Friday, September 03, 2010

Friday Five: Aging Edition

Despite my occassional jokes about getting older, I don't really think much about it.  In many ways, I don't feel much older than I did in high school.  But there are exceptions.  Listed below are the five major ways in which I have noticed I'm getting older.

  1. My hands.  I NEVER used to need lotion.  No matter what I did to my poor hands, the skin never got dry.  Here lately, my hands get so dry they hurt, so I have to go slather on lotion.  Also, they get dry enough that you can see white, ashy traces of lines all over them if I don't put on lotion several times a day. 
  2. The gray is taking over.  I've been getting gray hairs since 1996, but it was usually only one or two here and there.  Now, I've got enough grays growing in that my natural hair color always looks washed out, and certain areas have so much gray they show up as streaks when I look in the mirror.
  3. Laugh/frown lines. For the most part, my face doesn't look much different than it did in high school (well, except a lot more fat).  But, I'm starting to notice laugh lines around my eyes and frown lines on my forehead that don't immediately go away.  If I look really closely, they don't really go away at all.  I make it a point to not look really closely.
  4. Diet.  I still crave those rich, ooey gooey desserts and greasy pizzas, but find my body exacts revenge later if I do.  So I've been modifying my diet (for the most part).  Sometimes I break down and have a brownie or some pizza, though.
  5. Attitude.  I used to not notice or pay much attention to age differences between me and people in their 20s (or younger).  Now, I notice a VAST difference in our attitudes.  I have very little tolerance for their party-hardy, irresponsible, whiny ways.  I used to just do a mental shrug and figure, "well, they'll grow up eventually."
So, what about you?  Have you started noticing the passage of time?  Do you notice differences in how you feel about things now versus how you felt about things then?  Or have you started using certain phrases that you heard your parents use, and swore you never would?  Let me know in the comments, or talk about it on your blog and leave me a link here so I can go take a gander.

1 comment:

ann said...

1. I would blame the Texas climate.

2. I still like my gray. People all around me complain about theirs (and color it) but I still like mine. I don't know that I always will, but I plan to.

4. I've stopped eating donuts. I have started weighing myself more frequently (read: at all), at least once a week, I'd say, and go through phases of every day. I worked with a trainer for a few weeks and she had me writing down what I was eating, and I noticed I was eating over 3000 calories a day on the weekends and under 2000 on weekdays, and that I was losing weight on weekdays and gaining it back on weekends. So I've started paying attention to that a bit. Not doing much about it, but at least paying attention to it. I try to limit my sodas (to none, when possible--turns out to be one or two a month, I guess), and I don't eat anything that is both sugary and deep friend. That's my official diet, I guess--that part only. The rest I'm not very disciplined about.

And I need a lot of sleep. I think I always have, but didn't always get it (and I'd be grouchy because of it), but now I'm mindful of that and kind of treasure it. I've always fallen asleep accidentally more than most people do (during movies, etc), but now I"m doing it on purpose, too. (And not so often accidentally, incidentally.) Only did it once while driving--I was sick. Note to self, don't drive when you're sick.

This was fun.

Oh, and I've taken on a lot more responsibility (for me--which is probably less than what most freshmen in high school take on). That's one thing that makes me feel old, and not like it. I miss foot loose and fancy free.