My friend Charlie noticed I hadn’t blogged for awhile and I told him that I was too busy doing “stuff” (working, catching up at work after being in NYC, planning for the visit of Carolyn Wincer, Head of Astronaut Sales for Virgin Galactic, on Monday 3/27, oh, and did I mention working?). I assured Charlie that I was eager to get back to the blog, that I had lots of great ideas of what I wanted to write about.

I came home from work (that word keeps coming up, doesn’t it?), sat down at the computer, and FROZE! Okay, Barbara, where did all those good ideas go? Remember, the insight on life you had a couple of nights ago? How about those clever comments you had while taking the subway to the bball games in NYC? That incisive polital and social commentary?

Does that ever happen to you? I seem to have great thoughts during the night and wake up with only a vague, if any, recollection of what rolled through my brain while my body tried to sleep. Other times, while you and I are having a conversation, you’ll say something that triggers some amazing observation to race through my brain. When I open my mouth to share the pearls of wisdom, nothing comes out! That racing thought is probaly somewhere in outer space, eager to leave my cluttered brain.

In the past several months I’ve had the realization that the world is changing much faster than I am. I walked through some clothing stores recently and couldn’t figure out why the racks were full of “young people’s stuff” aka things I wouldn’t (and couldn’t) wear. Who, I wondered, buys these things? Where did all the good stuff, the familiar stuff, go? When did stores change how they merchandise?

I love Antrhopologie—it’s colorful, edgy, funky, and a wonderful mish-mosh of things that seemingly don’t belong together and yet complement each other perfectly. Ceramic knobs are scattered across teeny, tiny little sweaters and both are for sale! Pricy t-shirts are piled next to scads of notecards, both on a painted tin tray—again, all begging to come home with me. What is dawning in my over-stuffed and cobwebbed brain, is that type of merchandising is more the norm than the exception! Locally, there’s Feng, Style & Grace, Standard Style—to name a few “mixed bag” or “buy the dress and the armoire it’s displayed in” stores. They’re fun and I love their creative energy but they challenge me to “independently” create an outfit, to pretend I’m secure enough to know what my “style” is!

 I’m getting old, I guess. I’ll be 59 soon and I don’t think of that as old (although I’ve come to accept that my true definition of old is anything that is 30 years older than I am).  I am acutely aware that while we boomers may be an important influence on culture, we are no longer setting the trends…and maybe that’s okay! Maybe, I’m more interested today in the quality of my life and less on the quantity. The world may moving in a very different direction and today I’m comfortable ambling along my own path.

So, I guess that’s my inspiring input for today. The topic is either “I like who I am and I am content on my journey” or “She’s older than dirt–let’s humor her.” Do me a favor, don’t tell me which subject you picked!

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