I used to be dead-center of pop culture. If there were a degree in the 80s, I would have had a PhD in it. And some how with all of the 3 million things that life deems important, I lost track of a lot of popular culture. We were bouncing back and forth among the New Year's celebrations, and we landed on the one with  Ryan Seacrest and a woman with teal lipstick. I Googled Ryan Seacrest and blue lipstick the next morning to figure out who she was. I love that I can get all my questions answered on the Internet. But it did make me feel slightly out of it in terms of knowing who Ke$ha is.

Then this morning, our newspaper had an article in the entertainment section about the increase in roles for women over 40. That magic number used to be the death knell for female acting careers. The numbers aren't equal to the "mature' male roles, but they are increasing. The list of female actors and their roles when on for two columns in the article. That was encouraging, but I still bristle when they label Julia Roberts, Diane Lane, and Demi Moore as "older" actresses.

I've come to terms with being in the middle. I'm just not ready to accept "middle age" yet. (My reasoning is that if I live to be 100, then I'm not middle aged yet.) I don't want to be 22 again. I earned my laugh lines, and I hope I have the opportunity to create many more. I just don't want to lose touch with what's going on around me. There is so much out there. I can't wait to see what technology brings in the next 20 years. And by then, I'll be resisting labels like "elderly," "senior," and "geriatric."