Posted By Kathleen David on September 10, 2012
And honestly it doesn’t feel much different from 39 (except I am not pregnant) or 29 (except I am not loading out a show) but it does feel different than 19 (although I felt pretty mature then, boy did I have a lot to learn). Except my natal day, I really don’t think about my age and tend to forget how old I am most of the rest of the year unless made to think about it.
Yesterday we went to the Renaissance Festival in Sterling Forest, New York. We have been going, time permitting, for over 15 years. Caroline is now wearing the dress that Ariel wore when Ariel was around her age or a little younger. The investment on that dress has been a good one. It has survived both Ren Faires and conventions over the years.
Caroline brought her BFF R with her and the two of them spent the day calling each other Lady C and Lady R and calling me Patsy. Why Patsy? Well about 8 years ago I made Peter a King Arthur tunic ala Monty Python and created a cardboard version of the crown. The first tunic didn’t turn out quite right so I turn it into a Pasty outfit. There are pictures of Peter, Caroline and me online from that outing. This past year my brother Sean, blacksmith extraordinaire, created a metal version of the helmet that fit Peter’s head perfectly. So we pulled out the outfits, did a little fixing here and there and went back to the Ren Faire as King Arthur and Patsy. We amused the crew that runs the faire and the visitors to the faire. I had a lot of pictures taken with a slightly bedraggled look on my face holding the coconuts. It was the coconuts that took it over the top.
So lots of fun was had. We got back early evening and went to my favorite seafood place in the area and had a nice dinner.
I got some lovely gifts including the new book by Brian and Wendy Froud entitled Trolls and it is a spiffy book with all kinds of things to read and look at. It was put together quite nicely. I also got Flashback which is a retrospective from ELO with re-mastered tracks and a lovely book about the band itself. It is billed as the story of a Rock and Roll band and the pop genius who dared to go for Baroque. Which pretty much sums up the Electric Light Orchestra. Those who have known me the longest know what ELO means to me. Caroline likes them too.
I did read last year’s letter and wrote this year’s letter. Here is the edited version of the letter for this year.
Dear Me,
This is the only time that you and your siblings are in the same decade. Next year you start the 50s and wait for them to catch up. So you have a year to find your letter to yourself that you wrote when you turned 40.
I have been thinking a lot about the past 10 years and what has changed in our lives. Biggest has to be Caroline who is turning 10 this year. Don’t anything can really top that. We have had our up and downs over the years. Things going really right and things going horribly wrong. But you are still standing which is a good thing indeed.
This past year has been interesting sometimes in the Chinese proverb/curse “may you live in interesting times” and some in just pretty interesting. Some of which you can talk about but a bunch this year that you have to hold close to the vest. I think you can take some pride in the fact that people trust you enough to talk to you about some pretty interesting stuff and know that you won’t talk about it. Makes the Internet rather frustrating because you have information that would correct misinformation but it was told in confidence.
Ok 5 goals for your last year in your 40s
And honestly it is variations on what you have been telling yourself to do for years so lets see what we can get together before we do this for another decade passes.
1) Take care of yourself. Do what you can so in 10 years you can still do what you are doing now. Kung Fu is a good start to it but you know that you need to get back to the gym more in a pattern and practice your forms at home. Sifu can tell if you have been working on something or not. Give yourself some time to just breath. I can’t tell you the number of times I have found myself holding my breath or breathing shallowly. Not good for the brain. I do need some down time without guilt about everything I am trying to get done.
2) You sold a number of puppets in the past year. Let’s see if this year you can finally get that website going so you can sell more of them. Dolls too. There is a market for your artwork, find it and let it find you.
3) Get things done in a timely fashion. I know that is going again over 40 years of panic work but lets see if you can take the time you need to get things done the way that you want to rather than what you have to because you ran out of time.
4) Write! You have opportunities and avenues that most people who write would love to have so use them and get your work out there. You know how to do it so just do it.
5) Teach Caroline some of your artisan skills. Remember that you had a chance to learn some pretty cool stuff from your mother and grandmother and you passed. By the time you were interested, your grandmother couldn’t show you what she wanted to show you when you were younger because her fingers wouldn’t move that way anymore. You were fortunate that you figure it out so that your Mom could give you skills that you use to this day.
Over all I think we are doing pretty well. You know what you need to do to make the next step(s) so get moving.
Hug Caroline for me.
Love,
Kath
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