Friday, February 27, 2015

The Oldometer is rolling over.

Dear Diary,

It's 5 am and the wind is still. Fucking. Blowing.

I'm not talking about a breeze rustling through the trees. We live near a canyon and I'm talking about about the wind howling by the house, squeezing through crevices under the door. Rattling the roof vents. That wind. I hate it. HATE IT.

I will not run in high winds.

There's a scene in the old miniseries "Centennial," where a kid dies during the depression on the Great Plains; his model-T or whatever the fuck, rolls over, pinning him, and he's covered with dust blown by the wind, and suffocates. When his mother is told, she rocks back and forth with a crazy look in her eye muttering, "'twas the dust that kilt him...the dust, and the wind." Later a neighbor, trying to keep the wind and dust out of her house, goes apeshit crazy and kills eveyone in the house.

I'm not saying I'm going to go batshit and take everyone with me. I am just sayin': I can relate.

 

 
 
 
 

Anyway.

2015 has several important meanings for me.

First, it's the ten year anniversary of when I started this blog. I started this in January 2005 when I weighed 195 pounds. I've yo-yo'd my way back and forth between 150 and 170 since then, between a size 8 and 12, but I've never been back up to where I was at size 16.

Second, it's the year I turn 50.

FIFTY. Fifty has a lot of meaning for me. My mother was 53 when she was diagnosed with cardiomyoathy and given five years to live. She lasted eight, but she still died too young, after a lifetime of obesity.

Several older women I admire have listened to the news of my impending fiftieth, saying Quietly to me, "fifty was a hard one for me."

The interesting thing is that appoaching fifty was far more anxiety-inducing than actually being here. Once actually got here (in two weeks) I shrugged, and said, fuckit.

Upon approach to the big 5-0, I did spend far more time than was necessary trying to figure out which hair style or makeup or clothing would make me appear younger. I even read books on the subject.

Then one day it hit me: it's not the hair or the makeup, I'm really doing as well as I can. What is making me look older is....

 

...Wait for it...

 

 

 

...Wait for it...

 

 

Getting older. (What a concept)

In any case I have made some observations that may have something to do with what my great Aunt Lucille said to me when I was eight and asked her why she wasn't married. Aunt Lucille, a Lauren Bacallish woman who became a lawyer in the 1940s when women Simply Were Not Lawyers, looked and me. Well, the truth is that the older I get the less shit I'm willing to put up with.

So here they are, in no particular order.

First, I have never had a diamond ring, so, for my impending fiftieth, I bought myself a present.

 

<-- Second, I don't care if it makes me look slightly younger, I'm tired of fucking with all that hair. Goodbye, ponytail.

 

Third, running on roads makes my hip hurt (apparently, a greater trunchsomething bursitis), so I'm going to be nearly all trails as a runner from now on.

Forth, I love bootcamp-style workouts. I feel younger, stronger, and lithe. I'm joining the Y and signing up there, because it gives me more time flexibility, and a shower. i'd been doing them in a private gym, but it's really cutting into my budget and I had less control over when I could work out. Also, I like the Y. Because shower.

Fifth, where the fuck is my AARP card, anyway? I want those damned discounts.

Sixth, heLLO, senior Olympics, here I come.

Seventh, and I'm polling all the other old cool people out there, is this where I get to start saying whatever crazy shit is on my mind? And then people chuckle and say, OH, old lady Misty is such a hoot! Let me know I'm wrong.

Eighth, I fucking hate Blogsy. But it's all there is. Dammit. Dammit, dammit, dammit.

Ninth, I find myself gravitating towards facials and massages more. Is that normal?

Tenth, I still have no desire to talk to, hold, talk about, show pictures of, shop for, or babysit grandchildren. I don't have any yet, so it's just as well. Oh, sure, maybe I'll change my mind when one of my kids plops a wiggling bundle of joy in my arms. Or maybe not. I work with mentally ill children all day, so it may surprise many to know that I'm not really all that into kids on the weekends.

Last, as the baby of the family,I can remember thinking, now that I,m thirty, I'm seriously a grownup. You have to take me seriously now!. They didn't. I thought the same thing when I turned forty. They didn't. Now I'm fifty, and there's nobody left to say that to.

So, let me know if any of these things are weird. And let me know what else weird might happen.

...

 

6 comments:

  1. Personally, I think we spend our whole lives being weird and then, around 50, we start becoming who we were meant to be all along.

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    Replies
    1. YES! i LOVED 50 and am loving the years after. i take a HUGE delight in crushing the dreams of the younger athletes :) and a very warped pride in beating anyone a decade or more younger than I. 50 makes you such a better person. i really would not go back to my 30s - well, i'd send my flabby skin back (OhMAIGawds i have chicken skin) but life is so much better this side of that half-way-over hump.

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  2. Definitely past time to start saying the crazy shit that's on your mind :)

    I sort of agree with Helen...not so much that we spend our whole lives being weird but we spend the earlier part trying to be whatever it is we think we should be....getting older gets to be about becoming who we ARE and who WE want to be.....I started to get my legs under me at age 30, got a better sense of who I was at age 40 (diagnosis of cancer just after turning 40 probably had some effect), and now - looking at 49 soon, still working on accepting myself and also am starting to try to become the self I want to be. Getting to the point of being able to say "nope, that's not for me" and move on - while still trying new things and expanding instead of contracting in life - is a fantastic thing. It's sometimes easy, sometimes a challenge for me. (sometimes I WISH things were for me, or that I wanted something or did something or was like something/someone). Mostly I am just me, and I try to be, and to let that be good enough for myself, my harshest critic.

    LOVE the new haircut! (welcome to the short hair club...it's fun here - mine's even shorter and I love it)

    So glad you're figuring out what works for you, what brings you pleasure, joy, challenge - and going for it! While letting go of the other stuff and whatever doesn't serve.

    Happy happy birthday!

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  3. Anonymous6:43 PM

    Being 11 years older than you…I never even thought about turning 50 much less 60…it's just a new age group and closer retirement! I refuse to cut my pony tail. All the ladies my age have short hair and I think it makes them look older…my opinion. But yours looks good. I truly think I am the same person I was when I made the decision at 17 to go after the things I truly love to do…and now I am there and it's nice. The only thing I don't like about being in my 60s is my wrinkly neck. Ha! But I will live with it!

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    Replies
    1. what is it about this old skin? totally defies what i am inside. :) i think 60 might be bigger for me - i dunno. i think 40 was my BIG bday and 50 was just another notch in the belt of life. i too have long hair - just cut some 11 inches off and pretty much only 1 of my kids noticed....

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  4. Stalker alert: LOVE the hair! Happy birthday! 50 is totally the new 30! (Well, it is if you compare to survival rates of 1906, but I digress...) :)

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