Aging Gracefully - Debunking the Myth
Another birthday has come and gone. Now that I'm over 30, celebrations tend to be over by midnight and not fueled by nearly as much alcohol as they once were 5-10 years ago. Although I must say, to spend the eve of my birth at Oktoberfest in Munich was interesting. One entire liter of beer - at 5pm on a Saturday, mind you, we were not out to get shit faced - was enough to make me giddy as a little schoolgirl. And that was it for me! I shudder to think what I put my poor liver through in my 20s. But hey, it was fun!
*Shout out to the San Diego birthday crew of 2012, Sloan, Dan, Lucas and David. So many shenanigans.
*Big shout out to my 30th birthday crew of 2015! That really was a classy, beautiful party. Thanks to Annette and Meg for the inspiration for the theme. And oh, the champagne donated by my beautiful mother, a true reveler ❤️
But now, it is not only alcohol that I have to watch out for. I have Berlin's hard water and air pollution, a lack of sun, lack of sleep, coffee, salt, chocolate, carbs and even my beloved cheese working against me now. My hair is the definition of frizzy unless I straighten it with my iron. My skin is covered in blemishes, and just when my face begins to clear up - BAM! More pimples, and let's throw in some under eye circles for good measure. This makes me an odd mixture of youthful and aging skin. My dear friend, bless her heart, said I didn't have any wrinkles. But the scrutinizing eye of Sauron that looks back at me every time I glance in the mirror knows they are there, lurking just behind the moisturizer and BB cream. Lately I haven't been bloated (see my post The Pressures of Being Human), but too much of a good thing and I lament my slower metabolism and aching feet and joints. Sigh.
In my head, however, I think about how I want to look like Audrey Hepburn or Princess Kate: slim, attractive, stylish, elegant. But us mere mortals can only dream of aging gracefully as Audrey did or Kate does. I've certainly got the hair twirling down. But the clothes, the travel, the hair, the makeup, the poise? I'm still working on that. Amazon, Pinterest, Polyvore and the internet at large provide lots of inspiration for those on a budget of under a few million without property in the islands.
Another thing I'm working on is remembering that style icons have very different lives from us, unless they go the live fast-die young route, as many have. I have a lot of great memories so far based on all the things celebrities and princesses generally avoid to look the way they do. So I guess we win in the end, right? We actually can have our cake (and wine and cheese and [insert other guilty pleasure here]) and eat the hell of it, too! So as I write this I am debunking the myth of aging gracefully, one piece of chocolate at a time. Instead we should age like a bottle of wine - one to be uncorked and shared with friends!
*Shout out to the San Diego birthday crew of 2012, Sloan, Dan, Lucas and David. So many shenanigans.
*Big shout out to my 30th birthday crew of 2015! That really was a classy, beautiful party. Thanks to Annette and Meg for the inspiration for the theme. And oh, the champagne donated by my beautiful mother, a true reveler ❤️
But now, it is not only alcohol that I have to watch out for. I have Berlin's hard water and air pollution, a lack of sun, lack of sleep, coffee, salt, chocolate, carbs and even my beloved cheese working against me now. My hair is the definition of frizzy unless I straighten it with my iron. My skin is covered in blemishes, and just when my face begins to clear up - BAM! More pimples, and let's throw in some under eye circles for good measure. This makes me an odd mixture of youthful and aging skin. My dear friend, bless her heart, said I didn't have any wrinkles. But the scrutinizing eye of Sauron that looks back at me every time I glance in the mirror knows they are there, lurking just behind the moisturizer and BB cream. Lately I haven't been bloated (see my post The Pressures of Being Human), but too much of a good thing and I lament my slower metabolism and aching feet and joints. Sigh.
In my head, however, I think about how I want to look like Audrey Hepburn or Princess Kate: slim, attractive, stylish, elegant. But us mere mortals can only dream of aging gracefully as Audrey did or Kate does. I've certainly got the hair twirling down. But the clothes, the travel, the hair, the makeup, the poise? I'm still working on that. Amazon, Pinterest, Polyvore and the internet at large provide lots of inspiration for those on a budget of under a few million without property in the islands.
Another thing I'm working on is remembering that style icons have very different lives from us, unless they go the live fast-die young route, as many have. I have a lot of great memories so far based on all the things celebrities and princesses generally avoid to look the way they do. So I guess we win in the end, right? We actually can have our cake (and wine and cheese and [insert other guilty pleasure here]) and eat the hell of it, too! So as I write this I am debunking the myth of aging gracefully, one piece of chocolate at a time. Instead we should age like a bottle of wine - one to be uncorked and shared with friends!
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