deborahjross | Thank you...

imhilien and everyone else who wished me good things on my birthday. I never expect anyone to remember, so it's a delightful surprise when people do.

I did throw myself a big shebang -- or rather, asked my lovely spouse to organize it for me -- when I turned 60. The icon is from my "croning ceremony." Which sounds on the surface like an odd thing for a nice Jewish/Quaker lady to do, but was absolutely perfect, both in terms of personal milestone, community celebration, and spiritual clarity. I suspect the next big one will be 70, and we'll have another grand party then. 65, and signing up for Medicare, just sounds like hassle.

My present to myself, long overdue, was to finally get effective treatment for my Restless Leg Syndrome. I've had it, on and off, since my 20s, when no one had heard of it and my doc had to look it up in a book; now it's much better known, and its effects on quality sleep are appreciated. Over time, it steadily got worse in frequency of episodes, intensity and duration. It seemed to be getting better after menopause, better in the sense that "all it took" was 10 minutes wandering around the kitchen, putting away dishes (at 2 am). But I was doing that every single night, and recently it wasn't 10 minutes, it was 2 hours.

Enter ropinirole (generic Requip); I'm on the minimum starting dose, and have not had a single intimation of a twitch in 3 weeks. Some trouble falling asleep, and early waking, which could be due to stress, but overall feeling 'energized.' Exceptionally vivid dreams, and greatly increased morning energy. As a young adult, I used to bound out of bed, full of vim and Plans For The Day. Now I'm getting a little bit of that back -- where did it go?