On being 35

"For three years straight, I've been burning the candle at both ends, and as of last December, I just didn't have anything left. I've been so aggressive about living life to the fullest and being plugged into everything, but now I've ripped the plug out of the wall and put it on the floor for a while. I am thinking about the same things as when I was 15, about spirituality and who I am, who I want to be.
It's cocoon, pupa, larva, and, &*%$, I'm reborn!"

-Drew Barrymore in ELLE magazine, August 2010

Yup, me too.

I stopped buying magazines two months before our wedding back in 2006. I realized that reading them brought more internal strife than joy - they just made me think about what I didn't have or how I didn't look or what I couldn't afford. I realized that fashion and home magazines made me feel the same way, so I stopped buying them all together. Devoted still to Domino at the time, I let that be my one and only.

Until last week. I was at in the check-out line at the grocery store and I saw this picture of Drew Barrymore. And I have this thing for Drew Barrymore, because she's not perfect and never pretends to be. And we're the same age. And I just think she is cool.

So the magazine laid around for days, until this morning. The nugget went down for his morning nap, his papa was still enjoying a Saturday morning sleep-in and I was about to start on any number of household tasks when I just stopped. I picked up the magazine, sat down in the comfy chair and read the whole thing, cover to cover.

And I realized that I don't allow myself to do that very often. And I realized that I should.
Because it gave me something to think about. The article about Drew ended like this:

"The best thing about being 35 is that if I was lucky enough, with my health and life span, I might be able to do it all over again. 35 plus 35 equals 70, and that would be a long life. The next 35 years are a second chance at life...I wonder how it will go. It's fascinating."

I couldn't have said it better myself, I thought to myself with a smile.