60 IS NOT JUST A SPEED LIMIT ANYMORE :(

In just a few short days another decade will come to an end for me.  Don't get me wrong turning 60 is always better than the alternative.

Turning 40 and 50 weren't such a big deal, seems I was busier in life and hardly noticed it happened.  In my twenties we were raising two children and moving every two to three years.  A challenge on every level.  My hair began turning grey in my twenties but being the clever cosmetologist that I am, no one really knew.

Turning 30 was actually kind of fun.  I would now feel like a grown-up even though I had been a mother for ten years.  People take you more serious when you're not a twenty something and will listen to your opinion.  I still felt young and looked young but began noticing there were a few creaks and cracks in my knees.

Moving on to 40.  The grey hair has consumed all parts of my body.  Again Miss Clairol and I are best friends.  My weight crept up to an unacceptable point on the scale and I was powerless to to counteract it.  I wore mom jeans but had no idea that they weren't cool.  I knew I was losing the cool factor because I couldn't name the artist singing on the radio and was wondering how my daughter turned twenty!

50 came in quietly, we were living in Pennsylvania in an old historical farmhouse on the Naval Reserve Station Joint Reserve Base Willow Grove where my husband was the commanding officer.   We were so busy with the demands of his job that I temporarily forgot that my 50th was a big one.  My husband was even out of town for it and I remember our good friends Kathy and Robyn took me out to a special Italian dinner for my birthday.  It was around this time that I lost my father to cancer so birthdays weren't very important.  It was during the last half of my fifties that I discovered I no longer knew any of the guest musical artists on SNL and knew only about 1 in 4 of the guest hosts.

During the last nine years since my 50th, we moved back to San Diego, my husband retired from the Navy and we moved to Seattle for his new job with Boeing.  Six months after moving back into our home in San Diego I had a ruptured appendix for which I spent eight days in the hospital.  After moving to Seattle I had a pulmonary embolism.  Strike two.  Both health issues could have done me in.  Not my time yet but my fifties were adding up to be a challenge.  A joyous break from stress and strain was when I became a mother-in-law to the most wonder girl that I have known since she was two.  She and our son make the most wonderful couple, loving, smart, generous and fun.  To add to the blessing was having our long time friends be our in-laws. 

Just when I thought fifty something wasn't so bad I decided to take on the challenge of adding-on and remodeling our home in San Diego by myself,  while living in one small bedroom and one bathroom (no kitchen).  All while my husband worked and lived in Seattle.  Nine months of construction was almost strike three for me and finishing the project almost put me in the looney bin.  Now we have our dream home and have been able to share it with our family and friends ever since. 

The best part was yet to come when my husband figured out a way with Boeing to be able to work out of our home in San Diego.  We then made, which was our last move, from our apartment in Seattle back into our newly renovated home in San Diego.  In the 33 years that we have been married, we have moved somewhere around 15 times (you lose count after ten).  The only way he will be able to move me from our home in San Diego now will be FEET FIRST! 

Which brings me back to turning 60.  Here are the pros and cons.  I was able to cash in a small 401k and go to Las Vegas.  I get 10% off at Ross on Tuesday and can get a senior discount at many other places.  I no longer care that I can't wear high heels, cause sneakers are the cushions of the Gods.  I don't feel compelled to change the world, work at a job to feel productive, lose weight to be competitive (just healthy), cook, or wear a bra (while in the house, of course).  I enjoy just sitting watching a sunset on our patio, sleeping til whenever in the morning and playing poker every chance I get. 

Cons, of course, include aches and pains - every day, memory loss, no will-power, feeling inadequate while caring for elderly parents, and understanding that time left is getting precious.

So knowing that - I will continue to live life to the fullest, appreciate the time I have left (a lesson learned after the appendix/blod clot thing) and try to be the best that I can. 

I am raising a glass of Talbott Chardonnay to all my family and friends and asking you to join me on Mrs. Bee's Wild Ride for the next few decades.   Sixty, here I come - to be truthful I usual travel between 70-80mph anyway.  So 60 may be a speed limit but it's too slow.

THANK YOU FOR MAKING MY FIRST SIXTY YEARS SO SPECTACULAR!