Author Archives: therealtamara

For an opinionated woman such as I, blogging is an excellent outlet. This is one of many fori that I use to bloviate. Enjoy! Comment on my commentary.

Too much? Nah!

What’s the most money you’ve ever spent on a meal? Was it worth it?

Back in the day, a splurge was a splurge for us. Obviously, for us, this wasn’t a regular occurrence.

We ate out regularly, but our meals, while indulgent, were not usually expensive.

We had bargain lunches at one of Jean Georges’ restaurants on Fridays.

The over-the-top meals we had were for birthdays or Thxgiving. We went to one of Daniel’s many fabulous eateries a few times.

Dinner with J-G or Daniel always came with a high-ticket cost. Was it worth it?, you asked.

In a few words: Yes, for the memories.

Connecting

Describe one habit that brings you joy.

The topic was conversation and connection on Melissa Kirsch’s NYT The Morning. She called it Easy Listening. I felt the tug of  connection when her trip home took her past Worcester.

She kept going as you have to from Maine to New York.

There was more geography to recognize. Worcester, however, was where I spent four [plus] years. Formative, informing years I might add. It’s where I went to college. It’s where I learned how to grow up.

Melissa Kirsch’s rental car took me back to a kind of beginning.

To bring us back on topic, it’s the habit of reminiscing that brings me joy. 

I have a habit of taking another’s experience as a jumping off point to recall some of mine.

Makes me feel happy and, yes, connected.

Language please

In every transaction, we humans have created specific languages. The vocabularies of business are a case in point. The language of love is another [and very, very different] one.

Let’s address the business model first. I worked in marketing, to be exact, direct mail marketing. The language was one that addressed [see the pun and move on] the needs of our industry.

We were busy targeting audiences and anticipating percentages of response. It’s been ages, so I have lost mastery of what all we were on about.

Your banker and realtor have business vocabularies linked to returns. It’s likely that you’ll always be intetested in % in any biz.

Lawyers no doubt understand tort and litigation as I, for one, do not.

My doctor had better have some knowledge of arcana not easily accessible to me.

All of this is conducted in English,  by the way. [If you’re Catholic, your priest may be reverting to Latin, although it’s as likely not.] So, under an umbrella of English, we have little pools of business dialects. As it were.

Just sharing the obvious for you to elaborate.

Take me to the movies

What’s your go-to comfort food?

Popcorn is so comforting.

Is it because it’s remiscent of the movies? Maybe.

Although I haven’t had popcorn at the movies in 40 years.

In fact,  it’s been at least 10 years since I went to a movie house.

Popcorn is just a pleasant snack. It’s easy to pop in the mouth, one soft kernel at a time or by the handful.

The latter is messier, but still, popcorn is a neat after dinner treat.

We’ve got mail

Quick: how much is a postage stamp?

I was going to say a 1st class stamp, but I think that might be redundant.

Anyway, I bought 10 the other day and muttered something like “Oh, that’s what it costs.” The post man gave me an impassive look. Perhaps he hears that a lot?

The price of those stamps is going up another 5 pennies to $.73.**

This is quite the rise from 12 years ago when postage was just 34č̣. It is also the second increase this year.

**The increase is a little more than double, which may just be a normal economic incline. Or not.... feels like a small BIG deal.

Wonder what the going rate on a postcard looks like!