Tag Archives: aging

Posted on

The September Methuselism Award goes to

Lynn Ruth Miller. According to Growing Bolder, Lynn Ruth published her first book, Starving Hearts, at age 67. Her website says it has sold 6,200 copies! At 70 she reinvented herself and began doing standup comedy in a one-person show entitled Aging is Amazing.

Obviously Lynn Ruth doesn’t stand still long enough for moss to grow on her. At 80 she is still going strong. The active octogenarian proves, beyond any doubt, that aging is amazing. Discover where you will be able to see Lynn Ruth and other things she has added to her list of accomplishments, like this YouTube video, on her website.

Posted on

One thing that’s better old

The handyman arrived thirty minutes before he said he would. From my viewpoint, that’s a very good sign. I need a few boards replaced. When you have an older frame home, the routine, at some point, is going to be rot, replace, paint.

Cracked and peeling paint on a house that isn't mine. ©iStockphoto/jhorrocks

Cracked and peeling paint on a house that isn’t mine. ©iStockphoto/jhorrocks

“See that wood,” he said pointing at remaining original boards used ca. 1950 to build my home. I nodded. “It’s better than that wood,” he said pointing to newer boards replaced since I’ve owned the home.

Someone pointing to something older that’s better than something new is music to the ears of a sexy-generian. I clarified the cost again.

“You’ve got the job,” I said.

Posted on

Avoid this aging stereotype

Aging for actresses in Hollywood means you go from portraying babes to moms to wise old lawyers. Hollywood, according to Paige Morrow Kimball in Aging Out: Hollywood’s Problem With Women Over 40, doesn’t see women as being “attractive and appealing, vital and powerful in the 40s and 50s and beyond.”

Cat sunning on my deck. ©D.L. Ewbank

Cat sunning on my deck. ©D.L. Ewbank

If that isn’t bad enough, aging brings a whole new set of stereotypes to combat. One of the worst, and one I want to avoid like the plague, is the “cat lady.” (This isn’t a joke. Even Wikihow has tips on avoiding it!) By cat lady I don’t mean the “smexy” (smart and sexy) Catwoman as portrayed by the likes of Halle Berry or Michelle Pfeifer. I’m referring to aging, chubby spinsters who collect cats.

If someone were to call me a “cat lady,” I’d laugh (once I got over the shock). I visualize myself laughing longer and louder than I should. I stop laughing only long enough to protest saying I don’t own even one cat! Furthermore, I’d point out, I don’t dress cats in cute clothes or wear sweaters emblazoned with felines. If I am obsessive compulsive about anything, it’s books and the last time I looked they carry little stigma and no litter box stench.

Later, probably much later, I would laugh because I’m eagerly seeking my personal funny. Personal funny pays. I’ve seen The Big Bang Theory! So I would be envisioning myself as an alternative to Brenda Frick who superbly portrays the friendly, homeless lover of pigeons in Home Alone 2. (Well, one can dream!)

Even when I turned 60 and was still single and “looked like a good cook,” I didn’t fear cat lady designation. I owned a dog, just one. Then my dog died. And if grief wasn’t enough, one day I looked out on my deck and what should I see…

That cat is not mine, but I’m going on that diet anyway.

Posted on

The eyes have it

I’m trying to incorporate eye makeup again after all these years. By all these years, I mean since around the late 70s when I heard mascara was made of bat guano. Turns out bat guano mascara is an urban legend, maybe the first that impacted my life.

Eye shadow

Eye shadow

Even though I knew it was not true that the ingredients in my mascara included bat excrement, the thought alone was disgusting. Over time I began to use eye makeup less and less, then only on special occasions. Like they say use it or loose it. Eventually, I lost the mastery.

Maybe that’s a good thing. My signature baboon butt blue eye shadow with thin black liner and black mascara is no longer the height of fashion in the new millennium. Definately not for my age group. For over 60s apparently the fashion is matte neutrals. But what do they know… A little shine never hurt anyone.

Even though smoky eyes may be a risk for over the 60 plus woman, when I receive an email touting the new Bobbie Brown smudge-able eyeliner I can’t resist. I rush to the mall where I purchase dark brown instead of the black of my youth because someone online says black on women over 60 is too harsh. The sales clerk demonstrates that it smudges, sets, then can’t be rubbed off. I am envious as I watch her smear the liner on her hand, so smooth and not the least bit crepey. “Lotion” I note mentally.

Non-smudging necessitates eye makeup remover. I go to another counter where I say, “I’m out.” I don’t mention I’ve been out since the 90s to the young, probably twenties young sales clerk assisting me.

I make my decision between three products she describes, then I come around a counter to pay for my purchase. As I’m digging in my purse I hear her say something like, “Look at you! Don’t you look adorable! So cozy!” I’m thrown together in a simple black dress and black sandals with my hair clipped up in a black barrette. She can’t be talking to me. I turn around to see who the adorable woman is and no one is there. She says, “I’m talking to you!”

I’m so stunned I can’t respond.

I love to shop!