My teenage aversion to lying out in the sun for hours to get a tan seems to have paid off, as my skin seems to me to be pretty good for 52. Avoiding sun damage by accident! Aside from that, it's all genetics, which I can't take much responsibility for.

Lake Sharks!

I don't know if you were meaning this at all, but I grew up being terrorized by tales of the canoe-eating river shark. I'll have to share that link with my dad.

Retin-A. Much cheaper than injections and plumpers - those don't last anyway. I need to go back to my derm and get a new prescription for it. Until about a year ago I was using it about 3 times a week. Then I got lazy. I can tell the difference.

I started using a Retinol lotion at night about a month ago and that stuff rocks.

I stopped doing the tanning thing when I was fourteen and my mom had her first malignant skin cancer removed. I do think my skin is in pretty good shape for my age as a result. I have noticed that once I hit forty, I don't have the abilty to bounce back from injury or illness as well as I used to. If I don't get adequate sleep, my ability to function takes a steep nose-dive. Also, travel takes a much harder toll on me than it used to--I now need to build recovery time into whatever travel plans I make.

In general, though, I do feel shitloads better at forty-two than I did at thirty-two, but I think that's largely a result of being in better shape and eating more sanely. The strength training program I've been on for the past couple of years has paid off immensely in terms of general well-being and ability to do stuff that was extraordinarily difficult and taxing just a few years ago (moving furniture, flipping mattresses, doing yardwork).

They don't hurt (yet), which is good, and I have full range of motion (for now) (also good), and I'm not sure I've ever been bouncy. But OH GOD THE NOISE.

My knees and hips made noise 6 years before I had any pain. Now I have pain. It's not good.

Again, this aging things BLOWS.

Retinol? Will have to check. Hate my face.

My knees have also been creaky since puberty. And then 4 years of crew in high school didn't help.

It's my neck that cracks. It's horrible, this grinding, crunching noise. Really pretty.

I actually showed up at work before 9, for a meeting that just got cancelled. Bleah.

The thing that has been giving me most grief is my shoulder. My knees go crunchy-crunchy, and have done so for a while, but they only actually hurt if the weather is changing. They're actually a pretty good predictor of rain.

In other news, I have today off! Woot!

My right knee cracks something awful, and so does my right neck/shoulder. But it is my hip that hurts. It think so many years of retail/grocery/working backstage did me in early.

I feel like everything over 35 has been really downhill, so if at 40 it gets worse, I am not sure I can take it!

I was just reading a fic, and I came across an "eggcorn"- "scotch free" instead of "scot free". Normally those things bug me, but this is sort of hysterical, and frankly makes about as much sense either way!

Cass- those sharks (bull sharks) that can hang out in rivers can CLEARLY live in a lake.

Man, I creak all over. It's a sad, sad thing.