Madge Comes To Town!

Barbara: In our lucky blog-world, we haven’t had just one close encounter with a blog friend, but this week we will raise that number to three! We met Madge yesterday and will meet Mary-Jo on Thursday.

Madge is a LA-based blogger/writer and you’d know her well from our comments section here. Madge set herself an incredibly ambitious and exciting agenda—and we were happy to be co-collaborators in her big plan. She decided to take a kind of Artist’s Journey of discovery, a cross-North America tour, meeting bloggers and fellow writers that she’d connected with online, but didn’t know yet in “real life”.

Madge in Cabbage Town

Deb: First thing that struck me was how much I loved Madge’s speaking voice and I told her so. It is so interesting when you are blogging back and forth with people with just the typed word to represent them.  As we always refer to it as the writers “voice”, it is so wonderful to hear that voice out loud.

In The Beaches

Barbara: Exactly! So we spent the day with her yesterday and decided to make it an “explore Toronto” kinda day. When you show a newcomer your hometown, there’s always that double-edged thing of wanting to show it off and also wanting to see things you might not always get a chance to see yourself. As luck would have it, the weather was glorious and we were able to make several lovely stops as well as having a good drive around the parameters of the city.

Deb: The day was about getting to know each other with a backdrop of Toronto. Toronto was the forth character and it rose to the occasion on this warm, sunny spring day! In movies Toronto usually plays other cities in the world, but today it was Toronto. Outside of spring construction everywhere, it did us proud.

Barbara: We picked Madge up at her west-side hotel, then drove along the lake to the east side where we had lunch in Leslieville. Then we drove down to the Beaches, where we took a relaxing walk along the beachside boardwalk and then along the boutique-filled streets of Queen East. Then we drove northeast and discovered Cabbage Town (the largest collection of Victorian-era houses in North America). From there we drove over to Yorkville, which is Toronto’s downtown high-end area (with the Chanel, Escada and Tiffany, etc, boutiques). From there we went over to Casa Loma and took pics of the beautiful castle that a devoted husband—Sir Henry Pellat—built for his wife in the early 1900s. Then we went southwest back to Madge’s hotel’s district and enjoyed a yummy dinner and drinks on a rooftop patio.

Deb: At one point we were kinda feeling guilty about not taking her to the CN Tower. Barb and I had discussed it previous to the day and had no interest in going up again as we both have a height thing.  But ever the good hostess, Barb brought it up. Madge had NO interest (thank God!) and said that what we had shown her was right up her alley, so ... whew.

Barbara: When all was said and done, we’d managed a pretty good overview tour of the city and also gotten to know each other a whole lot better. It was a beautiful day of laughter, chat, sun and sights. Thanks, Madge, for making this a great visit and a great day!

Deb: I think it is just a fantastic idea this artist journey of yours, Madge. Thank you for your warmth and generosity. So lovely to meet you. Bon Voyage. 

(Barbara: Sorry, girls, my pix sucked, so these photos are all courtesy of Madge. Thank you!)

Deb and Barb Have A Three-Way

Deb and Barb Have A Three-Way With Madge

Deb and Barbara first met Madge in our comments section, and we’ve grown to love and admire her for her bold, straight-from-the-hip writing here and on her blog, Madgew-musings. She represents everything cool about owning your age: independence, free-spiritedness, compassion and intelligence.  Madge also has three other blogs: one about her trip to China, one about her trip to Japan, and another about her trip to Eastern Europe.

Madge: I HAVE A NEW CAREER

Madge in Japan

I have screamed that headline for years as I was looking for my passion. I have been an office manager in a doctor's office (passionless), run a 5 hospital program that trained fellows in Gastroenterology (even more removed from passion), own and manage real estate (feeds my ability to travel), been a mediator, artist, and now a writer (have written for as long as I can remember). Whew, I am tired of all my careers. But my best one to date is writing and being the marketing director for The Next Family.

Let me back up. A year ago May I turned in a story for a storytelling night at the Spark Off Rose Theater in Santa Monica, California. The title of the night was Children, and I wrote a funny piece about my son moving back to LA with his family of 5. I must admit it was the most fun I had had in a long time. My family and friends were in the audience and it was very well received. At the same time a woman named Brandy was telling her story. We connected and within weeks my story was on her website and I was her marketing director. The last year and a half I have finally found my passion. I have connected with the most amazing women and some men who are all writers in various fields and all over the world. In fact through one of these connections I met this two crazy women Barb and Deb and started following their blog. And follow I did. I comment all the time as I love to show my appreciation for someone else's wit and wisdom, sorrow and excitement. It has been a love fest ever since. Putting my words out there has somehow freed my soul. My ex boyfriend, lover, friend with benefits has not been as keen sometimes as I wrote about us and how it is so up and down. My family has been very supportive and they too have gotten sometimes not the most favorable reviews, but it is all done with love and humor and a real passion to have my truth out. Too long I hid behind the "people pleaser" motif. As I aged that person disappeared and the real Madge emerged––funny, loving, always caring, terrific and sometimes loudmouth with no filters.

Madge and her adorable granddaughter

As the marketing director of The Next Family, I search out writers who I think would fit our demographic as well as our site. It is for alternative families and it proves all families are really similar in their wants and needs, whether it be two moms, two dads, single parents by choice, IVF, adoption, surrogacy in India, or straight urban dwellers. It has taken a passion I have had on and off since I was young (kept diaries and wrote amazing thank you notes) alive and well. And now it is working into a career of sorts. Most writing today is for free and I have no desire to write a book. I write about my life, my loves and my travels. I have a popular blog and also amazing facebook friends. Please take a look and enjoy what you find.

3 more adorable grandkids

I am 62, divorced for over 20 years (that is all in my blogs) and enjoy being a mother to 2 grown sons and their families and a grammie to 4. They all give me great joy. I have an aging parent and thank goodness a sister to commiserate with. I can be funny, irreverent and I always speak my truth. I love my life and have fought very hard for it. Boundaries are my specialty and it took years to learn. I can teach you. I live in Los Angeles as a native. I have lived in the same house since 1972 on a quiet street in the middle of a metropolis. A little Spanish house with a zen garden and low maintenance.  Life is good.

Deb: Madge, this blog made my day! How often do we hear people singing their joy? And although you had to kiss some frog careers, you have found your princely job. You were made for it and it for you.

And I can totally relate to the people pleaser thing. I too have been a people pleasing pepe all my life, and yet with middle age and menopause, not so much anymore. I would never be rude or unkind but at the same time, I will not disparage myself to make the other person feel better. Nor will I (most times) allow someone to be mean to me. Took a long time and I still work on that one. But hurrah to those of us who live our dreams in any way shape or form. You deserve to feel this way about your life, Madge.

We all do.

Barbara: Absolutely, Madge! And thanks for always inspiring us to do the same.

You’d think as an actor—someone fully engaged in an “alternate” non-office-based life––I would never question what I’m doing or why. Guess what? Not so lucky. I have gone through many heart-thumping, hair-pulling, unabashed wailing sessions as I tried to figure out which path to take at any given point. But it was thanks to this process (an utterly painful and embarrassing one) that I rediscovered my passion for writing. There’s nothing like gnashing your teeth and wailing despondently to make you realize you need to … get a life. 

Thanks, Madge, for sharing your wonderful journey with us!