BY LOIS DESOCIO

For a year now, Julie and I have been building this blog bit by bit; bite by bite. What started as light dinner conversation, over martinis and wine and foie gras (or french fries), turned into, over time, a mission to create not only an outlet for all our banter and our newly discovered facts of life, but a forum. A forum for all of us who are lucky enough to hit the big 5-0 and beyond.

Fortified by more-than-we-can-count-follow-up dinners in Manhattan, and random conversations struck up with not only friends, but with 50-year-old strangers in strange places (the line at motor vehicle, the neighboring stool at a dive bar, the sidewalk with a fellow dog-walker), we noticed that we were all strung together by a unique and definitive voice that echoed some kind of intangible change in everything about ourselves – both good and not-so-good. Not unlike any group that is in the trenches together, there is a collective camaraderie that has often led to a borderline frenetic, unedited exchange of stories about what life becomes in your 50s. One thing for sure emerges – we all, men and women alike, feel it.

I’m a writer; Julie is an artist. We want to put all of our experiences into words, and Julie’s images bring those words to life.

We’re excited to share with you. I, a perfectionist to a fault, was stockpiling Julie’s unebbing flow of new ideas with, “OK this is great – we’ll put it in the queue.” She kept delivering – I kept queing. Maybe we’ll even launch it someday! First we have to do this, and this, and …

… then it hit me. I said, “What are we waiting for?” The “big one” can hit at any moment. We’re old! So come aboard. Check out what we’re all About, and Who we are. Read, write back, rant and revel with us, arm-in-arm, through the Write Side of 50.