Milestone birthdays can be tough depending on your perspective on aging! I started counting the days to 60 well before Christmas. It was on my mind because if Tim was here he would without a doubt have thrown me a big event as he did for my 50th. I think my friends were really worried about what kind of day my 60th would be without Tim, BUT not only for that day, but for the entire month my friends kept me wined, dined and busy with incredible activities! I will never forget the extraordinary things my work family and my friends did for me! It was indescribable in so many ways! I decided to use the month of January as a stepping stone to bigger and better things to come in 2019! I accomplished my goal of experiencing 60 new things throughout the month and I’m happy to share my results!
Watched Old Movies I’d never seen – Dr. Zhivago with Omar Sharif, Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Double Indemnity with Fred McMurray, Farewell to Arms with Gary Cooper, One Way Passage with William Powell, Dream Wife with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, Young Mr. Lincoln with Henry Fonda, Lured with Lucille Ball and George Sanders and The Public Enemy with James Cagney.
Tried restaurants I’d never been to – The famous Occidental on my birthday with my girls Louise and Jan, Jose Andres Fish at MGM with Tim’s best friend Joe, Ivy City Smokehouse and The Hitching Post with my friend Kirtley, two restaurants Coton and Rye and Hearthside at Lansdowne with my bestie Kris, and an amazing French café Toutdesweet and a really cool place called Dog Haus I found after work one evening.
Foods I’d never tried – Puerto Rican soup on New Year’s Day, kumquats, clams, fried cod fritters, a citrus scone, rockfish with onion and jalepeno, a whiskey and blood orange cocktail, a Filipino rice coconut muffin, vegan caviar, candy salmon, gluten free crusted lamb chop and bourbon poached figs.
New Places – Bowled at Lucky Strike in DC with my work fam, walked the upper level exterior of the MGM casino from which you can see many miles of DC and VA, spent the weekend with Kris at the extraordinary Lansdowne resort in VA.
New Self-Enrichment Activities – Had an 80 minute magnesium massage, signed up for Noom a healthy eating and motivational app and program which has already resulted in a 6 lb weight loss, took a meditation class and a yoga class, began reading Michelle Obama’s book Becoming, attended Evensong and Benediction Services at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, walked down and back up the 9 flights of stairs at the office for a new exercise routine with the work fam, listened to an Opera on Sirius XM, registered to participate in an upcoming Virtual Dementia Tour to experience in a simulation what Mom goes through on a daily basis and enrolled in a Writing as a Spiritual Practice course at Virginia Theological Seminary which ends in March.
Cool things – Had a cool birthday surprise from my work fam who decorated every inch of my cubicle and gave me a surpise luncheon, hung out with my cousin JoAnne at Mrs. K’s for a great dinner, Purchased the LEGO 60th edition set, went to a gender reveal party, joined “Meet Up” and attended a meet up on LEGO Serious Play, earned my Africa Badge on Fit Bit for walking a total of 5,000 miles since joining Fit Bit in 2014, reactivated my Rosetta Stone account to finally try to learn Spanish, brought ice melt and a snowblower to survive this winter, picked out and purchased new paint for my kitchen, brought a new storm door for the kitchen, brought a pair of purple boots for my presentations and got a pair of mandala sneakers for free, wrote and delivered two programs which included a LEGO Serious Play session for 34 people that can be used for other Intergenerational organizations, joined the county senior activity center and selected two activiies from my 60 and Better catalog, applied to three speakers bureaus in attempt to make speaking my permanent gig in retirement and published my coloring book I created with Mom called Colors Flowing from My Mind! I ended this incredible month by spending 3 awesome hours at dinner with Gayle Fisher-Stewart, who before she became an Episcopal priest was Tim’s supervisor on the Metropolitan Police Department in DC. I never knew Gayle back then, but thrilled to have her in my life now!
January may have only been 31 days, but I learned so much about my family, my friends and myself and I grew in ways I’d never anticipated. I can’t wait for the rest of the year to see what else 60 will hold for me. So much more for me to discover and enjoy! Onward and Upward!! Thank you to everyone who made my birthday month one of the BEST ever, I love each of you with all my heart!!
Conquering Life; Love and Dialogue with Loretta Veney 
Loretta, so fabulous a post, so fabulous a month, so fabulous a life, your life, so fabulous a you! Bless you for being willing and able to continue to step out on faith and in faith to try new things. Wonderful! Wonder-full! Love
Paul I can’t believe I got all that done!!! And it wasn’t like I was rushing through it. I enjoyed all of the new things immensely!! It was simply a stunning month!! My spiritual writing course is amazing!! I’m pretty excited about it!! You’re right it was just wonderful!
Love
It sounds as though your 31 days was fabulous, filled with so many new things! I am so happy that it went so well for you and that you had such a great month! I am grateful that I was able to share in some of the new with you, it was a blast, it was relaxing! Love you tons Ret!!
Girl spending the entire weekend with you was incredible!! Soooooo much fun!! I still dream of us sitting by that fireplace!! Amazing!!! Can’t wait for our next adventure!! Love you back!!!!
Woman! Just reading this made me tired! I really need to up my ante! Your energy inspires and your writing challenges everyone to enjoy and experience life. So glad to have spent time with you. Who knew, back in the 80s when Tim and I worked together that you and I would become friends. Blessings in and on your 60th year; the world is blessed to have you.
Gayle I believe we were destined to meet!! I feel truly Blessed that we’ve come together to share our mutual Alzheimer’s journey with our Moms, AND to just laugh and have fun!! Life is short, so many more memories still to make!! Tim would be thrilled that we’ve become friends!! Loving this journey and so glad to have you as a part of it!