Fifty One Years and Counting.....

So here I am, on my 51st birthday today (April 23rd) and it seems so hard to believe that I've been around this long. That I can remember clearly things that happened back 40+ years ago seems so unbelieveable. Where does the time go, anyway? I mean, I'm going to retire in 5 years, and I remember thinking that retirement was such a long way off that I had nothing to worry about, but now I find that I had better get started doing something about my retirement plans, because five years goes mighty fast these days. The war in Iraq began just a little over 5 years ago and yes, at times it seems like it's been going on positively forever, but other times it seems like it just began. So five years can go by in a blink and before you know it, time has flown by and you're another five years older. My hair has been silver for a long time now, so it's hard for me to remember a time when it was still its old ash blond, and I've had the typical middle aged gut for longer than I care to think (and when I visited my sister in Germany back in December 1996, I remember thinking even back then that I was overweight at 125 pounds and being angry at what I then thought was my bulging gut, and here I am fighting to stay in and around the 140 mark at age 51 and still fighting what they jokingly call "love handles".....sheesh!). That I have reached this age when I have lost so many friends younger than me in recent years from heart disease, diabetes, strokes and other preventable causes does give me pause to consider my own mortality, but it also makes me realize that I am at that age now when friends are going to start dying off and already, I see more and more obituaries in the newspapers for people my age and younger. It continues daily to motivate me to adopt a healthier lifestyle by working out and eating better and staying more active so that I can continue life in my middle years as a healthy and active woman not bogged down by poor health or preventable conditions. I see more and more people, younger than me, who suffer from obesity and what it does to their quality of life, and it makes me realize that by continuing to exercise and eat right, I am not only extending my life, but improving the quality of life that I have. Sure, I have aches and pains like most middle aged people do, and my body creaks and groans at times in annoying ways, and I lack the flexibility I had in my younger years, but I am doing my utmost to contain those things so that they don't become a lifelong problem for me. I worry that my short left leg will continue to present complications that seem to have plagued me in recent years due to being more active, but all I can do is to hope that it won't end up becoming so much of a problem that it won't permanently end up stopping me in my tracks and causing me to end up in lifelong pain. For now, all I can do is to compensate for it, wear good shoes, stay active and hope that it won't be too much of a problem for a good long while yet. At least I know that compared to most 51 year olds, I am probably in better shape than the majority of most people my age, and for that, I can be immensely proud of what I have accomplished since I began this transformation of my body into a stronger, healthier place in which to grow into as I enter these middle years of my life.

CHIPOTLE BURRITO SCARE

Last week, over 400 people reported getting very sick after eating at our local Chipotle Burrito restaurant, which is a half block from where I live. Oddly, I ate there last week (Wednesday night) as well and did not have any problems, but they seem to have arisen starting around Thursday. Symptoms seemed consistent with what the newspapers are reporting to be gastroenteritis, and the Chipotle burrito store ended up having to close down and be sanitized last weekend and reopened on Saturday night. I ate there again several evenings ago and I could not believe how utterly dead the place was. I hope that this does not spell the end of this business because I really love their burritos. Oh, sure, I also love Taco Tanto's burritos downtown on Franklin Avenue, which are a long standing Kent tradition, but their burritos are great because they bake them and they are crispy when they are done. Both Chipotle and Taco Tanto's have burritos that I love and which are completely different from each other but are equal favorites in my book, but what makes Chipotle a fave of mine is that it is a half block from my house and I can get there and back in a matter of minutes. Taco Tanto's is also easy walking distance from home, just a few blocks further, and as I said, both are faves of mine where burritos are concerned. I just hope that Chipotle can survive this recent scare and not suffer too badly. It's been a real boon to this neighborhood and their burritos are pretty healthy. I get cilantro-lime rice, green peppers and onions, pinto beans, fresh tomato salsa and grated cheese on mine, and that's it. So I get my veggies in green peppers, onions and tomatoes, I get my dairy via the cheese, I get protein via the beans, and I get carbs via the rice and the tortilla shell. So it seems like a good complete meal overall, albeit probably fairly high in calories, but I don't eat there that often. I only get a burrito there when I get a good craving for that flavor that I so love. For now, Chipotle seems to have weathered the storm, and I hope that this will not cause them to lose so many customers that they are forced to go out of business and close. We have far too many empty buildings in this town as it is, and they put quite a bit of money into the gutting and rebuilding of the interior and exterior, so I'd hate to see it close and add yet another empty building to Kent's already high inventory of empty store fronts. Let's hope that doesn't happen because of all of this.