Week 2: Place for My Keys

Mary would walk into her apartment; hang up her coat, hat and purse on the coat rack.  Then her keys would be placed on a key holder in the shape of a key, hanging on the wall.  She would sometimes have mail that she would neatly sort and place on a nearby table.  These actions, simple and coordinated, were symbols of being a grownup.

When the Mary Tyler Moore Show first aired, I was 7.  Probably not the demographic they were going for, but it appealed to me for all 7 seasons.  I wouldn't be the first to think that show shaped some, if not many, of my world views about being an adult woman. 

When I got my own apartment (without roommates), I remember constantly looking through catalogs for an object to hold my keys.  I never got anything back then, because I couldn't justify the few-dollar expense when I was only able to afford an apartment with multi-color, harvest gold shag carpet. Browsing the catalogs for this item became a hobby, but I couldn't pull the trigger. 

Doing the big things in life, buying a car or house or even when I decided to have kids on my own didn't make me feel like an adult. Those decisions just felt like me. I thought about them, figured out what I needed to do and then did them.

Not a conscious thing, but a key holder is the equivalent to being an adult. It would mean I'm organized and had it together. Just like Mary.  Always an ambition, but not a major one I felt worth truly pursuing.  Other things got in the way.  Now, my keys do get put in the same place most of the time, not in a special holder, but on the credenza near the door.  The mail stacks up in piles nearby. 

Perhaps this is why 50 seems so overwhelming. Shouldn't I have a key holder by now? 

  

Week 1: Double Chin

My son reminded me almost a week ago that I'm almost 50.  It was the day I turned 49.  Just like me, he is always anticipating the future.  This time around it is more panic than anticipation --- on my part not his.  He thinks it's funny.  Well, maybe just my reaction is funny. 

Turning 49 was (I hope) a bigger deal than turning 50.  I have about 52 weeks to find out.  I decided I would take the next 50 some-odd weeks (chances of me doing this every week are slim-to-none) to jot down things I've learned or observed over the last, gulp, 49 years.  In no particular order of importance, that is what this blog will be:  things I've learned or things I just want to write about and share.   

Week 1 - Double Chin or Most of What I Remember is Useless

I've learned recently that if you take pictures with the camera slightly higher than your face your double chin disappears.*  Try it.  Sure, there are medical ways to take care of this, but who has the time.  Moving a camera 15 inches higher is just so much easier.  After all, that's what's important -- the photographic proof.  Somewhere along the line I heard that if you stand sideways, with 1 leg extended you'll look slimmer in photos. 

Why I remember this and what is being kept out of my brain because I do, who knows.  I feel the same way about a lot of so called trivia.  Why is that fact stuck in my brain?  Like, there really was a Max Factor and he was the makeup artist on I Love Lucy.  Don't believe me, check out the credits.  Perhaps this was indelibly imprinted on my brain from the countless hours of TV watching.

Yes - let's blame TV.  Not so fast, TV is definitely my friend.  More in future posts.  Although blaming TV would make sense, the theory doesn't hold up for the other two facts noted above. I figured out the higher camera myself and I think someone's stepmother told me about the extended leg photo trick. I thought her very shallow at the time, can't remember her name, but I remember the concept. 

How could any of this ever be useful information?  I'm sure these 'mind blockers', if you will, are keeping more important things out of my mind.  Until I erase them, we will never know what else I could retain.  I haven't figured out how to purge thousand of useless tidbits which is probably why I can't figure out the way to erase them.  You see the dilemma.  A real catch-22.  I do remember I read that book in college. 



* If you don't have a double chin, don't tell me.  I'll just be mad.