Yoga

I started taking yoga classes a couple of months ago up in New York state with a friend who had been going for a few years.  Excuse me, I think they say yoga practice.  I'm still practicing, that's for sure.  Anyway, I went the first time just to be polite, fully expecting to hate it.  Imagine my surprise when I actually liked it.  I think it was kind of a modified version of yoga, and it felt good. So I went twice a week for about three weeks.  Then I came back down here to Florida a couple weeks ago, and found that I missed it  So I get this bright idea......I know that the local Senior Friendship Center has all kinds of classes, and activities and stuff so I went to their web site and found out that sure enough, they have a yoga class once a week.  And it's only three dollars!  Yes!  Plus, I figured it was best to find a senior version of yoga since I'm still pretty new and not too flexible and still learning the 'downward facing dog'.  And after all, I am 60 now, so I qualify for the Senior Friendship Center.  So I went this morning.

The instructor is 80 and way more nimble than me.   Two of the ladies were in their  nineties. (I'm not kidding.)  And they were way more nimble than me. I left the room with my legs shaking and my hips screaming at me.  As I waited for the elevator to carry me back down to the main floor, I watched as the two 90-year-olds took the stairs.

I'm gonna go again next week.  These people have inspired me.  I have a whole new outlook.....'Hey, I'm ONLY 60!"  But don't expect me to take the stairs.

My Week In Review...Poo-Poo-Pe-Doo

Just thought I'd do a quick round-up of this week's events. 

1. I'm back in Florida and all my anxieties and fears about the trip which I stupidly suffered all of  last week are behind me and were, of course, groundless. Things went smoothly and all is well.

2. Went to the communal 60th birthday party that we had planned for two weeks earlier (I wrote about that one last time.  See "The Girls At The Lake".)  Four of us recently-turned-60 friends gathered once again at Carol's house at the lake.  Thank you Carol.  It's a really nice house and well, it's on the lake for heaven's sake so it was gorgeous.  This time all four of us came and had a grand time.  Kind of a take-two of the previous get-together.  This time clever Carol had presents for each of us.  The first gift was.....are you ready?.....a package of SPOOLIES.  And if you're reading this and don't know what Spoolies are you are way too young to be reading a baby boomer's blog.  So we each grabbed one and wound a lock of our hair around it and sat there with these pink plastic circles in our hair for the remainder.  I was given Tangee lipstick.  Oh man, haven't seen THAT in years.  And I will forgive you if you don't remember Tangee lipstick because the specific name may be throwing you off.  Here, this description from their web site should jog your memory: "The original orange lipstick that goes on clear and gradually transforms into the perfect shade for you." Huh?  Huh?  You gettin it now??   Sure enough.  The stick is orange, but I put it on and it immediately went DARK PINK.  It's freaky.  Then the next gift was a MADRAS plaid duster, or housecoat, or whatever you want to call it. Perfect. 

Well, since Carol was the one who came up with these, she didn't want us to feel bad, and think she was left out, so she gave herself a gift too.  She unwrapped the package to reveal....EMERAUDE COLOGNE.  Wow.  shades of ninth grade.  I think I alternated between Emeraude and  Ambush.  


Anyway, it was another great gathering of old friends.  And sorry but I do mean old.


3. Watched several old movies with my dad to pass the evening hours.  I actually enjoyed them more than I anticipated.  One in particular starred Fred Astaire and Red Skelton and was called "Three Little Words".  It was the story of two actual songwriters (Burt Kalmar and Harry Ruby) and their successes and feuds and such.  Lots of good dancing by Mr. Astaire so I was all up for that.  One of the songs they wrote that was featured in the movie was "I Wanna Be Loved By You".  ("I wanna be loved by you alo-ne...POO POO PE DOO"  Now you can better understand the formerly puzzling title of this post.)


4. Flew back to Florida, as I mentioned.  Was picked up at the airport by two of my wonderful angel friends who not only drove an hour each way to pick me up, but took me to their house afterward and fed me a delicious meal.  And, oh yes, THREE MARGARITAS.  Which was apparently one margarita too many because I ended up having an unplanned sleepover at their house.  Oooohh, I forgot how the bed could spin like that.  But I had a GREAT time and loved every minute.  


So here I am, settling back in at my condo.  I was wondering how I would feel coming back to an empty house,  but ya know, I'm okay.  Going out to dinner tonight with another friend and planning to curl up with a good book afterward.  


Life is good.

The Girls At The Lake

Got together with a couple of high school class of '70 girlfriends the other night for cookout and conversation.  It was supposed to be a communal 60th birthday party but one of our comrades in sagging arms couldn't make it, so we stashed the cake in the freezer for another day, and just got together to get together. 

It was great.  I mean great in the sense that I perceive it at 60.  It was great because we were totally relaxed with each other, and enjoyed each other's company, and laughed and remembered and talked about today, yesterday and tomorrow.  And had a few glasses of wine of course.  I have found that a glass of wine is an excellent accessory to conversation. After a couple of the aforementioned glasses of wine we were even inspired to get up from the dinner table on the patio and do the stroll when a stroll-worthy song came on the radio.  Well, we tried to do the stroll.  I confess I had forgotten exactly how it went and my version was somewhere between the Electric Slide and the Virginia Reel I think.

I thought about the whole affair later and smiled at the realization that maturity has its benefits when it comes to female friendships.  No adolescent competition or jealousy.  No  inward comparisons of each others' strengths and weaknesses in order to find our footing in the social order.  I felt no social order whatsoever.  It didn't matter who was popular, who was smart, who had the best clothes. Popular isn't even in our grown-up vocabulary any more.  It was just us.  Three friends, still friends.  Survivors of youthful foibles, failed relationships, successes, defeats, jobs, love and loss.  Three friends sitting outside on a balmy evening at the lake, just talking, just enjoying.  It was just nice. 

And that's what really made it great.