It’s been a while since I’ve said hello to those of you who are nice enough to stop by and check out MariaMedia. I’ve enjoyed meeting so many cool people and appreciate your continued support. MariaMedia was formed to be a journal of my journey into my new professional life. It has been eight months more...

Image via Wikipedia At her eightieth birthday party, Sophie Tucker (a.k.a. The Last of the Red Hot Mamas) was asked to reveal her secret of achieving a long life. She replied: ”Keep breathing.” Damn, I was hoping she would say it was a few glasses of red wine every day, but nevertheless, Sophie must have been more...

Image via Wikipedia “I hope I have convinced you—the only thing that separates successful people from the ones who aren’t is the willingness to work very, very hard.” —Helen Gurley Brown Happy Monday! Don’t you just love the start of a new workweek? A whole five days to accomplish goals, fill in the blanks, and more...

“When it’s being used as an insult, bitch is an epithet hurled at women who speak their minds, who have opinions and do not shy away from expressing them, and who do not sit by and smile uncomfortably if they are bothered or offended. If being an outspoken woman means being a bitch, we will more...

“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.” –Eleanor Roosevelt “Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible.” –Marion C. Garretty “There is no way to be a perfect more...

“…and I have learned that to have a good friend is the purest of all God’s gifts, for it is a love that has no exchange of payment. It is not inherited, as with a family. It is not compelling, as with a child. And it has no means of physical pleasure, as with a more...

“Life gets better after thirty. Then it gets fantastically beautiful. Guilt gets lost in time. I always thought it was my American mother who transmitted guilt to me; one reason I adored my husband’s family is that they have this great feeling that life is there to be enjoyed, not just as an axis of more...

“An unbelievably large part of happiness/unhappiness is determined by semantics; e.g., the couple who used to be childless is now ‘child-free.’ A nudist colony (tacky) is now a ‘clothes-free resort’ (not quite so tacky). So…you are not dateless, you are date-free. Bald is dandruff immune. In starvation circumstances fatsos are better equipped than skinnies. Having more...

“Do your work with your whole heart, and you will succeed—there’s so little competition.” —Author Unknown “The Labor Movement; the folks who brought you the weekend.” —From a bumper sticker, 1995 “Sometimes it’s important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it’s essential to take time off and to make sure that more...

“I have not ceased being fearful, but I have ceased to let fear control me. I have accepted fear as a part of life, specifically the fear of change, the fear of the unknown, and I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back, turn back, you’ll die if you more...