How Do Women Really Feel?

In preparation for the May issue, we're conducting a ladies-only survey to find out how Amarillo women really feel about a variety of issues. The survey is up and running on our website, and it only takes a few minutes to fill out. Be honest, girls - how do you really feel about being married (or not married)? About working (or staying home) and having kids (or not having kids)? What do you secretly believe, and if there were no consequences, what would you want to get away with?



While online, submit your entry to win a sushi-making set and a gift card to United for your ingredients.


Have a great weekend, dear readers, and if you haven't picked up your March issue of AM, run by a Hastings today for a free copy!



--Jennie

Coming in March

As we wrap up the March issue of AM, we hope you'll be inspired by six locals who we feel set the bar for personal style. Confident and bold, we also feature some of their favorite pieces from shops around town.

We also interviewed Julian Reese and Jon Lyles, the quarterback and head coach of the newly re-named Amarillo Venom, the city's indoor football team. We talk about their individual journeys to Amarillo, how the team wants your support this year, and what's coming up in the 2010 season.

As a reminder, check out our dining guide, complete with restaurant descriptions, dish recommendations and our restaurant feature of the month. For March, we tell you about El Tejavan, where the dishes are always authentically mexican and tenderly made from mama's recipes.

Grunt work or valuable learning experience?

Meet our intern, Andrea:

She's only been with us for a month but already she's been so helpful. Whether it's running errands, writing blurbs or helping the brainstorming process, we're happy to have her. We hope that, in the process, she's learning something about the magazine world - like, sometimes you have to crawl around on the floor at photo shoots.

--Jennie

Thanks to salt and lots of scraping...

...I've been dug out of the snow. Sufficed to say I didn't leave my house for four days. While snowed in, I caught up on chores, watched movies and became very attached to my pajamas. I also got behind on work, so now that it's back to the grind for me I wanted to remind all of you that the February issue of Amarillo Magazine is out. (If you didn't leave your house all weekend either, take a shovel and go dig the Sunday paper out of your front lawn. AM mingles with the ads.)

We hope you'll appreciate our alternative look at love this month, sharing stories of people whose passion defines their lives. There's also a fabulous bridal spread and yummy fondue recipes for a Valentine's night at home.

If you have comments, suggestions or ideas for Amarillo Magazine, feel free to email me at jennie.miller@amarillo.com or leave us a message on our website.

Enjoy!

-Jennie

Moving on to March

Now that February is quietly put to bed (the cover story is seriously one of my favorites so far - be sure to grab your copy on Sunday), we are moving on to March. Without giving too much away, here's a photo from our special feature interview with Dusters QB Julian Reese:



But let's get back to February. Inside the Love Issue, you can read about a woman who traveled across the globe to adopt her children, about two sisters whose business brings joy to others, and about two volunteers who donate literally hundreds of hours of their personal time for a passionate cause. We give you fondue recipes for a stay-at-home Valentine's dinner and stepfamily expert Ron Deal shares how you can find harmony and passion in a remarriage. We even show you how to give your favorite pet a Valentine of his own.

If you don't subscribe to the Sunday paper, check out Amarillo Magazine online.

--Jennie

Haiti

After already suffering a magnitude-7 earthquake last week, Haiti was hit again with a lesser 6.1 aftershock this morning. More than a million people are already homeless and tens of thousands are injured, but there is one layer of this tragedy that I can't shake from my brain.

Haiti is a country from where many American families adopt, and since the earthquake, all the parents and children who've been waiting to be placed together will now have to wait even longer - that is, if the children are still alive and if the paperwork can be sorted out. As an adoptive mother, I cannot imagine the pain and anxiety I'd feel if I were sitting stateside knowing my child was in Haiti. Is she in the hands of a caregiver, or is she even alive? Phone calls, news reports and photos from the disaster zone would haunt me.

As adoption agencies sort through the mess of the aftermath, my hope is that the heartache of this earthquake will be lessened by the uniting of adoptive families. In the meantime, remember them in your thoughts and prayers.

--Jennie

The Proofing of February

If you walked into the AM office on any given day this week or next, you'd see a mess of papers scattered around our work table sprinkled with scribbles, arrows, rewrites, and cross marks. It's proof week and that means we're arranging stories on the page, rechecking checked facts and hoping we have everything spelled correctly. (I know we're missing something!) We debate about what photos to use and how to caption them. We come up with headlines, subheads, and taglines. By the end of proof, we're comatose from too much reading and too much coffee.

It's always a difficult task choosing what photos are printed and which ones are filed away for later use. Such is the case with this photo which was taken on the day of our cover shoot. That is me on the bed with my new best friend, Louisa.


In the cover story we introduce you to ordinary people who have found a way to express their love in extraordinary ways, and I couldn't help myself from getting attached - quite quickly, in fact - to this adorable three year old. Tragically, our sweet photo didn't make it in the magazine, and it's just as well. This simple shot only scratches the surface of the fun we had that day. You're totally missing out on my Pippi Longstocking pigtails, courtesy of Louisa.

--Jennie