The first time I felt really like a geezer, I was a mere 21 years old. At the time, I was the manager at Baskin Robbins in the mall. Of course, every kid that ever thought about looking for a job thought that selling ice cream at the mall would be the coolest job (and I must say, it really was better than pushing greasy fast food). So anyway, a kid came in with a job application, and he was born in 1980. I nearly died!! The kid wasn't even born in the same decade as me!!! I know that he was only five years younger than me, but it had never really even crossed my mind that someone that was born in 1980 would be old enough to have a job. That just sounded so young to me!
When I was 22, I plucked my very first gray hair. You know how people always reminisce about where they were when...? Well, I remember finding my first gray hair like it was some earth shattering event. Chris and I had just started dating, and we had gone to Hilton Head. He was in the bait shop buying squid (how romantic...), and he was taking me on my very first ocean fishing trip. I was sitting in his little Nissan pick-up truck, and I pulled down the visor mirror to take a look - remember, we had just started dating, and this was back in the day that I actually cared about my appearance. Now after 11 years of marriage, he's seen me at my worst! But anyway, there I was, making sure that I was looking presentable, and I saw IT. My first gray hair! I was completely traumatized! (I have so many now, there's no point in even worrying about it any more.
It wasn't long after that when Chris and I got married. One night, we were having date night at the movies. It was somewhere in the dead of winter, and it was really cold outside. We were sitting at a table in the lobby before the movie started, and in comes this girl, I'm guessing she was maybe 15 or 16 years old, wearing men's work pants and a cropped shirt. She had her belly button pierced (did I mention that it was the middle of winter and her stomach was hanging out??), and her black bra straps were showing through her white shirt. I looked at Chris, and I said those deadly old words... "Our kids will NEVER leave the house dressed like that." There it is people! I had officially crossed over...
So my sister is almost seven years older than me, and she was warning me about all of this. She told me that when I turned 30, my body would completely fall apart. (I guess I need to ask her what happens at 40, now that she's hit that lovely milestone...) Well guess what? I didn't even make it to 30! I was 28 when I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis. Yeah, that was a great day at my house...
On top of all of that, I've noticed other things. When I lived with my parents, my mother drove me NUTS! Once I moved out, I realized that the reason that she made me crazy was because I'm just like her! I've found myself saying things to my kids that I swore I'd never say. Things that she used to say to me that I hated, and I swore I'd NEVER say to my kids...
Everyone always used to tell me that time goes by so fast, and the older you get the faster it goes. I didn't get that at the time. When you're a kid, time just drags. It seemed like I was never going to turn 16, or 18, or 21... And when I was 16, 18 was old. When I was 18, 21 was old. Now that I'm a geezer, 95 is old...but I digress... When I was a kid, the school year seemed to drag on for an eternity. Now, I blink and a year has gone by, and I don't know where it went! I'm convinced that some of that has to do with payday (living paycheck to paycheck will do that to you-but then that's MY fault...), and the rest has to do with being a parent. I just had Forrest yesterday, and he's going to be EIGHT YEARS OLD in two weeks... AND he's starting THIRD GRADE next month!! And Emma cut her first tooth last week! What's wrong with this picture??
But all of that being said, I still feel like I've been wishing my life away. I'm horrible with money (thank you God for giving me a husband with financial sense...), so I feel like I really am living paycheck to paycheck. Before I have even gotten one check deposited, I'm already balancing the checkbook to see how much money I'll have after the next payday. That's one thing that makes time go by so fast. Then there's the weekends. I spend the whole work week looking forward to the weekend, which always goes by entirely too fast. On Mondays, it's right back to looking forward to the weekend again... And let's don't forget vacation. It's only the second week of July, and I'm already looking forward to our vacation in August. It's no wonder time is flying! As my wonderful husband likes to say, I can feel my arteries hardening at night...
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