Napping.........my new favorite past time......or is it?

The older I am becoming I find that my energy level at the end of a work day is depleting. Each work day, I feel the weight of the day move slowly across my body. As this heavy feeling moves toward my head I begin to experience the subtle yet overwhelming urge to lie down and have, what is commonly referred to as a, "cat nap" or what research terms a "power nap".

Some researchers believe that napping is suppose to improve your alertness and productivity and that your capacity to "sustain attention to a task and to make complicated decisions" is sharpened. Now, I know, being the owner of a lazy, slightly overweight, cat, that napping is common for my feline friend and that her ability to get up without effort, continuing her daily activities with the energy and productivity described above, appears effortless. In my case however the productivity gain does not appear to be as easily achieved or else as positively asserted.

When I have naps (and believe me it doesn't happen every day as much as I wish it could) I settle down, listening to the CBC, which inevitably puts me to sleep, and then I wake up half hour to an hour later. However, unlike my cat, I cannot just jump up and head for the next project on my list with such ease and grace. For me, it takes at least the hour following a nap to "recover". Recover from a nap. Isn't that an oxymoron. I mean I thought a nap was for recovering but the older I become the less easy it is to appreciate my naps and I don't get it (or like it for that matter).

Ok, my naps do possibly sharpen my mental abilities but not in the most productive way. When I am finished napping it's usually time to make supper. That just pisses me off and I definitely become more attentive, but not to the task but rather the inconvenience of having to put forth energy to make my family food. Oh, and god forbid someone talks to me in the hour after my nap because I definitely become more alert to the nerves that are becoming irritated to another human voices. Oh, and help, don't even go there. If you ask me for help because I may look a little tired or possibly sound grumpy( as I shout out loud about the effort I have to put forth to make sure that my family is feed) you will definitely gain an appreciation(and an ear full) as to how my "power nap" allow me to be more perform ant in my task. That is to say the my performance may be more dramatic, exaggerated and possibly slightly irrational as I explain that "I CAN DO IT!" "YOU JUST RELAX AND LET ME DO ALL THE WORK,AS USUAL!". This as I use my new found energy to throw the pans down on to the stove and begrudgingly begin to cook. At this point my daughter and husband slowly slink out of the kitchen eyeing each other and usually identifying for one another that I have just woken up from a nap therefore clarifying for each other the “ after nap” mood.

Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy the napping piece it's just the after shock that is becoming more and more difficult to deal with. When I was younger this was never the case. I would nap, jump up, shake myself off and move on. Much more feline like. However, it now seems to be becoming a bit of a chore to grab a quick nap. It takes too long to snap out of the daze, my family avoids me for at least an hour and for god sake the so called improvement in productivity in my case is how quickly I can piss every one else in the general area off to the same level as me. Ok, maybe after the initial hour or so I begin to feel the benefits of my nap but by that time it's too late. When I realize I have energy for a quickie, my husband has lost all patients with me and I have to use my energy apologizing for my irrational behavior. The ability to help my daughter with homework by using my improved abilities to make complicated decisions is overlooked by the fact that she has shut her door and has gone into ignore mode due again to my "after nap" fits. And there is no appreciation for my attention to detail as this feature was brutally misused the hour prior by pointing out all the small irritating habits of both family members while in my fit of anger resulting from having to make supper.

So my question is are naps really worth it for the 39ish population. What use to be a help has quickly become a hinderance and I fear many more apparent helpful efforts for my health will soon follow suit ( like yoga. WHat the hell is relaxing about it. It hurts!)

Well that's all.

Lise

Surprise, I'm baaaaaaccccckkkkk!

I realize that I have completely neglected my fan base by ignoring my Blogging duties for the last couple of months however, I am now back to it. It's a new year resolution for god sake. So give a girl a break and just read.

It's a Friday evening, I'm downtown at the Yonge/Dundas intersection of Toronto. There are all sorts of people about heading out for the evening in their fancy outfits with their phones a buzzing with various offers for the evening. A young fellow walks swiftly past speaking to a friend about a "houseparty" dance at the Limelight. "Ya, I'll be there around 10:30. See ya then". 10:30.... that's when I got home for the evening and hunkered down with my family and played a trivia video game. 10:30 my ass. Ya, I was out that evening as well but it was the early evening...6:50pm to be exact. I was heading for the early screening of a film. I met my "on my way to 40" friend, Jamie, we got in line for our starbucks and headed into a wonderful film about the day in the life of a middle aged man ready off himself as a result of loss and hopelessness for the future. Now that is a Friday evening.
................................................NOT!

Pathetic, I was once that young fella on the phone. I was once calling to see where the after hours dance was going to be once we had had a few at the local pub and 6:50pm use to be when I jumped in the shower prior to dinner and then the evening. What has happened. As a matter of fact it is still the same evening and I am typing my Blog at 11:10pm. Ahhhhhhhhhhh........

Or is it. I kind of like the idea that I am relaxed and I don't have to put on make up, fancy myself up and prove that I can drink, party and hopefully pick up at one point in the evening. Instead I have my good friends and family to help entertain me on Friday................... I am the luckiest 39ish chick I know. Ya, that guy on the phone is right now partying, drinking and laughing with his latest squeeze but hey, done that, been there, kind of like the next stage. Possibly, once my 40's actually do kick in I'll be ready for the next stage.....................Bed by 10:00pm on Friday (sex included).

That's all.

Lise

Whoops

Ok, I know that I have not updated my blog for a number of weeks and yes I am feeling a little bit like a cop out but hey I can only blame my age.

This is a really nice thing about getting older you can use this fact for an excuse. Ok, granted I am only turning 40 but it is the beginning of a whole new era in excuses. I mean come on, when your my age you get tired a lot easier and instead of going to bed at you know 2/3 in the morning I am asleep by at least 11:30pm each evening. That only leaves approximately 5 hours of freetime each night which dosn't include the time that is need to make dinner and get my daughter to her classes etc. So what's a girl to do. In this short time I need to have a nap, read a bit of my book and then get sucked into the latest reality show. There is just so little time for computer and blog updates. Of course I am usually working prior to the "freetime" so my brian capacity has been filled with it's quota for the day and believe me that is not much for someone of my delicate age.

I know what your thinking, make the time. What the hell does that mean anyway. I cannot produce more time and therefore I cannot make extra time. I certainly cannot stay up later, it would take away from my maximum 7 hours of sleep a night and that is an important piece to us elderly folk. So therefore all you 2 readers out there will have to be patient as you should be with us almost 40 people. And please, no pressure or asking "when is your next blog" it only causes me stress which can lead to many ailments for folks like me. Patience (another thing that I seem to be suffering from less of).

Lise

39/40 what's the diff.....

So I go to the doctors the other day because I feel this horrible lump under my arm. Ya, it scared the shit out of me but it just appeared and really hurt so my feeling was that it wasn't too serious. However I realized that at, uhhhhh well, my tender age it's important to check out these things. So I get in the doctors office, strip off the top half of my attire, and have this strange man ( I went to a walk in. My doctor is far ) poke around my breast and then tell me that he sure that it is a muscle strain and that it's not anything to be concerned about. That was a relief. I began to get dressed with a sense of glee and calm about the outcome of the situation as well as sense of pride at my self care. But then the Doctor had to stomp on my parade. He turned to me as I was grabbing my bag and asked "How old are you!". I told him 39 and he said(and I quote). "Oh, 39/40 same difference, you should still go to get a mammogram each year from now on just for precaution" YOU HAD ME AT 39/40 same diff....... WHAT! I don't think so. I am 39 and that is all. Not a year older then that. Not for another 11 months buddy. And as for your well meaning medical advice I know being in the "almost 40 category" that mammograms start to be a 40 year old regular routine but NOT at39!

Ok, you may be thinking, here we go again with the irrational behavior but come on. When you are feeling so vulnerable about not only your age change but at the moment you health, this is not what you need to hear. Hmmmmph...I was pissed. I looked at him with hate in my eyes and in a loud onerous voice said "THANK YOU FOR THE INFORMTION SIR" and walk out. I told him and he'll think twice before giving potentially life saving information to an almost 40 year old by possibly saying something more along the lines of ....." 39...wow I thought you were much younger than that. So I was going to suggest that if you are really concerned you could ask your family doctor about a mammogram to clear your conscience. However, you do know that even though I thought you were much too young to be worrying about such things, you may want to remind you readers..... I mean yourself that once you turn 40 a regular mammogram is pretty important.". This would have been much more "patient friendly".

Anyhow, don't let anyone tell you your older then you are, especially when the next age starts with a 4 as compared to a 3. Oh, and always remember that doctors are medically trained not necessarily trained in age differentiating.

Lise

A half of the paper

I would like you all to do an exercise for me. Take a piece of paper, preferably a blank Aby4 piece, and fold it in half. It doesn't matter which way you fold it just make sure that it is exactly in half. I then would like you to get a writing utensil of some sort and on one side of the paper write 0-40 and on the other write 40- . As you look at the paper you can physically see that half of the paper has a definitive ending, 40 and the other half you only have a beginning but no end number. Assuming that the other half of the paper is numerical statistic you may have already figured that if you were to put an end it would be 80. Well, yes that would be right if in fact we could be precise about that fact but considering each half represents years we've lived and will live we/I can only be precise about the initial 1-40 years.

Ok, I suppose you’re wondering what this is all about. Well I am all consumed about this visual. In this modern age the average woman live to be about 80 hence the other half of the paper. Of course I can not definitively put down a number behind my 40 because it may be less (oh god no!) or more (in which case I will need more paper). However, basing it on the average once hitting forty I will have essentially lived half my life (hopefully). This is consuming my thought right now and is freaking me out on many different levels. The idea that I have live for forty year already and it feels like it happened in a flash really flips me out about the second half. It’s also being aware that my parents are getting older and realizing that if my math is correct they are almost through that second half. That is crazy. So basically it's one of those things that provoked me to start this blog journey and to put to ease some of my anxieties. I suppose it's spiritual in a sense.

Anyhow, I know it's not that funny and may in fact freak you all out as well but it's just something I've been thinking about. (Oh, and it's a great fractions lesson if you put various numbers behind the second 40 and let the kids figure out the fraction of time you have left if it's....). (Nervous HEE HEE)

Lise

Alcohol Vs. Age

So here is my next dilemma, alcohol vs. age. What is the dilemma you might ask? Like myself you may be thinking that the only dilemma based on alcohol you have come against up to now is exactly what to drink and how much. And there in stands the issue, I don’t consider this comment a quandary. Up to now I don’t consider that alcohol is a "problem" for me. As a matter of fact I find that it is an excellent solution for a lot of ” problems" that I have come up against(Oh shit, there I go again, that didn’t sound good). However, the difficulty is the fact that I haven’t changed my alcohol/drinking attitude since my early twenties. That is to say that I often will equate drinking to partying which equals, well quite frankly, headaches. And headaches are no fun anymore. Not that I am suggesting they were ever fun but it is taking a longer time to get rid of the headaches and they come with other side effects like puffy glazed eyes, sleep deprivation, bad hair (I can’t be bothered on those days) and just general yuck feelings. Oh, I know this is “normal” but I suppose I can’t really handle it anymore. I actually become incapacitated to the point where it affects my day. Oh god, isn’t that sign one in the AA “How you know you’re an alcoholic” manual. Anyway, I digress. What I am saying it is really not the drinking behavior at all that needs to change, but the unfortunate derailing of the 39ish/40 year olds body tolerance of abuse. Ya, that is it for sure. So I think that the solution must be in the health and wellbeing of your physical state not alcohol itself. Right!!!! There must be some sort of organic, herbal, yogic type thing that could help with my tolerance level so that I don’t have to adjust this aspect of my life. OK! Any recommendations send them my way. Ahhhh see it’s not age vs. alcohol as much as age vs. delusion….. I mean accommodating your changing body.

Next week’s topic: 40’s and denial.

That all folks. (Going up to party at the cottage with my herbal pills.)