Iād be miraculously transported to Rome, with no airports, passports or wait times involved. (Beam me up, Scotty)
Iād spend the morning shopping on the Via del Corso and then head over to Trastevere for the afternoon. I would replace the buttery-soft, knee-length black leather coat that I bought on my semester abroad (which was subsequently stolen in NYC) and also get some new black leather gloves and whatever the heck else I want (itās a fantasy, right?)
My friend Andreada and me in NYC in 1988. This is the one and only picture of my Italian black leather coat. It was so soft. It got stolen that very night from my chair in a Manhattan bar.
Our first house was a somewhat dilapidated antique outside of Boston. It had a ācity yardā – about a quarter acre of rutted dirt and weeds. My husband Mario transformed it into an adorable garden and play area, complete with extensive stonework, including a patio and stone wall.
I take credit for none of it. He lifted all those rocks and pavers himself. Italians are known for their wonderful stonework. I think he got that gene. He also got the Italian āgreen thumbā gene.
My daughter driving her car on the stone patio, 1997ish
About 5 years later, my son on the same patio with the stonewall behind him
The patio was the perfect size for toddlers and their large plastic toys. I could watch them from my kitchen window.
Our late cat Kimba the White Lion on the stone wall
My husband grew all of these vegetables himself in that tiny yard one summer.
As Iāve mentioned, Iām a fan of fancy artisanal and European chocolates, but in terms of widely-available American candy, thereās one clear winner and itās Reeseās. The fact that the two flavors – milk chocolate and peanut butter – taste great together cannot be denied.
I donāt know which Don Draper/Madison Avenue ad agency came up with the original commercials, but they were genius.
1979 Reeseās TV commercial
I have memories of dipping chocolate bars into open jars of Skippy or Jif, just like in the ads. I also remember when Friendlyās came out with their jumbo peanut butter cup sundaes, which had both hot fudge and peanut butter sauce. They were amazing. Freshman year of college, my late friend Carla and I loved nothing better than smoking a joint, then sharing one of those babies at our neighborhood Friendlyās. They definitely contributed to my freshman 15. (Somehow Carla never gained an ounce.)
The Friendlyās Peanut Butter Cup Sundae
Judging from the trick-or-treaters I got this past Halloween, Reeseās have not lost their appeal. They were gone first from my offerings – and I had extras. Again and again, they were chosen over KitKats, Snickers, plain Hershey bars, and White Chocolate with Oreo (Cookies nā Creme) bars.
Thank goodness my tree nut allergy does not include peanuts, which are technically legumes.
I also give two thumbs up to the new Netflix documentary āThe Greatest Night in Pop.ā Itās about the night they recorded We Are the World in 1985, which won Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson a Grammy for best song.
A seated Joni Mitchell performing Both Sides Now, with Brandi Carlile and other musicians at the Grammys last night š
GenX icon Tracy Chapman, age 59, singing āFast Carā at the 2024 Grammy Awards
This blog has been more about looking back.āNostalgia.āTurning 50 will do that. At 50, you know that your life is likely more than half over.āOnly 0.02% of people in the United States live to be 100.
Now, with 50 in the rear view and 60 fast approaching, I’m paying much more attention to what older people are doing, rather than trying to keep up with the latest trends.ā(One of the great things about leaving my job in November was that I never had to learn the new software tool that they were about to roll out.āIt was supposedly going to make things easier, but was already causing fights.)
Yes, there are many hardships in aging, particularly health-related ones, and all the losses–friends, parents, spouses.āIf you were lucky and never felt true, aching grief before age 50, it’s coming and there’s really nothing you can do to prepare for it.
So, I was basically ABC’s target audience for The Golden Bachelor.āI am not a card-carrying member of “Bachelor Nation,” but I did watch a couple seasons early on.āI was captivated by Trista, the very first Bachelorette who is now 51(!) and happily married to Ryan, the guy she met on the show. I watched their wedding on live TV twenty years ago.āThe intervening seasons did not interest me, especially when the son of a friend was cast and I learned a bit about what goes on behind the scenes.āSpoiler alert: nothing is real. All the situations are staged.
STILL, I could not resist The Golden Bachelor, which featured 72-year old widower Gerry and twenty-two women over 60 competing for his love.āMany, including the “winner” Theresa (a widow), were over 70.āYes, there was a lot of cringe.āYet, I cried at Gerry & Theresa’s televised wedding last night.āWhen their daughters spoke about how they wanted their parents to find happiness again, after such profound sorrow.āTheresa’s daughter urged her mother to “put him first,” which seemed so generous given that Theresa is a highly-involved grandmother. The other thing that was inspiring was the (seemingly) real comraderie between the women. Even the runner-up (for lack of a better word), seemed truly happy to “celebrate love.”
So, thanks ABC.āLooking back can be fun, but as Theresa said at one point, “there’s always something to look forward to.”
One challenge I have is being unproductive. Iām lazy by nature. I can sit on my sofa for hours in the morning – drinking coffee and doing things on my phone or laptop. Winter tends to exacerbate this inertia problem.
Now that Iām not working, and the holidays are over, Iām going to have to create a more productive morning routine.
Iāll get on that – tomorrow.
My husband and I had a good laugh about this painting by John Singer Sargent at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Itās called āNonchaloirā or Repose. Letās just say, I couldāve been Sargentās model for this one.
Happy 2024 to all.
I caught the last hour of GenXers Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen getting drunk on live TV. This segment, when John Mayer calls in from a cat cafe in Tokyo, is just great live television. š
OK, I cheated and googled it. A fantastic photo journey through 1965 from The Atlantic came up. Check it out here.
The eldest members of Generation X arrived in a big year – Selma, Vietnam, The Beatles, the first moon walk, the Voting Rights Act. I did not know that Winston Churchill died in 1965, or that the US occupied the Dominican Republic that year.
Now Iāll admit to a horribly vain thing that I do: I keep track of a select list of female celebrities – born in 1965 – for the sole purpose of watching them age and comparing myself to them. Iāll literally pause a TV show and ask my husband if Sarah Jessica Parker looks older or younger than me. He knows the right answer is always āabout the same as you.ā You donāt stay married for 30+ years without learning basic shit.
Hereās my āborn in 1965ā vanity comparison list with birthdays. I was born in June, so Iām within 6 months of each of them.
Kyra Sedgwick, 8/19
Diane Lane, 1/22
Sarah Jessica Parker, 3/25
Elizabeth Hurley, 6/10
Brooke Shields, 5/31
Kristin Davis, 2/23
Paulina Porizkova, 4/9
Viola Davis, 8/11
Julia Ormond, 1/4
Maura Tierney, 2/3
Marlee Matlin, 8/24
Shania Twain, 8/28
Linda Evangelista, 5/10
I seem to have a special fondness for my fellow GenX Gemini, Brooke Shields. (She was looking at colleges the same time I was and visited some of the same schools.) I really enjoyed the recent documentary about her (Pretty Baby). Sheās keepin it real and, in my opinion, looks better than ever.
Wow, tough prompt.āThere are different kinds of happiness.āThere’s contentment, relief, satisfaction, pure joy, thrill, etc.āI was relieved when I woke up in my warm bed this morning and realized again (re-realized?) that someone I truly dislike is out of my life forever.āAhhhhh.
I’m content sitting here looking at my beautiful December delivery from BloomsyBox.com.āI’ll be satisfied when we finish our Christmas puzzle, but – horror or horrors – it appears that a piece may have disappeared into the vaccum cleaner.āLifting up my voice with others in song is pure joy, especially when I feel like our choir is really nailing it and the congregation responds.āTravel can be thrilling.āMy very first glimpse of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris from the taxi on the way to the hotel was a thrill.āThere it was – the real thing.
My first glimpse of the Arc de Triomphe from a Paris taxi was a thrill. Now that I look at photo, Iām remembering our driver was named Clovis and was French-Haitian. He had some interesting objects hanging from his rear view mirror.
But there’s nothing quite like laughter – tears in your eyes laughter – to really make you feel happy.āHere’s where I admit that I enjoy smoking weed, always have.āI have so many great memories of smoking a joint and giggling with my dear departed friend Carla.āLooking into her big beautiful eyes and just cracking up about something.āI’m not saying I need weed to laugh helplessly, but it does tend to have that effect on me.āMost recently, I smoked (well, vaped) and watched a really funny Netflix stand-up comedy special by Pete Holmes (whom I’d never heard of before) and laughed out loud.āWhite, straight, male stand-up comedians can go either way for me – I either hate them or I love them.āHolmes has a modern, silly, interesting male perspective and goes a bit deep on things like God and atheism. Plus, he’s got some absolutley hysterical GenX bits, including one about the old “See and Say” toy we all had.āCheck it out.āHigh or not. Hopefully, youāll LOL like I did.
What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever found (and kept)?
At work last summer, I found my entire teamsā salaries (including mine) in the office printer. They were just sitting there ā for hours ā before I finally looked to see what they were.
I kept the paper for future reference.
Knowing that I was underpaid in relation to some less experienced colleagues made my decision to resign this week a bit easier.
Iām pretty sure this is a GenX and older problem. Nobody younger than 40 would ever print out a sheet of salaries ā or really anything for that matter.
Itās not 2013 anymore. GenX (including me) needs to quit printing stuff.
Who is the most famous or infamous person you have ever met?
In 2016, I had lunch with Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer, and his pit bull Junior.
I was getting my lunch at a food truck in Bostonās Christian Science Plaza when I noticed someone asking for a pic with the guy in front of me. I soon figured out it was Cesar Millan, as we had watched his show, Dog Whisperer, many times when we had Teddy.
We sat near each other on a bench and chatted while we ate our lunches. Junior sat at Cesarās side. Junior is a large and terrifying looking American Pit Bull with wicked eyes, but he was wearing a service dog vest and I figured there was absolutely no way that the Dog Whispererās dog would bite me. Theoretically heās the best trained dog in America. So I relaxed.
I found Cesar to be a very open and warm person. He told me he grew up on his grandfatherās farm in Mexico with lots of dogs. They were very poor. He came to the USA looking for a better life, crossing over the border illegally. He said, āI was a wetback.ā Once in LA, he became a sought-after celebrity dog walker, which eventually led to a story in The Los Angeles Times. This eventually led to his wildly successful TV show, which ran on the National Geographic channel from 2004 – 2011.
In 2016, when I met him, he had fallen on somewhat hard times. A wildly expensive divorce and some unscrupulous management had cost him a lot. He was in Boston to do a live stage version of his show in a second-rate venue north of the city. He had a good attitude about it though. He seemed to believe that everything happens for a reason. He had learned to be careful who you trust.
When I got back to the office after lunch, my coworker Tracy, who had declined my invitation to go to the food trucks, was incredulous. She couldnāt believe she had missed the opportunity to meet Cesar Millan! It was pretty funny.
Cesar Millan and me in Boston in July 2016 ā just a couple of GenXers hanging out š
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