“I heard the news today oh, boy!”- 2019 Woodstock 50th Reunion planned. So vividly remembering drudging thru the mud to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young swooning favorite tunes i.e.”Teach Your Children Well.” 50 years ago the number is unimaginable and yet the memories linger on. I am a sucker for nostalgia these days. Love my old pictures and debriefing the past with consistent frequency. I had friends then that I have now. Tonight I am sharing an evening with my Jill. We walked to school together everyday starting in Junior High. We will have a Vodka Grande and talk about how lucky we are that we stayed so good, for so long. Our catch ups, albeit infrequent, offer the run up and hug kind of times that I would run to save in case of fire. Our husbands will chat away, and after a quick catch up we will spend our time basking in the knowing of how special “WE” are.

Next month I am having 

a very frequent lunch with The Julia’s-the acronym I penned for “just us ladies into aging.” A group of women whose only requirement for entry is feeling the love from yes, Junior High School thru the Woodstock years. 

I followed the lead of a group of men I knew about who are called the Romeo’s- (retired old men eating out). We love the tradition and respond to the frequent reminder with a resounding “yes, I’m in for sure.” Another item I’m running for in case of…

Last evening we went to a performance at the most charming of theater’s in Boca Raton called The Wick. It’s a throwback to the days of cabaret and houses memorabilia of days gone by, when song was song. Lady Gaga I love you, but when you’re crooning with Tony I Love you more. We saw a performance of the show Curtains. Two of my favorites Kander and Ebb wrote the tunes. My take away song “I Miss the Music.”I was bred with an affinity for music. My parents played their 78’s of Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and the resplendence of The Gershwin Brother’s. I had a small Record player cased in red and white leather. I had a collection of yellow disks that converted my 78’s of Johnny Mathis into my 45’s of Blue Moon and My Boyfriend’s Back. I would close my light, get tucked into my single bed and fall asleep imagining how my days of glory would play out. The sound that would startle me back to being “15” was the needle hitting the record at the end of it.

When we returned from the show last eve we caught up on the debate a.k.a.cat fight. 

Unheard of rhetoric in a debate when The Grateful Dead were Greatful , when we loved seeing what Jackie Kennedy was wearing on the cover of Look Magazine and when I gathered my school books as Sophie screamed up to me In the morning- “Hurry up Jill is here to gather you on route to Junior High.”

Blusterous beginnings , slow starts become the back drop to my new endeavor. My challenge is not allowing a chance mishap from becoming the pinion to my sails. With first day of school anticipation I enter my new life in a winter wonderland. Is it possible I’ll drag my old set of behaviors and guard my feelings with ironclad fists into this new arena? -yes it’s possible. With knowledge that the luxury of time is no longer my leading lady, it’s probable I’ll dance my way in. Old habits die hard even when Father Time is blinking at you. So I pick up where I started off and I “get busy.” I unwrap my new garb, call in some familiar faces and attempt, once again, to settle in.

The “will they like me,” will I get invited backs,” are part of my human mind set. Only now the “do I really cares,” and “how much does it matters” diffuse the intensity of my concerns. 

Enter laughing- as I layer up this experience with all that came before. I add this as one more activity, another game, a facsimile of my “real” life. But oh wait – this is my “real life”- for today, for now. So I take off the new labels from things I have waited to wear, I polish my new found confidence (a welcomed by product of my maturity) and I blow couture kisses at my day ahead. 

Dear Abby, my husband threw out my shoes (Tory Burch black patent, open toe, wedges) after I fell flat on my face at 5:30 Sunday as I was walking out of The Boys – (vegetable and fruit etc. market in Del Ray). After 2 hrs. Plus at the Del Ray Medical Center and a set of X-rays to determine whether my nose was broken( it wasn’t your honor) he decided to do away with what they determined to be the culprit of my fall. When he looked at my blood stained shirt and Rocky Graziano looking face he said “Enough with these type of shoes- you were short when I married you blah! blah! and and third blah!”So Abby, my question is and it isn’t stated in my pre-nup – do you think I am entitled to a shoe replacement or should I just thank my lucky stars that my black and blue face is nothing but that? Thanks in advance, I am Judy Gomberg and I approve this e-mail. Ah Florida! I reached my quota of the unexpected. 

So you literally pick yourself up off the floor and ice your wounds. The surface ones are ice able, the aftershocks still waiting to be registered. Try, try, try and then try something new. How do you divide attitude going in from reality? Hard lessons are hard learned. How may “against all odds” opportunities are we assigned with our footprints? How many come on one more time, maybe this one you’ll hit out of the gates come your way? Is succumbing to the obvious accepting defeat? What is our need to prove fate wrong? When the transitional times come upon us we reach for the glimmer of perhaps this chance is our “eight card fit.” We theorize as we pack our bags, take out our rabbits foot and car service our way to destiny that this time we got our own backs covered. In aftermath reflection, as the aftershocks offer black and blues, we rein our sensibility in and say I think I will try a different sport. 

As timely as the election results I see the message at my door. The Sturm und Drang- the literal “Storm and Drive” part of life is as powerful as it is destructive. If we take the motivation and eliminate the drama the end result will probably be the same. If we worry when we really have to so much inner turmoil could be eliminated. Whether we are waiting for a medical result, an acceptance letter for a job, an unanswered email, an invitation to a welcomed event-we create messy insides. Anxiety is the threshold of destruction. Facing the music times are reserved for worry. Timing for children is elusive. And I quote- we’ve been waiting forever- I haven’t been here in two years- we never come here anymore- Their reality of waiting is impulsive, non-descript and immediate. And—so it goes when we are anticipatory for a bottom line answer. If we could only actualize a positive outcome in the absence of an answer we could bottle the formula and sell it next to echinacea. Crystal ball aside when we get the good results, the email answered, the invite and the job acceptance we sigh a huge sense of relief. If only we could “take the right actions and let go of the results.”

The protagonist in my story is finally ME- I sigh with relief. I am getting ready to watch another evening of Oscars with my form of tradition. I buy the chips, I watch the red carpet expose, and I let my husband know the predominance of dress color being worn this year. I get excited as the entertainment is reviewed and recognized. I re-live the abundance of time spent watching my year unfold through film. Through maturity and luck I get that I am the star in my picture show. To friends I am both cherished and held dear. To grandchildren I shine as my effortless giving is displayed selflessly. To my husband I am a cacophony of sound. My excitement, my dismay, my devotion, my cooking all roll into my rhythm and song. Back to the show and my message. We marvel at the glamour, we pick on the “green dress look” and we pay attention to details as if we know the people personally. It never grows old. Our evening of binge watching all in one evening. We don’t want to miss a moment. As time goes by that is my nexus of purpose. Living the moments as blocks of time. Recognition for my good is now on focus. We all love being appreciated. We all have clay feet and foibles. As the stars on the screen and now as my star is being cemented in my picture show- I have come to understand that we all have those “green dress moments. as “All that glitters…”

Booming my way into this time in life takes much more effort then I imagined. Acute pleasures become enhanced by insights and diluted by fears. Once I am seated at the table I hope I don’t get that tap on my shoulder to say, “sorry please move to that seat over there.” Much easier to fine tune than to make corrections as time goes by. Disappointments become enlarged and put into the “I should have known better categories.” Prioritizing is great as long as things go along as planned. With a sudden jolt and a shocking disturbance I face a knowing task with a little more difficulty. That aging process makes itself known in unexpected ways. The balance of keeping your chin up when gravity is doing its job is part of the job description. I delight in knowing with perseverance and a fair amount of tweaking my – “there we go moments” are more frequent than not. The music last night at one of my frequent concerts was deliberately slow. It was the Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and Gershwin tunes- the 1930’s Great Depression era. The operative word being “Depression.” Not much about this period of my life resembles the presentation of song last eve. Perhaps I go a touch slower without intent. My activities, my verve and my determination to make this period of chance special have not decreased in pace. I delight in the help for my maintenance program. Acupuncture and massage for my body- blended with shared time with people of choice; doing things I so enjoy. I am off and running. No one is gonna stop me now.

Compartmentalize your life. Weave together each arena. Blend the activities, mixing days and nights. Spread your interests around the palette and watch the design of ur life unfold. With so much more clarity a definition appears with Google speed. Older is older. Better? – depends on the day. Each set back takes longer to recover from. However, the resolves are stronger. No looking back as it delays the plunging ahead. Buying the new Tumi Vapor Lite luggage- “traveling light.” Wake up on the right side of the bed-you never know what part of the day will snap into place. Vulnerability and rejection are standard tunes that run through my head. With progress not perfection, I try to fine tune the colors and re-glue the pieces that keep popping up. I then stand away from the board, look at it from a different perspective and realize anyway I see it- Life is a Masterpiece. Here’s to making it another good day! 

The I can’t believes don’t matter anymore. Your actions thundered so loudly I hardly heard your words. Let’s do lunch. I’ll call you when I come home. You must come for dinner. Our drink is long over due. We would love u to see what we did to the house. I promise I will re- schedule. If only I knew you were in town, I had an extra ticket. We really need to sit down and raise a glass.People do what they do and repeat patterns. I slipped out of the “let’s do lunch crowd” quite awhile back. I suppose we have all been on both sides of these one liners with more frequency then we can believe. Do we say things to be kind? Maybe attempt a get together? Perhaps to seek a rapprochement ? Human nature to want to connect and intermingle. Yours, mine and ours. I no longer need my dance card filled. I prefer the quality of time where “the melody lingers on.” In reviewing the activities of any given week, I am thrilled when I walk away with a – “wow I can’t wait to do that again.” Or- that was so much fun- it felt so good. A nice evening the music was terrific my fav. Boy, catching up was great I really missed her. The “love u mores” with the grandkids- nothing quite like those. . Could it be that our memories are cloudy when we put the date down, as we are thrilled when they cancel. The commodity of time cannot be overestimated. When binge watching replaces a dinner out with pleasure, that sends the message loud and clear. I’ll take sound bites, surrounded by activities in common for $100.00 please.