Turning 50

I've always associated 50 with longevity. My grandparents and great-grandparents were married for 50 years...now that's a LONG time to spend with one person. I wonder what it's like to wake up every morning for 50 years and see the same face staring back at you.

I must say I'm truly looking forward to 50. I feel more fit, attractive, capable, and in charge of my life at almost 50 than I have at any other age. The one concern I have is menopause and what affects it will have on me. You see, I recently started having hot flashes. It's the weirdest sensation ever. It's like a slow crawling prickly heat that completely envelops you. Before you know it, you're sporting tiny beads of sweat in the most obvious places. You can literally feel yourself turning red. It's completely embarrassing. You're sure that while it's happening everyone in the room is noticing. This assumption is validated for you when someone looks over at you and says..."having a hot flash?" I really need to do some Internet research to find out how to minimize these episodes. I've heard lots of Soy. Vanilla Soymilk will become my new best friend.

Then there's the night sweats. YUCK! There is nothing worse than waking up completely drenched in your own sweat and kicking off the blankets, only to find that 30 seconds later your freezing to death and can't get back under the covers fast enough. Oh wait...first you have to get up and put on a "dry" tank top.

To top it all off, there's the memory loss. You're having an intelligent conversation with someone and all of a sudden, you stop mid-sentence because you can't remember what it was you were going to say. Common words and recent memories completely escape you. It's VERY frustrating...I wonder if there is such a thing as menopause anonymous meetings???

It's just not fair what we as women have to go through to be done with having babies. Geez! You'd think that after having to endure child birth (some women for some insane reason do this over and over and over again...like Octomom), and years of having periods, that someone somewhere would cut us some slack. Whoever said women are the weaker sex??? Men...you have no idea how easy you have it.

Until next time...

The Seven Dwarfs of Menopause: Itchy, Bitchy, Sweaty, Sleepy, Bloated, Forgetful, and All Dried Up. (Too bad I couldn't snag the pics...there are hillarious)