I am moving! My Notions blog is continuing at a new web address

Please join me at:

http://notionsbymary.wordpress.com/

Seeing my mother’s face in mine

When I began to get “older” I was occasionally alarmed to catch sight of my mother’s face looking back at me from the mirror, or her hands resting in my lap — or, worse yet, my grandmother’s face or hands. I saw these resemblances only as a sign that I was aging. But as of this year, I am the eldest person in my immediate family, and suddenly I kind of like the idea that I look and sound like the women who came before me. It is as though I am carrying around a special key that only I am able to use to unlock the past – and I do it so easily: with a facial expression, a way of saying something, or a laugh. The family resemblance has turned from something I resented into a precious heirloom.

A smartphone app I wish someone would invent

Now that I can use my iPhone as a heart-rate monitor, I wish someone would invent an app that I could use to set up my workouts by desired target heart rate, including such variables as the length of time I want to get to the peak heart rate during the exercise period, how long I want to stay there, and how long the overall workout should be. The app would then select iTunes from my built-in iPod that have the correct beat to correspond to my desired heart rate (starting heart rate building to target heart rate, and then decreasing again at the end of the workout). Then I could run in time to the music and actually listen to the music and work with it instead of thinking about my heart rate and how much longer or faster I have to go.

So get on it, and let me know when it's done. I'll even pay. A bit.