Humor

Felice Shapiro

The Long Marriage…Should We Feel Badly For Our Husbands?

Sometimes, it's hard to say...thanks, I really appreciate that but I really didn't want that. Or other truths about keeping the love alive in a long haul marriage. "Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy? I haven't been right in 32 years but I'm a happy man." And so muses Comedian Jeff Allen on his You Tube Dry Bar performance...How to Understand The Wife's Code. OMG, I can't stop laughing at this guy, because it's the guy's perspective and it's just too funny - but honestly, it does make me feel badly for our guys to hear these truths....
Playing phone games

Oh No….Could I Be Addicted to Phone Games?

I have yet to miss the daily Wordle. I've added it to my OG games Boggle and Wordbubbles (WB recently released its own version of Wordle, aka my Wordle practice). The time spent on these games I justify as useful and educational in adding new vocabulary and recognizing word patterns and spellings, all great things. These skills enhance my love of reading and wordsmithing, right? What's alarming to me is the time-wastiest of all time wasters: Toon Blast. I'm finding that I’m powerless to stop playing....
Yoga

Friends With Benefits: Girlfriend Time is Back

I had no idea how much I missed girlfriend time these past few years. This friggin pandemic has put a halt to one of my favorite ways to recharge...one on one girlfriend getaways. Well, this past week I got a mega dose of girlfriend time and it was awesome. I'm not complaining but I was out of practice and needed a nap after a 3 day visit with my dear friend Randi who squeezed in a quick trip to my place before meeting up with her husband.  "I cannot believe we pulled this off!" I said to Randi. "Your timing is amazing, we can do whatever we want ... we've got the whole house to ourselves."...

Am I a Karen?

We’ve finished up our errands; returning library books, checking out a couple of new ones, browsing through Marshalls and Homegoods. It’s 4:30 but we’re getting a little hungry and this lady does not feel like cooking. We stop at The Good Pour, a small pub a couple of towns over from ours. We haven’t been here since the pandemic but it always had good food and we’re close by so why not. As is our wont when it’s just the two of us, we sit at the small bar. Both televisions are turned to sports channels (what else is new? Would it ever hurt to put on Food Network or HGTV?...
Hugging

Hugging, The Cuddle Hormone Is Back In Action

Hugging, the cuddle hormone is back in action. Did you know hugging creates a feeling of calmness and relaxation. That's because of oxytocin, which is sometimes called the "cuddle hormone." Oxytocin is released when people or pets snuggle up or bond socially. This release can have a domino effect throughout the body.... That's great news for huggers who are now feeling pretty liberated in the past few weeks as Covid restrictions have lifted. Raised by demonstrative huggers, I have sorely missed the hugging dance. I couldn't be happier that hugging is back.. ...
Julie Newburg

4 New On and Off Line Dating Rules After 60

“I’ll meet you halfway,” he proposed in a text.  I’m sure there is a Starbucks halfway between Tewksbury and where you live.” Where the hell is Tewksbury? I thought.  NO. I am not driving halfway to f**king Tewskbury in the middle of winter, to meet some nerdy guy, who I don’t even know. Is this what my life has come to? Traveling to the ends of the earth, in search of love. BIG NO. Maybe I need to take a break from online dating, even if it’s February, always a double whammy for me: Valentine's Day and my birthday. In celebration, perhaps this February I will give myself the gift of a few new dating rules....
Bra

Help: Life Long Search For The Perfect Bra For 38D

I have more than a handful, more even then if said hands can palm a basketball.  I am a tall woman with a sturdy back and when it comes to bras, nothing is simple for me. I think that I have regular criteria: lift (somewhere between elbow and shoulder); separation (no uni-boob); something I can wear it all day; pretty. Is it too much to ask for a bralette?  'The internet,’ I thought. ‘Surely it would reveal a solution.’...

A Love/Hate Relationship with My Breasts

“After 50 years old, you should never have sex on top,” my girlfriend quoted her mother. “Why not?” I cried out. “I love it on top!” “I know, but Mom preached, ‘You don’t want your big old breasts hanging in his face,’” she said wagging her scolding finger. I hadn’t really visualized what my “girls” might look like from HIS perspective. It occurred to me that if I hovered over his face low enough, I could probably smother him to death with my bottom-heavy, pendulous pillows. Always looking for a solution to continue to do what feels good, I asked, “What if I wore a pretty bra?”...
Tom Brady

An Ode to Tom Brady and Super Bowl Fandom

Professional football has given this only girl, sandwiched between an older and younger brother, something to talk about with my father and brothers. It was Monday, February 6, 2017, and my beloved New England Patriots had just made the greatest comeback in sports history to beat the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI.  My flying companion and I had watched highlights of the game on ESPN the entire flight. The night before, as Tom Brady skillfully started picking away at the Patriot’s deficit, I felt a physical transformation....

On Writing: How We Jump Started Our Creative Juices

Covid fatigue is a bear. Despite the camaraderie of our writing group we were running flat after 2 years of weekly 2 hour sessions. "How do we get re-inspired  and re-motivated," was the burning question.  And, as the group's leader, I was charged with the personal challenge to find a way to wake us all up. So this Tuesday's writing group meeting started with a cry for help.  "Hey guys, is anyone having a hard time focusing lately?"  They all nodded in agreement. "Ok, ok," I was starting to feel my pulse again,  "Me too. So let's try this...( I was grasping at anything at this point).......
Tony Robbins

Darwinism, Tony Robbins and Surviving “The Winter of Our Discontent”

There is something truly scientific going on here as we move into our 3rd winter of discontent. There's something that the historians and scientists will have a go at in a few years, but as of now we have to muck through the reality of this winter.  Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful. My gratitude list is huge but we humans are not meant to live like this. What is the Darwinian side of isolation? Who wins? Maybe only Tony Robbins' disciples win. ...
Cancer Made Me a Comedian

Cancer Made Me a Commedian

I wanted my life to have meaning. So, I decided to leave Canada and go to Hawaii. Call it a mid-life crisis or call it escape from reality
I was going to spend a few years volunteering for a charitable organization there. Surely that would cure my destiny angst. “I’ll discover my purpose there,” I thought. And if I didn’t, at least I’d get a good tan. Baby steps. I was way overdue for my mammogram, so I figured I’d better get one before I left. Come to think of it, I’d had a painful lump for several weeks, but everyone said that if a lump was painful, it wasn’t cancer, so I wasn’t worried. After all, ‘everyone’ knows best, right? After the mammogram, my doctor ordered an ultrasound, then a biopsy. “There’s something there, but it’s probably nothing,” he reassured me....
Bras

Boobs and The Single Lady

I have been the recipient of very practical advice since I’ve begun dating, on topics ranging from sexually-transmitted diseases over the age of 60 to how to weed out “catfishers” on Bumble. However, the most humbling advice was from a writing friend, who received it from one of her friends, likely passed down from other well-meaning single women. “Refrain from “being on top” when you have sex. Your boobs will take on a life of their own.” I have never really liked my boobs and this is just one more reason. If sex after 60 weren’t awkward enough, with all the aging body parts, I now needed to worry about smothering a man with my breasts....
BA50 Bloggers Writing Retreat

Covid Rears Its Ugly Head Once Again

I truly thought we were done. I foolishly thought we were done. After being vaccinated and boostered I felt like I had a shield around me. But then I went on a two-night retreat sharing a house and meals and lots of glorious writing and even more glorious laughter with seven other vaxxed women.  (Our BA50 Writers Blogging Group). It felt so good and so back-to-normal again
 until it wasn’t....
Felice skiing

How We See Ourselves: The Meet And Greet

I've been meeting a lot of new people lately as my husband and I have settled into our winter life in Park City, Utah for the second year. And so, at every new social introduction I am greeted with the same question..."It's so nice to meet you? What do you do?" So many decades of living have resulted in a full mantle of mini monikers...a mini series with multiple seasons. A bookshelf full of titles and chapters that need serious editing.  But which one will I pull off the shelf first? ...