Friday, October 15, 2010

Youthful

At my reunion last weekend, we looked around at each other and thought, "man, we haven't changed a bit!"  I look the same, you look the same, we both feel 18 still.  We're doing pretty well with this aging bit.

Then a classmates Mom sees us at the football game, and she starts laughing at us.  "The same?!"  She says.  "You guys look so different.  Much older!"  We got a good laugh.  She looked older too.  But I'm thinking to myself, much older...hopefully just 10 yrs older, right?

Watching the cheerleaders and the drill team and the football players made Alex and I realize that she was in fact right.  We don't look 18 any more.  But sometimes we feel like it!

Last night I felt youthful again.  I put on my cool jeans and we went to the Belle and Sebastian concert with two cool friends from church.  For their first anniversary, they gave each other identical gifts, 2 tickets to see Belle and Sebastian.  Resulting in 4 tickets.  Isn't that the cutest thing ever?

When over for our monthly church young adult lunch, they heard Belle and Sebastian playing and voila. The rest was history.  It was a hipster crowd for sure.  Before the concert began, I enjoyed seeing what all the cool 20 somethings are wearing these days and what apps they have on their iphones (our seats gave us a great view of many screens.  They were in our line of view, I promise.  No stalking here. :-)



We sat there with our old clamshells in our pockets and tried to conserve our energy.  Truth be told, we were out way past our bedtimes.  Because I think we are old.  I think 3.5 years ago, at the birth of our first child, we aged 1,000 years.  We made an irreversible change.  We will now forever have our cell phones in our pockets on vibrate in case the babysitter needs to get us in the middle of the show.  Our minds will always wander from the music and energy and wonder if our children are snug tight in their beds.  And as I quasi noodle and dance among the other concert goers, I think of how I'm going to embarrass the heck out of our daughters in a just a few years as I break down dancing to the radio while driving carpool.    

Last night I felt simultaneously 18 and 108.  The spirit and fun and amazement of an 18 year old as I grooved with an awesome band and the responsibility of an 108 year old as I thought about my children, their future and their health.  

It feels funny to be 18 and 108 at the same time.  But I'm sure you can relate.


3 comments:

Dorry said...

Love this - I totally feel 18 and then I see high-schoolers and get a good reminder. I do think, however, that everyone at the reunion looked fabulous and 10 years has actually done us some good. :) Glad you and Alex had a fun night at a hipster concert! Pretty cool if you ask me. I was in bed at 9:45PM.

Molly said...

funny. i feel about 45 most of the time, you know, the mom of a teenager. hopefully i don't look 45. in fact, i think i'd be ok with looking my age rather than my students with whom i'm often confused.
and, emily, don't worry if you embarress the girls with your dancing, you know i'll be righ there dancing with you. at least you've progressed from raising the roof to the noodle. noodling does us all some good, i think it has proven mental health benefits.

Lauren said...

i salute you. i haven't noodled in a long, long time. i was at work in the ER when someone turned on pandora in the doc work area. dispatch started playing. enter the flashbacks to lex! and then I started noodling in my seat. then I wondered if I looked silly or - egads - unprofessional...and my noodling was stiffled. long live the noodling! =)