I had a thought today while driving…you know how people say “I eat like a bird!” And they mean they barely eat and birds are so small, and cute etc. But in reality birds eat big percentages of their weight each day!
Well, today, I feel like a kitten! You think I mean spunky and frisky, but, no. Kittens have lots of extra skin (check!), they can’t see very well (check!), they are always hungry (check!), and kittens sleep a lot (checkaroo). I must be a kitten. Just a thought for the day. Onward.
Ever sit there staring at your phone, at your computer, at your eyebrows, tweezers in hand, and think, “what am I doing?” Like, I cannot seem to get myself to do anything. Any thing. Nothing. I am staring at whatever it is so that I don’t have to do what it is I should be doing. Paying the bills. Cleaning the house. Making calls for this newsletter. Following up on pretty much everything. Raking out the kids’ mind blowingly cluttered rooms. I have had trouble with this lately. Is it the diminishing estrogen?
Have you found yourself increasingly putting off doing things? Perhaps you catch yourself wandering around aimlessly when you know you have things to do? Menopause could be behind it.
I don’t know about you but the one good thing, and I mean the only good thing about my menstrual cycle (accepting producing kids) was that twice a month I would get wicked OCD. My husband’s nightmare. I’d start neatening and moving piles, decluttering and throwing away, all over the house. As scary as it probably was for my family each month, that neurotic tasmanian devil cleaning freak could get shit done. Now, the kids are in college. They float in and out with all their stuff and the house feels like this irritating nowhere land between happy home full of family and a bus station.
What to do? How to shake off this ennui? Well, I don’t really know. To be honest that’s the point of why I write this newsletter. To help you all get motivated by my talking with lots of people who have been doing cool things or work in professions that might be helpful to you. From accounting (Meg Wellborn), to elder care (Katherine Vanderhorst). Skin (Rose Prieto) to self confidence (Yvonne Lefort). Or they do cool things like write (Liz Ziemska). Or write and teach (Claire Messud), collage (Marion McEvoy), run (Kate Santoro). I have some new interviews coming that focus less on life careers and more on new careers or new passions. Stay tuned!
What happens when I feel like a stalled car? A deflated balloon? Go for a walk. I mean, not like Lilea Simis, but just to get outside no matter the weather. There isn’t bad weather, just bad preparation. Or something like that. I’m going to grab a cup of coffee on the way back and I’m going to get myself to do a tiny bit of housework. Maybe it will lead to more.
FYI, I need to discuss the empty nest home sprucing phenomenon! That’s a huge topic in itself full of de-crapping and spiffing. Anyone want to be part of that discussion? I think talking to lots of people who are experiencing mid-life home sprucing jags would be fun!
Tired of no good, very bad news? Well, come here and have a seat at the good news table. Subscribe to Women’s Survival Guide!
Housekeeping! Comments…
OK, the commenting for Substack is a pain. Sometimes when you click the comment button it does not take you to the live page. Please try again. AND, you have to be “signed in” which means you need to put your email in (which I already have because that’s how you received this Ab Fab newsletter). Come on…don’t be shy. Your comment might really help someone else!! Or, another reader might help you!
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Just call me G
2023-09-23
Had to have ovaries out. From birth damaged nervous system….without those hormones, I look like I’m standing under a shower head where there is none. 100% debilitating. I could go nowhere, see nobody, it was pure hell. My doctor said enough, you’re getting pharmaceutical ovaries. I was 36. Turned 60 on the 9th. I still take them with zero issues from them. Thank God because otherwise my life as I know it is over. You can’t go around with water falling down yourself from your head, soaking your clothes. I do get the benefits of no menopause symptoms now. I do have like 800 other things wrong with me so don’t envy me because I can take HRT.
Honorine
2023-08-22
Maybe at this stage of life, we’re not meant to be so busy?
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