There's a Reason Why Fifty Rhymes With Nifty

In 1961, in Deaconess Hospital, in a well known city. . I was born.  Don't bother doing the math. I'm fifty.  And, I am happy about it.

Seriously, I know a lot of people dread the whole "getting another year older" thing and go with the all black "Over the Hill" theme, but I just don't feel that way.  I feel like I am still in my twenties.  I wake each morning, hop out of bed - ok, I don't hop, I roll, but that's not the point, I get out of bed and make a cup of coffee.  I did it in my twenties, I still do it now.  Except it takes a minute or two before I can stand upright, loosen the ol' back muscles, but that's ok because it takes that long for my cup to brew.

I feel like I could do about anything.  Well, except ski.  I don't ski anymore.  It hurts my knees and I never really felt the high your supposed to feel from whizzing down the face of a ridiculously steep mountain.  But I feel like I could climb that mountain in the summer, just find me a way down because again, the coming down sends a searing pain through my left knee - kind of like a knife was inserted in the joint.  Add ice skating to that list as well, it cramps my feet and they ache, why compound that pain by doing it in freezing temperatures?  Nope, done with that.

I'm still pretty good at tennis.  I don't play on a court any more, but the Wii says I am an expert.  I'll take that.  I can take an extended bike ride, as long as the path is flat and no one cares if I walk it up the unexpected hills from time to time.

I don't have any great desire to have cosmetic surgery.  I don't have a lot of wrinkles (Because, as my sister deftly pointed out. . .we carry our own supply of wrinkle reducer in the form of extra weight. . . I prefer to call it my instant collagen) and it seems to be working.

I have a bucket list, but things like skiing, mountain climbing, bike trips, not so much anymore. . . I've done that and I don't really even want to do them anymore.  What do I want to do?

Sure, I want to go to the Great Wall of China, see the Pyramids and visit Disney's Animal Kingdom, but the big kahuna, the stuff I am interested in is simple.

I want to write a few more books (just finished the second the other day!)  I want to watch my grandchildren grow up. I want to see the possibilities in every day and do my best to reach them - I know how corny that sounds, but I'm 50 now so I don't really care.  I might even buy a friggin red hat (perhaps like the one Princess Beatrice wore to the royal wedding).  All of my list items are not so lofty though,

recently, I bought a pair of really cute shoes. Black, strappy heeled sandles that zip up the back of the heel. I wore them, last weekend, to a wedding reception for several hours and they didn't hurt.  I call that a big win.