The old grey mare, she ain’t what she used to be. But she can still do anything good.

It has been a long week. My husband was travelling for work, which made it feel even longer. All day Tuesday I thought it was Thursday, which was kind of distressing. Then the same thing happened on Wednesday; I was doing some work and I thought that’s strange, the computer’s date is off. March 9th is a Wednesday, and today is Thur…oh shit. By the time Thursday actually came around it was kind of anti-climatic.

Thursday was the Junior High Open House, and since my husband was not yet home, I took both boys, which means that one of them is now super excited for next year, and the other is wishing that he also was starting at the cool school with the Industrial Arts room and a cafeteria in September. Don’t wish your life away, boys, I want to say to them, but I also am caught up in the excitement of a school with three floors! And so much awesome stuff in it! Like a real, light-up score board in the gym! And a stage that will be used as a stage instead of a classroom because, unlike the elementary school they are currently attending, this school is not grossly overcrowded!

It does make me feel a bit long in the tooth, however. Junior High! Earlier in the week I went to the mall to pick up a baby gift and also some more of that Powerful-Strength Line-Reducing Eye-Brightening Concentrate from Kiehl’s. As usual, the mall was filled with obviously-pregnant women and women with toddlers and women who fell into both camps. Maybe it was the contrast between their youthful radiance and glowing fecundity, maybe it’s just my old-crone-ness, but I bustled into Kiehl’s to grab my eye cream and the attendant came over to me right away with a I love a project! look on her face. “Oh,” she said, “You already know what you want. Okay, let me give you some samples I think you’ll like!”

Sure! I love samples. It wasn’t until I got home that I looked at them: three different wrinkle creams and one hand cream specifically designed for cracked, aging skin.

Cue the sad violin of doom. Not that I’m not going to try them, mind you. I need all the help I can get.

I was getting a pedicure today, a rare treat. As I chatted with the young esthetician, I mentioned something about my kids. “Oh!” she said, “Are they in high school or university?”

Now, I realize that it is perfectly possible for me to have high school and/or university aged children. I realize that many women my age do, in fact, have children of that age. I recently learned that my own cousin, who is only a few months older than me, is going to be a grandmother. So I know, I really do, that this is not in any way something terribly unusual or crazy.

But still. It actually felt a little odd telling her that my kids were in grades five and six and if she felt awkward at all about assuming that my children were possibly grown adults, she didn’t show it.

Well. Aging is a good thing, it really is. As the esthetician slipped on my sandals before applying polish, she complimented me on them and asked where I bought them. And that’s when I told her that I had purchased those sandals in 1997, for a post-graduate trip to Mexico with some girlfriends. She smiled and told me that those sandals were almost as old as she was!

It seems to be a conspiracy this week. It reminded me of the day I popped into the liquor store to pick up a bottle for a friend, and there, on the counter, were pre-packaged shooters that reminded me of my semi-nefarious youth. Butter Ripples! Fireballs! Sex on the Beach! Remember back in the day when you would go out dancing, probably wearing a bodysuit and high-waisted jeans, drinking vodka slimes, and some guy would buy you a Sex on the Beach? Or a Screaming Orgasm? Oh, those were the days. But I looked at the pre-packaged shooters and laughed a little. “Do people actually buy these?” I asked the guy at the counter. He smiled at me, and very gently said, “Well, the younger crowd does.”

I take your point, sir. I take your point.

**************

If you need a little boost, I suggest you watch this little video that my yoga teacher posted. We should all be more like Jessica! I can do anything good! Come on, repeat after me! I can do anything good!