“… in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” – Benjamin Franklin, 1789
7 SIGNS
1. Loss of appetite. Your insane food cravings for salt and sweets no longer compel you to stick up a gas station or shoplift Snickers bars at a 7-11. “The Hunger Games” is merely a movie you wouldn’t watch for all the cat food money in the free world.
2. Gravity has won. You have more wrinkles on your neck and chin than the average pug.
3. Sex. Your orgasms “don’t bring home the Gold.” You know what I mean.
4. You don’t LOL when you watch “Portlandia.” You don’t know what “Portlandia” is. You don’t know what LOL is.
5. You stalk babies in the grocery store and insist upon conversing S-L-O-W-L-Y with them while the poor mother – who’s typically had five decent hours of sleep in the past fifteen months – is passing out from politeness.
6. Changes in Urination. You constantly have to – or are – peeing. This could merely be due to menopause or to post childbearing bladder stretch syndrome, as evidenced in the family car trip “The Griswolds Got Nothin’ On Us” by Dawn Weber at Lighten Up!
7. You forget to breathe. Like all the darn time. Especially when you’re fussing a blue streak ’cause your panties are in a twist… which is unfortunately most of the time. Less hot air anyway.
Bonus. Social Media Withdrawal. You no longer share those important life events with the online world, such as “Had a yummy dish of tapioca pudding today” and “Went shell collecting with Geezer” and “I saw a puppy today. Don’t you love puppies?” Your last tweet is “Helgrghhrrrposht!” Your last Facebook post is prophetic, “That’s odd. My fingers and toes are berry blue and ice cold to the touch. Maybe I should google that…”
I’m just dyin’ to hear… ho,ho… how will YOU know… death is near?
No octogenarians or curmudgeons were harmed in the writing of this post.
Funny, entertaining, informative! Kansas City Parent Magazine humor writer and pediatric R.N. Stacey Hatton at Nurse Mommy Laughs. Much more fun than a hypodermic in the arse! link
Dreamless in Detroit? Narcoleptic in New York? Sleepless in Seattle? Take two romantic comedies, call me in the a.m.
Where the stars often lose their twinkle and die. Lucille Ball, Danny Thomas, Martha Raye, Danny Kaye, Andy Kaufman, Frank Sinatra.
I bet you love Lucy, too. The Lucille Ball Festival of Comedy – August 1-5, 2012 in Jamestown, NYLUCY FEST
Zzzzzz. I had a sleepover with a wad of multicolored wires and hot electrodes at the UCLA Sleep Disorders Lab. Stay tuned.
This review is from: Exit Laughing: How Humor Takes the Sting Out of Death (Io) (Paperback)
Exit Laughing is a fascinating anthology. It lovingly takes on the subject of death with grace, courage, and (thank God!) humor. It’s this celebration of laughter, even in dying and death, that makes the book so remarkable. The essays are poignant, funny, and memorable. They demonstrate the life-affirming power of humor. A great collection edited by Victoria Zackheim.
I am determined that a pesky little critter the size of a penis will not get the best of me.
Yes, I refer to the gopher – that infuriating, beady-eyed rodent.
My heart stopped when I spotted that first heinous dirt mound near my prize-winning Kehr Hybrid azalea bushes in
my meticulously manicured front yard. My busybody neighbor informed me the peculiar mound is due to a gopher.
“They can really destroy a lawn. Ha, Ha, Ha…” he needled me.
The stress and irritation of this creature invasion has catapulted me into a crisis:
Blood pressure higher than a kytoon, sleep tortured by ghosts of gophers past, present, and future, dirt-filled
fingernails gnawed to the bone, digestion disrupted, mental faculties in disarray, martini consumption and
general crankiness escalating off the charts.
I repeat. I am determined that a pesky little critter the size of a penis will not get the best of me.
Being a thinking person at least occasionally, I pursue sound, logical approaches to the problem:
Trapping with artisan cheese
Flooding by garden hose
Water boarding
Smoke bombs
Elaborate fencing
Sonar repeller rods (a regrettable purchase from the captivating but essentially useless Sky Mall Catalog)
Death by dog (sicking our aging beagle Flopsie on the vile little bugger)
100% Organic, gold-lined chemicals designed to euthanize the prickly pest (special precautions taken so I don’t kill my beloved cat… even though he treats me with all the respect offered a convicted sex offender)
Blasting mezzo-soprano Whitney Houston classics into the tunnel. Perhaps the piercing high notes will call him to Jesus?
Creative visualization – I imagine the gopher as road kill on my local interstate.
Nothing works. I resort to sniveling, cajoling, begging, and sobbing. However, this hurts me with the kids as they sense incompetence and despair faster than they can hit the local “all-you-can-eat buffet.”
After five weeks of soul numbing failure to exterminate the furry little Fuhrer, I succumb to a pitcher of Orange Blossom (heavy on the sweet Vermouth) for divine inspiration. Voila. I am struck with an answer so counter-intuitive yet brilliantly simple I want to scream.
Go with a Zen approach. Just “go for it.” Ohm. Peace envelops my entire being. Ohm. Ohm.
Fun in the sun isn’t always fun. A day at the beach can be more misery than merriment. And now they tell us sunscreen gives us cancer? Ain’t that sweet 🙂
My 15 summer bummers… What are yours?
1. Swimsuit wardrobe malfunction when faking bravado on the Boogie Board
2. Sunburn on private parts
3. Younger, slimmer, and obviously richer women donning floss bikinis, spray tans, and serious diamond earrings
4. Being buried in bacteria filthy, crab infested, scalding sand for the amusement and photo opp pleasure of loved ones
5. People who use “summer” as a verb, but not “budget” as a verb
6. A plethora of hideous tattoos scribbled on every hairy limb like graffiti on a sunset
7. Blowing up that darn beach ball, feeling dizzy, maybe it’s a stroke
8. That skanky fish smell that blows off the stagnant bay
9. Jellyfish who stalk just you
10. Kids who whine “I’m bored” because you’re not entertaining them 24-7
11. Dutifully applying and reapplying sunscreen only to find out it causes skin cancer – classic example of “Damn if you do, damn if you don’t!”
12. Joggers impervious to triple digit temperatures
13. Gnats in my mojito
14. Listening to perfectly nice folks mispronounce “mojito”
1) A feeling of marked discomfort, a distressing sensation in a particular part of the body: “She has a severe pain in her arse, most probably due to sitting at the computer at work all day.”
“Jury duty can be quite a pain in the neck.”
“For monthly pain, Ashley downs half a bottle of Scotch.”
2) Mental suffering or distress : “During the holidays, I am plagued by the pain of listening politely to relatives pontificate on politics, religion, and squirrel virus.”
“Waiting for hours in this line at the DMV is killing me. Oh, the pain. ARRRGH!”
“Will the Kardashians ever stop inflicting such pain upon the culture and just drop off the damn planet?”
Keeping Up with the Kardashians (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
3) An annoying or tedious, troublesome person or thing: “Kim’s a pain. Khloe’s a pain. Kourtney’s a pain. Kris IS a royal pain.”
4) Laborious or careful efforts; assiduous care: “Great pains have been taken to cover the crimson, pulsing pimple on my nose.”
Pain – the verb
1) Cause mental or physical pain to: “It pains me to say this, but your butt looks humongous in those horizontal stripes.”
Pain – phrase
1) No pain, no gain: “Suffering is necessary in order to achieve something such as losing that last 15 pounds, getting the kids to do their homework, and finishing this blog post on deadline.”
My favorite “pain.” Chocolat! Ah, oui.
pains au chocolat (Photo credit: LORO Languages Open Resources Online)
Great story about LUCILLE BALL and PAIN she suffered as a young adult:
Heard of inversion therapy for stress reduction and other health benefits?
Otherwise known as… standing on your head.
These boots are made for falling!
I was going to get a breast lift, but I decided it would be more fun to just stand on my head. Hanging upside down is a great way to look years younger!
Thanks to gravity, I dropped 25 pounds in one week – my breasts fell from up < HERE > to down < HERE >
My body has dropped so much, I have calluses on my tits.
Times Square Ball (Photo credit: Atomische • Tom Giebel)
The most famous New Year’s Eve DROP is the 11,875 pound geodesic sphere
that descends the flagpole at One Times Square in Manhattan. The Ball, 12
feet in diameter, has 2,688 crystal triangles bolted to 672 LED modules
which are attached to the aluminum frame of the Ball.