Laurie Notaro book looks at aging and navigating midlife

Laurie Notaro, journalist and bestselling author, discusses her book, “Excuse Me While I Disappear: Tales of Midlife Mayhem,” which is a collection of essays on aging and navigating midlife.

Notaro riffs on her unpreparedness for navigating life after turning 50 and the surprising benefits of getting older in this tongue-in-cheek memoir.

“Now that I’m older and I realize that I have disappeared to most of the people on the planet, at first it was very daunting and very disappointing, but then I realized that this is a superpower. This is a total superpower. I can get away with so much more now than I did when I was 27,” Notaro said.

Notaro said she is the same Laurie that she’s always been but more amplified. There is a certain freedom in getting older that no one touches on, Notaro said.

Notaro believes that becoming smarter and more experienced goes hand in hand. With more time on earth and age, more experiences and wisdom come from it.

“You become smarter the more experiences you have, and like I say, I learn something every day,” Notaro said.

Notaro said this book was easier to write than her last book because she simply did not care what people thought about it.

What does the title mean?

“People don’t see you. I fully believe that I could walk out of Costco with a deep freeze, just waving an old Safeway receipt. I could totally do that,” Notaro said.

What is the writing process like?

“There is no muse. You have to sit down and go to work just like anybody else. And that is a thing,” Notaro said. “I have no tolerance or patience for people who just freeze up at the computer; just get to work.”

Notaro shared this tidbit: she takes notes in her phone for things she wants to incorporate in her books.