Monday, August 15, 2016

Guest Blogger MARISA ROSS: Party Like It's 1993


My 39th year of life was really tough on my husband. I lamented every day that my life was over!  Ow! My knee hurts! Ugh! I have a twitchy stress eye.

In some ways a lot of my life was over. My chubby Horizon High school teen years marred by theater try-outs and boyfriend drama was thankfully in the past. To make up for it, I filled my awesome skinny 20’s with reckless abandon!  I convinced, Elyzabeth to get into an unmarked van to babysit for the mafia in New Jersey.  Shari and I danced the nights away using fake names at 40 Deuce in LA. I partied it up at premier parties while writing my Spygirl column for Jane magazine.  My 20's is when I started my career working as a casting assistant pulling all-nighters at the office. I spent hours and hours perfecting now defunct skills like hitting record on 7 VCRs at a time and manually typing actor contracts on carbon paper.


My 30’s were a blur. I got married in a crazy 4-day German beer fest. I opened my own casting office in LA and had a baby. I worked long, LONG hours.  I had another baby. I had the time of my life casting a huge hit comedy tv series while having kid number 3.  The baby weight crept on….. And then…..poof.

I was 39.

Shit.

This is where my non-stop year-long lamenting started. For my 39th year of life, I found myself in a new city, Chicago, with our three little boys, opening a new casting office and whining to my husband everyday that Chicago was cold and I was old! My youth was gone!

So, what should I do for my 40th birthday?

I decided to do what any rational over-stressed working mom would do. I planned a prom.

My inspiration came from the one accidental friend I had in Chicago: my childhood best friend and senior year prom date. We reconnected once I moved to Chicago and it turns out I adore his husband just as much as him!  So I thought- let’s party like its 1993 all over again- alongside my old prom date and officially close out my youth!

So plan a prom I did. I had a DJ, homemade King and Queen posters, loads of Zima, a 90’s themed menu, and of course the balloon arch. That damn balloon arch took all day to build!
BUT my second prom was, as I would have said in 1993  “awesomesauce!”   We danced and danced and I even puked later that night in a gay after-hours dance club- just like I was 18 all over again.

So guess what, I am 40. I told Facebook which, you know, makes it a fact.  The strange thing is...I feel ok about starting the second half of my life. I have three awesome little boys and a German husband whom I adore. My casting office in Chicago has really taken off.  My computer is a whole lot faster than 7 vcr's and carbon paper contracts. I've stopped whining to my husband about the weather and bought an unflattering warm winter coat. I might never be able to wear my skinny jeans again, but they are stored away in the basement – because it’s good to have goals!

I feel good. 40 feels good.

Except my arthritic knee and twitchy stress eye.

4 comments:

  1. What better way to embrace 40 than with a prom?! Bravo! :)

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  2. I am so scared of 40. Happy to see you ushered it in with such grace.

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  3. I still have several years to go before 40, but I have a few friends who have said 40 was their best year yet!

    It sounds like you had a kick ass 40th birthday :)

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  4. I turned 37 this year, I am starring at forty and feeling old :D

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