10 years ago - the big 4-0

The long slide into "50" began about 10 years ago right before I hit that other infamous landmark - the 40th birthday.  That one was bad enough. The sound of it smacked of "middle-age" and I thought of its previous association with  my parents and my friends' parents. It seemed absolutely ridiculous to be associated with me!

First indication of trouble ahead: I started to have trouble seeing the computer. I cleaned my contacts over and over again - no improvement. Hence my visit to the eye doctor. He confirmed the onset of far-sightedness. According to him, it was just  "something which happens when we hit 40". I never went to him again. ("Hey mister, I wasn't 40 YET.") 

To appear reasonably fashionable and still young and "with it", I purchased unique and colorful reading glasses. I was only kidding myself. I was indeed slip-sliding my way into being one of the "older women" at work. To make matters worse, I found myself:

• Flipping my glasses on and off at meetings (just like the older ladies and gentlemen in management did - and we thought that was funny)
• Leaving my glasses behind at my desk and not being able to read a darn thing I'd brought with me to the meeting (but pretending to)
• Losing my glasses all over the place at work and home (I seem to remember my mom having a problem with that.)

And so it began.