What's on my mind...

As you can see from the "Upcoming events" we are heading out west in 12 days.  Once again the PushmePullyou - thank you Dr. Dolittle -- is in full swing. There are three and four "events" every day which include meals with friends, errands, and also, surprise, the regular work schedule.  Whew!  I go to sleep and wake up thinking of all the places to be each day and how will I manage my energy?  What energy? 

As I was getting dressed this morning, going through the litany of to dos of course, I suddenly realized that this is the good news. My, and our, days are jam packed with people who love us and want to make sure they are with us before we go to our other universe.  These are limnal times to strengthen connections so they can carry through the next 6 months.  Looked at through this lens makes the days full, fun, and eagerly anticipated.  This privilege and challenge of having two homes continues to teach me about how to look at life -- whether it is naming things or choosing the right lens to look at my life.  A life full of good fortune, love, and learning opportunities.

I have been reading about the Shriver Report on Women over the last couple of days and was interested to watch Maria Shriver, John Podesta, and Valerie Jarrett discuss it this morning on Meet the Press.  Part way through the discussion I realized that I (we) aren't much part of the discussion unless we fall into the "elder care" piece or part of the history!  I'm still sort of stunned.  I so don't think of myself as history!

When the statistics refer to the 70s, yup I was in the middle of it. I was a single mom for 18 years and then I out earned my second husband until I hung up my career because he didn't like my traveling. I, and we, struggled with aging parents, but our parents were older than I am and not nearly as active and involved.

My mother would have called this place neither fish nor fowl. There is a lot to think about our roles.  What do you think?  Me?  I'm going to be chewing on this a lot, but right now I have to bundle up to go pumpkin picking!

Today, a new coumnist appears!  Patti Kurgan is one bright, committed lady and in so many ways personifies a Silver Vixen. She is grounded in family, community, work, and growth.  She has a great sense of humor and is dedicated to living life to the fullest AND she is making a difference.

If you have had the time to explore SilverVixens you know that it was founded to "burnish the image of Women of a Certain Age".  One of the purposes of the site is to highlight just how terrific we are and how involved we are in solving the issues of the day -- large and small, personal and global.  Patti is the first who is addressing the global issues and I hope there will be many more.

Patti, glad you're here!

I just got my beloved Parker 51 back from being repaired and have fallen in love all over again.  I received this pen at the end of 6th grade from the teacher of the EMH class.  In the days before sensitive descriptions, EMH stood for Educably Mentally Handicapped.  I don't remember how I got to help out in the class, but it was a wonderful experience.  Miss Dombrowski gave me the pen and pencil set at the end of the year.  I treasured her and I treasured my set.  All through high school I wrote with my signature brown ink and felt so sophisticated.  Somewhere in my 20s I lost the pen...until I was cleaning out my basement locker about 5 years ago.  There it was!  It took a couple of years to find where to send it to bring it back to life, but we picked up our "relationship" right where it had left off so many years ago.

Writing letters and notes is just a wonderful experience.  For me it is another excuse to have color -- note cards, enclosure cards, and writing paper.  The more colors the merrier but of course, always with brown ink.

Tradition needs to be respected!

Well, TV shows have discovered something new!  Cougars, and they are HOT!  Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that cougars are women over 40 who are dating (or trying to date) younger men.  Ohmigosh!  this is soooooooo yesterday.  Women have been dating and marrying younger men since forever and men have been dating and marrying younger women and noone has batted an eye.

I think this is just one more ploy by desperate male executives to generate print and a few new tv shows.  The media continues to impress us with just how out of touch they are and how committed they are to proving it.

Yawn.....

p.s.  I wanted to add a picture to this, but the only one I could find was Demi and Ashton.  If she is a cougar, I'm a zebra -- I've earned my stripes!

I was really heartened to read about Diane Sawyer ascending to the anchor chair of ABC "World News" at the end of the year.  Wow!  One for the Silver Vixens!  Then a couple of days ago I read a, finally, complimentary article about Katie Couric's work as NBC news anchor.  I thought "Wow! Another one for the Silver Vixens!"  Hmmm, two out of three news anchors on the major network stations...is something up?  Could it possibly be good?

I have noticed over the past several years, that there is a big hullabaloo when women finally break down a barrier and finally are allowed into a profession.  Then two things happen --  there seems to be a mass exodus of men and weaknesses in the status quo come to light and women are called upon in times of change to shore things up and fix them.  I think Diane Sawyer should have had the news anchor chair years ago.  Some powerful guy at the network at that time decided that viewers wouldn't trust hearing "hard" news from a woman and gave the position to a man (no aspersions here on anyone's credentials!).  Now that cable news is leeching viewers with their personality driven news/entertainment shows, the networks are getting desperate to boost up ratings.  Who do they turn to?  A Woman of a Certain Age.  She can pull it out!

Go Diane!  Go Katie!

I know you are reading this on your computer, but I am curious about your preferred method a getting information. We are reading that newspapers are a dying breed, that magazines are closing (alas, three of my very favorites have disappeared this year!) and that even traditional television shows are losing viewers.

I'm a magazine girl through and through.  I like holding them in my hands, I like flipping the pages, I like having them around the house, in my bag.  What about you?

If the ides of March are rather sinister, the ides of September are anything but.  Sure, for northerners we are on the slippery slope to winter, but oh, the glory between now and then! Today will probably be the last really warm day in Chicago for quite a while, there have been precious few this summer anyway.  But as I look ahead, I see our calendar filling up like crazy.  The cultural scene in really picks up after Labor Day and it seems that friends, and we too, are more inclined to make plans more than 4 hours in advance. The weeks are full until we head out West.

I also find I am looking around my life with renewed energy and making to do lists of things to get done around the house (that carpeting on the stairs has to go now!), our tiny garden, and, of course, with my favorite playground Silver Vixen. The community continues to grow as we are all exploring this particular place in our lives. 

How do you celebrate Fall? Any rituals? Travel? Picking up pretty leaves? Getting out the knitting needles?  If so, don't forget Keep a Silver Vixen Warm Week!

I am determined to get the hang of the three big social networks!  I like the fun of twitter, the business sense of linked in, and facebook...I still don't quite "get it".  This being Friends with people I don't know...hmmm.  Well, millions of others do it and so will I!  Help!

Well tonight's the night -- my 3rd annual foray into the men's world of Fantasy Football.  Imagine being in the private room of an excellent pizzeria (all we can eat, of course), with 11 other tables of men intent on getting their fantasy football team. I alone represent women AND I know nothing about fantasy football team selection.  What I do know how to do is organize a lot of information -- and now this information is sorted three ways. It is so nice to bring complusiveness to things I know nothing about!

Anyway, for three hours or so (not counting pizza time) I will be helping SJ and his long distance partners, doing what I do well and occasionally staring in dumb disbelief at what I am doing in the name of loving this sweet man.