Welcome! I'm a 48 (and 1/2) year old, wife, mother (8 1/2 year old son), daughter, sister, friend and volunteer. So, 48.5 really means I'm into my 49th year on this amazing planet, and on July 19, 2010, I'll be in my 50th year. The mid-century mark. L. The big 5-0. However you want to say it, to most of the English speaking world, it means "old". I want to get there with grace, passion, beauty, love and laughter. I want to get there the old-fashioned way: by taking care of myself, eating right, creating a balanced life, laughing and living life to it's fullest. I'll be documenting my journey and hope you will watch and learn along the way. I'll also provide some of my tips for looking young and feeling your best as we head to and beyond our mid-century mark. Here's to being "Beautifully 50".

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Did I say embrace?


Ha! I just had a good laugh at myself. I remember beginning this blog and being proud that I was finally going to  embrace my coming age - after all, what was my alternative?  For the past several years, I shied away from the age question, always making some type of joke to get around it. One day I proclaimed, "I'm 38!", that was my new age..and I was sticking to it. I even begged my 8 year-old to stop announcing my real age at every stop. Seriously, he did. To the Nordie's lady he would proudly announce "my mom is 48!" To the dry cleaner guy, "Guess how old my mom is? " I finally had to bribe him with some horrible sweet stuff to stop spreading my secret. It didn't last long.

One thing I think the entire world has in common - we always "think" we look younger than we are. I just had my refrigerator repair man ask me to guess his age (I hate that question!) and that NO ONE ever gets his number correct within 10 years.  Now,  I'm usually pretty good at this, so I guessed 5 years younger than I actually believed, to make him feel good.  " 60?"  Wow, he was not happy with that..see he is 55 and thought I would guess 45. Oops...I sure didn't make his day. But that's the point, we all want to be perceived as younger than we are...and my hunch is that only a very lucky few do.

So,  at my dance studio the other day (yes, I've started ballroom dancing, having the best time!), some friends and I were commenting on the ages of our instructors. My young, cute, hips-don't-lie, instructor is all of 24! I could easily be his mom, and I'm fairly certain he has no idea that I'm exactly his years times two. Or does he? Yes, I'm just like the rest of the world and think I look younger than I am, but to a 24 year old,  I'm sure I look all of 48 and then some.  You know what? He'll never really know...I swore my dance friends to secrecy. And, didn't I begin this blog to embrace the coming of the big 5-0? Hmm, yes...but apparently not to young, cute, hips-don't-lie dance instructors.


Hey, even Barbie turned 50 last year...

3 comments:

Tish Jett said...

Love it. You should definitely be the poster child for the "New 50" -- which of course is something like 40 or 38 these days.

Hmmm, a "Dior girl" -- you do look French.

That's Not My Age said...

Hi Beautiully50, thanks for leaving a comment on my blog - love this post, the whole premise behind my blog is based on this idea. The fact that after a certain age you can't quite believe/remember how old you are and are often embarrassed to say.
But there are loads of cool older people (like us!) - so we should embrace our age, and keep on blogging!

PS would love to hear about your Studio 54 days!

beautifully50 said...

That's not my age - yes, you'll be hearing about those - still seems like yesterday! Love your blog!