If I were describing myself to someone who doesn’t know me, but had to pick me up at the airport, I’d say: I’m a tall woman with a red (or whatever color) shirt or jacket.
I’m 5 ft 8.5 in, so I’m not WNBA tall, but I’m taller than most women and some men. I usually avoid wearing heels, wedges, or stacked shoes. I don’t like towering over people.
Two places I’ve visited where I did not feel particularly tall are Chicago and Helsinki (Finland). Are they taller in the Midwest and Scandinavia? Maybe.
Me in very cold Helsinki, January 1987
Frozen harbor in Helsinki, January 1987
Women were tall and fur-clad in Finland. It wasn’t unusual to see a woman in a fox stole with the face and paws still attached. These pelts were for sale on the street in Helsinki. I didn’t buy one.
When I left my job in November, I got a lot of the usual stuff (“it’s been great working with you, you’ll be missed,” etc), but a few people reached out with specific compliments that I truly appreciated. One of my colleagues from way back wrote: “I’m so glad we worked together in my early career. I learned a lot from you that I still use.” This woman is now the Executive Director of a terrific nonprofit organization, so I was very happy to hear that I had taught her a useful thing or two.
I try to pay others specific compliments when I can. I think people like to know that they’ve somehow made a difference.
If we’re talking about my country (the U.S), I’m going on an airplane. The days when I may have fantasized about doing a Jack Kerouac/Hunter S. Thompson/Bob Dylan/Route 66 Great American Road Trip are over. It always sounded cool and like something you should do at least once in your life, but I never did it. I once drove from Massachusetts to Florida with a boyfriend. We had no particular plan. It was spring break and we just wanted to get warm, so we headed south. I think we made it to Daytona Beach before heading back.
Driving all the way to California from Massachusetts would’ve been a great adventure in my twenties, but I won’t be adding it to my bucket list now. I’m too old for that shit. And a bus would be even worse.
Actually, my mother took a bus from Massachusetts to California with two of her friends (one from high school and one from college) in 1960, between her junior and senior year of college. This was before women could get birth control or hold a credit card in their own name. They got jobs in Los Angeles and stayed for the whole summer, then took the bus back. They just wanted to see the country and have an adventure. I’ve always been impressed that my grandmother allowed her to plan that trip and that she had the guts to go.
Los Angeles in 1959 (photo by Railroad Jack on Flickr)My mother in the 1950s
I suppose you could take a train across the United States, but nobody I know has done that, so perhaps it’s not that great of an experience.
Six years after my mother’s adventure, I was born. Two years after that, Peter, Paul and Mary wrote Leaving on a Jet Plane. I always loved that song.
My entrepreneurial daughter has a quiet confidence beyond her years. She’s not a loud extrovert (that’s more my lane), but she knows herself and what she wants, and focuses on it calmly and deliberately.
She’s in her late twenties and holds down a full-time (remote) job in the biotech industry and runs her own business.
After college, she took her passion for astrology and turned it into a legitimate, profitable business, including all the necessary paperwork like setting up an LLC. Her business is successful because of her hard work and creativity. I’m always impressed with the way she speaks so clearly and confidently in her videos.
If you’re into astrology, check her out on Instagram or TikTok (@lunarxluci).
She and her boyfriend were able to buy a house last year, because of their hard work and determination.
I take no credit. I’m not entrepreneurial. She really did it all on her own. I did read her a lot of books when she was little. She especially loved Dr. Seuss. The Cat in the Hat was one of her all-time favorites. She called him “hat cat.”
Come to think of it, Cat in the Hat was a confident, creative, multitasker…maybe he had an influence?
In case you’re curious, I’m a Gemini ♊️ and she’s an Aquarius ♒️.
My strategy depends on the particular shade of negativity I’m experiencing.
Since 2016, I’ve been mad – a lot. Anger can be channeled into productivity, but sometimes it needs to be unleashed. I find swearing to be one of the best ways to deal with anger. Sometimes (usually after watching the news), I let rip a loud string of F-bombs and then I can move on. Thank goodness my husband and I are 100% in agreement on politics. I don’t know how anyone is surviving in a politically “mixed marriage” at this point.
Do you remember when Trump visited Scotland in 2016? The coverage of their reaction was the absolute best. Does any other brand of English-speakers curse more creatively than the Scots? I don’t fucking think so.
It’s when we get our first good look at the snowplow damage.
Now that I have extra time and fewer obligations (no job, no kids at home), I’ve been enjoying cooking more. I wouldn’t exactly say I “lose myself” in it, but I’ve been enjoying eating what I make a lot more, especially if it’s something new and different. In my opinion, a glass of wine or a bit of weed before dinner will enhance your savoring experience. Taste the flavors, enjoy them, eat SLOWLY.
I recently shared some soups and stews from New York Times Cooking. I have one more for you. It’s similar to the Tortellini Soup, but it adds chicken (so it’s heartier) and is made in the crockpot, rather than the Dutch Oven (Le Creuset). It’s easy and good. NYT recipe attached (for free). My only note would be to avoid “Muir Glen” canned tomatoes. They just don’t taste as good as some of the other brands.
As an adult, I’ve not been a big re-watcher of movies, or re-reader of books for that matter. Once is usually enough. Sometimes, if I really like a movie, I’ll see it twice in a movie theater. As an adult, I saw both Good Will Hunting and Barbie twice on the big screen.
As a kid, I watched a few movies five or more times. Other than Star Wars, they were all musicals:
Sound of Music (1965)
Leisl and Rolf in the gazebo
Stars Wars (the original 1977 film)
Grease (1978)
Hair (1979)
For the musicals, I also bought the soundtrack albums, so I could listen to them over and over, and act them out with my neighborhood friends. I remember fights over whose turn it was to be Liesl (from Sound of Music) and whose brother could be roped into playing her Nazi boyfriend Rolf. Unfortunately, nobody in the neighborhood had a gazebo, so we had to act that one out by jumping on and off living room sofas. (I am 16… going on 17…thud)
For Star Wars, I bought the sheet music for the main theme by the great John Williams and learned to play it on the piano. I still have it.
I had to pencil in the base notes, because they fell so far from below the staff lines.
Has a more perfect movie theme ever been composed? Are you really even GenX if this piece of music doesn’t give you at least a couple of goosebumps?
No, I’m not superstitious, but my grandmother Lena was. She was an “Old World” Italian-American. She used to say something about dragonflies. I think it was that they would sew your ears shut, if you were bad (or maybe if you lied).
It’s funny, because I’ve always liked dragonflies, but from just one Google search, I see that there are tons of superstitions around them, many involving sewing things shut. I guess they do resemble sewing needles a bit.
I have a dragonfly necklace, dragonfly Christmas ornaments, and more than one dragonfly pin. I like how they look as if one randomly landed on your shirt or jacket.
My favorite dragonfly pin
And how about those dragonfly ornithopters in Dune: Part Two? Those were cool!
Congratulations! We made it to the big ten-oh. I hope 2065 is treating us well and that we haven’t run out of money. Seriously, we’ve lived 8 years longer than our financial planner modeled. (I hope I didn’t fuck us by retiring at 58.)
In case you’ve forgotten, 2024 was quite a year. If the United States is now a dictatorship under Baron Trump, it’s not due to lack of effort on our part. We worked hard to try to stop his wretched orange father from overturning democracy.
Here we our with our activist friends in 2024
Hopefully things took a turn for the better in 2025—the year we turned 60. Hopefully. Fingers crossed that we get to go out on a high note.
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