Officially 'Fallen Back'

Dragon Mood? -- circadian rhythmically disoriented

Early, early this morning, while I was blissfully sleeping, most of the country, including us, turned our collective clocks back. Instantaneously, 2 a.m. became 1 a.m. Voila, just like that, we created an extra hour for ourselves! Why can't we do that EVERY weekend?

Sue and Michelle invited Jeanne, Joanne, Sally, S and I over for a lovely, entertaining dinner last night. I made Parmesan Pinwheels (simple and TASTY from Real Simple) and traffic-light crudites (red-yellow-green, with a little orange thrown in for good measure) and vegetable dip for appetizers. Michelle made a knock-out Beef Stroganoff along with fresh, steamed green beans. Jeanne and Joanne brought a dazzlingly delicious berry crumble pie from the award-winning Sweetie-licious Bakery in DeWitt. With Cosmos, better-than-average red wine, beer and other, assorted alcoholic beverages, the seven of us schmoozed, talked, interrupted, laughed and made good-friend conversation with one another for four or so hours. It was simply delightful!

And I'll end this post by saying that not one of these crazy, 'spring forward' or 'fall back' events occurs without my thinking of my mother. More times than not, she was working as a night nurse at a local nursing home (now defunct Provincial House) on those semi-annual Saturday nights and would always note on the 'fall back' ones, how she was so lucky (hear the sarcasm) to get to work an extra hour! For some curious reason, I always remember her mentioning that. I love you, Mom, and miss your love and care.

Slyly creeping in when I wasn't looking

Dragon Mood? -- reflecting

Days and weeks are slipping by.  I have been unemployed or 'job seeking' as the (politically correct) career counselors would have me describe myself for 15 months now.  That's a pretty significant chunk of time.  In the moments when I'm not looking at job postings, exploring companies, networking with new and old contacts, I have time to think and to reflect.

And with my reflection, would you like to know what I realized?  (Drumroll, please.)   I am aging.

I can see it in my skin, most obviously on my face, but also on the backs of my hands, my forearms, even the skin around my ankles.  In all those places and probably many more, my skin is beginning to take on that 'old lady' look which I never imagined myself having.  Horrors!

For a year or two, I've been commenting about the blotchiness of my forearms.  My doctor informs me this is from sun damage.  While I like being out in the sun, I have never been one of those crazy people who oil themselves up and bake in the sun for hours.  Never!  Imagine my surprise at her diagnosis.

My face is holding up reasonably well.  Being overweight does have its advantages.  I have incredibly few wrinkles around my eyes.  I credit my mother (thanks, Mom) for the genetic benefits she bestowed on me with her creamy, wrinkle-defying skin.  I believe living with S and her easygoing attitude towards life has helped me immensely in letting go and not scrunching up my face over things with which I have no control.  I rarely worry and generally feel happy.  I take Bobby McFerrin at his word!

Happily, there are some things I'm doing right:

• drinking lots of water
• drinking lots of green tea
• not drinking excessive quantities of alcohol
• getting enough sleep
• applying sun protection to my skin when I know I'll be in the sun

My downfall?

• Not enough exercise
• Sedentary lifestyle (push away from the laptop, Mary!)

If anything is contributing to my aging process, I would guess it it's simply not moving enough.  Unlike some others, I don't believe that you have to whip up a drenching sweat at the gym on the cardio machine each day.  I believe that movement, whether walking the dog, running up and down stairs doing laundry, working out in the yard to name a few, will suffice.

Are you moving?  I'm moving, I'm moving!