I hate to be a complainer, but winter does seem to have sent one too many “worser than we’ve had for years” wind and snow storms this year. Last Wednesday evening we were driving home from a late class and the Honda got stuck near the entrance to the neighborhood, right where the roads begin to climb the hillsides. Luckily I had on my winter boots and down jacket and was able to make it home on foot without too much duress. During the following morning cleanup, however, Hubby took a spill on the ice in the driveway. He’s okay, but it made him a bit sore for a few days I think. He’s not one to complain (unlike me) but I think he’s about ready for sunny and snowless weather too. We need a vacation! but then, who doesn’t?

The point of pointing out how gripey I’ve been feeling is that it’ll enable you to better understand how exhilarated I was to have a phone call from a friend Thursday afternoon inviting both my daughter and me to accompany her and a host of women friends to a performance of “Menopause the Musical” now running in downtown SLC.

According to the printed promos, this hilarious celebration of women and “the change” began on March 28, 2001 in a tiny 76-seat perfume-shop-turned-theater in Orlando, Florida. It features four women at a Bloomingdale’s lingerie sale with nothing in common except a black lace bra and hot flashes, night sweats, memory loss, chocolate binges, not enough or too much sex, and more.

If you didn’t enjoy classic baby-boomer classics like “I Heard It Thru The Grapevine” you no longer see 39, and “Stayin’ awake, stayin’ awake,” you may not enjoy these and  23 more parodies either. At the end of the play, the actors brought women from the audience onto the stage to join in the fun of dancing and singing. Those of us in the balcony just swung and kicked in our seats. The part of the evening that really stayed with me was the sense of “being in it altogether” and being assured “we’re not the only ones!” with the other roughly 97% of the audience, a sisterhood of a certain age!

Even though my daughter is a fer piece (as they say back home) from the M word, she laughed as hard or harder than the others of us older ladies who understood the pokes and jokes all too well. Now, seeing a play–even a rollicking one like this–isn’t quite the same as a vacation trip to Hawaii, but it sure gave me a much needed uplift and a whole lot of belly laughs!

I’m fully aware that many of you reading this do not live in SLC, but “Menopause the Musical” is currently playing in 13 other cities throughout the United States: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, and Upland (California). If you’re in the vicinity of any one of these and could use a lift or just like to laugh, organize a group of friends, shanghai your hubbies or significant others, (there were a few men there!) and go see “Menopause the Musical.”