Getting Older

Since today is my best college friend Suzanne’s birthday, whom I have known for 40 years I can say that we have seen each other literally getting older. Of course Suzanne hardly looks any older as she is probably more beautiful than she was in college and she was gorgeous then. But as a I was talking with her today about her almost 100 year old father she said, “Sometimes I feel old too.”

Now officially we are not “old,” not for this time. If this were fifty years ago we would be considered ancient, but now 70 is the new fifty. Despite not being old there are changes that come with age, some good some bad. The shrinking of my gums is something I don’t think is so good. Despite my teeth being fine, weird stuff like the tiny branches on broccoli trees gets caught in places that won’t come out with flossing or brushing.

Dry, wrinkly skin is also an aging sign. I can moisturize until I resemble a greased pig at a county fair, but that just makes the wrinkles stick together. At least my eyesight is so bad that I can’t see any new wrinkles, brown spots or hairs. Th other day I was sitting in my car in full sunlight and I put on my reading glasses and looked in the rearview mirror and scared myself. Oh my god, what young people can see when they look at me. At least young people don’t look at me. Thankfully I also was not moving because I practically scared myself to death.

Last week the tops of my feet hurt. What in the world is that about. I read something that it was probably my shoes and since I had been wearing the same pair of cute, flat, no-arch-support sneakers for a few days I changed into a more orthopedic shoe and sure enough, the tops of my feet feel fine. I might as well throw most of my shoes away since I have reached the all orthopedic-all the time period in my life.

As long as I can still walk and my brain works well enough to win at games I am good. And if I have my friends aging along with me at least we can keep each other company. Who cares what we look like and what we have stuck in our teeth, we can’t see it and we still are laughing.