Your life without a computer: what does it look like?
My life without a computer looks like a vacation. I can go a full week without my laptop. I can do almost everything I need to do (including responding to this prompt) on my phone – except work. And I can even do some work on my phone, including e-mail & calendar, accessing our CRM system, and Workday (our HR system). There’s an app for just about everything now.
However, my life without a phone would be very different.
And by “phone,” I mean a tiny powerful smartphone that reportedly could be used to guide more than 120 million Apollo-era spacecraft to the moon — all at the same time.
I have studied French, Italian and a bit of Spanish, but never became truly fluent in any of them. It would be great to speak a second language really well.
I’m currently using the Mango app (on my phone), which is free with your public library card, to study French. I recommend it. It’s easy to use and way less annoying than DuoLingo!
I think I’m past the age of worrying too much about the details. For years, I felt like I had to be on top of all the details of everybody’s lives. From toddler meals to travel basketball to college applications — the family schedule was a big deal. If you messed up, someone ate something that they were allergic to, or an important event was missed, or someone got left waiting outside in the cold.
One good thing about being an empty nester is that your time is bascially your own, outside of work.
Now, I’m more about the big picture. The “details” I care about are the optional ones that make life more meaningful like catching up with a friend, seeing a performance, talking with my book group, or traveling someplace with my husband.
I’ve had two friends (my age) recently tell me that they prefer spontaneous, rather than planned, get togethers. They don’t like putting things on the calendar way ahead and then having to cancel or reschedule because someone is sick or whatever. I can see their point. Although I’m still basically a planner, I will call or text people last-minute if I’m nearby.
They say the “devil is in the details,” so screw the details. Just do what you want, with people you like, whenever you can.
Sadly, this advice does not apply to young parents. You have to put your kids first for at least 18 years, but you’ll be shocked at how fast that goes by.
I went to summer day camp with a neighborhood friend when we were about 10. On the last day, the counselors gave each child a superlative award: “MOST (something)”
My friend Carolyn, who I knew adults found challenging but was very creative, got “Most INQUISITIVE.” I remember thinking: is that their way of saying “biggest pain in the neck?”
I got “Most DEPENDABLE.” Huh, was that their way of saying I was good, but boring?
In any case, I am dependable and always have been. I do what I say I’ll do. The trick is to get me to agree to do it. I’m also pretty good at saying no.
Our neighborhood dressed up as the Red Sox for Halloween in 1975 . Carolyn & I are top left. I was Luis Tiant. She was whichever player wore his hat down over his eyes a lot. Maybe Butch Hobson? Our shirts said “Wait Til Next Year.” We waited 29 more years til they won the World Series.
List three jobs you’d consider pursuing if money didn’t matter.
Three jobs that sound fun to me are fragrance tester, ice cream taster, and street photographer.
Perhaps I’ll pursue one of these when I retire, although I bet they want people with younger senses for the first two.
So maybe I’ll look into street photography. I recently attended a talk by Izzy Rodriguez, a Providence street photographer and it made me remember how I had liked it once.
I took a photography class for fun in the late 80s at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. I enjoyed going out on the streets of Boston with my camera. It was a 35mm Canon. I developed and printed the film in class. Here are some photos that I took. These people were all strangers to me, except the last one is my sister.
This one is my favorite. The girls were just pretending to talk on the phones – playing grownup.Boston’s famous “Make Way for Ducklings” ducks My sister
My husband and I recently cleaned out our attic and ended up selling both of our vinyl record collections to a local record dealer. It was sad, but they were getting warped in the attic and we don’t even have a turntable anymore. His albums were worth more than mine because he had a lot of obscure hardcore/punk and niche local bands. Mine were mostly pop, with some Broadway mixed in.
Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors and Carole King’s Tapestry were two that I really hated to give away, because I loved all the songs and the cover photos. But the album that I think I’ve listened to more than any other is Bob Marley Legend, which is basically a compilation of his greatest hits.
It came out in 1984 and was a college staple for me. Ten years later, we danced to “Is this Love” at our wedding reception and just recently listened to it for the umpteenth time on a short road trip. It has withstood thetest of time!
So rise up this mornin’ and smile with the risin’ sun, cuz every little thing gonna be alright GenX. We’re good.
Addendum: My husband, who is a couple years older, would choose The Clash’s London Calling.
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, 1980sVery old sheet music that I still keep handy in my piano bench
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 resultAre you even GenX if you didn’t have a Silver Palate cookbook?
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
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
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