Time marches on

[ksmith]

Valerie Bertinelli is on the cover of this month's AARP magazine.

::ponders::

I mean, I've slowly adjusted to the fact that many of my favorite songs are 20-30 years old, and that I've been working at the same company for almost 23 years, and that I am now old enough to be a member of AARP. But I will admit that this one gets to me. It doesn't help that the woman looks 25. I'm sure there's some Photoshop being committed, but she still looks great.

Sean Penn turns 50 this year, too. Spicoli.

Yes, I will admit that I have not yet adjusted to the whole 50+ thing. Don't tell me that the alternative sucks. I know the alternative sucks. It still doesn't help me adjust to the fact that I hit the downward side of the slope some time ago.

And on that cheery note, back to work...

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I had to revise the subtitle of my blog this year. No longer "forty years after the sixties" . . .

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Yanno, I still remember lying on the living room floor and hearing the newscaster--was it Cronkite?--say that Brian Jones had died. 1969. It sure doesn't feel like 41 years ago.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Age isn't something I think about. I still have to stop to calculate my age anytime I'm asked "Let's see, this is 2010 and I was born in 19.. so I must be X."

Then I see something that brings it home and I think "Oh right. I'm old."

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

It doesn't compute with me, either, because in so many ways I have not moved much past my 20s. Physically, unfortunately, I'm way the hell down the road. Mentally, in some ways, I still feel pretty non-middle aged.

[michaeldthomas.livejournal.com]

FWIW, you still look like you're ten years younger than you are.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Thanks, but boy. I wish the insides were 40ish, too.Maybe I would trade outside years for inside years. I could look fashionably weathered.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

It's interesting. I would feel a lot differently about being 51 if I weren't paddling outrigger canoes. But I *have* to be 50 to paddle with my particular crew, otherwise I would be stuck paddling with some other crew. *g* (plus, I'm in good shape and while, yeah, I am nothing like as strong as I would have been if I had been doing this 20 or even 10 years ago, I'm still in good shape).

I worry more about the downhill slope of writing: that is, I have so many books I want to write and realistically I know I may not have the time (and later, the vigor) to get them all done. Augh.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I worry more about the downhill slope of writing: that is, I have so many books I want to write and realistically I know I may not have the time (and later, the vigor) to get them all done. Augh.

I wonder about this, too. I have heard that 60 is, on average, the age when writing production starts to slow. Given that I'm already a slow writer...

I nurse the hope that I will beat the odds because I was a late bloomer. Learned to ride a bike, swim, and drive several years after all my peers. Didn't start writing until my 30s, and didn't publish until 40. So. Hoping.

I'm not in super shape, but CV-wise, I'm in the best shape of my life. Not running marathons--not running period because of my damned right knee--but race-walking. Stairs that winded me in my early 20s, now? Not so much with the winded.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

Two months ago, the local Oahu one-man paddling championship was won by a woman who is our age. And she won it decisively, and beat the male 50+ winner. Later, in the solo Molokai-Oahu race (considered the world championship of outrigger one man paddling) she came in third overall in the women. So - yes - we can be in the best shape of our lives.

[kiviuq.livejournal.com]

I read that Ralph Macchio was 48 and nearly fell off my chair.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Oh. That hurts.