Who Knew?!

     First of all, I need to tell you that I turned 55 this past year.  Things are changing in my life.  Ten years ago, I could still do a cartwheel split.  I could jog and run.  I could jump with a jump rope.  Now, all that I can do is watch the rope go around while standing there nodding my head up and down like I am actually going to jump in.  When I have to run across a parking lot lane, it is more of a fast walking sprint.  I don't know when it happened exactly, but one day, when I decided to run, the feet and the legs would not cooperate.  It reminded me of when I was about 15 and was making my first attempt at jumping off of the high dive at our high school pool.  My coach kept prodding me on to jump.  My mind was all ready to do this feat.  I psyched myself out that I COULD and I WOULD do this.  I got into a diving stance.  The top part of my body jumped forward while my feet stayed planted...and I fell sideways off of the board from the top portion of my own inertia. 
    
     The same is true now.  My mind says "GO!"  But, my feet stay planted on the ground.

     Well, if this were the worst of my problems, that wouldn't be too bad.  However, it isn't only my feet that won't cooperate at this ripe age of 55!  My eyes will not cooperate either.  I have reading glasses and I have my computer glasses and I have my regular glasses.  Some would say..."Well...why don't you get bi-focals?!"  Quite honestly, for what they cost, I am afraid to try them for fear that I will have spent all of that money only to not be able to see with them.  I have vertigo.  I am afraid that the vertigo will kick in if I wear the bifocals.  Why fix what isn't broken....you know?  I guess that I have to come to grips that maybe something is broken. 

     Now, you are probably thinking, "So you have to wear glasses...most of the population wears glasses."  My problem with my eye sight became evident to me the other day.  I wonder how long I have been going around with all of these hairs on my upper lip and chin.  Yeah....you heard me.  When I look in the mirror, I see what I thought that the rest of the world saw....just me.  I looked clean, neat, hair  in place....but I can't see close up.  I am talking about the bathroom mirror that spans the wall behind the sink.  I don't know what possessed me to look really, REALLY close the other day...but I couldn't believe the stuff that was growing on my face!  A stray hair here...a stray hair there!  What I find really amusing is that my family and friends who see me daily and have never made a remark....like "Have you seen those new nose, hair clippers that they sell on those infomercials?"  Nothing.  So, I was really upset with them, after seeing these stray hairs.  What kind of friend would allow you to go around looking like that?! 

     I am not upset with them anymore though.  I had an Epiphany.  I realized that all of my friends are about the same age as me....and they can't see the hairs either.  So, I began to wonder if we were all going around together looking like were wolves with Alopecia.  You can't fix something that you are not aware of.  I don't have a scrutinizing teenager in the house....and grand kids love us just the way that we are...except when grandmas wear hoodies...but that is a different story for a different time.

So, ladies & gents, if you are 50-Something, I would recommend that you run out and get a magnified mirror as soon as you can.  We can't wear our glasses as we put make up on ....so we need the magnification.  Just be sure to brace yourself before looking in that mirror.  You will be shocked when you see what might be growing on your face.