Personal Musings

Music sets Christmas apart

~ MaryG ~ 7 Comments

How do you celebrate holidays?

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter are the only holidays we reliably celebrate together as a family. Thanksgiving is food. Easter is church and food. Christmas is church, food, presents, and MUSIC.

Christmas music is special and I’ve always enjoyed it. When I was a kid, I liked learning carols on the piano and singing along. We actually went door-to-door Christmas caroling in my neighborhood a few times. I also liked the kitschy Christmas albums that pop stars would drop, especially the Carpenters’ Christmas Portrait.

In high school, our annual holiday concert was a beloved tradition. The highlight was the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah. Alumni were invited up on stage to sing it with the students. The Music Director, Mr. Phinney, was known to leave the podium and walk around behind the tenors to help them out on their big string of high notes.

I’ve performed Christmas music with many church, school, and community choirs over the years. In my current Unitarian Universalist (UU) church, we do a candlelight service on Christmas Eve. It concludes with everyone singing “Silent Night” in the darkened church as a real flame is passed from person to person. On the last verse, the piano drops out, many sing harmony, and everyone holds their lit candle high for the final “sleep in heavenly peace.” It’s a beautiful moment.

Me singing Christmas music with my high school Double Sextette, 1980s
Very old sheet music that I still keep handy in my piano bench

When you chuck the cookware too

~ MaryG ~ 7 Comments

Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail.

You know it’s a truly epic fail in the kitchen, when you not only have to throw out the food, but also the cookware.

I have a recollection of chucking a roasting pan, filled with burnt-on mess, into the garbage can. I cannot remember what I was trying to make, but it was clearly an epic fail. Perhaps I was angry with the pan and it could’ve been cleaned, but I deemed it unsalvageable at the time. Poor pan.

By the way, I successfully made The Silver Palate’s Chicken Marbella last night, with some assistance from my husband. (Chicken “quartering” was required.) This was my second attempt at this classic 80s dinner party entree.

The final result
Are you even GenX if you didn’t have a Silver Palate cookbook?

Life’s not fair, but justice is worth working for.

~ MaryG ~ 2 Comments

Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life.

Kids think things should be fair. Siblings, especially, are always going to their parents with equity gripes. “She got more” “ You like him better” “Why does she get to stay up later than me?” “How come he gets the last doughnut?”

The sooner you accept that life’s not fair, the easier it is.

Many people are born with tremendous disadvantages—from physical disabilities to impoverished circumstances. Others have horrible bouts of bad luck—from getting hit by drunk drivers to graduating high school amidst a world war or global pandemic.

Not only should you try to appreciate what you do have (because it’s more than a lot of people and it could change at any moment), but you should waste as little time as possible expecting things to be fair. They are not.

However, I believe it’s a worthy (and honestly, patriotic) goal to try improve truly inequitable circumstances for people.

“Liberty and justice for all” is going to take some real effort from all of us in the coming year. Voting is the least you can do! Here’s an organization I work with to increase voter turnout: https://votefwd.org/. We send handwritten letters to people encouraging them to get to the polls. It’s easy and fun to do with other people in groups.

Vote Forward letter writing pool party in Hollis, NH, July 2022

Sweet tooth

~ MaryG ~ 4 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What are your favorite types of foods?
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I don’t enjoy cooking much, or even really eating. I’m not a big foodie. I didn’t cook at all until I became a mother, and then it suddenly felt like part of the job description. One day, after my husband was back at work and I was home all day with the baby, I remember thinking, “I should really cook something for dinner.” Going to the grocery store with a baby was an adventure all its own. It could take hours just to get out the door with the grocery list, car seat, and well-rested, pre-fed, happy baby, dressed in appropriate clothing for the weather. Picking out the items, while seeing all those people, could be a fun morning activity, if everything went smoothly.

Despite not caring all that much about dinner, I’ve always loved desserts and sweet foods in general. As a kid, I would always order french toast in a breakfast restaurant – never eggs. When I was pregnant, I craved baked goods and had lengthy dreams about cakes, pies, brownies, cookies, congo bars and other bakery items. I’d wake up and have apple pie or carrot cake for breakfast, if we had it.

Now that I’m an empty-nester, I’ve been trying to make something a bit interesting for dinner about once a week–something beyond our usual standbys (roast chicken, turkey meatloaf, pasta and meat sauce). I’m finding I still gravitate to the recipes with a sweet ingredient or two. I made the NYT Cooking’s Skillet Meatballs With Peaches, Basil and Lime (weird, but good) and this week I will be attempting (for the second time), the Silver Palate’s Chicken Marbella. It contains both prunes and brown sugar, thereby addressing my sweet tooth.

If ever there was a GenX/Baby Boomer crossover recipe, Chicken Marbella is it. Many people love it. I’ve had it and liked it. But the first time I tried it, something went horribly wrong with the oregano. Wish me luck.

My version of Skillet Meatballs With Peaches, Basil and Lime

Walk, Don’t Run

~ MaryG ~ 5 Comments
Daily writing prompt
How often do you walk or run?
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I never run anymore, unless I really need to. Late for a plane, caught in the rain, small child fell into a pool, etc.

I try to close the green exercise ring on my Apple Watch every day and the easiest way to do it is to go for a 30+ minute walk. I usually go about two miles around the neighborhood and it takes 40 minutes or so.

My walks are weather-dependent. I don’t walk in rain. During Covid, I bought a full snow suit so I couldn’t use cold as an excuse not to walk.

Me in my winter walking “track suit” – purchased that first Covid winter

Moms Decide

~ MaryG ~ Leave a comment

Do you see yourself as a leader?

I don’t see myself as a leader, as much as a decisive person. I can make a decision. I don’t waffle much, for better or worse.

I have no direct reports at work, but I’m a respected individual contributor. When my kids were growing up, I worked part-time as a consultant and developed a specific area of expertise, which is still my field.

GenX and older might remember when President George W. Bush famously said “I’m the decider” in 2006, when the press was questioning him on the wisdom of keeping Don Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense.

Turns out it was a bad decision (in my opinion), but I borrowed W’s phrase many times in my life as a mom. It was my #1 answer to the never ending question: why do we have to go to swim practice? It was a nice alternative to the pre-Bush answer: “because I said so”

Swim meet, 2007

The Z Word

~ MaryG ~ 5 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What’s your favorite word?
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I am a church-goer, but not a Christian. For many years I have attended Unitarian Universalist (UU) churches in Massachusetts. Nearly every town has one. My #1 reason for going to church is to sing in the choir. My #2 reason is to hear a good sermon. I’ve been lucky to have some very smart ministers who consistently deliver thoughtful, interesting sermons.

My current minister opened the church year last Sunday (UU churches take summers off) talking about how she likes learning foreign words that have no real English equivalent. “Esperanza,” she said means both hope and waiting in Spanish. She said “expectancy” was the closest English equivalent.

That got me thinking about other words like that. In Italy, they say “prego” all the time. Sometimes they say it twice in a row – or even three times. It can mean anything from please, to what, to “after you.” On a trip to Italy in 2009, my family got a quadruple prego, which meant “hurry up and get on this bus NOW.”

There are a couple of German words that have made their way into English that I really like. One is “schadenfreude.” So fun to say. And I mean, let’s face it, Facebook basically required the adoption of “schadenfreude” into English. (Show me 67 pictures of your perfect family Thanksgiving and you’re setting yourself up for some schadenfreude. Sorry!) But the one I really love is ZEITGEIST. It’s SO fun to say and to think about. Something in the zeitgeist helped make Barbie the top-grossing movie of 2023. I wonder which new streaming shows will truly capture the zeitgeist of the 1980s?

My husband knows I like “zeitgeist” and texted me at work to let me know that Dana Bash had just used it on CNN. About what? Hunter Biden.

My family in Rome where we got a quadruple “prego”

Blueberry Mug Cake

~ MaryG ~ 11 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What are you doing this evening?
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Anyone who thought that Massachusetts was somehow exempt from the climate crisis (except for those hurricane-exposed coastal towns like Scituate), learned the truth this week. It’s coming for all of us.

We’ve been having incredibly heavy rains, thunderstorms, and floods. I couldn’t make it to a nearby town for a hair appointment last Friday because of downed trees, flooded roads, and non-functioning traffic lights. A town very near me, Leominster, is a total mess because of unbelievable, historic flooding from Monday’s storm. I grew up visiting cousins in Leominster, so these images are particularly upsetting. Leominster is inland Massachusetts!

Today we are again under an “Areal Flood Watch,” starting at 11am, until Thursday at 8am. I should really get outside for my walk now.

Anyhoo, I discovered an adorable and delicious dessert for one that you can make in about two minutes in your microwave. I have a feeling that I’ll be making another one of these tonight. Sharing the recipe and a few photos of the process. WARNING: do not make this dessert if you don’t have at least a little bit of vanilla ice cream on hand to top it off.

Recipe from the internet: thanks Pamela Reed, whoever you are
Step 1: mix it up in a mug
Step 2: nuke it for about 80 seconds and then let sit for a minute
Step 3: enjoy

The Irrational Streak

~ MaryG ~ 2 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What personality trait in people raises a red flag with you?
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Certain people, probably through no fault of their own, have an irrational streak. They occasionally react to something in a way that you just would not expect. That’s a red flag for me. If they react that way to THAT, what’s next? I lose faith in them as rational people.

That is not to say that I don’t like quirky people. Some are fantastic. It’s the person who takes offense at something that 99.9% of other people would not. For example, I work at a merged company. I mentioned to my boss that I successfully completed a project that focused more on one side of the organization (which was entirely appropriate and within my job description) and she said something like “it’s always about the [legacy entity], it can’t always be about them.” What?? Most people would have said “well done.” Red flag.

There was a person in one of the choirs that I sang with who got mad at the director over a changed set of musical instructions. “That’s not what you said” over and over. Red flag.

I realize that some people have mental health issues of which they’re probably aware and may even be trying to address with professional help, but the irrational streak scares me a bit. I keep those folks at arm’s length.

Nothing Terrible Happens

~ MaryG ~ 1 Comment
Daily writing prompt
Describe your ideal week.
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At age 58, my ideal week is one in which nothing terrible happens.

Twenty-two years ago today, several thousand Americans, including 343 NYC firefighters, went to work thinking it would be a normal Tuesday and never made it home. That was a horrible week.

No school shootings, no terrible floods, no massive fires, no acts of terrorism, no insurrections, no friends or family diagnosed with cancer, no pandemics, no big news at all. That’s ideal.

If I can also manage to close all three Activity Rings on my Apple Watch every day, that’s a bonus.

This is the award you get from Apple Watch for a “Perfect Week“