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THE DAILY MUSETHE DAILY MUSE
The Fun Theory
The Daily Muse
FROM THE EDITORFROM THE EDITOR
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From the Editor
Editor's Note
By Alison, Editor, Thursday, April 30, 2009, 0 comments
Only once did I run a marathon, a grueling 5-hour mental battle raging inside while my knees threatened to quit on their own. Still, the experience remains one of my highest personal accomplishments. Why don’t I value my experience with motherhood as much? It’s like running a couple of marathons a day, finding the will to keep going through aches and pains, looking toward the next water stop for a brief respite and enjoying a tiny cup of water as though it were Dom Perignon. This month, skirt! raises a toast to mothers and daughters on different parts of the course, an acknowledgement that a three-legged race is more fun than a marathon.
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Angelia's picture
49
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From the Editor
The Nest Issue
By Alison, Wednesday, April 29, 2009, 0 comments

Only once did I run a marathon, a grueling 5-hour mental battle raging inside while my knees threatened to quit on their own. Still, the experience remains one of my highest personal accomplishments. Why don’t I value my experience with motherhood as much? It’s like running a couple of marathons a day, finding the will to keep going through aches and pains, looking toward the next water stop for a brief respite and enjoying a tiny cup of water as though it were Dom Perignon. This month, skirt! raises a toast to mothers and daughters on different parts of the course, an acknowledgement that a three-legged race is more fun than a marathon.

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Boston
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75
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From the Editor
Life on Wheels
By skirtboston, Thursday, March 26, 2009, 0 comments
How did people discuss important issues before there were cars? It’s a sign of the times, but most of the very important conversations I’ve had in the past two decades took place on four wheels: my husband "proposed" to me in his racy red Volkswagen; I broke the news about having twins to him in our station wagon; our daughters discussed life and love while watching trees and fields and farms slide past the windows of our mini vans. Traveling excites us, soothes us, comforts us with the prospect of returning home. In our little fortress of steel and rubber, our family is one.
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skirtboston's picture
118
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From the Editor
Learning into Leaders
By skirtboston, Tuesday, February 24, 2009, 0 comments

There’s something about girls around the age of 8 that makes them want to lay down the law for everyone in the neighborhood. You blink and your swingset-loving, easy-going little girl suddenly wants to assign everyone roles, divide the world into lists and grids and control it all: “You be the daddy, you be the baby. I’m the mom and I’m going shopping.” God forbid someone rebels and refuses to go along with the new regime; she requires unchallenged authority and will pout – or worse – if she doesn’t get cooperation. Fast forward a few years and you realize that it was all a test, a method of determining when to persuade and when to demand. The best of us learn important lessons at that tender age, things that make us the women we are today.

Alison, editor
alisonm@skirtboston.com

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Boston
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108
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From the Editor
Decoupling
By skirtboston, Monday, January 26, 2009, 0 comments
If it were up to me, Valentine’s Day would not be in the middle of winter. Couples need space, so let them have the long, golden days of summer. February is a fine time to savor certain things solo: the spoonful of melting ice cream at the bottom of the bowl, a quiet Saturday night with no competition for the remote, a chocolate bar that nobody else needs to know about, a real letter from an old friend, killing a snow day with an internet shopping spree, and a sunny afternoon in the easy chair with a good book and a pot of tea. When you focus on things to love – alone or together – this short cold month doesn’t seem so bad after all.
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Boston Valentines Day
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121
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From the Editor
No, Really!
By skirtboston, Tuesday, December 9, 2008, 0 comments
If I said I had been chosen to be a Victoria’s Secret underwear model, you’d probably guess I was fibbing. The statement might not even elicit a derisive snort from those who know me. (And after all, those women are manufactured, not discovered, right?) But if I said I was going to learn to surf in Australia, you might not know whether to believe me. That’s part of the fun in this month’s issue: looking past stereotypes and preconceptions to learn a bit more about the women around us, how their everyday lives and secret passions intersect. Are you a corporate exec during the week and roller derby queen on weekends? What else don’t you want anyone to know?
~alison
alisonm@skirtboston.com

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skirtboston's picture
126
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From the Editor
Resolutions, Remixed
By Alison, editor, Wednesday, November 26, 2008, 0 comments
Ugh, resolutions. While I’m hoping to have plenty of time to consider resolutions for 2009 (on a long plane ride home from a vacation far, far away), there’s one I know I have to put into effect: limits. If I’ve learned anything in my life, it’s that you can’t simultaneously do it all and have it all. No more dinner parties after all-day ski trips, no more jumbleberry pie and skinny jeans. Because trying to cram 100 activities into a day always results in frustration and angst, things I hope to experience less in the new year. What are you resolving to change in ’09? Tell me and I’ll put them on my blog: boston.skirt.com/blog.
Alison
Alisonm@skirtboston.com

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skirtboston's picture
123
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From the Editor
I Love/Hate Food, Always Have
By skirtboston, Monday, October 27, 2008, 0 comments

It’s been a love-hate relationship for me and food.

When I drop my daughters off at high school I wonder how many of the girls walking into the building have skipped breakfast, are scheming to avoid the cafeteria at lunch and will try to exercise through dinner as I once did.

It’s so hard for women in particular to have a normal relationship with food when it’s a source of comfort as well as pain, when it’s so entwined with beauty and traditions yet so at odds with hormones and tight jeans. The holidays can be scary to some people for the same reason others enjoy them: we’re virtually surrounded by food.

Fortunately, we also have MEDA, the Multiservice Eating Disorders Association (MEDA.org), which offers help and resources, including a Hope and Inspiration session on the first Saturday of each month.

Alison, editor
Alisonm@skirtboston.com

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Body & Health Boston MA MEDA outspoken
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129
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From the Editor
Tweaking the Wonder Woman Within
By skirtboston, Thursday, September 25, 2008, 0 comments
Who are the Wonder Women in your life? Do you aspire to juggle as much – or as well – as she does, sliding swiftly from daycare dropoff to the corner office to the gym after work? I know a Wonder Woman who’s amazing not for all of the many things she does but because she has priorities and exercises her ability to say "no." I tried to call her a couple weeks ago, but she was napping. Napping! Who can do that these days?
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skirtboston's picture
102
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From the Editor
What Rules You?
By skirtboston, Monday, August 25, 2008, 0 comments
We planned this "Rules Issue" before most people had heard of Randy Pausch, the late college professor immortalized on YouTube for his Last Lecture speech, which prompted many of us to consider our "bucket lists." While it’s the trendy thing to do, introducing fun and adventure into your life could become a habit, if you’re lucky.
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skirtboston's picture
133
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From the Editor
Surplus of Talent
By skirtboston, Wednesday, July 30, 2008, 0 comments
The paper versus plastic debate has been over for a long time. Today we may be talking about greenhouse gases and oil prices, but tomorrow’s focus will surely be the water supplies that we’ve always taken for granted. This month’s skirt! turns the spotlight on just a few local players in the debate over the environment, and how they’re working on our behalf. And they happen to be intelligent women – of which we are blessed with a surplus.

Alison, editor
Alisonm@skirtboston.com
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skirtboston's picture
157
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From the Editor
Recruiting feMENists
By skirtboston, Friday, June 27, 2008, 0 comments
I’m never wrong. Just ask my husband. Whether it’s a survival skill he learned in the past 24 years or a fact of life, it’s nice to be the unquestioned authority – at least at home. While not every woman enjoys such deference, or even the right to be right, it’s nice to know we have a few sluggers on our team. This month skirt! Boston is proud to nod to just a few of the great men in the area who stand up for women. We call them feMENists, and we’re pleased that they’re not shy about their methods and motives, which we hope more will emulate.
Alison, editor
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skirtboston's picture
156
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From the Editor
Offbeat but Having Fun
By skirtboston, Tuesday, May 27, 2008, 0 comments

Ask me about rocket science, literature, or subterranean living and my circuits light up. But music? That part of my brain never developed. Was it my mother’s 1950s pop records or my brother’s head-banging metal rock of the ‘80s that stunted my musical growth?

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skirtboston's picture
484
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From the Editor
Love Knows No Boundaries
By skirtboston, Tuesday, April 22, 2008, 0 comments
I can see it in her 15-year-old eyes: my daughter is in love. I know her suitor well, for I was smitten by the Open Road at about the same age. This month, my German-born teen and her older sister will embark on international trips while I sit home and wish I could be them. I’d love to go back to when being somewhere new was all I needed, to the horrible hotel rooms, the restless overnight trains and amazing sights – even to the day my girlfriend pulled the emergency brake of the Eurail train so it wouldn’t leave me behind on the platform (I was running as fast as I could!).
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skirtboston's picture
158
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From the Editor
It's A Matter of Perspective
By skirtboston, Tuesday, April 1, 2008, 0 comments
The first thing I put on after my morning shower is my watch, and I wear it about 23.5 hours a day. It’s prone to making me stressed as I’m always running late, but my defense against mounting tension is simple: laughter. I’ve never been able to tell a joke, but try to maintain my balance through a lighthearted outlook on life.
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skirtboston's picture
147
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From the Editor
Call me Julio
By skirtboston, Thursday, March 13, 2008, 0 comments
As the world's worst waitress, I once spilled a bowl of tartar sauce on the boss' daughter. But I loved that job. I remembered where all 37 flavors of ice cream were hidden under identical chrome hatches at Wallace's Ice Cream that summer. At another job I swung a sledgehammer, picked rocks, hauled irrigation lines and counted my blisters.
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182
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From the Editor
The DMZ of Love
By Alison, editor, Monday, January 28, 2008, 0 comments
Moving from Boston to southern Alabama was traumatic. I was lucky to land a job at minimum wage; "palmetto bugs" freaked me out (think roaches on steroids) and my formerly active lifestyle ground to a halt. But it was love that took me to Alabama, and I surrendered. Just when I thought I had adjusted, love took me to Texas, Germany and Nevada. I believed each change of address made our relationship stronger. So I wasn't ready for him to embrace a new love, a bagpipe.
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skirtboston's picture
241
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From the Editor
considering luck
By Alison, editor, Monday, December 24, 2007, 0 comments
It was something between a compliment and an epithet, spat at the kid who got a new bike or who went to Disneyland during the winter: "Luckeee-ee!" My family didn’t do those things. I used to pray that my parents would win the lottery. I waited until  the end of my long string of nightly Our Fathers and Hail Marys, then asked, very politely. I figured it was OK because I wasn’t asking for myself. Another family in my hometown had hit it big.
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From the Editor
The Kindred Spirits Issue
By alison, Monday, November 26, 2007, 0 comments
He turned the key and looked at me, grinning. It was cold outside but I was humming with a giddy buzz because we were back together again. As the first guitar riffs of a familiar Van Halen song blasted from the speakers, he said, “This is just like old times, except for the baby seats in the back.” And he was driving a Saturn wagon instead of a ’64 Cougar. And we were going to pick up pizza to bring home to our spouses rather than out for a tire-squealing cruise through our old haunts.
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mlalonde's picture
242
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From the Editor
The True Confessions Issue
By alison, Wednesday, October 24, 2007, 0 comments
Dove chocolates and glasses of wine, candles flickering in the breeze and a view of Puerto Rico across the water in the distance: each evening of our chick vacation on the Caribbean island of Vieques provided the perfect environment for soul-baring. We talked freely about girl stuff, got silly, and recalled our past loves with embellishment. We laughed a lot, recalling and sharing each others’ past joys and heartbreaks like teenaged girlfriends. I’ll never look at any of them the same again for the things I heard—and promised not to repeat.
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mlalonde's picture
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From the Editor
The Spark Issue
By alison, Monday, October 1, 2007, 0 comments

My muse is rather quiet. In fact, she usually only whispers. Her creative suggestions are only audible when the rest of the world has been locked out, shut down or unplugged. That means my creative fire has to be nurtured from the smallest spark—the overheard word that could be easily ignored must be written down; plans have to be scheduled and documented. All of this order and strategy is counter to everything a muse stands for: creativity, spontaneity and whimsy.

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