Thursday, August 14, 2008

I'm rethinking this age thing...

When my headlights pulled out of my driveway this morning, I had to turn on my windshield wipers the raindrops were starting to accumulate beyond a mere drizzle. I turned the volume up on my radio and began the trek to work. The radio announcer cleared his voice and spoke the phrase only a truly confident man can, “There is no chance of rain in the forecast today, highs are in the upper 70’s…”

Hmmmmm, those are rain drops I see, aren’t they? Forgot, there for a second, whether or not I was fully awake. Must be that he’s special, doesn’t have to be right or wrong at work, just shows up.

Hey! You! I’m counting down now the day’s in which I will forever leave my formative years and plod the downwards path towards inexistence that we know as “old age”. But I’m starting to get used to the perks.
Oh, I’ll have tons of posts ranting on the unfairness of things like GRAVITY, and menopause and the way that the hands of time fly off the clock and down to the floor it flies by so fast. But for now, I have been psyching myself up for the big turn of the ½ century event. Five-Oh.

Perk #1. I don’t really have to hear a thing. Seems quite innocent really, speak the hell up, my dear, I can’t hear you whining, complaining, or asking me to pass you the salt or refresh your coffee or where the screwdriver is. I’m becoming hard of hearing. It was all the rock n roll of my early youth and my 30’s. I blame the WalkMan.

Perk #2. I don’t really “want” any gifts. I buy my own clothes, in fact I love to shop. I am trying to rid my home of the clutter that is the accumulation of the “stuff” that I couldn’t part with, the home décor, hobby items and kitchen gadgets that I found so interesting, but now see no need for. Simplify, simplify. Every day, throw away!

Perk #3. I’m in no big hurry. Now that may be the largest and most meaningful perk yet. I used to be a speed demon. Drove my car at a rip roaring speed, up and down the driveway! Had a little bit of road rage driving to work behind some slow poke ol lady driver going below or just at the speed limit. Guess what? THAT’S ME!
I’m in no hurry to clean the whole house on the same day, or to pay all my bills as soon as my paycheck is deposited. I no longer organize my junk drawer on a yearly basis. I’m in no hurry…no one judges me on how clean my junk drawer is anyway. I’m no hurry behind the lady with 4 pre-school aged kids in the grocery store who is taking forever to find her debit card. The kids are amusing, cute and hey, what the heck do I have to hurry home for? I’m slowing down a little. Slowing down until I stop? No, not this year, but slowing down to smell the roses I should have smelled for the last 49 years.

So, HEY YOU readers. (oh who’m I kidding? Readers plural? ) Take a chill will ya !

4 comments:

Susan said...

Perk#1--yeah, right there with ya,except it's the DH who doesn't hear a damn thing I say the first time. I'm not sure if he's just the typical male who doesn't hear half of what the wifey says, or it's just an annoying habit for him to automatically say "What?" in a distracted voice, or is he really going deaf?

Perk#2--I really hate getting gifts. My friend next door gets me stuff from Bath and Body Works for birthdays and Christmas. I give every stinkin' bit of it to my daughter, because the smell gives me an instant headache. DD loves it though and doesn't want me to tell my friend.

Perk#3--My patience level with slow-moving people has increased exponentially with my advancing age (55 and counting). Keeps down the stress level.

Lisa said...

You have more than 1 reader. I read your post, my brain just can't formulate a comment. Besides, I'm playing catch-up.

Robin said...

I need to learn #3!

Mary Buek said...

Life only gets better after 50. . . happy birthday when it happens.