Dear Bridal Magazines: A Breakup

Last week, I paused in the middle of cleaning my apartment to pick up a previously discarded bridal magazine and flip through it in search of collage materials. 

I thought about my changing relationship with the bridal magazines — which have appeared in my mailbox every month since my engagement two years ago — and realized that it resembled a romantic relationship gone sour. So I wrote a breakup letter.

I used Medium as my publishing tool, and submitted the essay to the Dear (Blank) collection, where it was accepted and published this week!

Although a bit self-indulgent, it was a really fun writing exercise that I'm happy to be able to share with so many people. I hope to do more of it!

Read the essay/letter here.

Getting Lost

"The things we want are transformative, and we don’t know or only think we know what is on the other side of that transformation. Love, wisdom, grace, inspiration — how do you go about finding these things that are in some ways about extending the boundaries of the self into unknown territory, about becoming someone else?"

— Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost

Funemployment

Fifteen things I did this week, in the spaces outside of my job search:

1. Helped out with layout at SF Public Press. Pick up the fall edition at your local SF bookstore and/or market!

2. Reacquainted myself with Trader Joe's.

3. Drank copious amounts of wine with a dear accomplice.

4. Ran from Duboce Park to Ocean Beach with my brother — who unlocked his first 10K!

5. Ate fried chicken sandwiches, drank beer, and went bowling with my brother, to undo any possible healthy progress we achieved from running 6.3 miles.

6. Watched the Giants in the World Series.

7. Made "WE NEED ALTERNATIVE MEDIA NOW" protest signs with SF Bay Guardian publisher Marke B. 

8. Waved my protest sign at a rally against the closure of the SF Bay Guardian alongside Assemblyperson Tom Ammiano, progressive politicos, SFBG staff and supporters.

From left: Nos. 1, 4 and 8. Protest photo by Erika Rae Langdon; others by yours truly

9. Applied for unemployment.

10. Made stuffed bell peppers.

11. Donated blood at Blood Centers of the Pacific. (PSA: Donating is quick, painless, and saves lives — it's an easy way to help patients with cancers and leukemia!)

12. Caught up on Serial, my new podcast addiction.

13. Created a wine collage and transferred my article on natural wines in Paris to Medium, since who knows how long the current SFBG website will be up. 

14. Became completely obsessed with Medium. (The platform, not the show — already obsessed with that.)

15. Put in 8 miles of therapeutic running/walking with editor/writer extraordinaire Cheryl Eddy.

No. 13 — check me out on Medium: https://medium.com/@brookeginnard

HIRE ME.