The first think people tend to notice when they walk into my apartment is my “P” hanging on the wall. 

My “P” has been on prominent display in my last three apartments.  It traveled with me from the Midwest to NYC.  Whenever I move it seems to be the first thing I hang on the wall.  I love it because it reminds my of the giant “M” that Mary Richards had in her apartment on the Mary Tyler Moore show. 

I am TV junkie and my favorite shows tend to be sitcoms revolving around strong, single female characters.  I have a number of character’s I’ve admired and wanted to emulate over the years-That Girl’s Ann Marie, Murphy Brown, and Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw to name a few.  But, my absolute favorite is Mary Richards. 

She appeared to be sweet and naïve, but she was also tough as nails.  What really separates Mary from most of the other single TV gals was that she started and ended her series as a single woman without children.  She dated many men through the seven seasons of the show’s run, but she wasn’t desperate.  She hadn’t ruled out love and finding her soul mate, but she didn’t put the rest of her life on hold waiting to find him. 

 I really admire Mary and if there is any fictional TV character I try to take cues from its her.  She was a loyal friend.  She was perky and optimistic.  She tried to be friendly and not let her feathers get ruffled in tense situations, but never allowed someone to pull one over on her.  But what I admired about her most was how she treated her love life.  She put herself out there and wasn’t afraid to endure her share of bad dates.  But, on the flip side she wasn’t waiting at home for the phone to ring, either.  She had a great social life and a career she really cared about and was committed to.

 I really try to live my life like Mary.  Dating has never been my favorite thing.  I have to admit that over the past year and a half, after loosing around 120 pounds, I’ve gone on a lot more dates than I have in the past.  Some of the good, and to be honest a lot of them have been not so great.  I don’t want to give up on potentially finding someone special, but I like to believe that even if I don’t get married some day, my life won’t be missing anything.  I owe this attitude in part to Mary Richards, because lets face it, she had spunk and who doesn’t love spunk?