Midlife Crisis - Controlled Version - An Introduction

While talking with a friend about midlife crises generally, we recounted the array of symptoms we've witnessed in women-in-ml-crisis in our circles, from the mild-superficial (new hair!) to the extreme-superficial (new...uh, bra size!), from the mild-deep (new job!) to the extreme-deep (new husband!).


Please, don't read judgment here. I think midlife crises are about more than just lamenting lost youth. 
They're actually pretty profound. 
A sudden realization that time is short, facing the fact that more years has been spent than are left, a shocking awareness that if you don't do something now...it will likely be left undone, forever. 


In fact, so much not-judgment here that I was thinking, "I want to have one!!" I just don't want to do anything   too mad/crazy/irrevocable.

And the idea emerged:  Midlife Crisis - Controlled Version.
And so far it's been GREAT, here are some of the 'big' aspects of MLC-CV:


Feb 2011: BRACES.
Watch videos I made about my experience.
 It's probably the most boring VLOG in the world.
But funny, these videos get 100s of views, comments, private messages. Adult braces are on the rise.

Fall 2011:  FITNESS. 
I've written about this before. Two of my friends helped me get started with this. Sorta Couch-to-5k...you walk/jog/walk/jog, increasing the jog times. My first 5k with them took me 45 minutes.
Between their help and dropping wt (which I may or may not discuss on this blog, haven't decided yet!), it's unbelievalbe to say this, but I can actually jog (on treadmill) 3 mi. under 10 min pace. Who knows where all this will lead. I used to say I'd never be able to really run again. I'm not saying that anymore.


Late 2011/Early 2012  ACQUIRING A GENTLEMAN.
This quest is well documented on this blog =) 


Spring 2012 HAIRRRRRR.
Contrast-ey Highlights, like Rogue (X-Men).
I will make a separate post about this, and put pictures. Because the post will be about the stylist, who is adorable and special.


And MLC-CV is nowhere near completion. In fact, I feel like it's just begun.
My Reader Friends:  Feel free to share any great midlife crisis tips, ideas, cautions, anything really. I love your input.

Crisis Part II (mid-life variety)

So my kids were at a retreat all weekend.
I'm doing so much better. I used to have to spend the night other places when they were gone, or borrow my niece. (She affectionately refers to those times as 'when she had to babysit me.' haha)

But this past weekend, I was able to stay home. Did nothing particularly productive. Nothing even particularly indulgent. Pretty much totally wasted time. Things just feel so lackluster when they're not around.

This makes me worry about the future. Eventually, that weekend will be my whole life. There is a chilling monologue in Notes on a Scandal about loneliness...she constructs her whole weekend around a trip to the laundromat, etc.

So I was talking to my friend Cindy about it - we are same age/same life stage/same living situation etc.
And she said that we are going to do something different than 'Empty Nest Syndrome', a sort of Mid-Life Crisis, but with a twist.
She said that we need to make another kind of list!! ((I was listening! I love lists! JOYLISTS = strength)) This list would be things we are going to get to do once our kids are grown up, in their own places.

We even came up with a name:
PLENTY as in "Praise the Lord for Empty Nests, Thank You...."

Here is one of hers:
Praise the Lord for Empty Nests, Thank You for not sitting on my new Harley Davidson softtail motorcycle

I'm working on it....I'm being proactive....