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Gloss

I am participating in Julie’s Everyday Things weekly feature. The idea is to share what everyday thing adds joy, meaning, or a smile to your face. The little things matter.

When a new issue of a magazine appears in our mailbox, I let it stew for a few days.

It sits on the desk, on a table, on the piano. I consider the picture on the cover and the promises of what hides inside: Fresh Hair! Dreamy Bedroom Ideas! Summer Brunch Bonanza! Anyone Can Be Blonde! Each spine stays uncracked. I enjoy knowing a magazine is there when I am ready to devote an hour to turning the smooth pages. When I finally sit to read, it’s with great anticipation, tempered with skepticism: I can never be a blonde, but I’m willing to read why you think I could, oh Beauty Editor.

Depending on the magazine, I am treated to recipes, debates over flared or tapered pant legs, the latest in paint colors, perfume samples, ads for cat food, ads for $3,000 handbags, and exercise routines. I learn how to make a centerpiece, how to pluck eyebrows, how to plant a rose bush, how to brine a turkey, how to cure a picky eater, how to organize my time so I will be able to sit for an hour and read a magazine.

A month later my mailbox will have 200 or more bundled pages of gloss, frost, and sugar for my consideration. The ritual will repeat and repeat through the years. I’ve subscribed to magazines since I was eight years old.

Not deep, not challenging or demanding or high brow by any stretch of the imagination—the shiny ad-packed brain candy has a place in my life right alongside C.S Lewis and the slamming, convicting short stories of Flannery O’Connor (I am re-reading them all right now). I like reading “Everything That Rises Must Converge” with a plucked brow raised and a magazine-inspired frittata quietly sizzling for dinner a room away.

14 comments to Gloss

  • I LOVE IT! That gets a big brav-o!

  • Stacey

    Oh, not me! I have to read a magazine the same day I get it. I cannot let my InStyle mag just lay there and not open it up. It is much too tempting!

    I’ve subscribed to magazines since I was about 8yo too! I love them!

  • mopsy

    Stacey—then you know where I learned how “anyone can be blonde!” 😉

  • I love magazines, and as a result, subscribe to waaaaay too many. What are your favorites?

  • I usually have to dig right in a start reading. It’s always a bright spot when a magazine arrives in the mail.

  • Are we having a frittata tonight?

  • mopsy

    Only if you bring home 18 eggs from Costco. Or, you could just pick up some of those quiches which would be practically the same thing.

  • I too enjoy a magazine but could never justify actually spending the money for a subscription. I never minded sitting in the doctor’s office with my kids for 45 minutes. They’d play or read and I’d get to flip through a magazine. Can you believe I enjoyed that kind of waiting? Well, yes you could, since you too learned to be blonde, lol.

    So did you have frittata or quiche?

  • mopsy

    Rebecca—right now I have subscriptions to Better Homes and Gardens, InStyle, and Prevention. In the past I’ve had every parenting magazine you can think of (they got boring and began repeating themselves). A lot of fashion and beauty mags, Entertainment Weekly. Inane stuff. Growing up my parents got U.S. News and World Report, National Geographic, Popular Mechanics, Guideposts, Highlights. My mom got the women’s homemaking magazines, too. There were always magazines to read, along with books.

    Joanne—Quiche! Mushroom and pepperjack! Mmmmm.

  • I think we all need a little fluff and fun–and a few new hair-do ideas– in our lives! I mean, where else but a magazine can you get new recipes AND a new diet each and every month? 😉

  • Perfect last line! That is exactly it.

    My favorite was Victoria Magazine, not to be confused with V. S.–don’t want you googled for that one! It was so very elegant and beauteous, but apparently not enough people thought so since I think it went out of business.

  • mopsy

    Inkling—my late Grandma Alice had a subscription to Victoria! When she was done reading them she’d give them to me. Every issue was always lush. Not eye candy, more like eye creme brulee.

  • What a lovely post! I too, love magazines. Although I am too cheap to suscribe, myself. Right now I am loving a gift subscription to the Rachael Ray magazine that I recieved for Christmas. Man, that woman can cook, and she has a team of editors that come up with great new recipes.

    I also get a few parenting magazines free right now – they sent them to me when Tom was born and I’ve never had to pay a cent for them. I keep waiting for them to go away, but until then, I’ll enjoy the pictures of chidren in $230 mohair vests and gold lame shoes.

  • I love this. That me to a T. Aren’t they fun? I just realized you have less than 3 months til baby baby baby!!!!! Agh!!!!!!!!! 😉

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