10 Tips For Creating Happiness During A Hurricane

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Judi

I decided that after being rattled this week by the earthquake and now readying for a major hurricane, that it is time to figure out a way to create happiness during this upcoming weekend. I am expecting a full house with my daughter A on her way home from NYC and my son D, who is still at home for the summer too (luckily I don’t have to drive him back to school this weekend.)

Here’s my 10 tips for how I am going to stay happy for the next two days. If you have any other happiness tips to share, please leave a comment:

1. Take a relaxing bath: I’m going to add some of my wonderful lemon bath salts, that I buy at Whole Foods and mix with epsom salts, to my bath water. It smells so fragrant and helps me de-stress. Ooh, ooh, ooh, I just found this recipe for lavendar bath salts on the Whole Foods website and I have most of the ingredients too. Maybe I will use the lemon salts in the morning and take another bath with lavendar in the evening.

2. Buy some fresh flowers to decorate my house: Fresh cut flowers make me happy. If I’m going to be cooped up in the house all weekend, I want some pretty flowers to look at. If the lights go out I’ll just shine a flashlight on them.

3. Bake some chocolate chip cookies: I love the smell of chocolate chip cookies when they are baking in the oven. Eating warm chocolate chip cookies with a tall glass of cold milk definitely will make me happy. Sure hope the electric doesn’t blow so I can have that cold glass of milk.

4. Light up my life with fragrant candles: I did find my flashlight (like my son D directed me to find) and it does have working batteries. However, when the batteries die, and they will, I will light some lovely candles and put them in my family room and in my bathroom too. I will be very careful and only keep the candles burning while I am in the room.

5. Read my September issues of Vogue and InStyle: Yes, yes, yes – pure happiness is reading all 1400 pages of fall fashion editorial and advertisements. These mags will keep me busy all weekend.

6. Go buy some new stylish rain boots before the rain comes on Saturday: I’ll likely need rain boots to splash around in all the puddles that will surround my house on Sunday after the hurricane passes. Such fun I will have splashing in puddles…happy, happy, happy.

7. Watch “Singing in the Rain”- a perfect movie for a very rainy day. Gene Kelly movies make me happy and I just may sing along. Hope it is available on Netflix.

8. Cuddle Up With A Good Book: I’ve been wanting to find time to read “One Day” on my Kindle. Once I finish with all my fall mags, I’ll have plenty of time to read a book.

9. Cuddle Up With My Boyfriend L: I’m going to do this cuddling tonight to bring me pre-hurricane happiness.

10. Cuddle Up With Myself: I’m going to do this tomorrow night and catch up on all the sleep I’ve missed this month due to my menopausal moments. Ooh, ooh, ooh, maybe, I’ll buy the new Barbara Streisand CD ” What Matters Most,” to listen to as I drift off to nappy land.

So, these are my 10 tips for staying happy when the hurricane hits the east coast this weekend. I hope that my condo on the corner at the shore remains grounded as well and makes it through the storm. I will try not to worry and practice my happiness meditation ohms as well.

I will also follow Courtney Cachet’s “10 Hurricane Tips From A Miami Girl,” to make sure I keep myself and my family safe. Courtney is right, I must prepare and not take this hurricane scare lightly. I remember how my mom survived without power for days after a bad hurricane hit Florida several years ago.

For all my blog readers on the east coast who are bracing for the storm, stay safe and be happy.

Judi

Thank You Gloria Steinem For Paving The Way For Women

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Judi

What a relaxing evening I had last night. I took a break and watched the HBO Documentary Gloria In Her Own Words. The Gloria was Gloria Steinem. I watched and I remembered and throughout the program, as Gloria spoke, all I wanted to say was “Thank You, Gloria.”

I wanted to “thank” Gloria for paving the way so that I could have a successful career. I wanted to thank Gloria for working as a Playboy bunny to write an expose when she was 28 years old, so that women who came after her didn’t have to wear bunny tails.

Gloria started the feminist movement in the late ’60s into the early ’70s. I wasn’t even a teenager then. I was only 11 years old. It’s hard to believe that when I was 11 years old, some bars and restaurants did not allow women to dine in their establishments. Imagine that.

I wanted to “thank” Gloria for starting MS magazine in the ’70s. That was about the time I was entering high school and then college. I read MS magazine. Did you? Ms became an optional title without a married title. Little did I know that 30 years later I would use the Ms title when I turned 50 and became a widow.

Gloria shared her story about her mom. Her mom was a pioneer in journalism in Toledo. However, Gloria said that “she could not do it all and she had a nervous breakdown” when Gloria was a young girl. Her parents were divorced and she had to take care of her mother. Gloria did what her mother always wanted to do in her life – Gloria became a journalist.

“A lot of my generation are living out the un-lived lives of our mothers,” Gloria said. I may not be of your generation Gloria, but as a baby boomer, I too believe I am living out the un-lived life of my mother. I always thought my mother wanted to go to college, but she was never able to because her father died at a young age and she had to go to work to help support her family. I bet my mom would have been a great elementary school teacher if she had had a chance to continue her education. My sister N and I learned so much from my mom and I know other children would have benefited too.

Gloria turned 50 in 1984. I was 26 in 1984, almost half her age. That was the year I got married to my late husband M. In 1984, Gloria said that “50 is what 40 used to be.” In 2011, we say “50 is the new 30.” Gloria said that “turning 50 was hard because it was the end of something.” Now, we say “50 is the start of the second half of your life.” Perceptions have sure changed in the last quarter century.

I was surprised when the powerful Gloria Steinem admitted that she hit bottom in 1992. She said she realized that she had little self-esteem. She had been a neglected child. How sad. That is when she wrote “Revolution from Within.” I too had self-esteem issues when I was growing up. I’ll have to read her book.

Gloria ended the evening with a fine piece of advice to the younger folks (that includes me too, right?). “Do not listen to my advice,” she said. ”Listen to the voice within yourself.”

At fifty-something, I’ve finally found my voice, and I’m finally listening to it.

I’m glad “you love being here Gloria and I hope you live to 100,” just as you said in your own words last night.

Judi

P.S. – My blog is nominated for a Philly’s Best Blog Award. Voting is now open until September 9th. Please vote for my blog under the Everything category and vote every day if you want me to win. Thank you.

P.S.S. — Watch for upcoming posts about all the great boomer bloggers I met at the BlogHer ’11 Conference. I took another detour this week because I just was so inspired by the Gloria Steinem documentary that I had to share it with you this week.

A Long Flight Home

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Judi

I attended the BlogHer 11 Conference in San Diego this past weekend. I left the conference pumped by all the fantastic female bloggers I met. I left the conference energized by all the motivational and educational sessions I attended.

There are so many things I want to share with you that I heard and that I learned. And I will. But, first I’m going to detour and report on my trip home. You see, I decided to leave on Saturday night and take the red eye to Philadelphia. I thought if I slept for four hours on the flight that it would be better to get home early Sunday morning. Little did I know that sleep was not included in my itinerary.

Caution: If you do not like potty humor, you may want to stop here.

Oh, you do, you say. Great. Then listen and laugh along with me. Or cry, as you think about my four hours of pure insanity…

I should have known that I was in for trouble when I arrived at the gate and realized that I left my neck pillow in my suitcase. Okay, I thought, I’ll suffer through and try to sleep without my pillow.

I boarded the plane at 10:00 p.m. PT. All was fine until I got to my aisle seat 21D (Remember that number and letter, write it down, stick it on a sticky note, put it in your brain.) and found that it was opposite the bathroom in the middle of the plane. I knew then and there that I was in for a wild ride.

I, being the good girl I am, went to the potty before I got on the plane. My mom always said to go potty before I went to sleep. Didn’t your parents always tell you to go potty before you went to sleep? Did any of the other travelers listen to their parents? No, no, no. Absolutely not. Why would they care that I got any sleep? I was potty perfect and ready for nappy land and they were not.

Instead, the march began about 10 minutes after take-off:

- One by one each entered the potty;

- One by one the light went on and off as the door opened and closed;

- One by one each flushed with a loud whosh;

- One by one each put his/her right hand on the top of my seat to remind me he/she was there.

I tried to close my eyes. I listened to my yoga music on my iPod. I read my Yoga Journal magazine (I knew this magazine would come in handy. So glad I subscribed to this journal. Little did I know that it would save my life one day. The meditation chants helped calm me during my wild and crazy ride.)

Oh, yes, I must not forget to tell you that the woman sitting next to me on the plane in the middle seat weighed about 250+ pounds. (Not that there is anything wrong with that, as Seinfeld would say, except that she took up almost all of my seat as well and when she took off her sweatshirt she was wearing a strapless dress. Need I say more?)

Finally, the lights went down low and all was quiet.

“I’m really, really, sorry,” said the woman seated in the window seat in my row, “but, I have to go to the bathroom.” (SMH, SMH, SMH – for those who may not know that code it stands for ‘shaking my head.’)

“Okay, you better get in line before the next group gets there before you,” I said as I stood up to let her through.

Finally, I sat back down and all was quiet.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” said a young girl to the flight attendant. And then it started all over again. An onslaught of pottygoers.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. I wanted to throw myself in front of the bathroom doors. I wanted to yell like Peter Finch in the movie Network, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” (I almost went into the bathroom and clogged up the toilet with toilet paper, but my yoga chants held me back.)

“We’re landing, prepare the cabin for landing,” said the pilot as the clock struck 6:00 a.m. ET.

“OMG, OMG, OMG” I said to my neighbor, “I cannot believe it is time to land.” I was half delirious from lack of sleep.

If by some slight chance there is ever a next time…not that there will ever be a next time for me on a red eye flight in seat 21D…but if there ever, ever is…I’m going to bring a copy of that children’s book, “Go The F**k to Sleep,” and read it to all my flight-mates before they get on the plane.

Judi

P.S. – Stay tuned for more exciting posts about my wonderful experience at BlogHer 11, including a recap of the Boomer Blogger session I led and all the boomer girls and guys who attended, coverage of Jesse Weiner’s keynote during Pathfinder Day, Sarah Brokaw’s tips from her book “Fortytude: Making the Next Decades the Best Years of Your Life…through the 40s,50s, and Beyond,” and a whole lot more. Coming soon.

An Amazing Day At The Alexander McQueen Met Exhibition

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Judi

I was invigorated for two hours last Wednesday morning as I attended the Alexander McQueen exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with my two BFF. (Yes, I was one of the 17,500 new members to join the Met so that my two BFF and I could skip the two hour waiting line that wrapped around the second floor of the museum.)

I was engulfed in a world of fashion in all its forms — muslim, plaids, shells, wool, cotton, gauze, flowers, feathers, wood, steel, metal, and whatever else McQueen used to express his fashions, his accessories and his life. (I could not feel my feet after walking and standing on the hardwood floors, but it was well worth the trek and well worth the time spent.)

I was engaged in the music as I entered each room, from Tony Hymas, A Scent of Intrique, to the theme of Schindler’s List.

According to Sunday’s Style section of The New York Times, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, ranks among the museum’s 20 most popular exhibitions. Why did I love this exhibit SO MUCH? Let me count the ways…or should I say let me count the McQueen quotes that I wrote down. (After I took so much time to write down each quote, sneaking in-between many people’s legs and feet, I bought the exhibition catalog, like 55,000 others who attended the exhibition, so I could forever read the quotes and view McQueen’s fashions.)

“I want to empower women. I want people to be afraid of the women I dress,” said McQueen. (As a boomer woman, I especially liked this quote. I so agree with McQueen. I want the clothes I wear to empower me. When I look good, I feel more empowered.)

“With bustles and nipped waists, I was interested in the idea that there are no constraints on the silhouette. I wanted to exaggerate a woman’s form, almost along the lines of a classical statue,” said McQueen. (I just adore McQueen’s poetic license with fashion and his thinking about the female body. Don’t you? I know Lady Gaga does too, since she wears all his clothes and pedestal shoes.)

“With bumsters, I wanted to elongate the body, not just show the bum. To me, that part of the body — not so much the buttocks, but the bottom of the spine — that’s the most erotic part of anyone’s body, man or woman,” said McQueen. (I now have a new appreciation for my boomer bum.)

“It is important to look at death because it is part of life. It is a sad thing, melancholy, but romantic at the same time. It is the end of a cycle — everything has an end. The cycle of life is positive because it gives room for new things,” said McQueen. (Wow, oh, wow. This quote blows you away, doesn’t it? How sad McQueen died so young. He was such a talented artist, designer, historian, creator and a whole lot more.)

“There is no way back for me now. I am going to take you on journeys you’ve never dreamed were possible.” (Yes, this exhibit was an amazing journey that I will never forget, especially since I bought the $45 exhibition book. Being the frustrated fashionista I am, I’ll cherish and remember it forever.)

While the exhibit is only at the Met for another week, I urge you to visit if you have the opportunity. It is well worth the wait. Go with your two BFF and you will enjoy it even more. Then do as we did, and have a relaxing lunch at the cafe at the Centrolire restaurant on Madison Avenue not too far from the Met. But, before you leave NYC, be sure to stop at La Maison Du Chocolat (on Madison Avenue too) for a cup of chocolate sorbet or chocolate or caramel ice cream, like my two BFFs and I did before catching the train home. Ooh, la, la – next stop Paris absolumont!

Judi