Friday, January 29, 2010

Stuff & Things: An Entertaining Look at Change of Life




Okay, unless you’ve lived under that proverbial rock for the last, oh, 30 or so years, you’ve certainly heard just about everything there is to hear about the “change of life.” Dum … da … dum … dum!! You’ve bought the creams, you’ve listened to experts tell you why you’re losing your sexual desire, you’ve screamed when some of your hair falls out, you’re living in clothes made of “moisture wicking” material, and if anyone makes one more crack about a hot flash … you—will—KILL them!

So what could possibly be funny about all this? Look at it from the other angle—what could possibly NOT be funny about all this? There’s that saying, “I’m out of estrogen, and I have a gun!” Of course you don’t mean it … right? But you’re just on the edge enough to wanna make people wonder. Why not laugh? You’ve gotta admit that some of this stuff is so outrageous that it truly is funny. God must have a heckuva sense of humor to make females mature earlier than males, reach their sexual peak before males, and then make them hot, hot HOT … but in a different way.

This idea came to a head recently for me as I had lunch with a friend I hadn’t seen in 23 years. That’s a long time, and life truly changes in 2+ decades. We had a lot to talk about … and we did. Whaddya expect? Two women, 40++, at a table with food, no men, and no real deadline to keep that day—of course we were going to talk. And of course one of the topics had to be our advancing years.

“Stuff & Things” refers to a moment in our conversation when we started talking about a particular topic of interest to women of a certain age … the idea that there are signs of the change of life, and those signs include such things as forgetting specific words.

You’re having that conversation. You’re engaged and animated, and the words are flowing—mostly.

“I was out at the store the other day,” you tell your friend. “And I bought … well, you know, I bought that … um … that stuff that’s s’posed to help stop night sweats. It works, for the most part, but there are moments when … hmmm … moments when … well, things just can’t help at all … y’know?” You finish your conversation lamely, embarrassed that the words just disappeared—plain and simple, they disappeared—from your brain when you needed them the most.

Has this happened to you? Or what other points have you discovered that came about during “those years” as you began to realize it was not only your body that was changing, but also your mind and psyche? We wanna know. Please call into The Three Wise Girls show on Thursday, January 4, 2010 at noon EST: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/threewisegirls . Check out the show live and call in to tell us your stories—347-994-3835. Give us the funniest ones you can think of—whether you have all the words or not! And we’re interested in the poignant ones, as well. We’ll be waiting to hear from you!