I love Sunday mornings when I sit for hours reading the NY Times, while enjoying too much coffee and bacon. The reason it takes me hours to finish is due to my newly self-diagnosed A.D.D. (not really, but it sometimes seems that way!) Every time I read an article that I find really interesting, a book that I should read, or a movie that warrants a view of the trailer, I go over to my desktop computer (no, I don’t have a laptop) to do a bit more research. So, this past weekend I was doing my usual back and forth…my place is probably less than 200 sf so it’s not much of a walk… and I look at emails, click on various links, and get sucked in. I went back over to resume my paper reading and realized I never looked up the movie or the article I went over to the computer to “research” in the first place! (by the way, the movie was Saint Laurent, coming out this Friday, about the designer Yves St. Laurent…can’t wait!)
Anyway, this leads me to a dilemma that plagues those of us in middle age (please don’t tell me it’s just me!) Your doing something….working, cooking, reading or just sitting at your computer…and you suddenly realize you forgot to do something, or you need to get something from the other room. By the time you get to the other room, or sit down to do that something you forgot, you have totally forgotten what it is you were looking for or needed to do…WTF!!! I used to be such a list-maker when my kids were young just to make sure everything got done…their schedules, housework, meals, shopping, etc…and it usually did. At what point did I think it was a good idea to just try to remember all those things?….because there were less people in the house or there was less to remember?
I was also reading an article in MORE magazine….a magazine “for women of style or substance” which, when they first published, meant women OVER 40, but this month they have 34 year old Jessica Alba on the cover…whatever, I still love it and the relevant information it provides women. They had a whole section titled “New Health Rules at 30,40, 50 & 60.” So, I jumped to the “50’s” section and found the following information….”go easy on the salt to preserve your calcium; limit added sugars to 100 calories a day (6 tsp) to avoid high blood pressure; eat 2 or more servings of fish a week to maintain your hearing; my favorite, do eight squats three days a week to protect your knees (to my team-mates…ONLY eight squats…really??..YAY!!…although we’d never get faster!); and lastly, you don’t have to take iron any more assuming menopause has kicked in. That’s the synopsis….you’re welcome.
Speaking of menopause, my friend Barrie sent a group of us this NY Times article giving us the news that hot flashes can last up to 14 years. I could have told you that! “The median length of time women endured symptoms was 7.4 years” according to researchers in the largest examination to date of the menopausal symptom. The amount of years women “suffered”…that’s my word….varied depending on ethnic background and how early the symptoms began. Unfortunately for those who started having hot flashes early, they continued longer than for those that didn’t start having them until after their periods stopped (they didn’t include hysterectomy patients in their findings, whose symptoms do start earlier than others, so this study doesn’t really apply to me, but I feel like I’ve had them forever!) A word of wisdom…just invest in a lot of tank tops and be ready to shed layers as need be….and personal fans work wonders…in the car, on your desk, in your purse…ugh! It’s gonna happen, you just have to go with it! Acupuncture and herbs have helped some.
So, I guess all this is to say that shit happens as you get older that you may not have control over…but you have control over the way you respond to them. I’m going to go back to making lists instead of relying on my feeble memory so much, and invest in more of those tank tops! …and never stop eating bacon, drinking coffee and reading the Sunday NY Times!
You cannot direct the wind, but you can adjust the sails!
