There was another running ‘theme’ in the day and that was all about getting up there in AGE. I picked up Neal’s cousin’s wife, Lisa, from the airport and we headed straight to Market Square in The Woodlands. As we leisurely shopped around (which I haven’t done in YEARS) I noticed every time I kept showing her something and then the price she would shake her head and say, “I can’t read that.” Finally I realized that to see the small print she had to put on her ‘readers’ and after awhile it became a running joke.
Now, I’m sure by just explaining that you could mistakenly picture Lisa as an elderly woman, or at least someone who gets to take advantage of Tuesday Sr Citizen deals. 😉 She would kill me if she imagined you were all doing that because honestly she is the GORGEOUS, extremely fit, Italian woman who is not near being a Sr. Citizen…but has lived long enough to watch the trends in decades change oh, 4, close to 5 times.
Why am I focusing on ‘age’? Because we had this amazing conversation about how we feel about certain birthday’s and the fear that arises when you realize almost half of your life has been lived and then we are faced with making sure to live the most of the life we have left because there seems to be no more comfort in leeway of time. I have another friend who is days from 40 whom we met up with her later in the afternoon and it was clear she wanted to ‘ignore’ this birthday. But I look at her and I see, again, another gorgeous woman who would not pass for 40 if her life depended on it, she honestly could be turning 30.
Finally we get to dinner and another friend joined us telling us this story that happened while she was having a ‘women’s night out’ at a wine bar. It was just two of them at the time (and yes, they happen to be swimming somewhere in the 40’s) when this very handsome gentleman (who, though handsome, was probably taking a dip in his 50’s) came up to them. They got all excited thinking, “Wow, we’ve been here 10 minutes and we are being hit on!” He leaned down so they could hear him (because music is loud in there) and said, “Do either of you have any readers? I can’t read the menu.” Stunned, one of the women responded, “I don’t know whether to be more mortified that you are assuming we have readers or that we actually have them.” He tried to redeem himself by saying, “Oh, these must only be a .5, I use a 2.5.” After that some young man who was evidently on a date at the next table suddenly came over once his date went to the bathroom and got right in their face asking, “Do you have any mints or gum? I need it really bad.” They couldn’t contain themselves from the absurdity of the evening but gave the guy some gum and then moments later got to see a nice show of public display of affection.
The story was too funny I just had to share but it was crazy how literally through the day the running them was this age issue. I had never truly thought about my age because I think for so many years I assumed I was going to die young. I’m pretty certain that was brought on by the death of Joe and then 4 other young friends right after him. But now that I seemed to have passed this ‘mark’ in my mind of what really being ‘young’ is…I see that, hey, I’m still alive. And after my ‘scares’ of death in such a short period of time I realize that it’s not likely God wants me to go anywhere anytime soon. So I need to embrace getting older.
But I’ll forever be young in mind and spirit. 🙂
Blessings
Shannon