According to my son the subtitle of this blog—GenX Mom Keeps Calm & Carries On—is not accurate. According to him, I am not calm or “chill.” He says his father’s the calm one.

I started this blog shortly after I turned 50, in the fall of 2015. The name seemed about right at the time. I wrote six posts about regular mom/life stuff in 2015-16. Then all hell broke loose. The pussy-grabbing star of “Celebrity Apprentice” won the presidential election over a highly-qualified former Secretary of State and US Senator, even though she got 2,864,974 more votes than he did. Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump in the popular vote by more than the population of the City of Chicago, which has 2.66 million people. I’ve been to Chicago. It’s huge. It’s a huge city. Hillary Clinton beat Trump by more than a Chicago. Think about it.

The big city of Chicago, 2006

Clearly I was traumatized by the election of Donald J. Trump and all that followed, including learning that I had Trump supporters among my nearest and dearest.

Blogging suddenly seemed pointless. I didn’t even think about blogging regularly again until Trump was safely out of DC and Biden was sworn in.

That whole time period after the 2020 election, when the networks took forever to declare Biden the winner and Trump kept saying the election was rigged and would not concede, was SO F***ED UP. Those crazy images of “Stop the Steal” rallies in Arizona and endless, needless recounts in Georgia with Trump caught on tape telling officials to “find him 11,780 more votes” like a mafia boss. WTF. We are the United States of America. This doesn’t happen here.

And then…and THEN…two weeks before Biden’s inauguration a fucking RIOT inside the United States Capitol while Congress convened to certify Joe Biden’s electoral win—a perfunctory, procedural, ceremonial event that never caused a stir before in my entire life. And now we’ve got Senators hiding under benches and Vice Presidents being whisked away by the secret service?!?

OK, so clearly I’m not calm anymore. I may never have been. It’s sad that I’ve been like this for so much of my son’s life. He was just 15 when Trump won, and now he’s a senior in college.

I probably won’t change the name of my blog (because I’m not sure how to do it and I’d probably end up deleting the whole thing by accident), but I’ll try to find a more accurate title for my imaginary forthcoming biography. Suggestions welcomed.

Here are a few more pictures of my one and only trip to Chicago. I went with high school friends not long after we reunited for our 20th reunion. We were 40. We liked it!

Grandparents

~ MaryG ~ 3 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What were your parents doing at your age?
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When my parents were my age, they were new grandparents to my daughter. They only have two grandchildren and she was their first. They were thrilled to have a granddaughter and helped me out a lot. My mother would visit and babysit at least once a week. I was lucky that they lived within an hours drive.

Outside of being grandparents, they were big travelers. They went on many trips to countries around the world including China, Japan, Russia and all over Europe. I have some beautiful gifts from places they traveled to.

All families have issues (mine included), but I know I’ve been extremely privileged to have two responsible, caring parents who are still alive and well and married to each other! How many GenXers can say that? I know I got really lucky in the parent department.

They’ll be celebrating their 85th and 90th birthdays this summer, as well as their 62nd wedding anniversary.

Here we are on the beach in Florida five years ago. I’m looking forward to visiting them in Florida next week. It’ll be my first trip down to see them in their “snowbird” locale since the pandemic. I feel so lucky that I get another chance to make this trip.

Protest photos: then & now

~ MaryG ~ 13 Comments
Daily writing prompt
If you had the power to change one law, what would it be and why?
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As a proud feminist and longtime supporter of abortion rights, I’m still struggling to understand what the fuck happened in the United States on November 8, 2016. The last seven years have been extremely tough to watch. And there’s no end in sight. Unbelievably, both Trump and Trumpism are alive and well. All three of his Supreme Court appointees are younger than me (actually Brett Kavanaugh and I are the same age). I’ll probably outlive Trump, but not his legacy. In many ways, it’s just really depressing. All these years of protesting and donating and voting, and we’ve gone backwards.

Here are some black and white photos I took at a Pro-Choice Rally in Washington DC in 1989. I used my 35mm Canon camera.

Here are some photos from the Women’s March on Washington on January 21, 2017—the day after Trump’s inauguration. It was the largest single-day protest in US history.

My daughter and me in pussy hats knitted by my sister

The Forced Birth Movement is terrifying and misogynist. Abortion is essential healthcare. Healthcare is a human right. Federal law should protect that right.

Hi Barbie

~ MaryG ~ 13 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Write about your dream home.
View all responses

One of the best things about the Barbie movie was that incredible set—Barbie’s Dreamhouse come to life. I loved it! Imagine living in a matriarchal society in your own pink mini-palace—with all your friends nearby—under permanently sunny skies? The only thing I would add is a larger pool. I’d want to be able to swim laps at my dream house.

I’m with Ryan Gosling and everyone else who “could not be more disappointed” that Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie didn’t get Oscar nominations for directing and acting. I’m counting on Barbie pulling off an upset win for Best Picture. I want to see Greta up there getting the last award of the night.

Free gift article from The Atlantic:

Why the Oscars Overlooked Greta Gerwig

Related post: Wrong question

Insight Meditation

~ MaryG ~ 5 Comments
Daily writing prompt
You get some great, amazingly fantastic news. What’s the first thing you do?
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This prompt reminds me of a class I took in my twenties. I was a couple of years into the working world, living in Boston, and had that feeling like “what’s next?” or “is this all there is?” I was trying to force myself to plan my next move—perhaps moving to a different city would make things interesting? The class was called “Insight Meditation” and the teacher’s name was Narayan.

Narayan was great. She taught us the basics of mindfulness meditation from the Buddhist tradition. We focused on our breath. When thoughts arose, we tried to observe them without judgement. Inner peace and living in the present moment were the goals. Eventually, I realized that trying to force a decision about my next move was not helpful. Although I did not keep up a daily meditation practice, I still think of Narayan’s wisdom.

Be here now.

One day in class Narayan said she had received some fantastic news and was having trouble not thinking about it. She said she was too “blissed out” about it. Her point was that any type of conditional joy (joy that depends on an outside factor – like winning the lottery) is inevitably going to change. She thought that getting too happy/excited about any external circumstance could lead to even lower lows. Deep despair and overwhelming joy are related. Staying on an even keel is better. A goal of insight meditation is to develop of lasting sense of contentment and peace from sources within you.

And guess what? I googled Narayan and she’s still teaching at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center and other organizations. She’s written a book and many of her “Dharma Talks” are online. It’s wild to find her again after all these years. I will definitely be engaging with her wisdom in this new phase of my life. I’m going to order her book today. Maybe check her out, if Buddhism or meditation is of interest to you.

Related post:

Pay attention to the journey