Month: November 2013

‘Tis the season for hustle and bustle. I look forward to the holidays with both excitement and dread, knowing that it’ll be all about the go, go, go on top of the snow, snow, snow. Rather than get worked up into an eggnog lather over it, I encourage everyone to find the “easy button” and press it. Whether it’s a Minnesotan thing, a Scandinavian thing, a Lutheran thing, a woman thing, or a “I CAN DO IT MYSELF” thing, I had been hardwired to think that the more difficult a task I accomplish, the more important it must have been. It’s not valuable if I didn’t kill myself to do it…and the holidays have been the prime season for overextending myself. Somehow, though, I’ve gotten past that fallacy and figured out that I need some things to be easy. And they’re good things. Not any less important or valuable or crucial to anyone, these easy-button solutions are a part of every day of my life, not just the holiday season.

My family is very utilitarian and organized in its gift giving (see previous Lutheran/Scandinavian remark). We write lists and the lists include links to exactly what we want (okay…mine does…I include links because I like to be clear in my communication). If someone tells you what they want and it’s within your means to get it, don’t put yourself through the wringer over it–get it. There’s no award for never referring to the wish list when buying gifts…or there shouldn’t be. Don’t read into things, just read the lists. Easy.

Because I’m single and live alone, I have a whole lot of freedom but not a whole lot of options for shopping. I can stop here and there, go gallivanting to and fro, and take as long as I want to pick up the perfect gifts from the lists that have been given to me, but the “options” part is all about the hauling. Sure, I could get oversized items for everyone, but that means that I’ll have to haul them, too. My stuff, my dog’s gear, the leash (and the dog attached to it), the snow, the ice, the not-gonna-happen. I’ll get little trinkets from some of the local stores as stocking stuffers and host presents because they’re easy to carry, but the rest has to ship itself. This is where Amazon comes in. I love Amazon and am a member of the Amazon Prime program that means free two-day shipping for all qualifying products…which, especially at the holidays, pays for the membership fee over and over. I’ll figure out where I’ll be for the event, have the gifts shipped there, and arrive early enough to unpack and wrap them. Last year, I even had the wrapping paper shipped to my parents’ house. Really. (And, if my dad shakes the big box and actually figures out that it’s the Husqvarna chainsaw helmet with face shield from his list, he deserves to figure it out.) You won’t hear me say, “Bah, humbug!” over that. Easy.

Food is a basic component of the holidays. I embrace cooking and baking, when I have time. Time is usually the limiting factor. Cooking and baking are putzy activities that involve prep, execution, and clean-up…and yield such tasty rewards. But, it’s all about knowing my limits. Finding the “easy” when I need to. If there’s a potluck party and I know I’ve got a day full of meetings, I won’t be bringing a homemade pie; I’ll pick up crusty bread and some cheese and olives. I kid you not, for a recent casual get-together, I picked up a very popular dish to pass via the Taco Bell Drive-Thru: a 12-pack of tacos that were more tasty than tacky. If I know I’ve got three potlucks in a short period of time, I’ll make a monster, triple-batch of my cheeseball and split it into three, one for each shindig. Easy.

In a sea of other cookies and confections, dried fruit sprinkled on melted white chocolate that hardens to be broken into pieces of bark are a visual and literal treat. Choosing the Caramel Puffcorn recipe on the back of the Old Dutch Puffcorn bag is the fastest way to get myself on next year’s invitation list. I love getting involved in a cookie exchange for which I make 15 dozen of the same cookie (one list of ingredients, one set of dirty dishes, countless loads of trays into the oven) and get back 14 dozen different varieties of sweets that I’d never have time (or ingredients) to make. Sure, even my “easy” solutions might sound difficult to people who don’t cook or bake, but there’s a solution to most any situation out there, even if it’s picking up a bag of candy to pass. Yum. Easy.

Most of all, we need to take it easy on ourselves. Before I allowed for the possibility that things can go off-course, off-list, and be bought off-the-bakery-shelf, the holidays (and my life) were prone to more martyrdom than merriment. I can do without that drama. Easy.

Happy Holidays to you and yours.
With cheer and thanks,
Andy

It’s the Friday after the Minnesota Magazine & Publishing Association’s Excellence Awards ceremony…and the Friday we go to press. Often, I’m writing this letter at the “twelfth hour,” as my friend Bob so aptly named it. It’s late, I’m under-the-gun, mistakes tend to happen, and that’s just how it goes. We get ten business days per issue, my piece gets a few hours of that. It’s worth it, to be able to write about what’s relevant exactly as this issue goes from electronic to print in its format. Kind of like driving my Jeep on “E,” I get a little thrill out of it…though I might end up with an empty tank and a typo or two because of it.

So, what happened at the last minute that is so relevant for me to write about today? It’s a mix of long-awaited plans, last night’s awards, and what’s coming up next year in our Editorial Calendar. The past, present, and future are all rolling around in my brain, ready to drop into a glass of water and fizz like Alka Seltzer.

Lavender won eight awards at the MMPA ceremony last night. I’m very pleased with that number, especially since three of them are Gold Awards. I’ll make sure to show and tell about the awards in an upcoming issue (the irony in being the magazine that reports our own magazine awards doesn’t elude me), but last night was more of a reminder of how much work can be done here at Lavender. What was stuck in my system and required the virtual Alka Seltzer was our standing as being in the Special Interest category. If you follow my logic, it’s about how this community isn’t yet mainstream, not General Interest. This comes up every time there’s a snarky remark about how Lavender doesn’t even need to exist…that it’s unnecessary. But I always come back to the fact that until the GLBT community is prominent as part of what is General Interest in our society, it needs its space in the Special Interest category. I will rejoice heartily when it doesn’t.

As I was chewing on all of this last night, I started to smile. I realized that as a Special Interest category, we’ve got the prime standing as always having something fresh to talk about. In the past few years, I’ve noticed how our Editorial Calendar is fairly comprehensive for a small, independent bi-weekly magazine, but that it needs to cover more topics that are especially interesting to this Special Interest community. Sure, we’ve got arts, dining, travel, music, books, leather, news, vehicles, homes & garden, some politics, columnists, bars, booze, and history. But, I’ve wanted to expand into more areas of Special Interest like fashion, health, fitness, family, and sports.  Because this community not only includes the General Interest population but also the Special Interest population, we’ve got more reasons to be more diverse than any other publication out there.

Want Special Interest? We’ll have Special Interest.

So, starting in the first issue of 2014, in addition to our current Editorial Calendar, we’ll have new quarterly features including fashion, health, fitness, and family–as well as a new sports column in every issue. That’s almost doubling the Editorial Calendar by adding these topics that are specific and special to this community. I’m pleased that our success can lead us to this growth.

Fashion Quarterly. We’ve got a rich fashion community in the Twin Cities. Whether interested in the trends, the clothes, the accessories, the designers, the stores, or what’s happening behind the scenes, we’ll present more fashion to you on a regular basis.

Health Quarterly. Health in this community is more than a matter of special interest, it’s a matter of life and death. Living and dying–and how health figures into both–require a different perspective for people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, or anywhere along the spectrum. As we progress through the year, we’ll have an opportunity to highlight and address concerns, as well as triumphs and victories, in GLBT health.

Fitness Quarterly. The stats show that this community has fitness high on its list of priorities. We can serve as a resource for the active members by talking to the professionals, doing how-to pieces for specific needs, and highlighting ways you can get involved in fitness groups that not only serve as an outlet for exercise but also for socializing with people in the community.

Family Quarterly. This community has families. Whether from heterosexual unions of whatever variety, adoption, artificial insemination, or undisclosed circumstances, it’s time for us to explore more of this topic. From how to get pregnant, adopt, or arrange the legal aspects of co-parenting to advice for raising kids as a same-sex couple, we’ll be asking the experts…and the experts include you, the parents.

Sports. Related to the topic of Fitness, this community is very sports-oriented. We’ve got leagues and players in rugby, football, basketball, bowling, soccer, baseball, softball, roller derby, swimming, running…the list goes on. We are going to do a Sports column in every issue to cover teams and players on the local, national, and international levels.

And there you have it. It’s my pledge to you that while our Special Interest publication has been only seeing more and more success, we won’t stop reaching further. We’ve been building a great magazine and online community, and will only continue to make it greater. Our breadth and depth will match more closely the community we represent and succeeding at that feat will be all the award we’ll need. Our Special Interests are diverse and our community members are engaging resources.

Thank you for being such a rich community to represent.

With you,
Andy