Baaahh.

When you're young you marvel at old people. You know, people who are thirty or older. You wonder how they got to be so weird; doing things like waking up early in the morning without an alarm clock, falling asleep while watching TV, going to bed by 9pm, eating gross things like fish and mushrooms and nuts, reading the obituaries, spending free time after work doing dishes or ironing or vacuuming rather than doing something fun, etc. Then you reach the ripe old age of thirty and you realize that you are that old person! You're up each morning by 7:30 because you just "naturally wake up." Even if you're not in bed by 9pm you wish you were. And you find yourself ordering the bags of mixed nuts from your aunt's church fundraiser instead of the bags of gummy bears because suddenly, without warning, you actually like nuts (and you eat mushrooms even if you don't like them because you know you should).

Who are you? How did you get to be this person? What happens when you hit that magical age of thirty? I've noticed that over the past few years I've been going through these changes myself. My tastes have changed. My sleeping habits have changed. My priorities have changed. And my metabolism has changed.

A couple of examples of these changes:

1. I am now interested in things like natural, homeopathic remedies for healthy living and am more inclined to believe in astrological signs and symbols than I was even five years ago. I'm very keen to find the right homeopathic remedy to my over-anxious temperament, my stomach and digestive woes, and my other "ailments." I have been going to my homeopathic doctor for almost two years now (whoa) and am still soldiering on with finding the right essence to give me the improved quality of life that I want. (Now we're trying out the essence of the naja snake family, and putting any bit - even if it's not even a real bit - of a snake in me would have been unthinkable years ago.) And I am open-minded to certain astrological belief systems like the Chinese zodiac. I learned on Friday that I am a goat in the Chinese zodiac calendar - specifically an earth goat - and the description of the goat (in some circles the sheep) is just about spot-on. I'm eager to learn more about goats and Chinese astrology (and Eastern philosophies), and really could have cared less about this kind of stuff before.

(Thank you to Taking Back Tiffany for the goat photo.)

2. My diet and nutrition has become an almost-obsession, and this is probably linked to the fact that my metabolism has clearly changed. I have never been thin, or what I would consider skinny, and I have at various times of my life been what I consider "pleasingly plump." But my weight would fluctuate, and I could control it. If I ate a lot of sweets and breads, which I love, then I would get heavier. If I wanted to lose weight I could, just by cutting down the amount of food I ate, or by kicking my exercise regimen into high gear. Now, not so much. I trained so hard for the 5K in November and December, burning so many calories and not eating much more to compensate, and yet am still weighing in at a number I haven't seen in many years. Hence the Weight Watchers thing. And hence the obsession with vegetarianism, veganism, and cookbooks and recipes. As I write this, Doug is reading to me from Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet, because I am eager to learn more about how this healthy way of living might work for me. When in Florida with Jipty and Chris it seemed so natural to follow a vegan/vegetarian lifestyle when we were in the timeshare cooking meals for ourselves, but when we went out to dinner it seemed... mostly inconvenient. You can't just go to any restaurant and expect that there will be food there that you can eat. I didn't think I would be able to put up with that. I like convenience. But now that I am on Weight Watchers (sort of) and I know that I want to be healthy, and now that I'm learning that maybe a plant-based diet would render my snake and spider and whatever-other-kind-of-creepy-creature remedies unnecessary, maybe I can put up with that inconvenience.

So what is it about this aging thing? Do our habits really change as much as it seems they do as we get older? And don't people become more conservative and less open-minded as they age? I seem to be doing the opposite, but I'm not necessarily complaining, at least about these particular changes. The falling asleep while watching TV (or, worse, falling asleep while in the warm, dark movie theater...), well, that I wholeheartedly complain about and curse the aging process for hitting me with this one so early.

Friday night lights.

I left work early today. Like, really early. I took the 4pm train home. And the sun was shining and the weather was nice, so I decided to forgo the gym and just jog/walk around my neighborhood. It was much nicer doing that than going to the stuffy, crowded gym. I'm glad I made that decision.

One decision that may not make me so glad is my decision to embark on a a homeopathic treatment, because I can no longer indulge in my decaf iced coffees every once in a while, wear perfume, or have mint (or menthol, eucalyptus, and there's probably other things, too). The mint thing includes minty gum, toothpaste, mouthwash, minty ice cream (including peppermint stick!!)... you know, all the things that I love. This is a huge sacrifice for me. Huge. There are some homeopaths who say that you don't have to give up coffee, or perfume, or mint, or that you can do them all in a much more limited and controlled fashion, but mine suggests giving them all up completely, especially when you're starting your treatment, since you don't know how your body is going to react to the remedy. So tonight, when I went to the grocery store and was reaching for the jug of mint tea, I had to stop and remind myself that I couldn't have that kind. And when I pushed the cart past the gum aisle it reminded me that I had to get non-minty gum, because that's all that I had at home. I will now chew bubblegum flavored gum, and cinnamon flavored gum, but not bubblemint or cinnamint, and I will brush my teeth with lemon toothpaste laced with anise oil. The anise oil does leave my mouth feeling surprisingly refreshed, but that feeling is nowhere near as lasting as it was when I used my super-minty toothpaste with mint-blasters. The things I do, all in the desire for a better quality of life! Seriously.

But here's something that gives me a better quality of life, and I don't have to give up anything for it: Yes, I am wearing a down comforter and holding two citrus-y soaps, thanks to Chris and Chris and Ruby. I've always liked the basic idea of the Snuggie, but didn't like the idea of having it be a blanket and open in the back. And I guess I could have pined for a regular bathrobe, but they're just not warm enough. This down housecoat, though, this fits the bill, especially more so because it has a fashionable Asian design. I highly endorse the product. You can buy your very own here.

I also highly endorse having freshly-cut flowers in your house at all times. We don't have them here nearly often enough, but when we do we all love them. All of us. Even the furry ones. These flowers were intended to be my birthday treat, but they ended up being Meg's birthday treat, too. Which was fine, actually, because on March 25th it was Meggie's 7th birthday. We now have had her for seven years! Seven wonderful, fur-filled, sleepless years. Thank you, Meg, for adding such joy to our lives, and for not completely killing the flowers. We can now see them opened and vibrant and placed on higher ground where the cats haven't been tempted to roam.

And now I am off to brush with my Homeodent, and then hop in bed to watch what I can of Benjamin Button before I oh-so-unfortunately fall asleep. If I make an attempt to watch the movie but don't get all the way through due to no fault of my own, then I can without guilt send the movie back to Netflix and await the arrival of... Ghost Town? New weekend chore - reshuffle queue.