It’s my birthday today and on first glance after waking up as a 37 year old I was not too jazzed about the whole closer to 40 thing so in an effort to settle into being another year older and embrace being me at any age like all those gals on the Oil of Olay or Dove or Cover Girl or whatever beauty product advertisement it is where they bang on about being beautiful at any age (I don’t buy beauty products and zone out when the ads come on so forgive me for not paying attention to the marketing ploys of whichever company it is actually showing a woman above 19 in their ads).
Anyhoo, here is my attempt to embrace being 37 with open arms by listing 37 reasons to be happy to be turning 37 today (they are listed in no particular order of importance BTW):
1. At 37 my reading glasses make me look intelligent instead of nerdy.
2. In keeping with the above point, at 37 being intelligent is sexy NOT intimidating for the poor men folk who can’t keep up a conversation with a 20 year old with superior intelligence AND perky boobs.
3. At 37 I have the two most beautiful, quirky, wonderful, remarkable and magnificent children ever birthed who call me Mummy, tell me they love me and give me HUGE squishy cuddles every day.
4. At 37 I have the life experience, emotional maturity and intestinal fortitude to deal with my children’s issues (of which there are many because of Autism) and if I’m allowed to indulge myself further and put a part (b) in this point (which I am going to do as it’s my list and I’ll indulge if I want to) that at 37, with the afore mentioned emotional maturity I can appreciate the gifts of my children (and the gifts of Autism) and celebrate those too amidst dealing with the issues (this is possible at any age as mother I’m sure but I wanted to mention how grand my kids have made my life even with some bumps in the road).
5. At 37 I have a wonderful, caring husband who helped me make the remarkable children mentioned above (and he’s pretty hot too which is nice).
6. At 37 I can finally say I don’t care what other people think of me and REALLY mean it (that one was hard to achieve and even as recently as at age 36, I was still worrying about that crap but no longer care to waste time on negative rubbish).
7. At 37 people in their 20’s come to me for advice as apparently I’m very wise (really, it’s honestly true that people in their 20’s have asked my advice..... although I make no promises that my advice is ever worth listening to).
8. At 37 I can heartily and credibly sing along to the Lyric in Sinatra’s My Way and really mean it: “Regrets, I’ve had a few... but then again, too few to mention...” Actually, I reckon I could credibly sing along to most of the lyrics throughout the whole song except the final curtain bit as I sincerely hope I’m not quite old enough to be facing THAT!!!! (lyrics here: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/f/frank+sinatra/my+way_20056378.html)
9. At 37 I can confirm that it is true that women do indeed hit their sexual peak around the mid 30’s and will leave that one there as perhaps this is too much information for family, some friends and maybe the people in their 20’s who have come to me for advice about other things and who would be shocked at a wise old lady saying such things......... (Don’t worry, by number 30 or so you’ll forget I snuck that one into the list way back at number 9).
10. At 37 I have lived an interesting enough life to have had 3 weddings & 2 husbands (long story) and looked FABULOUS at all of them.
11. At 37 I am quite capable of going to the ladies toilet in any bar, restaurant or public place on my own and do not require the company of a friend.
12. At 37 my curves are because of my enormous children and not because of my enormous appetite (both boys well over 10 pounds, delivered naturally and one of them without pain relief..... and yes I will continue to tell people this as damn it.... THAT is a mighty achievement).
13. At 37 I can mock Generation Y. (Yes... I know there are wonderful Gen Y’s before I get caned by my Gen Y friends but seriously, it’s just your right to mock the generation after you...).
14. At 37 I am old enough to be mature but young enough to try new things if I want to.
15. At 37 I am still learning something new every single day and hope to do so forever.
16. At 37 I can tell people to “phark off” if I want to and not yet look like a muttering and crazy old woman but rather a woman who does not tolerate ignorant tools, idiots and small minded people in her life.
17. At 37 I can choose my friends according to who I like rather than who is cool or who belongs to the in crowd.
18. At 37 I can have a glass of wine to wind down after a long day or whilst I settle into a quiet evening in my slippers instead of having a glass gearing up for a long night of bar hopping and uncomfortable high heels.
19. At 37 the only discoing I do is in my lounge room (in aforementioned slippers) and I am totally happy with that as I can choose my own bad 80’s & 90’s music to disco around badly to.
20. At 37 I can eat an entree, main AND dessert if I choose to without feeling guilt (but perhaps indeed feeling the strain of my tummy sucker inner steel enforced, iron undies unless I nick off to the loo and slip them off to accommodate the meal which I have been known to do on the occasional girls night as laughing and eating really doesn’t make a comfortable evening in those stupid bloody iron undies anyway).
21. At 37 I can admit to being out to dinner as mentioned above and slipping off ridiculously uncomfortable steel enforced, iron under pants invented for women in their post child bearing years who have not yet lost the baby weight (this can be up to the age of 90 of course as it takes more than 5 minutes to work off that damned baby weight contrary to society’s false belief thanks to pharkin Angelina Jolie and her 3 seconds after birthing twins, flat tummy)...... I digress...
22. At 37 I can digress and curse out pharkin Angelina Jolie and all her pharkin perfection.
23. At 37 I have never ever been ten pin bowling nor do I ever really want to. C’mon!!! Those borrowed shoes!!! They have seen many many many feet and therefore MUST breed many many many feet diseases..... No thanks. At 37 I choose to pick a different type of family outing or date night thanks anyway.
24. At 37 I don’t have to show my ID to get into R rated movies or nightclubs (mind you I rarely go to either but it’s nice to stroll on in should I choose to go without emptying a ridiculously impractical handbag trying to find my licence and accidentally flinging several receipts, a lipstick and a couple of tampons out in the process.
25. At 37 my period might be a couple of days late and I’m not automatically panicking about unplanned pregnancy... It COULD be early menopause! (Hey, having options and alternatives to anything is always good)!
26. At 37 I can look back at my all night, podium dancing filled, scantily clad, Oxford St night clubbing days with fondness and be glad I had them but also glad they are OVER!
27. At 37 I can say my first job at The Sheraton on The Park in “the banquet beat” when I was just a young girl who was very sheltered at the time from “Baulko” allowed me to meet not only famous people such as The President of The United States, Janet Jackson, Robbie Williams (all of Take That actually), The Pope and many others of notable note worthiness but more importantly allowed me to meet the most eclectic and bloody fantastic bunch of friends (many of whom I’m still in contact with) I could have ever wished for to teach me about the real world outside of “Baulko.”
28. At 37 I can say my move to Adelaide in my early 20’s was a colossal mistake but that if I didn’t do it, learn from it and move back to NSW I would not have my husband and family so it wasn’t really a mistake at all then was it? (Another long story)....
29. At 37 I can look back at my days of high school at good old Crestwood and realise that a spiral perm and a teased fringe, hoop earrings down to my shoulders, various Bon Jovi t-shirts (one for each day of the week) with an incredibly short school skirt might have yielded me the hottest guy at school to claim as my boyfriend but also wonder really........ What were we any of us thinking? Yeah well, like I said, I was the girlfriend of the most popular guy at school. Woot woot! Popularity at high school was nice at the time and a luxury many don’t ever have so at 37 I am grateful I didn’t live through the hell some others do/did (and that if I admit it keeps me awake at night when I think about my kids potentially facing bullying at school).
30. At 37 I can raise awareness for Autism. At 37 I am proud that I try to do this and I am also proud to stand alongside all of the other wonderful souls who help me do so (another one that can be done at any age and stage but again, I just wanted to mention the great friends and comrades I’ve found along the way who share my passion for helping raise awareness).
31. At 37 I can log onto facebook, connect with people in the same boat and have a conversation with someone overseas or just around the corner within the space of 2 minutes and know I’m not alone on a lonely day.
32. At 37 I understand the difference between facebook acquaintances on my friends list and a real friend. (Although I have met some wonderful friends via FB who have become real friends.... I’ve also met some that make me grateful for the hide, block and delete buttons).
33. At 37 I can demand a chocolate mud cake on my birthday and know I’ll actually be the one making it in a house full of boys but also be ok with that.
34. At 37 I can look at my life and be grateful for every single thing in it, every single experience I’ve ever had and everything still to come my way.
35. At 37 I still LOVE Bon Jovi and can go to their concert (or 6 as the case may be) when they tour later this year and NOT have to ask anyone’s permission to do so or even care how immature the whole thing is...... At 37 I can do whatever the hell I want and I want to go to 6 Bon Jovi concerts so I am!
36. At 37 I can write the above point on the list about Bon Jovi and laugh at how ludicrous it is that I am still justifying my love of them at age 37, know I’ll always love them and also laugh that at age 2 and 4 my kids danced to good old Bon Jovi with me in the lounge room yesterday (in our slippers of course) and even though it’s ludicrous it’s also the stuff my past and future memories are made of whilst being right here in the present too.
37. At 37 I can NOT sing, will never be able to sing and although I know I’m terrible, will sing anyway at the top of my lungs if the mood strikes because at 37 I am me and I’m fairly happy with who that is.
