Gen X

Layers and Fans

~ MaryG ~ 2 Comments
Bloganuary writing prompt
What do you complain about the most?
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This is an easy one. I’m never the right temperature and I let people around me know (primarily my husband). Typically I’m too hot, but that can very quickly change to too cold, once I start to sweat and there’s any kind of breeze. The only real solution is to wear layers that I can whip on and off easily. I also wear a hair elastic on my wrist at all times – for quickly getting my hair up and off my neck.

For men and younger women: hot flashes are actually real, and not just something made up by the pharmaceutical industry. In the grand scheme of things, they’re not that big a deal, especially considering everything else women deal with prior to menopause. (I’ll take the hot flashes over debilitating cramps or blood loss resembling a murder scene.) But they are annoying, so please do us a favor and put on a sweatshirt if you’re cold. And do not, under any circumstances, crank the heat without asking. Also, if you have a house guest in this demographic, it would be very thoughtful of you to leave a fan in your guest room, especially if there’s no ceiling fan.

Speaking of the pharmaceutical industry, have you seen the ad for Veozah? It’s the new hormone-free medication for hot flashes with a known side effect of…get this…hot flashes. Geniuses!

OK, enough bitching about menopause for today. It’s the least of women’s problems these days.

Free gift article from The Atlantic:

Texas Becomes an Abortion Dystopia

Sports Mom

~ MaryG ~ 2 Comments

What are your favorite sports to watch and play?

I played a bit of competitive tennis when I was young, but I was never much of an athlete. However, I really enjoyed watching my son play soccer, basketball and lacrosse for many years. He loved playing sports.

I felt awful that his senior lacrosse season got cancelled because of Covid. He was a team captain, and he and his friends had been playing together since 5th grade. Because of the lockdown, they never got to play a single game together as seniors in high school. It totally sucked. Lacrosse was his favorite sport. He played for a year in college, but we didn’t get to go to any of those games because of Covid. Fortunately, the games were available online so I got to see him score a goal in college. At the time, I thought I would still have many more chances to watch him play in person, but it turns out I didn’t.

It seems you never realize when something’s happening for the last time, while it’s going on. Just another reason to live in the moment and try to be present.

You need to bring a lot of layers to watch lacrosse in New England. 🥶

The college goal I got to watch online:

Related post:

Things I Will Miss About My Son’s “Cancelled” Senior Spring

Climate fatalism

~ MaryG ~ 6 Comments
Bloganuary writing prompt
What would you do if you won the lottery?
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If I won the lottery ($10M or more), I’d buy a beach house with a large pool. It seems that climate change is wreaking havoc with all coastal areas, so it could be risky. But then again, Vermont and interior Maine have had historic flooding the past two years, so no place is safe. For some reason, I’d rather my deluxe, fantasy second home get washed away by the ocean in a hurricane than by some dumb brook that went haywire with rain. The ocean seems like a more worthy adversary.

I think I may be suffering from climate fatalism.

Wrong question

~ MaryG ~ 3 Comments

What books do you want to read?

Bloganuary is asking the wrong question today. The Oscar nominations are out, so this is the time of year when you try to see some (or all) of the nominated films.

I’m in the “outraged” camp that Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig did not get nominated for Best Actress and Best Director. WTF!

Here’s where I stand on the Best Picture nominees. (I’d like to see all of them eventually.)

American Fiction – seeing it tonight in a movie theater

Anatomy of a Fall – haven’t seen it yet

Barbie – saw it twice in movie theaters; LOVED it; it should win

The Holdovers – saw it in a movie theater, but probably would’ve been the same on a small screen; enjoyed the New England connection and scenes; more melancholy than I thought it was going to be

Killers of the Flower Moon – watched it last night on Apple TV; important story; beautifully made film, but I fell asleep a couple times (I knew it was 3.5 hours going in, but I had a drink and a weed gummy anyway, which was probably a mistake); DiCaprio is still hot – even when he’s playing pure evil with bad teeth

And yes, it’s a TRUE story. All Americans should watch it. I suggest coffee.

Maestro – watched it on Netflix a couple weeks ago; I’m a huge fan of Leonard Bernstein’s Broadway and classical music and have sung it many times (I even had a friend sing “One Hand, One Heart” from West Side Story at my wedding), so I was disappointed that there wasn’t more focus on his musical greatness; the big conducting scene gave me goosebumps, but the film is more about his marriage; didn’t need to see Bernstein snorting coke; the montage of Bernstein’s music which plays over the closing credits is one of the best parts of the film (listen until the very end)

Oppenheimer – saw it in a theater; other than the big blast scene, I found it pretty boring; I couldn’t keep all the white guys straight; the film is mostly about politics and would’ve been better as a miniseries; overrated!

Past Lives – haven’t seen it yet

Poor Things – saw it on New Year’s in a movie theater; it’s a weird, niche art film with a lot of explicit sex; I appreciate that it was making some interesting points about women and shame, but it’s too bizarre to be nominated for best picture

The Zone of Interest – haven’t seen it yet

Here’s the Leonard Bernstein display in the Musical Instrument Museum. The museum is well worth a visit if you find yourself in Phoenix.

Scallops and Slippers

~ MaryG ~ 12 Comments
Bloganuary writing prompt
Write about a few of your favorite family traditions.
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I have not yet let go of Christmas. My tree and all my decorations are still up. I’ve never left a Christmas tree up this long. Maybe I’m delaying because I don’t know what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.  People keep congratulating me on my “retirement,” but maybe that’s just what people say when you’re around 60 and leave a job you’ve been doing for decades. In any case, a couple of favorite family traditions are Christmas-related, so I’ll write about those. 

My husband always makes his mother’s scallops for the first course of Christmas dinner. He uses her original handwritten recipe cards and serves them in her giant scallop shells (surprisingly, they’re dishwasher safe). My mother-in-law Duilia was a tremendous chef. She kept careful notes. I’m just now noticing the reference to “Claiborne & Franey” on the recipe cards. At first, I thought they were friends of hers, but Google tells me they were high-end food critics and cookbook authors who had “a lasting impact on culinary literature and culture.” Sounds about right.

My mother-in-law’s meticulous recipe card with some of my husband’s notes added in pencil. (Their cursive is so similar.)
Page 2 of the recipe card, which references (I think) Claiborne & Franey’s 1983 recipe for stuffed clams, which she adapted for scallops
Duilia’s Scallops, as served on Christmas 2023. They were insanely good this year.

Another Christmas tradition we’ve kept (this one from my side of the family) is “one present on Christmas Eve.” Kids get to open one present on Christmas Eve and it’s always some type of sleepwear. My son got slippers this year. He really liked them. He wore them around the house for the rest of his winter break and took them back to school when he left last Sunday.

Today was my deadline to take down my Christmas stuff, but I can already tell it’s not gonna happen. I’m giving myself a one-week extension. I will put away Christmas by February 1. I promise.

Related posts:

The Christmas Puzzle

The Old Recipe Box

Thoughts on long books

~ MaryG ~ 12 Comments

What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time?

Now that nearly all my time is leisure time, I need to structure my days to get certain things done. Yesterday, I spent the whole day reading. I finished a 589-page book! I haven’t read a book that long in years. “Great Circle” by Maggie Shipstead is an epic, multi-generational work of historical fiction with two main characters living in different times. My book group is discussing it soon, so I needed to finish it, and I did. (Patting myself on the back)

I used to read long books more often. I think everyone did. GenXers, remember “Evergreen” by Belva Plain? That was 698 pages long and we read it for fun – in high school. It was not unusual to have a huge bestseller in that page range.

Now, with the distraction of smart phones, I think it’s harder to get through a very long book. My diminished eye sight might be a factor too. Reading glasses get annoying after awhile.

I know many people like to listen to books now, which is a good option. My problem is that I fall asleep and have to rewind. If I turn actual pages, I know I won’t miss anything.

What do you think about 500+ page books? Do you still have the attention span to get through them? Are they even a thing for the TikTok generation?

The original cover of Evergreen, copyright 1979

Related post:

It starts with the glasses

Museum controversy

~ MaryG ~ 3 Comments

List five things you do for fun.

I’m trying to think of how to not post a completely boring answer to this prompt, but I’ve got nothing. So here’s my boring, honest answer:

Go to movies

Sing in a choir

Blog

Read

Go to museums

I do have a museum story for you. When we were visiting the Greek Antiquities section in the Louvre in December, I saw a group of French school children (around age 8) gathered around a sculpture, listening intently to their teacher. From where I was standing, I could only see the back of the sculpture — a reclining woman.

What was so interesting about this sculpture? I mean, she has a lovely bum, but why the looks of amazement?

Then I walked around to the front.

“Hermaphrodite Endormi” (Sleeping hermaphrodite)

Oh, OK, now I get it.

I couldn’t help but think of the contrast with the US where a Florida principal got fired for allowing 12-year olds to be shown a photo of Michelangelo’s “David.” Parents said the quintessential Renaissance masterpiece was pornographic.

Rooster update

~ MaryG ~ 12 Comments
Bloganuary writing prompt
If you could make your pet understand one thing, what would it be?
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I don’t have a pet right now, so I’m going to use this prompt to update you on the chicken situation nextdoor. As you may recall, the new neighbors built a chicken coop (fine), but then they got a rooster. He squawked all day long, beginning before 6am. While there is no rooster bylaw in my town (roosters are not prohibited), it was a clear disturbance of the peace – MY peace specifically. (My early-rising husband said he liked the sound of the rooster and had no interest in reporting it. I was on my own.) After e-mailing the Town Manager and learning that technically the rooster was allowed, I contacted the Board of Health who informed me that I could file a “noise nuisance” complaint, which I did. The Board of Health spoke to the neighbor, but the rooster was not removed.

A couple weeks later, at a neighborhood Labor Day gathering, I brought up the rooster with key neighbors (a “Karen” skill for sure). They agreed that the bird is annoying and should be removed. I got a couple of them to formally complain to the Board of Health. The Board of Health came back to the neighborhood and then, one morning in September, I heard it: the Sound of Silence. Aaah. Order is restored to Suburbia.

Hopefully, the rooster is on a nice farm somewhere. The funny thing is that now his ex-girlfriends come over to visit, which is fine. They’re cute and quiet. The only potential problem (for them) is the neighborhood coyote.

The chickens from next door visiting my yard
Uh oh

Related posts:

Cricket

The sugar test

American Smiler

Mary the Badass

~ MaryG ~ 3 Comments

Write about your first name: its meaning, significance, etymology, etc.

I have the most common female name in the history of Western Civilization. Like many little Catholic girls in the 60s and 70s, this Mary got a second name tagged on. I posted about my double name here.

Now, as an ex-Catholic, the religious symbolism of my name isn’t terribly meaningful to me. However, when I gave birth to my son, with a midwife and no anesthesia, I remember thinking of Mary giving birth to Jesus in the manger. It’s basically ALL YOU, when you have natural childbirth. It’s hardcore and badass. I was in a hot tub, I got out, the midwife threw a blanket on me, and it happened (thanks to me)—the miracle of birth. Mary did that too. Her baby may or may not have been born to save of us all, but she gets MAJOR credit for birthing him in those conditions, with no anesthesia.

Mary the Badass with her big-headed baby. My son was also born in December and weighed 9 lbs, 1 oz at birth.

Related posts:

The Double Name

Mary had a little lamb