Who's the Boss?

Of course the big news in the world of demographics is that Bruce Springsteen is also my age. But this presents an interesting conundrum....

I have never BEEN to a Bruce Springsteen concert. Does this mean I am not representative of my generation? One of my friends, Becky, has probably been to over 100 concerts but she's a mere 50 plus....I have the feeling that by the time people were paying attention to Bruce I was the mother of at least one and perhaps two children and listening to "Free to Be You and Me" rather than rock 'n roll.

I do own an iPod however and have at least one if not two BS songs....does this count?

Unlike my friend Kay, who is the world's living authority on popular music, I stopped paying attention to what was going on about 1971. At that point we lived in Washington DC and there was a wonderful classical music station on AM radio which we listened to every morning on the way to work. I can tell you what was popular -- John Denver (and even I know that that is not rock music!) -- in 1974 because that was the year my husband and I took a three month trip around the country. That was also the summer of the Barbra Streisand/Robert Redford movie, the title of which now escapes me, and so they played the theme from that movie a lot too.

But once I stopped commuting to work all that came to a halt. And even though I went back to work, our town was so small that my job was literally down the street. So no long drives listening to the Boss, or heavy metal or rap or any of those other things that were going on.

I guess this is also where I should confess that I know nothing about the Grateful Dead, even though my husband's name sounds like one of the members of the group....

I really am out of it. Or was. Now that I'm almost 60 I'm on the cutting edge of social change. Just don't ask me who won the Grammys this year.

Scenic South Hadley....

was the setting for planning my 40th college reunion this weekend. WHAT? 40???? It feels like just yesterday when we arrived with our suitcases and walked up to the fourth floor of the dorm. It was one of the few times that men were allowed upstairs...just fathers and brothers carrying stuff!

Lots of the discussion this weekend was how things had changed for women beginning just about the time we went off to college in 1967. A woman was there from the Class of 1963 and talked about how the five years after her graduation had been a time of change and turmoil, and yet the day they had graduated they didn't have an inkling of what was to come. They had gone to college planning on looking for husbands....two decades later people were discussing "displaced homemakers."

But in addition to all the fun we had, the best part was hearing from older women that Turning S*x*y was, in fact, something to be looked forward to and savored. My friend Liz, with whom I was working, has become a vegan. She is totally committed to it and convinced that animal protein in one's diet can lead to bad stuff like cancer. I was intrigued....not sure I'm ready to become a vegetarian but I'm sure going to start Googling the "broccoli theory" which supposedly is the work of an MHC physician alumna in the same Class of '63. Who knew?

THIS NEWS JUST IN!

I always suspected that moderate drinking was "the way to belong." Thank God that has been confirmed by none other than The Paper of Record.... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/health/research/01aging.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=Aging&st=cse

I try to drink moderately every single day. As I sip my moderate drinks I chant my mantra, which is "my brain is not aging....my brain is not aging...."

Of course I am just about to leave on vacation. The rule on vacation is that the definition of "moderate" is slightly modified. Moderate means "not before noon if you can help it...." and "remember you don't know any of the neighbors so if you do something silly who cares?"

What you have to know is that when I get back from vacation I am in my BUSY SEASON at work, so any moderate drinking I do will not be for enjoyment but for restoration. So vacation is my last time to really be able to savor my moderation rather than crashing onto the couch and roaring "Give me a drink!" I've tried to train the dogs to mix a martini but so far my efforts are for naught.

There is also research that shows that your liver gets more effective after the age of 60 and can handle pretty much anything....well, most anything....and the additional gain is that we usually fall asleep before we can do too much damage.

Bottoms up!

Thought I had forgotten you?

Hey, it was August! That means vacation! And that meant VISITING MY GRANDCHILDREN. Life does not get any better than that!

But now it's September so it's nose to the grindstone. Except that we have one more week of vacation next week. Which we'll need, because the fall is a very busy time at work for the Diva and so one needs all the R & R that can be mustered....

Just found a great article in the NYT about how much of one's retirement nest egg it's prudent to withdraw each year....http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/your-money/individual-retirement-account-iras/29money.html?pagewanted=2&em

As you can see, the Diva is not only thinking about vacation but also about retirement. Not that she's going to retire any time soon.

But it's good to have goals and so two goals for the next six years are: have as many vacations as possible and save as much $ as possible.

AHA you say! Conflicting/competing goals! How does one deal with this conundrum?

I'm not sure....but I'm working on it. I'm banking on the fact that by the time I'm S*x*y S*x, people will be begging all of us s*xagenarians to keep working at lofty rates of pay. Dream on, you say? Well, I shall.....