tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17020950854613376082012-02-14T20:46:40.001-05:00second lives clubMaking the best of the restMarylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.comBlogger711100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-30530281321431246962012-02-14T15:37:00.000-05:002012-02-14T20:46:40.019-05:00Maryl stayed in; Caryl went out.
What did you do for Valentine's Day?Maryl made a romantic dinner a deux for her husband and herself inspired by the New York Times dining section. The piece de resistance was dessert: dark-chocolate cherry ganache.
Caryl went to La Traviata at the Brooklyn Academy of Arts with friends. Nothing says Valentine's day like an opera about a fallen woman.
ShouldCarylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-29534364323966463292012-02-11T10:42:00.001-05:002012-02-13T10:03:12.103-05:00Maryl and Caryl wonder: Why Can't We Get Anything Done?
Is this you too? Bouncing from one task to another until the day is done and very little if anything has been accomplished? You start one project and then another one catches your attention (that might be easier or less tedious), so you move to that one and the whole sequence just keeps repeating itself. This behavior can be even more pronounced if you work at home or by yourself. Not Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884006931136087900noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-69404960577350285292012-02-07T13:07:00.014-05:002012-02-10T08:01:37.636-05:00Caryl remembers: Charla KruppPhoto by Kristin BookerCharla Krupp, popular author, magazine editor and commentator on fashion and beauty whose bestsellers included How Not to Look Old and How To Never Look Fat Again died in Manhattan last month of breast cancer. She was 58 but, according to the New York Times obituary, “looked the perennial 49.” That says something coming from The Old Gray Lady.For several years, Charla and ICarylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-86344829470831064662012-01-29T09:54:00.000-05:002012-01-31T10:58:22.232-05:00Maryl asks: Do you really "like" us?
"You like me. Right now, you like me!"
Remember those immortal words from Sally Field’s 1985 Academy Award acceptance speech? As much as they’ve been bandied about since then, who would have guessed they’d become the catchphrase for the current social networking craze? Today “you like me” is more than just words though; it’s a button that you click on a Facebook fan or business page Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884006931136087900noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-33985789255937311462012-01-22T18:01:00.015-05:002012-02-07T19:30:31.358-05:00Caryl writes: The End of the Story The 90-minute ride to the “charming village” followed the Hudson River due north from New York City, where I lived with my daughters in a mid-19th-century loft with fir beams, steel columns, and the original factory floors. You don’t get more industrially charming than that. More interested in the aesthetic arts than home crafts, I was a deeply urban creature. The only thing I had ever built wasCarylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-77707175400067591212012-01-18T17:05:00.005-05:002012-01-31T10:59:26.687-05:00Caryl asks: Does she or doesn't she buy this house?
Here's an essay I wrote recently that appears on the last page of the February issue of Martha Stewart Living, the one with the cover of a beautiful tissue-paper flower heart that we will never make (and the cover line suggesting 147 ways to show your love.) The story, (which includes this picture-perfect illustration of a house I fell in love with), is called:
THE ACCIDENTAL COTTAGER
Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-36528217615295118052012-01-13T20:36:00.000-05:002012-01-18T09:22:54.305-05:00Maryl eyes: Oscar’s Documentary Shortlist
The Oscar nominations will be out Tuesday, January 24. It’s the documentaries that interest me most. That was the film genre I worked in years ago. I even had one qualify for the documentary shorts category. There were 124 films that qualified for feature length documentary consideration this year and that list has been shortlisted down to fifteen. I’ve had a chance to see and enjoy Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884006931136087900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-80797391543316256072012-01-05T15:56:00.002-05:002012-01-06T10:01:45.723-05:002nd Look: Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda first wore this leotard on the cover of her famous 1981 workout book. Now more than 30 years later and at age 74, she put on the red and black striped number to promote her new exercise videos – Jane Fonda Prime Time. The series' title takes its name from her most recent memoir, which mixes tales from her own journey post 60 with scientific breakthroughs and self-help remedies. Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884006931136087900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-42992722952142986062012-01-02T10:29:00.007-05:002012-01-02T18:34:11.117-05:00Today is the first day of your 2nd life!Second lives are always about fresh starts. Begin again, we wrote in our first blog post on the first day of last year, the opening salvo of Second Lives Club.Second lives are also about fits. . .as well as starts. And, this holiday season we were catapaulted back into our first lives, filled with super-sized to-do lists and dominated by tasks directed mostly towards others (not bad). The Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884006931136087900noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-17454243444211569902011-12-19T19:51:00.009-05:002011-12-20T08:05:05.872-05:00A Life Well-Lived: Bonnie PruddenBonnie Prudden, fitness guru1914-2011An early champion of physical fitness, Prudden was an author, instructor and entrepreneur who followed her own advice and exercised regularly until her death at 97 on Dec. 11.Long before Michele Obama adopted her campaign against childhood obesity, Prudden had been part of a study team that documented America’s out-of-shape youth in 1955 for another Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-39260088806582726792011-12-12T15:39:00.000-05:002011-12-13T12:23:00.065-05:00Maryl tackles: Color Blocking, Another Fall/Winter Fashion Trend
As we move further into the Fall/Winter season, I’ve been noticing another fashion trend that is bold and eye-catching and yet easy to pull off. It’s referred to as color blocking. Actually there’s two looks I’ve been coveting; the other is pattern-mixing. It intrigues me and it can work with the right patterns but takes a lot of time and practice. If your ensemble hasn’t been thought out Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884006931136087900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-17216312032520214072011-12-05T13:43:00.021-05:002011-12-07T17:13:38.218-05:00Caryl says: It's beginning to look a little like Christmas
My garden is dormant. The Christmas tree awaits being cut until closer to The Day. So this weekend I went to The Phantom Gardener in the Hudson Valley to buy some holidays bulbs to cheer up the house and my pre-winter solstice blues. I bought a bunch of paper whites and three amaryllis bulbs in white, light pink, and wine rose. Planting them and watching them grow is sort of like having a Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-83668135986323805182011-12-01T08:56:00.025-05:002011-12-02T10:04:35.763-05:00Caryl wonders: What Makes a Book Worth Reading?
Lately, I have been stalled in my reading. Mostly because I am reading everybody else's recommendations. (Right now, my new book club's choice--Alice Hoffman's The Dovekeepers is simmering on my Sony reader.) The last book of my choosing was Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending, a slender hardbound I loved, both for the writing and its particular truth: that memory is unreliable, that Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-90392600828542954892011-11-22T15:47:00.001-05:002011-11-22T18:59:12.138-05:00THANKS . . .In the past few weeks between Halloween and Thanksgiving, I visited with three good friends from three separate chapters of my life. The first to arrive was Betsy. She and I had attended graduate school together at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Our last semester, which coincided with the Watergate investigation, we lived in Washington, D.C. and worked for the Medill News Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-15749754128374003932011-11-22T15:29:00.006-05:002012-01-27T09:20:25.048-05:00...GIVING
I won’t be going off to a soup kitchen this Thanksgiving to help serve turkey dinner to those less fortunate. I admire those that do and am jealous of the satisfaction they get from doing so but I can’t. I can’t because I’m giving dinner to 23 family and extended family members at my home. None are needy, thankfully; they-- like me-- want to be near relatives and friends they care most Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884006931136087900noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-39318185397985645432011-11-16T15:00:00.000-05:002011-11-16T15:32:24.983-05:00Meet our 1st 2nd Life Profile: Susan Lynton, Part 2We were talking about how your personal and home life has changed with your second life.
Well, and I have more time to spend at my home in a small village in Provence. It’s an old house that was actually refurbished on its original medieval foundation. I bought it ten years ago and completely renovated it as a safe haven for me to retreat to and as an investment. I had lived in Spain as a Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884006931136087900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-90780676735723823802011-11-13T13:10:00.000-05:002011-12-09T22:07:44.335-05:00Meet our 1st 2nd Life Profile: Susan Lynton
Susan Lynton grew up in a military family and had the usual experiences that come with that kind of a life, like living in a few countries and many states and attending 12 different schools before college. She had already been a film producer/writer and mother before entering the corporate world around the dotcom era and eventually being downsized. Now she’s returned to her first Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884006931136087900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-52103288365264400292011-11-06T21:51:00.008-05:002011-11-07T17:00:13.362-05:00Second Look: Charlotte Rampling
“You wake up one day, and you’re one day older,” says Charlotte Rampling. “You either accept it or you don’t.” Aging is just one of many topics including love, death and desire that the cult actress discusses in the new biographical documentary, “Charlotte Rampling: The Look". Her musings are intercut with scenes from her many films, among them “Georgy Girl”, "The Verdict”, and “Under the SandCarylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-88950909802039226812011-10-25T17:31:00.010-04:002011-10-27T19:45:15.064-04:00Caryl and Maryl discover: The Fountain of YouthWhen we started Second Lives Club, one of our goals was to destigmatize aging. At first we couldn’t believe that we ourselves had crossed the border into a scary new decade. We didn’t feel our age, we hoped we didn’t look it, and our lives certainly didn’t resemble those of our parents when they were our age. We—and many of our friends -- were starting new careers, learning new skills (from Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884006931136087900noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-88244150927492593382011-10-20T15:35:00.031-04:002011-10-26T11:07:15.418-04:00Caryl reads: The Red Book
Someone recently gave me the galleys of a novel that comes out next spring called “The Red Book”. The reason for this unanticipated gift was because of my fascination with all things Harvard. (More about that later). The eponymous Red Book, for those unfamiliar with this tome, is a collection of short essays (three to five paragraphs is the suggested length), prompted by the Harvard alumni Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-51849610581199219282011-10-09T18:45:00.001-04:002011-11-13T10:41:47.882-05:00Maryl supports: The Occupy Wall Street protests
I'm thinking of joining the Wall Street rally this week. Something about it just seems right. Maybe it's taking me back to our protests of the 70's or maybe I'm just fed up with the continuing self-serving and unchecked trickery of the financial community. I had recently been in several discussions with friends about
our economic crisis and the lack of accountability and corrective measuresMarylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884006931136087900noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-12497442705519784162011-10-02T21:10:00.003-04:002011-10-26T11:18:14.152-04:00Maryl finds: Five fall fashion trends for all ages and sizes
What’s in my closet for fall? I’ve attended Fashion’s
Night Out; was early to the Jill Sander (+J) designer launch at Uniqlo; was one of the multitudes
repeatedly kicked off the Target website
for their latest Missoni designer promotion; shopped all my favorite department
stores, boutiques, web sites and my closet. (Caryl even stood in line at the new Century 21 grand opening.) I’ve assessedMarylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884006931136087900noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-53884956628907532202011-09-28T09:53:00.010-04:002011-10-05T07:49:44.610-04:00Caryl takes: A SECOND LOOK
Is she or isn't she? That's one of the questions.
This week's New York Magazine reprises the famous--or maybe infamous--cover of a pregnant, naked Demi Moore on Vanity Fair some years back. The New York cover, like the story inside "Parents of a Certain Age", is bound to stir some debate (but probably not about the nudity this time). The cover headline queries: "Is She Just Too Old For Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-27371886418624310452011-09-20T14:22:00.007-04:002011-09-20T19:05:06.474-04:00Caryl & Maryl post: Rewards of Change Several months ago we asked some of our followers or some whom we wanted as followers to give us their opinions of our blog. We promised that there would be a prize for filling out the brief questionnaire we sent. All but a few of you sent in smart, thoughtful, clear answers and fresh, innovative ideas for making Second Lives Club a site you’d find useful and inspirational enough to Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-69924031443685322522011-09-15T16:48:00.005-04:002011-09-16T10:53:01.662-04:00Maryl writes: Reserving your mind for later onI’ve just returned from the opening night of the Willem de Kooning retrospective at MOMA in NYC. It’s an amazingly huge exhibit with over $4 billion of artwork. De Kooning was known for his continual revising of his work and changing his style and he certainly did have a fixation with the female figure. One of his most famous paintings, “Excavation,” completed in 1950, was inspired by the Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884006931136087900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-38003968333783899902011-09-03T17:49:00.012-04:002011-09-10T20:25:29.267-04:00Caryl remembers: 9/11
Ten years ago next Sunday, I boarded a jet scheduled to leave JFK airport at 7A.M. for Atlanta where, as the editor of Real Simple, I was giving a speech to the magazine's advertisers. It was just a turnaround--I'd be home that evening so I had no luggage. I was accompanied by the director of publicity--a working mother who was leaving her infant daughter behind in the city for the first time. Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-88922450479963811052011-08-30T11:59:00.007-04:002011-09-10T21:01:57.707-04:00Maryl pines: For a house with fewer memories
Photo by Svetlana Blasucci
This table sits in a dining room facing the Atlantic Ocean in an old Victorian house on the Jersey shore. It’s served up many a family celebration, including all the holidays, First Communions, graduations, anniversaries and, of course, birthdays. If you look in the pantry drawers you’ll find candles in the shapes of numbers 0 to 9….4 for my daughter’s first Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884006931136087900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-76836234350300906612011-08-23T15:23:00.000-04:002011-08-23T15:23:46.215-04:00Caryl introduces: The Third World ClubAnyone who knows me knows that I love India. I have traveled to the subcontinent five times in the last seven years: twice for weddings (one Hindu, one Jain), once to pick up my daughter from her semester abroad in Tamil Nadu, and the others for no particular reason other than my inexplicable addiction to India. I have been to the Golden Triangle, the hill stations and the backwaters, and the Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-28845027701213047172011-08-18T12:49:00.001-04:002011-08-18T12:55:38.282-04:002nd Chance: It's never too late to... . . . watch Gloria: In Her Own Words
The HBO documentary of Gloria Steinem’s life and career as an activist and feminist airs for the second time on Thursday August 18 on the West Coast and Saturday August 20 on the East Coast. Or catch it "On Demand" until September 11, 2011.Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884006931136087900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-67591803070805277322011-08-17T12:43:00.002-04:002011-08-17T17:17:30.030-04:00Maryl writes: All Alone at the Water CoolerAs the jobless rate shows little improvement, more and more of us are starting and managing our own businesses from home, which can leave you feeling isolated and adrift. (See recent Intuit blog post for more on the psychological effects.) You start to realize the inherent support an average office setting afforded and the voids that now exist, like the emotional lift co-workers can provide or Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884006931136087900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-12134511582319583442011-08-10T06:30:00.009-04:002011-08-11T18:29:48.824-04:00Caryl explains: Why I Read the ObitsIf you're like me, you read the obituaries in your daily paper or maybe online. Most people look at the ages first. Nobody likes to read about a young death . . . but we do. Older (than us) deaths are consoling. Maryl looks at the causes of death. Not me. The first thing I check on the obituary page is gender, and most days --at least in the New York Times--the dead are men. Surely women died Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-26469776464683824662011-08-04T08:30:00.003-04:002011-08-04T15:59:12.539-04:00Maryl writes: I won again! A clean mammogram.I’m “Normal/Negative – No evidence of cancer” as of last week, ten years and running, which is as long as I’ve been keeping the form letters I receive upon completion of my yearly mammography. I don’t know why I keep them. Maybe it’s like a little trophy for a race I’ve won until next year’s competition and Normal/Negative is the gold medal, except it’s one I’m more than willing to share with Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884006931136087900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-36296073929694298562011-07-29T10:49:00.009-04:002011-07-29T20:10:15.209-04:00Caryl writes: She's got style. And power. And our admirationI admit it: I have a new girl crush. I am always looking for role models, women who just don’t just look good for their age (don’t you hate that back-handed compliment?) but just look good. Period. And, if a woman can combine style with substance, feminity with feminism, panache with power, well then I am totally besotted.The woman I admire most at the moment is Christine Lagarde, a fifty-five Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-58072954743768861492011-07-25T21:55:00.010-04:002011-09-16T08:57:12.987-04:00Maryl writes: “Childhood complete”That’s what my 19 year-old daughter said to me after watching “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2,” the final episode, last week. She deemed to go to the movie with me because she was feeling a bit glum and wanted to get out. Lana had a challenging first year away at college and is contemplating a year off before returning. Back to that in a moment. We had sat in that same theater Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884006931136087900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-70548104554756901002011-07-20T20:33:00.016-04:002011-07-24T14:33:44.395-04:00Caryl writes: You can go home again
This weekend I went home for a high school reunion, more accurately the coming together of a group of women who formed a club when we were in our teens and named ourselves “Women of the World” – or its acronym WOW. We came together at the lakeside cottage of one of our members, a delightfully idiosyncratic summer house built by her father-in-law in the 1950s when the American dream was alive andCarylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-85377543698602312172011-07-15T10:51:00.025-04:002011-09-16T09:15:41.546-04:00Maryl writes: Personal Style is in your closet
Met Exhibit
I’ve been thinking about personal style lately. Maybe it was spurred on by my perusing Inès de la Fressange’s “Parisian Chic” guide, referenced on the 2nd Thoughts page. Maybe also viewing the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and “L’Amour Fou,” the recent documentary on Yves Saint Laurent, made me curious too. Both designers broke the rules and Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884006931136087900noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-80944074119501988432011-07-12T06:36:00.033-04:002011-09-16T08:19:07.072-04:00Caryl suggests: Summer Reading.
Summer days are longer but my reading time seems shorter. (By the way, that's not me in the gold lamé bikini. I still read hard-bounds, not e-books.) As long as its daylight, I seem unable to pick up a book. What to do? Against my usual reading patterns, I've been sampling short stories--or at least stacking them on my nightstand. Over the weekend, I dipped into The Empty Family, a collection Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-52410417570785855972011-07-08T14:34:00.012-04:002011-09-16T18:32:12.650-04:00Maryl writes: About enLIGHTenMEnt
Finding your next big idea and how to embrace it in this part of life can be especially profound and exhilarating. It’s more than an aha moment; it’s enlightenment. So as I recently prepared for and moved through my July 4 holiday weekend, I found myself involved in experiences centered around light. It started off with not your ordinary yoga class. This one took place as we circled around Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884006931136087900noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-19790939646492045532011-07-04T14:50:00.000-04:002011-07-05T08:11:21.058-04:00Caryl writes: Riding the WavesNothing says summer like a frolic in the surf-- even if the water temperature was 55 degrees as it was Father's Day weekend. My friend Kayte, also 55, didn't mind. Throwing on a bikini and dashing into the waves made her feel alive and ready for an endless summer. That weekend was pure bliss as I helped her open her beach house and prepare for her much-awaited season of family togetherness. Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-44924849827543307702011-06-28T22:09:00.002-04:002011-07-15T09:41:29.332-04:00Maryl writes: Take Your Work OutsideI’m working outside for the summer. No, I haven’t started a landscaping business. I’ve moved my office outdoors. I’ve been working at home for a couple of years now and am happy with my current setup but we all need some new visual stimuli once in awhile. So when you stare off into space, you’ll get a few new celestial ideas instead of the same old down-to-earth ones.
Anyway, I gave my Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-14677826857814065342011-06-24T13:22:00.002-04:002011-09-16T09:46:30.439-04:002nd Look: Diane Keaton
Who doesn’t love Diane Keaton? At 65, Keaton is the poster child for our generation. (Did you know she made her acting debut in the Broadway musical Hair, the only cast member NOT to take her clothes off?) Over the last 35 years, we have grown up with Keaton in big-screen, emblematic roles: first, as the loveably ditzy Annie Hall (1977), then as the dropout single mom who swapped Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-38789328738316368782011-06-20T16:19:00.002-04:002011-09-16T09:00:49.734-04:00Maryl writes: Discipline or Dishes?I’m having a motivation problem. Starting your own business and working for yourself is a whole different discipline. Company employees have job descriptions, department objectives, specific deliverables and performance reviews. You typically work within a team made up of different skill sets so you never had to venture far from your own. Setting financial milestones with profit and loss Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-70793901172875901082011-06-16T11:52:00.001-04:002011-08-04T08:56:33.430-04:00Caryl writes: Odyssey II
Photo by Allegra Ben-Amotz
I’m still exhausted from throwing my child’s birthday party at our loft last Sunday. Twenty-kids running around the house, balloons galore, yummy eats and fruit drinks. The piece-de-resistance was a delicious mocha-chip, mint-chip ice cream cake from Sundaes and Cones. The cake was decorated with a little chocolate dog kicking up dirt while looking for a baseball in Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-11113050891330413392011-06-06T17:38:00.003-04:002011-09-16T08:49:57.551-04:00Maryl writes: Maria Shriver Needs a Second LifeMaria Shriver is looking for something new to do and she wants our help. How will she get through her transition and onto her next life? She doesn’t appear to want to return to broadcast journalism, maybe philanthropy, although she was seen lunching with Oprah Winfrey the day the news broke on her separation. Hm, maybe a reality show version of “The Good Wife?” The series could run for five Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-15815787519088366642011-04-22T07:46:00.001-04:002011-08-04T08:57:46.554-04:00Caryl writes: Begin Here
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Those are the first two words from one of my favorite authors, May Sarton, in one of my favorite books, “Journal of a Solitude". Sarton, by the way, wrote more Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-11800271560581662702011-04-15T10:56:00.002-04:002011-09-16T09:08:38.270-04:00Maryl writes: Keeping Up Face
Confusion!
It’s important to keep up appearances in our second lives. It may require a different regimen than before; as we move on in life so does our skin. But confronting a skin care section of a favorite department or drug store is daunting and expensive so you don’t want to make too many bad choices. (A lot of brands offer coupons or trial offers on their web sites which is not a bad Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-80809734188909981252011-04-10T19:45:00.001-04:002011-08-04T09:01:50.266-04:00Caryl writes: Black--and Blue: The Many Faces of Cathie BlackLast week after less than 100 days in office, New York City schools chancellor Cathie Black lost her job. During her brief but embattled term, Black was criticized for public blunders (she suggested jokingly that birth control was an answer to overcrowding in schools), incompetence (she failed to understand the city budget process despite substantial tutorials) and inexperience (she knew nothing Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-45793211441652702972011-04-01T09:02:00.002-04:002011-09-16T10:47:25.788-04:00Maryl writes: A Start Over, A Clean Slate
I have several friends who are writing books…..their first books. One is giving me her manuscript to read soon. She won’t tell me what it’s about. I’m looking forward to it but afraid I’ll recognize myself in one of the characters. We worked together at several companies. I think she’s getting back….not at me but at them. Oh well, I’ll be brave.
Anyway she called frantic because her laptop wasMarylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-20076534966871643162011-03-29T13:59:00.001-04:002011-08-04T09:02:27.091-04:00Caryl writes: The King of Understated ChicThis past weekend I went to an auction preview, a kind of retirement sale for the dean of American decorators and a man who loved bold colors, Albert Hadley. At 93, Hadley has closed his office and opened the warehouse where he kept furniture and rugs, mirrors and lamps, paintings and porcelain, fabrics for curtains--he never called them drapes-- for his celebrity clientele to "shop". The Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-54091471700314473452011-03-25T00:14:00.001-04:002011-08-04T09:00:29.591-04:00Maryl writes: Get LinkedIn and MeetUp
I may not have mentioned this before but I’m starting my own business after decades of working for a number of corporations. It’s exhilarating and frustrating at the same time. I’ve been funding it myself for awhile now but the website needs a major upgrade and I have reached a point where I need to find a funder and/or partner. I also need some financial expertise to help me update Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-89161326623429938002011-03-20T10:35:00.003-04:002011-09-15T23:40:44.918-04:00Caryl writes: Women Who Write WomenIn the last years of the last century, I used to read only female authors --and more often than not living female authors. I was searching for emotional truth and also clues how to lead an authentic life. Women seemed to understand the interior landscape, maybe because women understood Virginia Woolf's explanation that we write (and I'd add, read) to make ourselves whole. Maybe that is why I am Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-58730427521494722582011-03-15T23:23:00.002-04:002011-09-16T10:38:45.890-04:002nd Look: Hillary ClintonIs this not one of the most gratifying photos of a self-fulfilled woman ever? It’s our never-tiring Secretary of State yesterday on her way to meet with a few Heads of State on a few world crises. Stunning…..no styling or make-up needed here. What could be more attractive than a 2nd lifer doing what she is passionate about and finds the most rewarding. This has got to be what a 2nd life looksMarylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-85972860621805419542011-03-14T09:33:00.002-04:002011-08-04T13:39:08.496-04:00Caryl writes: A Thought, A Definition, A Path, A CommitmentA THOUGHT for March 14 from Offerings: Buddhist Wisdom for Every Day by Danielle and Olivier Follmi:
We may become aware that worldly concerns and distractions keep us trapped in samsara, and we may feel an intense desire to be liberated from it. Then we find ourselves at the meeting point of two paths: one leads to liberation, and the other to the lesser destinies of samsara.Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-29042894983348706592011-03-04T09:51:00.002-05:002011-09-16T08:55:38.579-04:00Maryl writes: And the real winner is……
Meredith Hooper! Who? She’s the mother of Tom Hooper who won the Best Director Oscar last Sunday for “The King’s Speech.” Considering all the award winners who repeatedly thank their mums, this one was really heartfelt. She led her son to the story filled with all its “humor, irony and thoughtfulness” as she put it. Four of the top Oscars were awarded this film; a fifth one should have beenMarylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-39279636224227200772011-03-02T15:16:00.002-05:002011-09-16T09:12:09.776-04:00Caryl writes: Miracle Moisturizer #1I don't know if you know but in an addition to writing this blog, I am also working on a book about the second lives of women. Those living second lives can be any age but I am focusing on women in their 50s and 60s. The book intends to show readers "how to find joy, meaning and a miracle moisturizer" during those decades. Joy and meaning can be elusive but there are tons of "anti-aging" potions Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-11495535495537798952011-03-01T08:46:00.001-05:002011-08-04T11:27:37.684-04:00Maryl writes: Free WorkI helped a friend last week with an auction to raise money for the non-profit she runs. In fact I’ve got another one to attend tonight organized by a woman from my entrepreneur group. Last week’s event was for a cultural exchange program to help underprivileged young adults who have a passion for media in the USA and France. My friend created Eurica Media Lab to foster global understanding andMarylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-30398098925704064732011-02-25T20:45:00.003-05:002011-09-16T08:23:03.546-04:00Caryl writes: Poetry in the AfternoonMaryl told you about the two movies she saw this week (see post below) but she didn't tell you about the movie we saw together: Poetry by Korean director Lee Chang-Dong. Maryl and I had finished our work for the day early and decided to have a lunch meeting followed by an after lunch treat. Sometimes, there's nothing more decadent than an afternoon movie: the almost empty theatre with your pick Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-55156033686206487002011-02-23T20:36:00.002-05:002011-09-16T08:26:19.374-04:00Maryl writes: Free TimeI viewed two movies over the weekend in two different settings …..one in an art gallery and the other “Playing in Theaters Now” on cable at home. I’m comparing films again; I can’t help myself. These both had to do with time and they really got me thinking. Time has such a different level of importance in one’s second life. Not one of urgency but of freedom.
Freedom and liberation came to Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-79901803258870842822011-02-22T07:25:00.001-05:002011-08-04T11:28:39.142-04:00Caryl writes: Splitting HairsIn this unrelenting recession, I am making my own budget cut--or rather uncut. I am letting my hair grow longer, lengthening the time between my expensive cut and color treatments. And it has caused me to rethink the connection between hair and age. There has been much ballyhoo recently about women of that so-called "certain age" letting their hair go gray. A piece by the inaccurately named Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-19944382145453535542011-02-21T09:54:00.001-05:002011-08-04T11:29:16.877-04:00Maryl writes: And All That JazzFound myself at a jazz club the other night. It’s not my usual form of musical entertainment but it is for a number of my friends and I like to explore different genres from time to time. My one friend books the group that was performing that night at the Miles Café. This wasn’t the type of jazz venue you would typically imagine but a plain room with a stage and a makeshift bar seven floors Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-56782934477648907202011-02-17T11:15:00.002-05:002011-08-04T13:41:31.846-04:002nd Life Profile: The art of the matterI have a friend, a wonderful woman I have known since college. We both live in major cities on the East Coast. For many years when I was raising my children and working outside the home, she was my touchstone for gifted mothering. After years of infertility, she had three children in rapid succession and retired from her teaching career to be singularly devoted to them.Without a doubt, they came Carylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-41975564922660479302011-02-15T14:07:00.003-05:002011-09-16T08:44:46.880-04:00Maryl writes: Valentine’s Day and Love DefinedHow many Valentine’s Days have I shared with my husband? Over 30 years considering that we lived together for a while first. Isn’t it amazing to think that you’ve even known someone for that long? It’s also consoling that someone has that history with you. I look at the marital status of my friends and family and see a mixture of happily married, tolerably married, separated, awaiting divorceMarylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-8100476223403400292011-02-15T12:36:00.001-05:002011-08-04T11:32:26.145-04:00Caryl writes: Heart TouchingYesterday was Valentine's Day. In our house, we had two breakups in the past year so the mood was not celebratory to begin with. The first three people to wish me a happy valentine's day were my trainer, my tax accountant and the bank teller. The wishes felt a little hollow. Then my children's former babysitter called to wish us all love. I was starting to feel better. In the evening, a closeCarylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13974936052921657663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-71360009929202846642011-02-08T13:05:00.001-05:002011-08-04T11:31:28.155-04:00Maryl writes: Have a Ball!I’m just back from a trip to a few eastern European capitals – Berlin, Prague and Vienna. Each has its own unique history and are all thriving beautifully. I like a winter vacation. It helps get you through the big letdown after the holidays and braces you for the cold months ahead. It struck me that that might be some of the reasoning behind the Ball Season (January to March) in Vienna. Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-48057200130902535792011-02-08T12:24:00.001-05:002011-08-04T11:29:44.273-04:00Caryl writes: The Nature of GodWell, it snowed again this week—and again-- and again. It was the seventh, eighth and ninth storms of the new year for New York. Everybody’s talking about the weather but no one’s doing anything about it—as the old joke goes. I myself can’t complain. I am living on memories from a beautiful week I spent in Tuscon, Arizona mid-January. This is truly God’s country, not just because of the Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-77477695053264218992011-01-08T20:03:00.000-05:002011-04-05T12:23:37.684-04:00Happy New....Life
A new year is often the time when we make changes whether they are conscious resolutions or inadvertent reactions to the weather, post-holidays blues or just plain boredom. But this is the year for us to reach higher than the usual lose weight, earn more money, and run a marathon. This is the year to consider a new life: the season to start a second life.Be bold. Resolve to be the architect Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-17912061015554099482011-01-08T20:01:00.001-05:002011-08-04T11:40:58.685-04:00Maryl writes: A Christmas RoseI made a reacquaintance last weekend at a Christmas party. She’s a beautiful woman, as beautiful as her name, Rose, and stunning in a form fitting metallic-lace dress that just skimmed her shoulders. I note her physical appearance only because I don’t remember her seeming so confident and comfortable with herself before. Maybe it was me but then I learned more.
She had recently sold her Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-16726355545018800502011-01-08T17:59:00.002-05:002011-09-16T08:28:01.247-04:00Caryl writes: Men Who Write Women--Part I
I am a big reader. My idea of a perfect day is a good book and nothing else to do. One day last week I was feeling a bit under the weather--and the weather itself was frightful: pouring rain, dreary skies, a wicked wind. I took to my bed. You know, you are living your second life when you can give yourself a day off without feeling guilty. (This takes years to achieve and shows real Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-19426771632686542322011-01-08T17:35:00.002-05:002011-09-16T08:31:04.871-04:00Maryl writes: "Can We Talk?"I don't want you to think I only blog about my reactions to films. And I've seen a few fine films since my last blog so I myself don't quite get why I'm writing about "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work," which I saw last night on page-per-view. I suppose it's because Joan's on her second, third or fifth life. I doubt she's counting; she just keeps going and going. Besides comedy, Joan's done Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-22759896048880006392011-01-08T16:53:00.001-05:002011-08-04T11:25:44.975-04:00Caryl writes: Roses and Garlic and the Circle of LifeFall is definitely here. The flowers stayed longer than usual this year but now only a single rose remains in my garden. All the leaves have been raked to the curb, giant piles inviting someone to jump in. I can still remember 2o-plus years ago when my younger then baby daughter buried yourself in a piles of brilliantly-covered leaves. There is something melancholy about this time of Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1702095085461337608.post-84910938394271901172011-01-08T16:48:00.004-05:002011-10-09T13:08:22.674-04:00Maryl writes: The Kids Grow Up All Right
I recently saw a touching film, “The Kids Grow Up” not to be confused with “The Kids Are All Right” although there is a comparison to be made between the two. Hard to believe since the first one is a personal documentary by a NY filmmaker who lives with his wife and child in an apartment and the latter a Hollywood film starring two academy award winning actresses playing two moms in a Marylhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12664924450489521709noreply@blogger.com0