So, obviously, it's been a while. But that's okay, because I've been really super busy doing very important things. We had a child go to college, a child graduate from college, the same child move down south and go to graduate school, and a long trip overseas for the summer (ok, I did find time to watch the full season of Poldark and all of the episodes of Finding Your Roots on pbs.com, but no judgment, all right?)
In a week or so, I will be turning 50. If you just thought to yourself, "How can this be?", know that I myself am doing the same thing. This aging thing is really weird. I won't blather on about time passing so quickly, or that high school seems like it just happened yesterday, blah blah blah, but here are a few observations I've made recently:
First, my hands look like my mom's. Except her fingernails are way nicer because she was taught to use gloves for things like dish washing and gardening, and I was too 'liberated' as a young woman of the 80's for such things, and now I have fingernails like rubber. I used to look at my mom's hands in church and wonder how the veins could stick up like that, and now I know that it's just a thing that happens in your forties.
Second, fashion trends really and truly do come around again. My daughter took my overalls out of the closet two years ago because they are now 'cool', and then this summer she found an Allen Allen periwinkle linen overall dress (jumper, perhaps?) in there that she squealed with glee over and now she's wearing that - she even snapchatted me a picture of herself in it (it looks fantastic - it was one of my favorites for much of the nineties.) Also, 'yoga pants' - these are actually just leggings with loose calves. Good thing I saved my gigantic U of A sweatshirt from the 80's to wear with those!
Third, now that my kids are relatively grown up (which is a weird thing itself), I am considered a 'successful parent' because they have actually turned out pretty well, which means they still love us and talk to us and come home sometimes, and they aren't presently in jail or on probation. When people compliment me by telling me I have done such a good job mommying, I feel like I've gotten away with something, or that I've secretly played a trick on the world.
Fourth, I have noticed that I sometimes think / occasionally say things that a grumpy old person would say. So far I haven't yelled at anyone to "Stay off my lawn!" (they can't! we have a fence, thank God), but I often think/mutter things when I am driving around town or am in Target. I suspect it's partly because as one gets older, one doesn't care as much what people think. It's almost like I feel I've earned the right to be a self-righteous, judgmental snob. I know I'm not the only one who does this - I have read the Facebook rants of many others. So far, to my credit, I am safe because I don't post things on Facebook very often, and I mostly drive alone.
There are a few youthful things I will continue to hold on to as I enter my next decade: pop tarts, Rainbow flip flops, squirting whipped cream directly into my mouth, and video games, to name just a few. Happy birthday to me!
