Every month we profile a neighborhood resident who’s also a fan of our Facebook page. If you’re not a fan, become one now … we give away loads of free stuff, nearly every day. And, if you’re interested in answering a bunch of goofy questions and being featured in an upcoming profile, email me at kscott@advocatemag.com and include the subject line “I want to be a Facebook profile.”
This month, meet 39-year-old Laura Andrews Matura. Matura is a marketer, designer and blogger living in the L Streets with her husband, Matt, their 1-year-old son, Andrew, and three dogs: Sascha, a red heeler, Franklin, a Pomeranian, and Cooper, a mutt of “pure, loveable cuteness.”
What’s a little known fact about you?
I’m a fairly open book, so this is a hard one. Kind of bummed I’m not that mysterious.
What’s your most embarrassing moment?
I’m a total klutz so there is no one moment. Most of them include me on my back or backside after a theatrical, massive failure in staying upright, my things — and I’m always holding LOTS of things when this happens — strewn everywhere. Last time in happened (raining, in the parking lot behind Breadwinners), I propped myself up on my elbows and mouthed, “You’re welcome,” to anyone that might have seen me.
What would your career be if you could do it all over again without consequences?
I would have done something where I could help people more, like a nurse, doctor, social worker. When a disaster hits, like the earthquake in Haiti, I feel remorseful that there’s nothing I can do, besides donate some money.
What’s the one thing you wish you could do but are reasonably sure you never will?
Sing well in front of people.
What makes you laugh out loud?
I laugh easily, so this could be a long answer. I don’t laugh at “mean” things, like when people fall (I do, however, laugh at myself when I fall). My mom once said “never make fun of people’s laughing, singing or dancing, because they *are* laughing, singing or dancing.”
What’s your most treasured possession?
A card that I received from my parents when I graduated from high school
What’s your strangest or most random Facebook Friend connection?
The photographer Hal Samples. I thought I had found and sent a friend request to a friend from college, and then he accepted. I went on his page to send him a message and realized it was the wrong person. I even sent him a “HEY! I goofed! You’re not the Hal I’m looking for,” but he didn’t unfriend me and now I get to see all of this amazing photography he does.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
A Dairy Queen lady, an architect, a fashion designer and a mommy (in that order, no doubt)
What’s one question you think other Facebook Fans could help you answer?
Not a question, a statement. I don’t get Farmville.
If you could only eat at one neighborhood restaurant for the rest of your life, which would it be?
Cannot answer this, I like variety WAY too much.
How would you explain your neighborhood to someone living in, say, Newfoundland?
I live in a “transitional” neighborhood north of downtown Dallas, some parts nice, some parts could have used some zoning 20 or so years ago. Fifty years ago, it was basically a suburb, built-up near a lake. Now it’s full of lots of old trees and streets filled with modest homes and nice people.
Whole Foods, Central Market, Kroger, Tom Thumb or somewhere else — where do you grocery shop and why?
Tom Thumb has always been my favorite, but usually it’s my nearby Albertsons. For the special things, Central Market. To me, Tom Thumbs are set up in the “proper” way. Food is with food, other stuff is with other stuff. You don’t have the row of paper towels next to the row of vegetables.
What brings a smile to your face every time?
When my son says “bye bye” and then follows it up with blowing a kiss — “MUUUWAH” (with great enthusiasm)
What item in your closet is most humiliating?
My maternity bras
What do you miss about the you from 10 or 20 years ago?
My hair was red, red, red.
What do you love about the age you’re at now?
Truthfully, everything (of course I’d love to be fitter/toner, not so many wrinkles, etc.). But, I’m so comfortable in this not-so-toned, crinkly skin and hopefully it shows. I’m extremely happy and content, and I think that’s a better beauty enhancer than any botox or plastic surgery.
What are some jobs you’ve held in the past?
Bartender (still my favorite job of all time), worked in a plant nursery, but since the mid-90s I’ve mainly done marketing, design and communications for a variety of companies in a variety of industries.
What celebrity would you most like to meet for coffee and why?
Anthony Bourdain. I like food, but I wouldn’t classify myself as a “foodie.” I just really enjoy the zeal and true excitement he has for all of his adventures. And you know he’d pick a kick-ass place with a cool history/story behind it, and he’d know the owner and invite a local “celebrity” and it would be simply fantastic.
What’s your favorite guilty-pleasure website?
I check quite a few web sites on a daily basis, but I always visit a handful of mommybloggers (ugh, hate that term), like dooce.com, amalah.com, and a friend of mine’s, shelikespurple.com. A girlfriend and I are working on a new blog, swissarmywives.com — “So many tools. So little time.” Hopefully we can replicate the appeal that many of these women have created with their own blogs and perhaps turn it up a notch with more pop culture (and hopefully culture culture) in addition to parenting triumphs as well as lows. Overall, as a reader/visitor, I prefer the organic nature of blogs to buttoned –up, static web sites — probably the same thing that drew me to Facebook a few years ago.
Do you have a favorite quote?
“Good is the enemy of great” or “I am because you are, you are because we are.”
What are you afraid of, rationally or irrationally?
Overpasses. I know every end-around in Dallas to keep from driving over them. Makes absolutely no sense to anyone (including me).
If you could import the brain of any person, living or dead, into your own noggin, whose would it be?
It’s a strange tie that I can’t break: Dorothy Parker for wit and undeniable brilliance [or] Mother Teresa for empathy and compassion.
Who is your hero and why?
No heroes, per se. I do admire many people (artists, authors, musicians, activists) a great deal, but can’t say I would brand anyone “my hero.”
Would you skydive in the most beautiful place in the world? Why or why not?
NO! I’m really scared of heights.
Do you have any benign confessions to make?
Nope (see the first question)
When did you realize you were no longer a child?
When I was 19. I was having dinner with my parents and I looked at them and said, “Okay, you guys really DO know everything.”