I had to deliberately work against the Stepford current; make myself not do stuff and get interested in other things instead. Some things were so bad that they actually made me laugh at how difficult they were. I remember working hard to decide which piece of meat was the "largest" and deliberately giving my husband the smaller piece and me the larger piece (the man/husband MUST have the larger piece! :-) and how I was laughing so hard at how ridiculous it was I told my husband and he couldn't believe it either and was laughing too.

Laugh at your Stepford self and tell people besides us! Tell your husband to "save you" from yourself and get other people into the act. We all make a joke about how my daughter-in-law does laundry all the time.

The aging thing is harder. I would tell you not to "cheat" and look back but stay where you are in time; it's "cheating" to me because you have this whole picture of how you "use" to be and we don't get whole pictures of how we are, don't have to face things all-at-once but only over time. I found my image of the future and what aging would be like is very very different than the actual experience too (I'm 60), even though I had grandparents and parents close to me living into their 80's so thought I "saw" and knew what the experience was like.

What helps/ed me is remember how, when I was 6, I use to go to the beach and couldn't wait to get in the water first thing; I literally could not imagine what was with the adults who wanted to lay on the sand (not fun at all) instead of get in the water! Now, of course, I can imagine the adult side Things change from what we imagine the future will be like to what our individual actual experience is! There are not just bad things about being older, a lot of the angst of being younger goes away and self confidence and a "calmness" steps in that is just about worth any price. It's okay at the end of a ride to look back and realize you really enjoyed it but remember too how frightened you were during! It's easy to be nostalgic when you are "safe" after an experience.