the me files

A.M. ride

by mayberry on September 7, 2011

Dear Wednesday weather,
WTG!

Warmly,
MM

*

Dear people who left a flat-screen TV on the curb,
Really? You broke it already? If so, let me Google that for you.

Your hippie friend,
MM

*

Dear leathery jogger,
Maybe look into some sunscreen? Or perhaps it’s too late.

With concern,
MM

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Dear aggrieved driver,
I have the same right as you do to be on this road. So back off.

Sincerely,
The mom on the bike

P.S. Here’s a thought: Contact your alderman and demand more bike lanes. Then we both win.

*

Dear Rails to Trails,
You are awesome.

Thankfully,
MM

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Dear lake,
You are pretty. But you also, um, smell. Something you ate?

Your friend,
MM

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Dear roundabout,
Remember when you scarred me for life? Good times!

Still a little mad,
MM

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Dear me,
I’m glad you talked me (you? myself? I?) into a bike ride instead of the treadmill today.

Love,
You know who

*

Dear Mom,
I’m so glad you retired so you would have time to make peach jam and bring me a jar so I could have it on some toast after my bike ride.

Love,
Your favorite daughter and grammar expert

{ 2 comments }

Feet first

by mayberry on January 5, 2011

Sometime last month, one of favorite socks developed a big hole in the heel.

And there’s my winning entry for “most boring opening line of 2011″!

There is a definite pecking order in my sock drawer. Some are just better than others. They are softer, warmer, not too thick and not too thin. They don’t feel scratchy or bunch up under the arch of my foot. Many of them are from a batch I bought a year or two ago. So of course when I found the hole I thought “but these are NEW! Oh, the injustice!”

Two days after Christmas, when we went to the mall to exchange a few gifts and spend a few gift cards, I treated myself to six new pairs of socks. Six! I know! It gave me the same feeling I get when I finally bother to remove the chipped polish from my toes and put on a fresh coat.

That feeling, I have come to realize, is that I am human. Those comfortable, hole-free socks; those neatly polished toes–they remind me that I spent a few minutes and a few dollars on myself, just because I can and I should.

And you should too.

(Next up: Wantonly throwing the disliked socks into the rag bag!)

{ 9 comments }

On 2010

by mayberry on December 31, 2010

Thought I’d take a stab at the recap that’s making the rounds.

1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?

Played kickball in the snow. Got a smartphone. Dug through a Dumpster looking for my child’s retainer. Put up a vlog post. Turned 40. Spoke at BlogHer. Watched my sister get married. Went to Disneyland. Stuffed a freshly killed goose and duck into my refrigerator. Did some work as a social media consultant.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Ix-nay on the resolutions. I don’t like to set myself up for failure.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Friends, but no family members.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Thankfully, no.

5. What countries did you visit?

Just the US of A.

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?

How about a Starbucks card that never runs out? Because I like to dream big.

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

Not counting birthdays and anniversaries: August 13, my sister’s wedding, and September 1, the first day of kindergarten.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Probably when I stuffed that goose in my fridge, right? Actually, I think it was completing the Couch to 5K program. That felt really good, since I’ve never ever considered myself a runner.

9. What was your biggest failure?

I wish I had accomplished more with my fitness site. I’m happy with the quality of what’s there, but I’d like a lot more of it.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Not really. That first mammogram felt injurious, even though I know it wasn’t.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Best big thing was our canoe. Best little thing was my weekly Starbucks date with Jo.

12. Where did most of your money go?

Feels like: Best Buy, iTunes, figure skating team, Delta Airlines

Actually: bills and savings

13. What did you get really excited about?

The month of August–BlogHer, the wedding, and Disneyland, all in two weeks. Solo trips to Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago. Yoga in the park during BlogHer. Staying home for Christmas.

14. What song will always remind you of 2010?

“Hey Soul Sister” by Train.

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:

– happier or sadder? The same.
– thinner or fatter? The same.
– richer or poorer? I didn’t earn as much of my own dough, but we came out about even.

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Writing. Here, there, and everywhere.

17. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Being angry about stuff I can’t change.

18. How did you spend Christmas?

At home with my family, my parents, my siblings and their spouses. Vegan raviolis FTW!

19. What was your favorite TV program?

Probably Top Chef.

20. What were your favorite books of the year?

Two memoirs: My Life in France by Julia Child and The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper. Best fiction: The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti.

21. What was your favorite music from this year?

The only thing I listen to in the car is the Suzuki cello CD. Overandoverandoverandoveragain.

22. What were your favorite films of the year?

Uh, Tangled?

23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

40! Went out for drinks with friends.

24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

How about, a book deal? (That’s presuming I wrote a proposal and shopped it, which I didn’t.)

25. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?

“At least try to accessorize”

26. What kept you sane?

Family, friends, yoga.

27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.

Just go ahead and buy the new socks.

{ 5 comments }

Salutation Nation NYC

by mayberry on August 24, 2010

Because I am a yoga nerd, I was unreasonably excited to learn that on the Saturday morning of BlogHer, Lululemon would be hosting a free yoga class in Bryant Park. A whole new and different kind of squeee.

So I trotted down 6th Avenue at the appointed hour, and it was perfect. It was sunny and warm, but not too hot or humid. The sky was beautifully blue. There were lots of people, but plenty of room. In front of me was a woman who had to be at least 75 years old, pushing one of those old lady shopping carts. Her hair was dyed bright red and she wore a leotard and tights under her clothing. After the class she sipped water from an old bottle of ibuprofen.

Two celebrity Jivamukti teachers, Dechen Thurman (yup, same Thurman) and Matthew Lombardo, led the class from the same stage that plays host to Monday night movies in the park. But down on the grass were two dozen more teachers (see the group in yellow, second photo) who circulated among the students to give corrections and adjustments.

Normally, I take class in a small, windowless room with one teacher and no more than 10 other students. And I love it. But being outside, in a large group, is really special, and not just because we were encouraged many times to share our energy with those around us (so not why I practice yoga). And hands-on correction from teachers who know what they are doing is like getting a really, really good massage. A short massage. But still.

After the class was over (60 minutes flew by) and I was rolling up my mat to leave, a butterfly landed gently on my neighbor’s mat. Everyone admired it, and then it fluttered away. And I walked back up 6th Avenue to the Hilton.

P.S. If you’re curious about what it takes to become a yoga teacher (I was), I just posted an interview with a friend who’s in training.

{ 4 comments }

40 in 40

by mayberry on July 9, 2010

childhood college dream
job worked for pennies lived
in city wrote book

fell in love bought first
home added dog marriage kid
moved had second kid

new blog quit job self
employed pregnant not pregnant
found support asked what’s

next.

{ 13 comments }

The right fit

by mayberry on April 19, 2010

One of my favorite tasks as a magazine editor was copyfitting. As an issue of the magazine came together, a printed copy of each page or multi-page article was circulated among the staff. The assigning editor checked her pages for errors and also usually had to cut or fill so that the text would fit properly on the page.

I woke up the other day thinking about how much I liked doing that (I must have been having a flashback dream). It’s like a good word game. While retaining the meaning and intent of a passage, you must add,  subtract, or change just the right number of words  to fill the space without causing a dreaded widow or orphan. Plus, at the time, we did this on paper. So we got to use cool proofreaders’ marks.

What can I say? I am a word nerd. I recently took over editing and publishing our school’s monthly newsletter. It’s in a two-column format, so I returned to my old widow- and orphan-hunting roots. And I put everything in the same font. This revolutionary change earned me more than one heartfelt appreciation from a fellow parent.

We word nerds know a fellow traveler when we see one.

{ 12 comments }

Captain Obvious joins Facebook

by mayberry on March 25, 2010

I resisted Facebook for a long time. Mostly for the time suck factor, and partly because I was still holding a grudge about the breastfeeding thing. I finally succumbed late last year, under pressure from several family members and friends, as well as my own admission that I needed to use FB to help promote my fitness site.

Now that I’m there, I feel like I’ve stepped into a huge parallel world that I didn’t even know existed. The people, the lingo, the games–it’s like it’s related to the IRL world, but not quite. I discover new things (some savory, some not-so-) about people I’ve known for years and people I just met. I have relationships with people on FB that are completely different from those relationships outside of FB: I’m chatting far more often than I have in years with a friend from my NJ/NYC days, because we play Lexulous all the time. I had a nice conversation with a high school friend about his life as a stay-at-home dad. I keep up with a mom I knew from Jo’s school whose kids have since transferred to another building. I’ve learned about deaths, divorces, and new babies among my circle of acquaintances.

It’s odd. And it’s time-sucking. But so far, I’m clicking the “Like” button.

{ 10 comments }

Many fitting rooms later

by mayberry on March 22, 2010

I came back from visiting my sister with a new pair of jeans. And she also picked herself up a wedding dress. That right there is some successful shopping, wouldn’t you agree? If only one of us had bought a bathing suit: trifecta!

I spent the whole day on Saturday with my sister, my mom, and my sister’s future mother- and sister-in-law, looking for my sister’s wedding gown. My sister surprised us all by rejecting many dresses for insufficient bling. This is a woman who wears steel-toed boots to work every day and who, even when she’s not working, is extremely practical and down-to-earth (ha! because she’s a gardener! I kill me). She is most certainly not without style, but she’s never been one for frippery and bows. Plus, she’s getting married outdoors, on the side of a mountain, in August. That didn’t scream “20-foot train” or “lace, crystals, and lacy crystals” to me.

So she kept trying on ruffly, lacy, bedazzled dresses. They were all beautiful and she looked beautiful in them. But she didn’t start crying until she put on a simple dress that made up for its lack of sparkle with its understated elegance and delicate details. The. One!

Given the nature of our errand, we five spent the whole day talking about weddings. My mom recalled the time she had to wear a super-fitted silk sheath for a bridesmaid’s dress … days after getting a thigh-high cast off her leg. I remembered having a velvet bridesmaid’s dress that I couldn’t sit down in all day before the ceremony, because otherwise I’d get a crushed velvet butt-print on my back side. My sister’s future sister-in-law and her then-fiance reworked her grandmother’s wedding dress together, including hand-sewing beads and lace on the hem. How cute is that?

What’s the story you end up telling and retelling about your wedding, or one you attended? (The other one I trot out often is The Time the Caterer Ran Out of Food–and then accused the guests, of which I was one hungry one, of eating too much.)

(You can read about me geeking out over my smartphone during the trip over here, if you like.)

Edited to add: Magpie Musing and Painted Maypole played along at their blogs … don’t miss their tales of Weddings Gone Wrong.

{ 14 comments }

Pain in the cranium

by mayberry on October 4, 2009

I have had headaches almost as long as I can remember. As a tween/teen/young adult, I saw general practitioners, neurologists, dentists, rheumatologists, and gynecologists. I got X-rays and MRIs and answered, ad nauseam, the question “on a scale of one to 10, how painful is your headache right now?” I was variously diagnosed (and then undiagnosed) with conditions ranging from TMJ to lupus. There was nothing to see or quantify objectively. I was treated with painkillers, antidepressants, and biofeedback therapy.

Nothing really worked. Things got a little better, life went on. Until I started having babies. With each successive pregnancy (and with every cycle in between), the headaches got worse and worse, and were enhanced with a heaping dose of nausea, lightheadedness, exhaustion, and heartburn (you know, the fun stuff that pregnant women get to enjoy anyway). My doctor smiled ruefully and handed me some T3s. Those don’t work, by the way. Neither did acupuncture.

Nowadays, my head hurts during PMS week and then any other time that routine deviates even slightly from the norm: a little too much work/not enough sleep; travel beyond a 100-mile radius from home; two glasses of wine instead of one. Today I’m at the tail end of a 10-or-so-day span, and that’s after I took one of those aforementioned T3s and slept for 11 hours straight. (Sleep usually is the only remedy.)

I’m not sure what the point of this whine is except to say that it’s hard to think of much else when I’m in the clutches of one of these headaches. I wasn’t going to write about it, on Captain Obvious grounds. Then I heard about this. Son of a …. scooped again. (And no, I haven’t tried Vicodin, only because I know that narcotics make me feel even crappier than I started out feeling.)

{ 8 comments }

Where my kitchen laziness comes from

by mayberry on September 27, 2009

We had tacos for dinner the other night and I flashed back to the many (many, many) times I ate them as a kid. Tacos, made with the Ortega mix, were one of those family meals I could prepare myself. My husband, by the way, was astonished to learn that I used to cook dinner for my entire family. I did, but the only dishes I can recall making are the ones that involve hamburger. Aside from the tacos, there were two specialties from the Minute Rice Cookbook which, even back in the day, seemed totally outdated and, well, gross. We still ate them all the time. (Also, I should note here that my mother is actually a really good cook.)

Number one: porcupine balls. I’m serious. These were not, you know, actual testicles. They were large meatballs studded (ha!) with grains of Minute Rice.

Number two: Cherokee casserole. Again, no actual Native Americans among the ingredients. Just hamburger, rice, and some kind of spices/flavorings, chief (HA!) among which was the whole bay leaf. It was, of course, a special treat to be the one who found the bay leaf in your portion. Here’s a recipe which reminds me that oh, god, I forgot about the cream of mushroom soup. Also that particular recipe has black olives, which: No.

{ 13 comments }

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