Ok, so here I am in my golden years and can’t remember how I got here. Everyday seems I rediscover myself once again, as I can’t pinpoint the day when I got this old.
For instance, yesterday, I confused the hand cream for the hair gel, and you know how it turned out! Well, another wash and rinse of the hair, it’s how. But better yet, the chiggers are really nasty this year and instead of rubbing the tube of anti-itch medication I rubbed the arthritis cream all over my ankles. That was another mess I needed to clean up. And not to mention I went to work one Monday morning with glass cleaner on my neck, as I thought I was spraying with after-bath cologne.
Don’t even ask me where I put the keys, the newspaper, the bills, the checkbook or the car. It reminds me of my youngest when she was about two years old. She had a pacifier she called her “binky” and she would drop it somewhere to pick up something else, walked a little bit, drop and pick up, and continued to do the same thing over and over again. To make matters worse, she starts screaming because she couldn’t find her “binky”. Now I know she picked the habit from me, somewhere in her DNA.
Our library at home takes five bookcases around the living room and I have read all those books once when they were purchased; I’ve started once again with the letter A and presently I’m on letter J re-reading all those books because I can’t remember reading them at all. They are all new to me, now. By the way, if anybody has Janet Evanovich’s Nineteen, let me know because I’m missing it. I probably loaned it, but I can’t remember.
I used to be a sprinter in grade school, and now I can no longer put one foot in front of the other without feeling the pain from my back to my toes. Nobody told me this was going to happen when I got old, and I refuse to acknowledge the lack of elasticity in my bones because I’m afraid somebody will let me know I can no longer act as if I was still 25 years old.
My grandmother was old, and my mother eventually reached the golden years herself. Somehow, I’ve gotten here without pass and go and without collecting $200 – the kids are all grown up, the youngest waiting to be a grandmother herself and now instead of looking forward to the kid’s weddings, I look forward to the grandkids’ weddings, and all of them are either married or engaged by now. Next step, will I be here when the great-grand ones get married? Perish the thought. I read the obituary every week without fail to see how many of my friends are ahead of me; of course, they are old. How did it happen so fast?
So now, I look forward to the day when I can’t remember anything at all, and I can rediscover everything anew! You will no longer be my old friend; you will be my new friend! I won’t remember old slights, or hurts, or words said in anger; I will only create new smiles and receive other smiles in return. I can recount old jokes and read books again and again because I won’t remember reading them once. Or twice.