Excuse Me While I Disappear: Tales of Midlife Mayhem

by Laurie Notaro

People act poorly because other people have let them act poorly, and they have been able to get away with it for a lifetime.

leave it to an invisible woman to yell so loud when it counts that no force can drown her out.

The thing is that, mentally, I don’t feel any different than I did when I was twenty-seven and, to be honest, that was basically yesterday. I am still the same person. I still laugh at the same jokes, eat the same food, and like the same kind of movies. I am still Laurie. But now, every morning, I wake up and try not to pop a disk in my back just by getting out of bed. I must be careful not to move my body other than as a unit, because I can now actually break it.