Countdown to 50

When you’re a kid, you always think of your parents as old. My Mom turned 50 when my brother and I were in middle school. My brother thought my Mom was having an affair because she changed her routine of many years, which was to come straight home from work after her 7am – 3pm shift at the hospital.  That put her home at about 3:30, not long after we got home from school.

Now several days a week, not only was she late but she had changed out of her nursing uniform.  Hmmmm.  Turns out she was going to an aerobics class a la Jane Fonda era.  Talk about jumping to conclusions.  Needless to say, we had her back full-time pretty quickly as she pulled a muscle in her neck and her aerobics foray was short-lived.

To this day we laugh about my brother’s wild imagination but as I stare down that milestone birthday later this year, I get it. Even as a self-absorbed teenager, I knew that was a tough year and birthday for my Mom.

Mortality hits you in the face as you start to lose family and friends all too soon.  Every day another celebrity from ‘your generation’ dies.  You can’t help but want to take better care of yourself and give some serious thought to what you want to do with the next 50 years!

So, I’m normally way low-key about my birthday, but forget that, 50 is worth celebrating all year long. And worth eating the cake too -lots of cake!