What I'm Grateful For

Thanksgiving is the time of year when we contemplate what we are grateful for, right?

Here is what I am grateful for:

• Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, 
• Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens,
• Brown paper packages tied up with strings, 
• Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels, 
• Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles, 
• Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings, 
• Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, 
• Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes, 
• Silver white winters that melt into springs

Just kidding.  I stole that from "The Sound of Music."

So I guess the first thing I am grateful for is my strange sense of humor. 

At least, after all of these years, I still have one.

But seriously, it's important to take the time to be grateful for what we have.

I used to threaten, I mean, tell my children we were going to spend Thanksgiving volunteering at a homeless shelter, serving food to people less fortunate, so my kids would appreciate what they had.  I never followed up on that but scores of others have and do.  In fact homeless shelters report huge numbers of volunteers doing just that on Thanksgiving and for many families, this is an annual volunteer activity for them.  But what we don't often hear from the homeless shelters is that they wish people would volunteer other times during the year. That's when they are needed most.

The same goes for gratitude. 

It's not enough to think about what we are grateful for just once a year.  Gratitude is something we need to embrace every day of the year.  Gratitude is something that must be practiced or we take for granted much of what we have.

Recently the power went off and I couldn't believe how helpless I felt.  Sure we had candles and flashlights so I could have read a book or, heaven forbid, talk to Hubby, but the thought that not only could I not watch TV, my TIVO wasn't  taping my shows!  I was going to miss the latest installment of "The Housewives."  Worse, I couldn't check Facebook or my email.  I was cut off from my social network!  I couldn't tweet, I couldn't Facetime or Skype.  It was sobering.  Well, not exactly.  Wine doesn't need electricity.  But, now I wake up every morning and say thank you to the electricity gods.

One good thing about getting older is you eventually have the time to be grateful.  When we are in our twenties, we are too busy searching for a mate, in our thirties and forties too busy with our careers and children, in our fifties too busy getting rid of our mate and worrying about getting old and fat to be grateful for what we have. 

When we retire, we have the time to reflect and be grateful. 

So I have added that to my daily routine - to be grateful for at least three things every day, year round. 

But it's important to not wait until you are old to be grateful, because sometimes it's too late.

Thanksgiving naturally brings up all kinds of memories about family, for some of you happy memories, for some of you, maybe not so much.  I have happy memories of Thanksgiving with my family growing up, except I didn't like getting served last, as was the custom in my family - the oldest got served first (I was the youngest) - or having to do the dishes.  But what I should have been grateful for at the time was my Dad always saved the drumstick for me (which was my favorite) and he helped me with the dishes.

Thanksgiving 1966

So thinking about my parents this time of year, I am grateful that I was able to show appreciation to them for all they had done for me before they died.  I wish I had done more, though, and shown them more love. But that is the natural cycle of things.  

What I have learned since becoming a parent myself is beautifully expressed in the book "Life Gets Better:  The Unexpected Pleasures of Growing Old" by Wendy Lustbader. 

"We realize how helpless our parents had been during our youthful experimentation -- how they tried to warn us against foolish choices, how our petulance silenced them, how they thought of little else when we were off taking those risks without thinking about them at all. Parenting has never been fair.  We love our children far more than they love us, and in doing so we realize how dearly we were loved by our parents."

I had never really thought of it that way but it explains a lot.

So I am thinking of my parents today as I write this, grateful that I at least in some way thanked them for their love and support and then passed that on by loving my own children as they did me.





In addition to that, I am grateful for the usual things:  Waking up in the morning alive and well, Hubby, my kids, my grandkids, my friends, my career, a roof over my head, I still have my own teeth...

But another reason to be grateful every day and a perk of old age is the ability to be grateful for the little things.

So today I am grateful for:

The wine-guzzling poodle who shows love to me every day (I just need to help him with his drinking problem)

A day off once a week

---Hubby says every day is a day off for me, because I am retired, but that's not true.  I am really busy most of the time:  keeping up with my "1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project," writing this blog, meditating, volunteering, going to the gym, arranging my shoe collection, watching "The View."  I am grateful for one day a week where I can just let life take me where it leads.  Most often it leads me to the TV, but that's not the point.


My blog and those of you who enjoy it.
---I have realized I am a communicator and for good or ill, I'm going to communicate, dammit!


My feet. I have nice feet.  Feet don't get fat.

A nice glass of wine (or two) by a crackling fire after a hard day of retirement


My friends, old and new


Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...

Like I said, it's the little things.

What are you grateful for?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thanks for reading!

See you Friday

for my review of the new movie

"The Theory of Everything,"

My Week in Reviews,

and the latest on my

"1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project."

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to click on the share buttons to share it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn, email it to your friends and LIKE me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rosythereviewer

"Interstellar" and The Week in Reviews

[I review the new movie "Interstellar," the DVDs "The History of the Eagles, "Million Dollar Arm" and "Le Chef" as well as Oprah's book, "What I Know for Sure."  I also bring you up to date on my "1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project."]

Interstellar

Another one of those "gotta save the earth" flicks.

Earth has fallen victim to overpopulation and famine and become a futuristic dust bowl.  Matthew McConaughey plays Cooper, a former NASA engineer and test pilot who now runs a farm and cares for his son, Tom, daughter, Murphy (the excellent Mackenzie Foy) and father-in-law, Donald (John Lithgow).  Inexplicably (well, there is a reason - it's a ghost and that is explained much later in the film), he is drawn to a mysterious location surrounded by a chain link fence only to discover it is the home of his old employer, NASA.  It's being run by Dr. Brand (Michael Caine) who is trying to come up with a way to save the world - or at least its inhabitants.

Cooper discovers that Brand has come up with two ways to save the world.  Plan A - finding another planet and moving as many humans as possible to it and Plan B - using frozen embryos to colonize another planet. The only problem with Plan A is overcoming gravity to launch a ship large enough to get people there.  But Brand is working on an equation that should solve that problem.  The BIG problem, though, is the fact he has been working on that equation for 40 years.

Anyway, I think those are the plans. Most of the time, I wasn't sure what they were talking about.

Already another mission - Lazarus - was embarked upon to look for a habitable planet and three were identified, but those folks haven't returned. Now another craft must make the journey to those planets to see what's up. Cooper agrees to pilot the craft knowing full well he must leave his children behind and may not see them again for years, which turns out to be true. 

Cooper and his crew, Brand's daughter, Amelia (Anne Hathaway, an odd role for her, by the way); scientists Doyle (Wes Bentley) and Romilly (David Gyasi); and TARS, the robot, which brings to mind Hal in "2001: A Space Odyssey" find themselves on one planet where they age seven years for every hour they spend there.  They run into some trouble and spend too long expending some 20+ years.

Cooper's daughter, Murphy was 10 when he left and resentful that he was leaving her and now that those years have passed, she is an adult Murphy (Jessica Chastain) and she is even more resentful - resentful as hell, in fact.

There is no denying that Christopher Nolan has produced a visual masterpiece.  It was no small feat to make this film. So I give him props for that.  And Hans Zimmer's music showcases the film beautifully, though at times it's a bit over the top. 

To fully appreciate those aspects, it's a must to see this film in IMAX. 

However, that's the good news.  What lets this film down is the convoluted story and the preachy script. When characters have to do as much explaining as they do in this film, you know there is a problem.  Sometimes it sounded like someone was reading from a physics textbook. That is, when they weren't expounding on the nature of love and how love conquers all, even time and space, and quoting Dylan Thomas.

I am stunned that almost every critic is worshiping this film.  Are they too afraid to say they didn't understand it?  Well, I'm not.  There are more holes in this story than black holes in space.  I like thought provoking films, and I like to be challenged.  But when I think "Huh?" half a dozen times during the course of a film, Houston, we have a problem. And if a critic has to say (and one did), despite the almost three hour length, this film needs to be seen again and again to fully understand it, then that should tell you something right there.  The critics may love it, but the people sitting in the audience with me were laughing AT it.  As we exited the theatre, I heard one person say, "That should win comedy of the year." 

Ironically, despite my confusion, there is nothing overall wrong with the science here.  In fact, a physicist consulted on the film.  And even Neil deGrasse Tyson approves, for the most part.  That's not the problem.  The problem is HOW it was all portrayed.

Matthew McConaughey may have won last year's Oscar for "The Dallas Buyer's Club," because it was right in his "Alright, alright, alright" wheelhouse, but when it comes to delivering heartfelt, preachy speeches, he was not up to the task. He wasn't believable and he was over-acting, as were many of the actors. However, I don't blame them completely.  It wouldn't be easy for the greatest of actors to deliver some of those lines.

I was a huge fan of Nolan's "Inception" and "Memento," and those were not "easy" films.  I think he is a brilliant filmmaker, but he lost me on this one.  It's just way over the top, way too melodramatic, and way too long.  It took 90 minutes before anything happened and during the second 90 minutes, only a couple of things happened.

However, that's not to say there weren't some exciting moments.  The planet with the huge waves provided some excitement as did Cooper and Mann (Matt Damon) fighting on the planet that was really Iceland (I knew because I've been there).

It's not a stretch to compare this film with "2001: a Space Odyssey," but it also reminded me of "Star Trek" and "Gravity," all of which I liked better.

Rosy the Reviewer says...It's beautiful to look at, beautiful to hear and with a stellar cast, but even all of that cannot change the fact that this film is overwrought, overlong, over the top and - dare I say it? - boring.

But are you a scifi fan?  Check out this link for some others you might like. 

***DVDS***

You Might Have Missed

(And Some You Will Be Glad You Did)

 History of the Eagles,
Parts 1 and 2 (2013)

Two part documentary on the legendary rock band.

The Eagles defined the 1970's with their soft bluegrass harmonies. Glenn Frey is behind this documentary of the band and so, of course, the viewpoint is his, but it still feels like an honest depiction of the rise and fall of an iconic band.  Don Henley was his co-partner in the band and also weighs in heavily.

What makes this rock band documentary stand out is the footage.  Director Allison Ellwood has done a wonderful job of working in still photography, home videos and studio recordings to give us an authentic depiction of the rise and fall of an iconic band and the friendships that were lost due to the stress and egos it took to keep it all going. One spectacular scene has Glenn Frey and Don Felder arguing on stage DURING A CONCERT with Frey saying he was going to kick Felder's ass when they got off stage.  Felder is seen running to his limo and quitting the band.

But their success was not immune to what hundreds of other bands have gone through: internal tensions, drugs and road weariness.

Glenn Frey and Don Henley started out backing Linda Ronstadt in her early incarnation.  With her blessing they went off to start their own band bringing in Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner and eventually Don Felder. When Leadon and Meisner exited they were followed by Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit, who constitute the band now.  Meisner no longer had the confidence to hit the high note at the end of "Take It To The Limit," to the point that he quit the band, so Schmit from Poco stepped in.  An interview with Felder during the latter part of the documentary is especially poignant as he is visibly upset at how it all turned out.  Likewise, Joe Walsh is candid about his drug addiction and eventual recovery, but he still comes off as a rather sad character.

Each band member, past and present, is highlighted along with talking head interviews from Jackson Browne, Bob Seger, Linda Ronstadt, David Geffen and other industry insiders, all who figured prominently in the rise of The Eagles.

Part 1 is two hours and Part 2 is another hour but if you love The Eagles or just a great documentary the time will fly by.  Heck, even if you didn't love them, you will love this film.

Rosy the Reviewer says...This is definitely Frey's and Henley's story to tell but, hey, it was their band.  It's still a fascinating look inside the ups and downs of an iconic American rock band.

Million Dollar Arm (2014)

A down on his luck sports promoter (Jon Hamm) decides to try to tap cricket players from India for some Major League Baseball recruits.

J.B. Bernstein (Hamm) is a rather slimy but struggling sports agent who gets the bright idea one night while flipping back and forth between watching Susan Boyle on "Britain's Got Talent" and a cricket match (I'm still wondering how he got those British shows on his American TV) to hold a talent competition in Mombai, but for baseball pitchers. Those Indian cricket bowlers (that's what they call the guys who throw the ball in cricket) should be able to be trained to play American baseball, right? And there is a whole market untapped market in India. From Susan Boyle to a finding Major League pitchers through a pitching competition in Mombai seems like a stretch, but this is based on a true story so who am I to judge?  The competition is to be called "The Million Dollar Arm" and the prize is $1,000,000 if any of the winners are signed to a Major League contract.

Lake Bell (whom I love and who has yet to make the acting breakthrough she deserves) plays a medical student renting a cottage from Bernstein and gee, do you think a romance is in the offing?  Duh.

Alan Arkin plays a surly baseball scout who doesn't think much of this idea and sleeps through most of it and Aasif Mandvi plays Bernstein's business partner, Ash, who provides a few laughs.  But Suraj Sharma and Madhur Mittal are charming as the recruits who Bernstein thinks he can turn into Major League stars.  Sharma you may recognize from "Life of Pi."

Once back in the United States, we get the stock "fish out of water" scenes as the boys discover pizza and are amazed at Bernstein's wealthy, LA lifestyle and a very predictable outcome.  There are the usual stereotypes but nothing really offensive.  This is Disney after all.

Rosy the Reviewer says...This is Disney so don't expect anything deep, but it's an enjoyable family film.

Le Chef (2012)

An older chef with a Three-star Michelin restaurant joins forces with a young novice chef to save his restaurant.

Jackie Bonnot (Michael Youn) wants to be a chef, a chef like his idol, Alexandre Lagarde (Jean Reno), who runs a three-star Michelin restaurant, Cargo Legarde.  Jackie is such a fan that he knows all of Lagarde's menus from the past, has an encyclopedia knowledge of gastronomy, a discriminating palate.  So why does he have such a hard time keeping a job? Jackie is also a perfectionist whose standards don't work out so well in local diners for people who mostly want French fries, so he keeps getting fired much to the consternation of his girlfriend, Beatrice, who is also pregnant.  So he settles for a job painting an old folks home. 

Likewise, trouble is brewing for Monsieur Lagarde.  His menu is considered old-fashioned and he refuses to change and embrace molecular gastronomy so prized by the young son of the restaurant's corporate owner (our villain). He has concocted a villainous plan to get rid of Lagarde so he can bring in another chef who will embrace the molecular gastronomy he so loves.  He tells Lagarde if he loses one of his stars, he will lose his restaurant.

Through a series of silly events, this odd couple - Jackie and Chef Lagarde - join forces - Jackie to save his relationship and Lagarde to save his restaurant.  Jackie knows Lagarde's menus better than Lagarde so they work together to ward off the villain.

The film nicely skewers cooking shows and trends and the snobbishness that so often accompanies fine dining.

Reno is a veteran actor you may recognize from such films as "Ronin,"  "Alex Cross," and "The DaVinci Code."  Here he is taking a break from his usual dramatic roles to take a comedic turn and he does admirably. And Youn is a comic talent who made me laugh without saying a word.

This is farce all of the way, a delightful little bit of culinary fluff, a trifle but a good one.

Rosy the Reviewer says...If you liked "Chef" or "The 100 Foot Journey," or just movies about food, you should enjoy this film.  (subtitles)

***My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project***

299 to go!

La Belle Noiseuse (1991)

A famous painter who gave up painting finds a new muse and tries to finish a project.

Frenhofer (Michel Piccoli), the great artist, has given up painting.  He gave it up right in the middle of "La Belle Noiseuse," with his wife, Liz (Jane Birkin - yes, she of the Birkin bag), as his muse.  But when three visitors come to call, an art dealer, a young artist and his lover, Marianne. Frenhofer is inspired by Marianne (Emmanuelle Beart who made her mark in "Manon of the Spring" and spends most of the film in the nude) to paint again, thus beginning a painful master-slave relationship that takes a decided turn and examines the very nature of the relationship between an artist and his subject.

Directed by Jacques Rivette, whom Truffaut credits with starting the New Wave, this film won the Palm D'Or at Cannes in 1991.  However, Rivette is not as well know as Truffaut and other New Wavers, possibly because of making long, long movies.

If you want to see a "real" woman as in pre-Brazilian wax jobs, Beart is a beautiful example, but the nudity aside, the film explores the selfishness and loneliness that accompanies the creative process.

Why it's a Must See:  "Extrapolating from a story by Balzac, [the director] and his writers...juggle many themes skillfully.  On one level, the film offers a glimpse into the privileged world of art...[on another] the dance between an artist...and his mostly naked model...Their sessions wheel through many moods: Frustration, aggression, exuberance.  The master-slave relationship shifts.  Slowly, through many trials, an artistic work takes form."
---"1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die."

This one should count as two - it was four hours long!  It's a rare occasion when I think a movie should be over two hours long.

Rosy the Reviewer says...I liked it but this is probably one of those films I should have seen AFTER I died because then I would have had more time to enjoy those four hours.

***Book of the Week***

What I Know For Sure by Oprah Winfrey (2014)

What Oprah knows for sure, all in one place.

And there is nothing more comforting than having "The Wisdom of Oprah" close at hand, especially since she is so sure of so many things. 

If you have been following me at all or are a friend or one of my children (who blame Oprah for all of the new child-rearing and other ideas that came from her show that I tried out on them), then you know I am a huge fan.  I wrote a blog post devoted to her last March called "Why Oprah Still Matters."  I wasn't writing that because I was worried that she didn't matter anymore.  I wrote it, because she no longer had her regular show and was now largely behind the scenes and I didn't want people to forget her.  Certainly, Oprah still matters and, actually,  I am waiting for her to run for President.  Of course, why should she, when she wields more power where she is?

Anyway, here she weighs in on "Joy," "Resilience," "Connection," "Gratitude," "Possibility," "Awe," "Clarity" and "Power," and we sure know she has that last one down, and she also knows what she is talking about.  Oprah has spent her career looking to find meaning and passing it on.  I can honestly say I started meditating because of Oprah and that practice has been immensely helpful to me.

Oprah starts the book describing an encounter with Gene Siskel where he asked her, "Tell me...what do you know for sure?...about you, your life, anything, everything..."

That question threw Oprah for a loop and gave her the central question to explore for the rest of her life.

"As you read about all of the lessons I have struggled with, cried over, run from, circled back to, made peace with, laughed about, and at long last come to know for sure, my hope is that you'll begin to ask yourself the very same question Gene Siskel asked me all those years ago.  I know that what you'll find along the way will be fantastic, because what you'll find will be yourself."

Whatever you may think of her, Oprah has used her power and money for good and here she is trying to take us to where she resides.

Rosy the Reviewer says...Go there with her.

Thanks for Reading!

That's it for this week.

See you Tuesday for

"What I'm Grateful For" 

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Check your local library for DVDs and books mentioned.

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Here is a quick link to get to all of them.  Choose the film you are interested in and then scroll down the list of reviewers to find "Rosy the Reviewer."
 

Or you can go directly to IMDB.  

Find the page for the movie, click on "Explore More" on the right side panel and then scroll down to "External Reviews."  Look for "Rosy the Reviewer" on the list. Or if you are using a mobile device, look for "Critics Reviews." Click on that and you will find me alphabetically under "Rosy the Reviewer."

My Menopause

C'mon.  You don't need to go "ew." 

Especially you guys.  You have your own version of this.

If I can write about my colonoscopy (which I did), I can certainly write about this.  And, really, it's much less gory.

I was inspired by a book I just finished, "The Madwoman in the Volvo, My Year of Raging Hormones" by Sandra Tsing Loh. 

It's a humorous account of Loh's navigation of "the change."  Hers included an affair, the end of her marriage and managing a nutty 89-year-old father, not to mention the physical issues that come with menopause. 

So being the impressionable little thing that I am, reading her account made me look back on my own journey, which covered much more than a year and, I thought, I too could provide some insight. 

However, my journey was far less extreme and dramatic.

I just got fat, mad and kind of crazy. 

And I wasn't mad about being fat.  I was just really mad...about everything and kind of crazy all of the time.

There was a reason my "handle" on my son's pager (remember those?) was 666.  I thought that one up, because I thought it was funny (you know, Mom calling and we hate that, you know like the devil, you know...), but I think that was my unconscious realization that the devil had somehow gotten into the details of my life, but I didn't know why.

Likewise, with menopause, especially the years leading up to it, it slowly creeps up on you and you don't really realize what is happening until suddenly Aunt Flo doesn't come to visit anymore - ever.  Anyway, that's what happened to me.

It all started in my mid-40's.  I don't remember anything earth shattering like hot flashes, but looking back I see that I was "changing" and had been for some time.

How else can I explain staying up until three in the morning watching old game shows like "I've Got a Secret" and "What's My Line?"  And I had to be at work the next morning. I cried when the Game Show Network stopped showing them.

Or getting up in the middle of the night with heartburn that I was sure was a real heart condition and thinking that having a glass of wine would solve the problem,

Or walking over to Trader Joe's (it was across the street) in my robe ("No one will notice"),

Or my one woman crusade to make sure the people who worked at Trader Joe's did not park on my street.  For some reason, having those cars parked in front of my house made me crazy (Gee, I wonder why), and I not only wrote letters to the management of Trader Joe's, I would yell at people from my front porch,

Or making my kids sleep with me when Hubby traveled because I was sure if a bad guy broke in, he wouldn't kill me with two little kids sleeping in the bed with me,

Or standing in the Safeway line and suddenly feeling like I would die if I didn't leave immediately,

Or on my Friday off (I had every other Friday off), cleaning the house and then shutting all of the curtains and sitting in the dark living room watching movies for the rest of the day (hey, I still do that!),

Or the shouting matches with my teenage son.

It's a wonder I wasn't found wandering the neighborhood in my nightgown mumbling in some language I had made up.

Looking back on all of that, I can only shake my head and wonder what the hell was I thinking?

Well the answer was, I wasn't thinking.  My hormones were ordering me around.

And because I didn't really have any physical symptoms (except for that middle of the night heartburn and those panic attacks), I didn't realize what was happening and didn't know to ask for any treatment from my doctor. I thought it was just ME.

You see, I was always considered a bit "high strung," or that's what my parents would say about me when I would get upset at my brother teasing me at the dinner table and stomp upstairs and lock myself in the bathroom. 

That said, I was now a career woman, a mother.  I could juggle many plates, dammit.  I wasn't prone to prowling around in the middle of the night with my hair standing on end like Medusa and my eyes spinning in my head.  What the hell was going on?

That is why the onset of menopause is so insidious.

I think perimenopause (that period, pardon the pun, leading up to "the big finish") and menopause are kind of like Alzheimer's.  I'm not being disrespectful here. Hear me out. There is the crazed part of it, but, like Alzheimer's, you don't really know you have it until it's all over. The last thing we women want to believe is that we are getting old, because menopause is for old ladies, right?  In the case of Alzheimer's, you could be diagnosed with it, but until you are dead and they analyze your brain, you don't really know for sure.  You could just be demented. 

So at 45, I thought I was too young for Alzheimer's so I just thought I was a demented person.

By the time I finally had my hormone levels checked and started taking hormones, that big study came out that said hormone treatment was linked to heart attacks, so that was enough for me to ditch the pills (things have changed since then).  Besides, I wasn't much into taking pills anyway.  This here girl was pioneer and Swedish stock!  I can beat this thing.

If you find yourself in similar circumstances and exhibiting similar behaviors, take note.  The time has come.  But don't beat yourself up.  You can't help it.  I recommend doing anything and everything you deem appropriate to help you get through it.

But here is the sobering part of all of this.

As Loh points out in her book, when we are very young, we are detached.  It's all about ourselves. But as our hormones kick in, we then become attached as we seek mates and have our children. Once we are no longer able to procreate and our children have left the nest, our bodies and minds go back to being detached, not needing to nurture anyone but ourselves once again. 

However, many of us modern Baby Boomer women didn't live that "normal" biological and chronological clock of a typical woman from an earlier generation:  get married and have children in her twenties, "begin to detach in her forties...Her grown-up (say eighteen year old) children are leaving the nest; her perhaps slightly older (say sixty-ish) husband is transitioning into gardening and fishing; her aged parents have conveniently died." 

So that was an easier menopause because at least many of life's stresses had already passed when it was time to detach.

But Loh goes on to say that doesn't fit the new normal of the late-boomer/Gen X women who put their careers first and didn't get married until their thirties, got pregnant in their late 30's or early 40's, and with medical advancements, their parents are still alive.  So that means just when our bodies are telling us to detach, we still have kids at home and parents to take care of. 

No wonder we go nuts.

That is what happened to me.

The full cycle of perimenopause to menopause to post-menopause can take up to ten years.  So when I think that in the midst of those years when my body was changing from a fertile young thing into a wild-eyed crone, both of my parents went through illness or institutionalization and then died and, my son was 15-25 and my daughter was 10-20, formative years to say the least.  

No wonder I remember big eyes in the back seat when I was on a tirade or that they don't seem to share a lot of happy family memories. No wonder they now say, "You know how you are," when neither has lived with me for over 10 years, and I don't know what they are talking about.  How am I?

I was a madwoman in a Mustang.
(no Volvos for me).

But according to Loh and to me, there is good news for those of you who are suffering or about to. 

It gets better. 

I think that is what I am here to impart, because you know, I am all about providing a public service.

I'm still fat, but I'm not angry anymore, and I like to think I'm no longer crazy, though that could be up for debate.

It does get better. 

Most of those nasty hormonal symptoms do eventually go away.

You do get to detach (as in spending time with yourself). 

And with age comes some perks.

We women of a certain age come to  realize:

It's not as important as it once was to be a skinny bitch. In fact, a little extra junk in the trunk is known to prolong life, save your face and keep you from BEING a bitch.

It's not as important to have a clean house because who do we need to impress anymore?  Hubby would rather have a cheerful companion than an angry cleaning lady in a clean house. 

It's not as important to care what people think. 
It's called "The I-Don't-Give-A-Sh*t-Anymore-Syndrome."  It hits around 60.

It's not as important to be a Super Woman if we ever were.  It's important to be your own hero.

You now have the time to be grateful - for all of it.

What IS important is to make peace with yourself:
body, mind and spirit.

You will come out the other side.

Now I'm the old, but no longer mad,

woman in the Mustang!

Thanks for Reading!

 

See you Friday

for my review of the new movie

"Interstellar." 

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