I'm creeping up on 50. It used to be that 50 was the time we transformed into the Crypt Keeper. Now, it simply seems like the beginning of an exciting new chapter.
Last week, in celebration of my mid-life marker, I got to be a Bombshell. I've always wanted to be a Bombshell and am grateful to chocolate and french bread for making it all possible.
Like a lot of women, I always have my eye on what I consider to be my five extra pounds.
I live in Los Angeles, which may explain how I hound those five pounds when they would really like to help fill me out. They keep throwing up their hands and yelling, "Just move to freakin' Kansas already, because we could use some extra company."
Stinking L.A., man. It'll mess with your curves.
I'm currently working on a project called Love Your Body Now: Healing Body Image Issues Through Fine Art Nudes.
In a doctor-heal-thyself moment I flew to Boulder, Colorado to meet with my project partner, photographer Beth Sanders, so she could make me as beautiful as humanly possible, then photograph me for time and all eternity as a 1950s pin-up girl.
I didn't know if I could pull it off, but once you're creeping up on 50 you just say, "If not now? When?" You also begin to quote Risky Business: "What the f*ck! Because 'What the F*ck', brings freedom. Freedom brings opportunity, opportunity makes your future!"
Beth sent me off to a makeup artist who spackled and painted and glued my face until I looked better than I ever knew I could.
Then it was off to Beth's studio in a barn on a sprawling farm where weddings and such-like events occur where I squeezed into my vintage-inspired swimsuits and midlife crisis red stilettos and struck a pose or two.
I'm thrilled with the results. Being me, I see some flaws, but I also see a lush, laughing, lovely woman enjoying life. And a big part of my big smiles came from posing for a lean, laughing, lovely woman who looked through her approving lens at me and only saw Beauty.
Ladies and gents of midlife, what do you do to celebrate your age? Also, if you'd like to keep up with my age-flouting shenanigans sign up for my free updates by CLICKING HERE.
