Turning Fifty

I had been building my birthday up for months.
This is big time I’m fifty..they’ll probably throw some kind of parade, probably some fire works and festivities all across the land...
Apparently the conversation was more like holy crap her birthday is tomorrow… must distract her…what? oh yeah, she’s already distracted…

FE team in full plaid and headscarves. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery...or mockery.

The truth is, I’m just happy to celebrate in such good shape. Because just two years ago, after a morning bike ride with Dave along the Hudson River, I couldn’t get out of bed the following day. It was so weird, my legs would not move.

She has Lyme said the doctor.

She’s doing too much at the store said my mother.

Have they ruled out if she’s faking it? said Ben.

I hope this doesn’t mean she's gonna be a stay at home mom now! said Susie.

After endless testing Dave and I listened to a team of neurologists tell me I have MS.
No I don’t, these things don't happen to me…said I.

Then I asked what MS is and they told me.

 At my fiftieth birthday celebration I recounted a scene from the movie Parenthood with Mary Steenburgen and Steve Martin. It’s Dave’s and my all time favorite movie scene ever.

In the movie, Steve Martin’s job is on the rocks, the kids have issues and life has gotten complicated.

It’s the night of the school play. Everyone is running around getting ready while Steve Martin and Mary Steenburgen are bickering in the kitchen about why life is so "messy."

Out of nowhere Steve Martin’s little and adorable grandmother walks in and tells him that when she was nineteen his grandpa took her on the roller-coaster that goes up and down and up and down. She recalls how interesting it was that one ride could make her so scared, so frightened, so excited, and so thrilled all together. Some didn’t like it, they went on the merry-go-round. That just goes around…nothing.

Then the grandmother goes off to wait in the car.

Frustrated Mary Steenburgen tells Steve Martin that his grandmother happens to be a brilliant woman. Of course Steve Martin, thinking and staring out the back door says, oh yeah well if she’s so brilliant how come she’s sitting in the neighbors car!  

Life is random. Everyday brings a new laugh, a new concern, and a new opportunity to make the best of what’s on our plate. Someone definitely turned my roller coaster setting on a higher speed. Its slightly scarier... but I'm still on it with no plans to get off.

“I like the roller-coaster, you get more out of it.”
-Grandmother from Parenthood.

Kristen for a cause! Pulling the Fishs Eddy team together for the MS Bike Ride


Join Team Fishs Eddy on October, 6th!