First jobs can be awful. I’m not talking about the first jobs we all had as teenagers (baby sitter, newspaper deliverer, retail clerk, and “would you like fries with that?”).

I’m talking about the newly minted college grad, first “real” job. There you are, degree in hand and standing on the precipice of official adulthood. So much excitement, but so much pressure also. You are anxious to land that first job for a variety of reasons. To become independent. To pay off your student loans. To really just take your place in the world and make your mark.

What that means is, a lot of the times you will just take whatever job, just to have a job and get started. At least that was the case for me.

I don’t know about you, but my newsfeed gets inundated with articles on health and wellness. Things like, “Even moderate alcohol consumption is not good for you”, “Cholesterol culprits”, “Salt the silent killer”, “Eggs are bad for you, no wait, eggs are good for you”, “Butter is bad for you, no wait, butter is good for you”.

My head is spinning and I am thoroughly confused about what I should or should not consume, and more to the point, at what amounts I should consume or not consume.

Being shy of 60 by about two months now, I was feeling like I was looking pretty good ‘for my age’. All that oily skin in my teen years, thank you Italian heritage, finally paying off by keeping the wrinkles at bay. My 11’s seemed barely visible (proving that SJP and And Just Like That is not just entertaining but also educational). There were a few slight crow’s feet at the corners of my eyes, and minimal laugh lines. My neck was another story though, with quite visible wrinkles and sagging skin. But hey. That’s what scarves and turtlenecks are for.

Gotta love when your job takes you to Europe and you have the chance to extend your business trip into a few extra personal vacation days. This happened some years ago when I was in Brussels for work. Ernie joined me there. We decided to do a day trip to Amsterdam. Neither of us had ever been there before. But we bought a Rick Steves guidebook, read up about it, and put together an itinerary for the day.

Boundaries. Have you heard of these? Being someone who grew up in the ‘60’s/’70’s in an Italian-American family, I can tell you that they are new to me. We were 5 kids plus our parents living in a three bedroom, one and a half bath house in an era way before there was any awareness, understanding or appreciation of anything remotely resembling boundaries. There were none. Except for the imaginary one my older sister made in the double bed we shared. Using her hand to demarcate a line down what she thought was the middle of the bed but was more like three quarters of the bed (her side) and commanding me not to cross that line, not even so much as a pinky toe.

The headache lurked around the edges of my brain. It was soft, not so pronounced. In fact, one could almost question whether it was really there. I was in that half sleep/half awake state, where sleep seductively tried to keep me in it’s embrace, but wakefulness poked at me, prodded me, tried to pull me away from slumber’s grasp. Wakefulness had the headache to its advantage. It made me wonder what the cause of it was. And with that thought process begun, wakefulness was on its way in and sleep on its way out.

First, some context. Ernie (my husband) and I are walking our dogs through our neighborhood one day. As we pass by various folks who are also out walking, I smile, wave, say hello. What follows next is the exchange between me and Ernie. Some of you will note the Seinfeldian-ness of the conversation.

My millennial niece sends my sister and me a text about our upcoming trip to NYC. She booked us rooms at Citizen M hotel. You are going to need to download the app, she says. It’s all digitally operated. Check-in, the lights, and shades in the room. Everything. And since I am not arriving with you both, you are going to need to figure this out in advance as I won’t be able to help you. Forewarned is for….? Something

Who wouldn’t like to spend a weekend with Bradley Cooper? When the opportunity presented itself to have a free couple of days at a boutique, luxury hotel somewhere in New England where Bradley and company would be staying while filming a movie, we of course said yes.