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After 26 years, Martha McCully "pulled loose from the glue trap of New York City to start fresh in Venice, California." The former executive editor of In Style and executive producer at Oxygen Media (and current contributing editor at the LAT magazine) writes at the Huffington Post about her new life:
I've spent the first week cleaning every surface of this bungalow, shopping at TJ Maxx for the least expensive salad spinner (OXO in lime green) and borrowing a bed, lamp, down comforter, and wine glasses from friends. That's basically all that will fit in my house. It has poured every day since I arrived. (Don't most people move here for the sun?) Of course I own tens of raincoats, umbrellas, boots, and scarves in my Manhattan closet, nice ones too, but now I'm wearing a borrowed sweatshirt that says Hanalei Surf Kauai on the back. The only sense of accomplishment I've felt so far is from following everything the GPS voice tells me to do when I'm driving.I've overheard a few friends mention Mid-Life Crisis behind my back. Is it wrong to act 23 when I'm well into my 40s? Whatever.... This is what I wanted. I decided to leave my power career in magazine publishing for many reasons, one of which was to peel back the clichéd layers of Prada bags, Etro jackets and Miu Miu heels and unearth what I should really be doing with my life. And so here I am, in a TV-less bungalow in Venice in the rain.
She adds, "I vacillate between being a creative person and a businesswoman and worry I'm neither. I've heard you actually get dumber in your late 40s. This bothers me."