I can't believe that after 4 blog entries, I have nothing else burning to come out of me in written form! And probably no one is even checking my blog, so I would have to send out a mass email to let people know about it again, and that is like begging people to read my entries. You should all be chomping at the bit to read my blog. So there.
It is so interesting to read my cousin Helen's sons' blogs. (they are the ones who inspired me to write my own blog). Aside from the fact that they are both perceptive and funny, they, as young men, are writing from such a different perspective than I am. One couple(Aaron and his wife Kathy) are waiting for the birth of their first child; how well I remember that wonderful time in my life. The other couple Josh and Kim) have two young, adorable children. When Josh writes about their escapades, I am laughing out loud, especially now that my own two sons are grown and I can look back and remember the craziness with laughter instead of with clumps of my hair in each hand.
In fact, we laughed a lot as a family,(still do) and that is probably what saved me from running screeching in front of a speeding train. There was even one episode, when my darlings were teens, that I knew would bring laughter when looking back on it. I knew that as I grounded them for driving into the city with a friend(that's you, Luke), none of them in possession of a driver's license, (only a permit), at rush hour, to buy fireworks (illegal) in Chinatown at the height of rush hour, this would be a family story that we would laugh about for years to come. I cannot say that I was laughing on that particular day, however, and thank G-d they all came home in one piece.
And then there were the burps at the table. My family was so refined when I was growing up. Our background was German Jewish, very proper, not a burp to be heard. Now my boys burp on purpose because they know I hate it. And then, of course I cannot stop laughing, and the burping gets louder.
My father used to say that the years fly and the days crawl. The years do fly by, it seems, faster and faster. All of a sudden you are not a mother in her early thirties with two little boys, you are a middle-aged woman with so much gray hair that the colorist tells you that highlighting will not do the trick anymore...you have to switch to single process. Now, any male reading this will not realize the enormity of this reality. Trust me, gentlemen, for us women, this is a big deal.
There are a lot of good things about middle age, especially in the baby boomer generation, where middle aged people can be active and hip and classy. And at this age, a lot of the things that threw off your self confidence are no longer important; the priorities of life are much more realistic and the saying 'don't sweat the small stuff' really makes sense. But there is stuff that ain't so great. All of a sudden you have bursitis in both shoulders, or sciatica, or you get freezer burn from the gel pack that you were using to help the pain of the sciatica. It's not so great wearing a bathing suit, and you are not the woman they are looking at when a twenty or thirty something woman is in the area and what is that hair that wasn't there five minutes ago and why is it on your face? And let's not even discuss how hard it is to lose or maintain weight.
The good part is that all of my women friends are middle aged, not just me. And we don't dwell on it, we just have fun, and when we need to, we give each other support, and we tell each other that we look great and we love being together. Here's to baby boomer women everywhere!
So keep writing, Josh and Aaron, I love reading about life from your perspectives. And, one day, when you are middle-aged, you will take out this blog and read it again and remember this middle aged cousin fondly. (the one who never stopped giggling when she was within 5 feet of your mom!)
It is so interesting to read my cousin Helen's sons' blogs. (they are the ones who inspired me to write my own blog). Aside from the fact that they are both perceptive and funny, they, as young men, are writing from such a different perspective than I am. One couple(Aaron and his wife Kathy) are waiting for the birth of their first child; how well I remember that wonderful time in my life. The other couple Josh and Kim) have two young, adorable children. When Josh writes about their escapades, I am laughing out loud, especially now that my own two sons are grown and I can look back and remember the craziness with laughter instead of with clumps of my hair in each hand.
In fact, we laughed a lot as a family,(still do) and that is probably what saved me from running screeching in front of a speeding train. There was even one episode, when my darlings were teens, that I knew would bring laughter when looking back on it. I knew that as I grounded them for driving into the city with a friend(that's you, Luke), none of them in possession of a driver's license, (only a permit), at rush hour, to buy fireworks (illegal) in Chinatown at the height of rush hour, this would be a family story that we would laugh about for years to come. I cannot say that I was laughing on that particular day, however, and thank G-d they all came home in one piece.
And then there were the burps at the table. My family was so refined when I was growing up. Our background was German Jewish, very proper, not a burp to be heard. Now my boys burp on purpose because they know I hate it. And then, of course I cannot stop laughing, and the burping gets louder.
My father used to say that the years fly and the days crawl. The years do fly by, it seems, faster and faster. All of a sudden you are not a mother in her early thirties with two little boys, you are a middle-aged woman with so much gray hair that the colorist tells you that highlighting will not do the trick anymore...you have to switch to single process. Now, any male reading this will not realize the enormity of this reality. Trust me, gentlemen, for us women, this is a big deal.
There are a lot of good things about middle age, especially in the baby boomer generation, where middle aged people can be active and hip and classy. And at this age, a lot of the things that threw off your self confidence are no longer important; the priorities of life are much more realistic and the saying 'don't sweat the small stuff' really makes sense. But there is stuff that ain't so great. All of a sudden you have bursitis in both shoulders, or sciatica, or you get freezer burn from the gel pack that you were using to help the pain of the sciatica. It's not so great wearing a bathing suit, and you are not the woman they are looking at when a twenty or thirty something woman is in the area and what is that hair that wasn't there five minutes ago and why is it on your face? And let's not even discuss how hard it is to lose or maintain weight.
The good part is that all of my women friends are middle aged, not just me. And we don't dwell on it, we just have fun, and when we need to, we give each other support, and we tell each other that we look great and we love being together. Here's to baby boomer women everywhere!
So keep writing, Josh and Aaron, I love reading about life from your perspectives. And, one day, when you are middle-aged, you will take out this blog and read it again and remember this middle aged cousin fondly. (the one who never stopped giggling when she was within 5 feet of your mom!)
posted by boomer blogster at 9:37 AM
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