Gen HeX

Oh geez… it’s starting to happen. My personal demographic mirror, the New York Times makes it official. GenX is hittin’ mid-life crisis. Of course, it’s only the male GenX-ers who write about it (or, rather, are recognized for writing about it), who are feeling the true ennui. S’up with that?! Where’s the wimmin’s representin? I KNOW you ladies are just as freaked out as the dudes. Am I wrong?

I have had a mid-life crisis occur every ten years or so since my early twenties. Usually I  just move to a different city, start a fresh new life, change up the friends a bit (though, eventually, all your friends end up living in one of the same cities you do, so a true chance for rebirth doesn’t actually exist, which is okay by me. LOVE the friends.) 22, 30, 42… you get the idea. I think my most recent MLC happened this past summer into fall, when my daughters went from babies to being grown-up girls in a matter of months. That just about threw me over the edge, that and the fact that I hadn’t had non-parenting interactions with other adults in three years. Hate to say it, but my acquiring a part-time job as the girls embraced their three day/week preschool schedule, God help me, has lifted a miserable little depression from my head. The timing was great for all of it. I think I might be becoming part normal again, whatever that means. Less isolated, I guess. Better dressed.

The horrific tantrums of the last few weeks seem to have softened. Mostly gone away. I’m trying to be sensitive to these EXTREMELY LOUD outbursts (imagine two healthy shrieking girls screaming in your ears at once-ouch!), to be present instead of exhausted and mad. The effort perhaps has worked. Weird. I’m not taking out my earplugs yet, tho. Don’t wanna be caught off-guard.

There is a strange something in the miasma. I’m feelin’ it. Not sure what’s up. Do you know what it is? Seven year itch? Seven year bitch? Really. What is going on around here?