Today I received my first issue of Better Homes & Gardens.  I vaguely remember signing up for a free subscription about 4 months ago and my first issue showed up today.  I don’t think I would ever buy a copy of the magazine, but I have perused my first issue and it’s not too bad.

I used to get a ton of magazines.  I have been getting Real Simple almost since the first day it came out.  It has been the only one that has consistently been a staple in my reading repertoire.  I went through a phase of getting fashion magazines like Vogue, Lucky, Self and Glamour.  Before I got married I got a combination of health magazines like Fitness, Prevention, and Shape and wedding magazines:  Brides and Martha Stewart Weddings. My last phase was interior design.  It was right after we bought our first house so I had visions of making my house look like the rooms I saw in Blueprint (no longer in publication) and House Beautiful.

As I was thinking of all these magazines, I remembered my first subscription that I ever got.  Ladies in your mid to late 30’s, prepare for a blast from the past.

YM - it stood for Young Miss, which I don't think I knew until I was no longer considered a "Young Miss".

I loved the quizzes in YM, but they were always so ridiculous.  Does your guy friend like-like you?  Are you ready for a boyfriend?  How honest are you?  I would almost always try and skew my answers so I would get the result I was searching for and then I would go back and answer honestly.

I don’t know if YM is still published.  If it is, I’m sure it’s not the same magazine I remember.  I recall it being fairly innocent and it wasn’t until I reached high school did I start getting the racier, Seventeen.

So for the next year I’ll have one more magazine to read besides my Real Simple and Newsweek, which is really just for appearances.