Showing posts with label interests. Show all posts
Showing posts with label interests. Show all posts

My Fiftieth Year

photo by thesparechangekitchen
I turn Fifty this year. The big Five-Oh, You're over the hill and rolling down it, When's menopause going to hit? Fifty. FiftyFiftyFifty.

I shouldn't like that so much, but I do. It took a long time--fifty years, ha!--to get here and I have a lot of past that is painful, a lot of things I've had to conquer and get over, and other things to let go or toss aside and move on in spite of. I earned every single one of these years and I feel happy and light and free. Freer than I've ever felt. So what if one of my ear lobes has a wrinkle in it and slopes so that I can't just wear any old pair of earrings because they aren't level? So what if my belly sits on my lap like a frightened old cat? Getting old is part of life. Embrace the great things about it. 

Okay, so I don't really turn Fifty until June, but I'm taking a page from my older sister Bekie. (Notice how I said older?) I have only one sister I get to be the youngest for and she's it. She's always been adventurous and wise beyond her years. When she turned fifty (Because she did it before me), she celebrated the entire year. Even took a European trip on her own for fun. 

While I don't see a European vacation in my immediate future, I've decided that I'm going to do something for myself each month. Something that I haven't taken the time to do either because of finances or not being able to leave my ill child home alone for a long period of time. 

This year I'll be going to the RWA national conference in Atlanta in July. I've wanted to do that for 6 years, but there was never any way possible. 

I'm going to lose weight. Okay, yes, I say this every year, but now I have a diabetes doctor telling me I have to and prescribing some meds to help with my dumb diabetic body wanting to store all the sugar it can. This time I can do it. They've already helped me lose 15 pounds so I just have to stay the course.  Maybe I'll be a new healthy slenderer me by my birthday. Fifty and fabulous. Oh bother, I'm fabulous now. Fat or skinny, I like me. This is for health cuz I have a lot of things I want to do. I also want to buy whatever clothes I want. So I'm doing it for that too.

Speaking of...I'm going to buy clothes this year. I've been Miss Practical and haven't really gotten much for myself the past couple of years. That's changing. My books are selling well (Thank you very much my dear readers--I'm truly grateful) and I can afford to get things for me as well as the kids. Purses, shoes, clothes. Yep, this is my Fiftieth year. I deserve it. 

Have a Sister's Weekend with, well, my sisters. I miss them terribly. 

A Massage. Would you believe I've never had a professional massage? That's almost criminal, isn't it? So that's on the list.

And that's all I can think of for now. I'm sure more things will pop up as I think of them.

So what kinds of things would you treat yourself to?


One-Dimensional

I've become One-dimensional. I didn't mean to. It just sort of happened.

I've thrown all my energies into writing, into educating myself on the craft of it, and into learning how to make a shy person as myself more of an extrovert.

I belong to two writing groups, which I love. I come back from those meetings buzzing with creative energy and so happy to have spent time with people who have become great friends.

But I want to spread my wings a bit and join one or two online communities that focus on something other than writing. The problem?

I have no idea what else I'm interested in. Pre-marriage, I traveled the backyard of the west with my 3 buddies, one tent, sleeping bags, a cooler, and money for gas. We hiked, we explored ghost towns, nearly rolled down a cliff, waterskiied and jetskiied when we found a lake and someone with a boat or a place to rent jetskis.

Nowadays, the thought of climbing a mountain makes me want to hurl myself off of one. And since I moved to Texas--camping in a tent in this heat? Not happening. All that camping fun drained out of me along with buckets of humidity when ignorantly innocently enough I volunteered to be the camp director for the church 14-18 yr-old girls while I was pregnant. NEVER again. NEVER.

As for boating and skiing, I'd do that if I still had a boat or if there weren't alligators stalking Texas lakes.


Early marriage, I got hooked on those DIY home decorating shows and, yes, my house went through many, um, interesting transformations--some we will not speak about.

I did a few crafty workshops with church friends, but I mostly enjoyed the social aspect of working on a project together for a few hours while I speedily finished my ugly project because I knew I would NEVER finish it at home. And they rarely got hung up either because that cutesy crafty look isn't for me. My sister once said my interior reminds her of an old movie set from the mummy or something. Dark woods, old world style, not a cross-stitch sample in sight.

See my delimma?

What am I interested in at this stage of my life? It's a little disconcerting to really have no idea.

Okay, I do love ghosts. I've been fascinated with them since I saw one when I was eight. But that's a story for a separate blog post. And yes, being my one-dimensional self, I've written several things featuring ghosts. How could I not?  

So I could join a group about ghosts maybe? Ghost-hunting? Know any good ones? I have no idea.

I also want to travel, so perhaps there are some great traveling communities I can get into?

Genealogy too. Not that I've done a lot of it, but I have done some and let me tell you, it is a time suck. I get going and hours fly by. I feel like a detective, finding lost souls and connecting them with the right family lines.

So help me out people. I'm determined to take this month and find an online group (outside of writing) that I can connect with.

Tell me about groups you belong to and interests you have so I can go check them out a find a place for me. Even if it doesn't seem like something I'd be interested in, I'd love to know more about you and things you enjoy. Who knows, maybe that will spark a long buried interest I've forgotten I had.

Post your groups here in the comments or on my facebook page. I'll let you know how my search to become at least a two-dimensional person comes along throughout the month.