Aging

When did I become an old person? Older person. Oh, a "mature" person. A senior citizen. What? I've started getting mail from our benefits department about my milestone birthday. Hold up there people!! I know they do that to prepare for you for getting ready for retirement and Medicare. It's still weird.

A long time ago I saw a little sign that said, How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are? That's a fun question. I think I'm still in my 40's somewhere. In my head. Now, my body is a different story! My body says, yep, definitely not 40's! I guess this is when things start to wear out. I'm ok with that as long as it doesn't hurt. I suspect that's why some 'seniors' are grumpy...they have chronic pain. That would suck. I injured my back putting up the Christmas tree, and for 2 MONTHS it hurt me. It's exhausting to be in pain all the time. 

It takes longer to do things. Physical and thinking things. I saw some dumb humorous story about old people and bird watching - that when you're younger you could care less about the birds in your backyard. Then I realized, well of course! When you're young, you're busy making a life for yourself...taking care of your kids/spouse/partner. You don't have the time to watch the birds, or smell the roses.  That's the part of getting older that I like. Now I have the time to do those things. Watch the birds. Watch the snow when it falls. Take leisurely walks. Spend more time cooking and trying new recipes. Reading. Learning new hobbies.  

My brother said he misses all his friends getting together and the big parties at holidays and game days. Now everyone has moved away or they just don't do those kinds of parties anymore. I told him, of course not, they're all old now! You've already had that kind of fun. You can't party forever. It's a pain in the butt. Move on! "Fun" becomes something different when you get older. Lots of mature people find out that they like things they never knew they liked! Like reading, or doing puzzles, or cooking, or sewing, or gardening! Lots of mature people find out that doing some kind of volunteer work, gives them purpose. 

As long as you're in good health, getting older is pretty great.

What are you watching?

Over the holidays, we caught up on a lot of the newer movies. 

Top Gun; Maverick. It was good action movie. If you liked the 1st one, you'll like this one too.

The newest Elvis movie was a lot better than I was expecting. It was actually more about him than his tabloid life. Also, Tom Hanks was pretty good as Colonel Parker.

The new rom-com, Ticket To Paradise, with Julie Roberts and George Clooney was just that, a rom-com. so typical and a little dumb. But, it was light and breezy and that's nice sometimes. Samaritan with Sylvester Stallone was a pretty typical guy revenge movie-meh. 

The Glass Onion  was fun. I liked it better than Knives Out. Maybe I felt like I had to pay too close attention in Knives Out? Honk For Jesus was interesting. It's about a black couple that run a Baptist church. Quirky. Proof again that religion is a show. Moonfall - meh. We watched the whole thing but mostly because it didn't suck and I didn't feel like looking for something else. Bullet Train, with Brad Pitt was fun in a campy kind of way-lots of over the top fights and shoot em ups though. Marry Me with Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson was another cute rom-com.

These aren't new and they're both with George Clooney and we liked both of them; Money Monster and Up In the Air. Both of them, good dramas. Also, an older movie, (2014) called The Hundred Foot Journey, was delightful.

We're watching Bosch on Amazon Prime. I like this one. I like all the characters. It's kind of intense though so whenever we watch an episode, I need something happy...so we watch an episode of Modern Family. We didn't watch it when it was on originally. Sometimes it's just dumb funny but there are enough clever funny moments that I keep watching 😀. Last week we started watching Person of Interest. We've only watch 4 episodes and I like it but I can see how it might become kind of repetitive. I'll keep going for awhile though.

And on Netflix, if you're looking for good stand up, Tom Papa and Jim Gaffigan are the best! We've laughed and laughed and laughed!

Who am I?

I was thinking about what kind of person I am. You know, am I a nice person? A compassionate person? A kind person? An asshole? Am I judgmental? Am I a selfish person or a giving person? Do I care about other people? Do I feel sympathy or empathy for a person?

Hmmm. 

Ok, so someone told me once that I'm a kind person but I'm not really a nice person. I was a little offended, but then I thought about it and it's not entirely inaccurate. I'm nicer to strangers than I used to be though. I make an effort to chat up a cashier at the store. I think that's a hard job so I want to be nice to them. I didn't use to do that. I'm judgmental in a gossipy, surface kind of way-like, ewww did you see what they were wearing?! But on a personal, human being kind of way, I don't think I'm a judgmental person. Also, I can definitely be an asshole sometimes, but it's not my nature. Kind of like, I can be professional at work, when it's appropriate, but that's totally not who I am! I am kind of a selfish person, but not in a narcissistic way. I'm selfish about my time. Being an introvert kind of makes you look like an uncaring person though. I was thinking about that because of a movie I saw recently. It's called 13 Lives. It's about the boys who were trapped in a cave in Thailand, for 18 days. This movie made me cry several times. I cried at the thought of the boys in this dark cave, with nothing to eat, can't see anything, scared, hungry...for 10 days before they were found. I cried for the parents who had to wait until the rescue to find out anything about their children. And I cried in relief for the divers when all the boys were brought out and lived. Just the idea of how stressful and the pressure on them, and the emotions. Whoa! 

Anyway, that made me think, oh, I have empathy and compassion. A few months ago, I was asked if I would help, lets say a Ukraine immigrant - if I were checking into a hotel and discovered that the Ukrainian couple also checking in, needed money. Would I be willing to give them what I could. I wanted to say yes, but I wouldn't know that about them. I don't talk to strangers...so their plight wouldn't matter to me. Not in the sense that I don't care, but because I would not have bothered to speak to them. So my answer is no. I feel like that sounds so mean and uncaring but as an introvert who just doesn't strike up a conversation with strangers, it seems alright. Know what I mean? My brother is a huge extrovert! That makes him a very likeable person. He talks to strangers ALL.THE.TIME. That's just not right! 😆 Sometimes, in a fleeting moment of whimsy, I wish I were a more likeable person - open and warm. But then it passes and I think, I don't like people! Ok, I like SOME people. I've been on Facebook for about 15 years and I only have 36 friends. Does that say something about me? Other than I don't have a lot of friends. They say you'll live longer if you have a couple of good friends. They also say you'll live longer if you have a dog. I guess I'll be ok!

Happy New Year!!

 It's here! It's here!

2023

Have you been waiting for it? Was 2022 a crappy year for you? Or was it alright?

Did you accomplish what you wanted? Do you make resolutions?

In our house, December is all about eating. Good things, really good things. All of which are mostly bad for you. So now that the new year is here, we're going to start eating better...again.

I'm thinking about giving an arts/crafts show another try. I don't think I could have enough inventory to do one this year but I feel better about putting myself "out there" again.

I want to give crochet another try. I want to learn calligraphy. I have all the pens...I have ALLLLLL the pens!!! 😃😄😅😆 I doodled these journals and gave them to the silent auction. They sold for $50+!! Then I gave a few away as gifts. Now, people are paying me to do them! It's so crazy. 

I want a dog. Sometimes I want to get any ol dog. Other time, specific dogs. I want one though. I want to travel more. I like it. Long weekends, to visit family, anywhere I guess. But my favorites are places I've never been. I want to read more. I have dozens of books just waiting to be opened! I want to get rid of more things I don't need or have to have. NOT pens...or paper...or books...And, I want to laugh more. Hey! I'm going to be pretty busy!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!