I don't think 40 counts as officially middle aged yet... but 50 does, and I'm 52; which means I've gone through a lot of (peri)menopausal shit in the past ten years, which made me feel REALLY old (creaking bones, exhaustion, despair) but a little hormone pill set that right and now I must say, cheesy as it sounds, I feel pretty young again. A bit like in my twenties: enough energy to do the things I want, embracing a new freedom with open-hearted curiosity - AND I can do all of that now with well-earned Not-Giving-Many-Fucks-Anymore. Honestly, you're still a baby when it comes to getting old! :D
I definitely do not look forward to peri/menopause (which for all I know is lurking just beyond my current vision), but I'm glad to hear a hormone pill helped so much! I've actually been studying up more recently on peri/menopause in preparation so I have heard good things about this pill. Is it estrogen?
The not-giving-many-fucks is definitely my favorite part about getting older! I'm excited for it to keep moving forward!
I call it the Miracle Pill - only slightly ironically. I plan to make more comics about it, since it seems we're still in pioneering mode. Everything I read about it is overwhelmingly positive. That said: every body is different, and it may take some people more time and effort to find the exact estrogen-supplement that suits them. But estrogen is the key. To Everything!
Very good to know! I definitely know these pills effect everyone differently because when all my friends first went on birth control the results were ALL OVER THE PLACE. For me, it was perfect. It's wild how much of our minds and bodies are run by hormones!
I haven't reached it yet and I feel conflicted -- aging is a goddamn celebration, there are no guarantees, and I want to be excited and hopeful about turning middle aged. But I also am afraid of time passing and not doing all the things I want to get done. Urgh.
I think 10 years ago me would be insanely jazzed to see where I'm at, and also surprised. I'm still listening to music I listened to 10 years ago, and 20 years ago, and I think it hits deeper the more time passes. Music is like a mug of tea with the bag left in it, it just gets stronger and hit harder when you go back to it years later.
Yesssss, Jennie, I totally agree that aging is a celebration. Which is why I really want to plan something fun for my 40th (still clueless as to what that is tho)!
I struggle to listen to music from 10/20 years ago because it hits me in my solar plexus a bit too hard-- like a shock of realization for how much time has passed and how much has changed.
A part of me is also afraid if I kept listening to that music it would lose that gut punch.
It almost feels like a drug... or time travel. I'm afraid if I listen to the old music too much new memories will dilute the old ones.
For now songs like Broken Social Scene's "Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl" still make me feel 17. Like I'm both logging into AIM and driving around in circles with my friends and dreaming about where we're going.
Screwed my back up putting socks on several days ago. Thankfully, laying flat on my back, and walking dont hurt. Getting old is ridiculous. But its been overwhelmingly positive and beneficial.
I don't even mean that in a necessarily bad way either, it's just so strange and sometimes pretty funny.
Sorry about your back. I've been fucking up my wrists a lot with my embarrassing phone addiction recently. It's almost like it's a sign that I need to gtfo my phone.
The problem with the phrase 'middle-age' is that you can't say you're there unless you know when you are going to die. I'm 53. If that's middle-age, I can expect to live to 106, right? But who really wants that. If I'm past middle-age, say it was 45, then I'm going to die at 90. I'm not holding out for that. I'll be lucky if I hit 78. So I was middle-aged at 39, which is really f-ing depressing.
Please don't stress out... you're the same age as my kids and even though they've grown up into awesome adults, I can still see their sweet little baby faces.
I'm going to be 65 this year, and I'm kind of stressed about figuring out Medicare, but I'm cool with getting older. I'm a lot happier now than I was in my teens or 20's. The years tick by and we need to learn to embrace them, or we'll go mad.
Listen to whatever you want. My Mom still loves Elvis. I'm stuck on Dire Straights.
Oh, and a suggestion, if I may be so bold - maybe make it easier on yourself and plan a combo birthday/anniversary party? That way you could schedule it for a weekend, so people wouldn't show up all tired from working all day, and you wouldn't have to get so stressed out planning TWO parties. Maybe add in a quiet cuddle night for you and the hubs on your actual anniversary? Just an idea, don't mind me, I tend to avoid parties myself. 😅
My parents just went through the whole medicare transition too and it was definitely stressful for them as well. I wish our systems weren't so insufferable like this.
That's a very interesting idea about the combined party, Jeannine!
Maybe that does make good sense for me... hmmmmm... it would spare me a lot of stress, I think.
I'm not historically one to plan birthday parties for myself, so I always feel self-doubt about it, but it's increasingly evident how short life is and I know no one else is going to plan it for me, so I want to do it for myself. Thank you for the dual party advice, that could just work!
Right there with you! For reals. 10 year anniversary was last month and 40th bday is next. HOW did this happen? But also I am so ready for it? But also I am just a 19 year old who wants to cruise Lake Shore Drive and listen to Death Cab for Cutie? It’s a mystery.
I don't think 40 counts as officially middle aged yet... but 50 does, and I'm 52; which means I've gone through a lot of (peri)menopausal shit in the past ten years, which made me feel REALLY old (creaking bones, exhaustion, despair) but a little hormone pill set that right and now I must say, cheesy as it sounds, I feel pretty young again. A bit like in my twenties: enough energy to do the things I want, embracing a new freedom with open-hearted curiosity - AND I can do all of that now with well-earned Not-Giving-Many-Fucks-Anymore. Honestly, you're still a baby when it comes to getting old! :D
I love this outlook, Margreet!
I definitely do not look forward to peri/menopause (which for all I know is lurking just beyond my current vision), but I'm glad to hear a hormone pill helped so much! I've actually been studying up more recently on peri/menopause in preparation so I have heard good things about this pill. Is it estrogen?
The not-giving-many-fucks is definitely my favorite part about getting older! I'm excited for it to keep moving forward!
Yes, it's estrogen, with a bit of progestin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estradiol/dydrogesterone
I call it the Miracle Pill - only slightly ironically. I plan to make more comics about it, since it seems we're still in pioneering mode. Everything I read about it is overwhelmingly positive. That said: every body is different, and it may take some people more time and effort to find the exact estrogen-supplement that suits them. But estrogen is the key. To Everything!
Very good to know! I definitely know these pills effect everyone differently because when all my friends first went on birth control the results were ALL OVER THE PLACE. For me, it was perfect. It's wild how much of our minds and bodies are run by hormones!
Not-Giving-Many-Fucks-Anymore is absolutely the best thing about getting older!
I haven't reached it yet and I feel conflicted -- aging is a goddamn celebration, there are no guarantees, and I want to be excited and hopeful about turning middle aged. But I also am afraid of time passing and not doing all the things I want to get done. Urgh.
I think 10 years ago me would be insanely jazzed to see where I'm at, and also surprised. I'm still listening to music I listened to 10 years ago, and 20 years ago, and I think it hits deeper the more time passes. Music is like a mug of tea with the bag left in it, it just gets stronger and hit harder when you go back to it years later.
Yesssss, Jennie, I totally agree that aging is a celebration. Which is why I really want to plan something fun for my 40th (still clueless as to what that is tho)!
I struggle to listen to music from 10/20 years ago because it hits me in my solar plexus a bit too hard-- like a shock of realization for how much time has passed and how much has changed.
A part of me is also afraid if I kept listening to that music it would lose that gut punch.
It almost feels like a drug... or time travel. I'm afraid if I listen to the old music too much new memories will dilute the old ones.
For now songs like Broken Social Scene's "Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl" still make me feel 17. Like I'm both logging into AIM and driving around in circles with my friends and dreaming about where we're going.
Screwed my back up putting socks on several days ago. Thankfully, laying flat on my back, and walking dont hurt. Getting old is ridiculous. But its been overwhelmingly positive and beneficial.
It does feel a bit ridiculous, doesn't it?
I don't even mean that in a necessarily bad way either, it's just so strange and sometimes pretty funny.
Sorry about your back. I've been fucking up my wrists a lot with my embarrassing phone addiction recently. It's almost like it's a sign that I need to gtfo my phone.
... maybe.
The only sure bets that I know of are death, taxes, farts being funny, and life being absurd.
thank god for farts being funny. don't know if i could get thru w/o 'em.
A world without farts is a world that I do not want to live in.
Random note but you were at 999 subs and I subscribed but it hasn’t changed yet! Congrats (I’m almost there too haha)
OOOO! Thank you, Maggie! YAYYYYYYYYY!!!!
Looks like we're both dancing around the 1k sub club!
Shared 😉
the younger you is a feral thing indeed LOL....keep the hooves trimmed (and burnin') thats a Rev. Gary Davis nod via Jorma Kauknonen interpretation
I had to look up both of those people, but I'm glad I did.
You a blues fan, Apple?
ohhhh yesL you have no idea LOL (short answer)
I'm 63 and still trying to figure out when I get to be "geriatric".
I was very recently a "geriatric pregnancy" and am also referred to as a "geriatric millennial" so I suppose it is in the eye of the beholder!
Or maybe we're all just a bit geriatric.
*word has lost complete meaning*
The problem with the phrase 'middle-age' is that you can't say you're there unless you know when you are going to die. I'm 53. If that's middle-age, I can expect to live to 106, right? But who really wants that. If I'm past middle-age, say it was 45, then I'm going to die at 90. I'm not holding out for that. I'll be lucky if I hit 78. So I was middle-aged at 39, which is really f-ing depressing.
I do the same mental calculations, R.!
It seems like the general consensus is that "middle-age" is considered a roughly 20 year age range.
Granted, all of these things are made up, which is kind of great in a way, because really "middle age" doesn't even exist.
We're just silly little apes, trying to make sense of existence by putting titles on everything.
Anything to pretend we're in control!
*Lol/sob*
The husband trying not to hear how lucky he is😂
He often tries not to hear how lucky he is.
I offer many a strange, non-sequitur exclamations in our home. :D
Please don't stress out... you're the same age as my kids and even though they've grown up into awesome adults, I can still see their sweet little baby faces.
I'm going to be 65 this year, and I'm kind of stressed about figuring out Medicare, but I'm cool with getting older. I'm a lot happier now than I was in my teens or 20's. The years tick by and we need to learn to embrace them, or we'll go mad.
Listen to whatever you want. My Mom still loves Elvis. I'm stuck on Dire Straights.
Oh, and a suggestion, if I may be so bold - maybe make it easier on yourself and plan a combo birthday/anniversary party? That way you could schedule it for a weekend, so people wouldn't show up all tired from working all day, and you wouldn't have to get so stressed out planning TWO parties. Maybe add in a quiet cuddle night for you and the hubs on your actual anniversary? Just an idea, don't mind me, I tend to avoid parties myself. 😅
Oh, and hey: Happy birthday, Kiddo. 😉
Thank you so much, Jeannine!
My parents just went through the whole medicare transition too and it was definitely stressful for them as well. I wish our systems weren't so insufferable like this.
That's a very interesting idea about the combined party, Jeannine!
Maybe that does make good sense for me... hmmmmm... it would spare me a lot of stress, I think.
I'm not historically one to plan birthday parties for myself, so I always feel self-doubt about it, but it's increasingly evident how short life is and I know no one else is going to plan it for me, so I want to do it for myself. Thank you for the dual party advice, that could just work!
Less stress is always a good thing. 😉
Right there with you! For reals. 10 year anniversary was last month and 40th bday is next. HOW did this happen? But also I am so ready for it? But also I am just a 19 year old who wants to cruise Lake Shore Drive and listen to Death Cab for Cutie? It’s a mystery.