Where the Wild Things Are

Filed Under All Posts, Cathy Fischer, Reinvention | 18 Comments

It’s more than a month away, yet Cathy Fischer is already obsessed with spring cleaning.

“A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it.”
—George Carlin

There is a spider web in the back of my brain, and at its center a big fat spider waits patiently. It started a few years back, after moving in to my 860 square foot apartment on the 22nd floor of a mid-century high-rise.

If you came to visit, you’d probably think, Gee, she is neat (as in tidy). Nothing is obstructing the magnificent view, and everything is in its place. There are no kids’ toys to trip you up as you walk across the gleaming hardwood floors, and with Rosa’s help every other week, the place stays pretty clean.

If you were to go through my drawers (but of course you’re not that type of person) you might think, Hmm, pretty orderly: socks with their respective mates, underwear… color-coded?
(When black and leopard are dominant, it’s easy.) Clothes hang on flocked hangers and t-shirts sit neatly in their cubbies. The bathroom is small yet uncluttered, but wait… what lies behind the gold curtain to the right of the front door? You may have missed it (I was hoping you had). Read more

Independence

Filed Under All Posts, Carine Fabius, Politics, Reinvention | 11 Comments

Carine Fabius is making a dramatic change, a new affiliation that speaks to her head and heart.

That’s it. After being a lifelong Democrat, I am officially changing my party affiliation to Independent.

I like the ring of that word. One of its dictionary definitions is “capable of thinking or acting for oneself.” That’s a pretty accurate description of me. I wish I could be independent of any political party but I wouldn’t be able to vote in primaries; so if affiliation I must have, then I choose to belong to the American Independent Party.

But, Carine, that’s like throwing away your vote! If you’re thinking that, think again. I am not planning on voting Independent for any presidential candidate anytime soon because that would be a waste. For now. A president can only do so much alone, though; that’s how our system is set up. Without the lawmakers, it’s stagnation time. But the only time lawmakers pay attention to constituents is when they fear being kicked out of office. That point was driven home to me while visiting with my pro-Bush father recently when he kept asking me, But why do the people in Obama’s own party keep fighting him? Good question! Read more

Could Gray Hair Be My Silver Lining?

Filed Under All Posts, Beauty, Cathy Fischer, Reinvention, Style | 29 Comments

Cathy Fischer’s third and final installment of her “hair trilogy”

I thought of writing about a topic other than my hair, but my dear friend and chemo companion Wendy (who accompanied me to all four treatments, where we’d yak for a few hours, leaf through magazines, then go out for a fabulous lunch) insisted that I update those who are anxiously waiting to know if I’ve gone gray or returned to being a slave to color.

First, a quick recap/update:

In January, I posted “Wigging Out” which chronicled my going from hirsute to hairless, in just three days. It started when my hair began falling out after my first chemo treatment for breast cancer. I shaved my head, preemptively, to avoid the horror-induced depression of finding clumps of hair on my pillow or even worse, having a head resembling the cruelest of all male baldness patterns—the Franciscan monk look.

In hindsight, the quote about the “joy” of being hairless was true. It was a relief not having to shave or pluck, cut or color, for a few months. I’m pretty sure that most of the money I saved on hair maintenance went directly to shoe purchases. “Do what makes you feel good” was my motto, which often manifested itself in the form of new shoes, dry vodka martinis or extra crispy french fries. Read more

Confessions of an F-Word Addict

Filed Under All Posts, Connie Stetson, Humor, Reinvention | 27 Comments

Hi. I’m Connie and I’m an F-Word addict. (Okay—Now you all say encouragingly, “Hi, Connie”.)

I guess my addiction began when I was a teenager in the late ‘60s. In fact, I’m sure that that word was so forbidden; I’d never even heard it spoken out loud till I was 16, thank you Frank Zappa, but once Pandora’s box was opened, I could not stop myself. I started in the car, in traffic, with the windows rolled up, in bars, at sporting events—well, everyone else was…. Then I amped it up, using a little at first in public, just to be naughty, and before I knew what was happening I was running with a wild crowd. You know, artists, musicians, theater people, users of Maryjane, and unapologetic, irretrievable aficionados of the F-bomb. My mother was aghast.

I began using the F-word as noun, an adjective, a verb, an adverb, anyway way I could torture it, twist it into a sentence, was okay by me. Soon, I couldn’t control myself. That word had become part of my vernacular. I had become a habitual pottymouth, a borderline “vulgar”, as my mother had predicted. I began hanging around dockworkers, construction sites, listening to rap music, went to David Mamet plays; I was an addict. Read more

Roadside Table

Filed Under All Posts, Melissa Howden, Reinvention, Travel | 8 Comments

If you’ve been following my recent exploits, you might recall that I was planning to relocate for love. The move complete, I find myself in new country, learning a new language, even though I reside in the 47th U.S. State of New Mexico.

I’m no stranger to New Mexico, my parents and grandparents were born and raised here. I spent most of my childhood summers here, and graduated from high school here. But even so, after 39 years, I’ve moved from the cosmopolitan, urban San Francisco Bay Area (7,000 square miles and approximately 7 million people) to a rural county (2,200 square miles and about 50,000 people) where the main town of Taos (meaning Place of Red Willows) has a population officials estimate as between 5,000 and 7,000 people within 5.4 square miles. Having also moved from sea level to 7,000 feet, the adjustment is not only cultural but also physical—I am simultaneously gasping for breath and learning the local language. One might be best served with a set of regional flash cards to help the transition.

Roadside Table: To some such a sign might signify something poetic, but in my new neck of the woods it means just what it says: table by the road, nothing more, nothing less.   Read more

Caroline Kennedy is the New Fifty

Filed Under All Posts, Politics, Reinvention | 1 Comment

 

During our holiday hodgepodge at Fifty is the New, we share a recent blog about Caroline Kennedy’s bid for Hillary Clinton’s senate seat, written by Suzanne Braun Levine, first editor of Ms Magazine, for The Huffington Post.

Whether or not she becomes the junior senator from New York, Caroline Kennedy has already become the poster-woman for those of us thriving, changing, and taking chances at an age when our mothers were encouraged to retire modestly to sitting by the phone, awaiting a call to baby-sit for their grandkids. Women in their fifties and sixties—what I call our Second Adulthood—are a new breed, liberated by better health, greater longevity, experience in the larger world, and self-confidence that is increasing every day. Many are, as Caroline appears to have been, galvanized by reduced emotional demands as their children move out into the world; they find that they can, as one woman told me, “go out of the emotional management business.” And start taking care of their own business.

In my forthcoming book, Fifty Is the New Fifty, I describe what makes this new stage of life for women so exhilarating for us — and often so confusing to those who have known us up until now. No one expected the “intensely private” Caroline Kennedy to start calling attention to herself and her accomplishments. But the first lesson of the experience she embodies is: You are not who you were, only older. At this point in life, we are stepping across a new frontier.

Read Suzanne Braun Levine’s entire piece at The Huffington Post >>

What Midlife Crisis?

Filed Under All Posts, Carine Fabius, Reinvention | 11 Comments

What constitutes a bona fide, howling, 3-D midlife crisis? For men, it’s become a cliché:

1)  Buy a convertible sports car

2)  Begin harboring evil thoughts about your wife

3)  Have an affair with someone 20 years your junior

But, what about us?  What are the signs of a woman on the verge?  We are too complex to fall into easily categorized behavior patterns (of course).   First, we don’t need to wait for the midlife point, which, thanks to increasing life spans, now begins neatly at fifty.  Secondly, we can have several midlife crises if we feel like it.  I think I had my first at age 43.  Read more

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