Friday, April 18, 2008

Time in A Bottle

Hey so here it is, Friday again, which brings up my thesis for the day - time sure flies when you're having fun. And also when you aren't. As we spring chickens get older we learn that there is no point in looking forward to anything; it's here and gone before you can work up a good whoop. I remember when I was a kid and had a dentist appointment (I promise I won't write "I remember when I was a kid" more than twice in any blog) ...it would come up on the calendar way fast, the kind of 'fast' we used to refer to some of the ninth grade girls who wore flats instead of saddle shoes and real lipstick instead of Tangee Natural. A can of Easy Off had nothing on them.

Ah but sitting in the dentist's waiting room, waiting to get drilled - well that would drag on interminably. (yes I know, and no, I am not going there)

Time and its mysteries...when we were v. young, our birthdays were definitely a year apart. Remember? There were 12 months separating one from the next. Now, several birthdays tend to hit me in the space of a couple of years. Seriously. One day I was forty and the next time I looked around I was fifty and menopausal. What happened to a nice year like 46, for example? I can't remember it at all. Talk about fast forward.

You know that time is passing too quickly when you start liking the same photographs you hated the day they were taken. You know the feeling - oh! I look fat! Oh! that is really an ugly picture! Then you take it out of the drawer or flip by it in a scrapbook and think,'hey I didn't look half bad, look how young I am there.'

Of course we aren't aging like everybody else. When I catch Sally Field or Meryl Streep in some recent appearance, I think, wow, they are getting a little old, huh? Not bad for their age but you know, no longer young, like me. I went to a high school reunion not long ago and when I was walking down the hotel corridor to get to the reception I thought "Wow who are all these OLD people? Gosh, pot bellied and bald, and that's just the women...there must be an AARP meeting or a funeral here somewhere," and imagine my shock when I realized they were all walking into MY high school reunion! I was almost sorry for all of them because I knew I looked at least fifteen or twenty years younger than they did. No one commented on it, of course, because they were all either jealous or trying to be polite. I think it was jealousy.

This time thing is freaky, the way everything speeds up. Makes me conscious of wasting any of it. Take today, for example. I took a walk, and then I was going to clean out some rooms, make some labels (you have to find a time to make labels every day or you can't call yourself organized), and instead here I am writing a blog, glancing at another "woman in the car trunk" flick on Lifetime, and reading Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth" (Oprah approved). At least I am multi-tasking but I feel guilty when I'm not accomplishing anything . Thankfully, Eckhart assures me that just "being" is accomplishment enough. Maybe he never spent time in a dentist's waiting room.

2 comments:

Lene Andersen said...

"A can of Easy Off had nothing on them."

Best laugh of the day. Thanks!

Ulster Lynn said...

Hopped over from Lene's place and so glad I did! I laughed in recognition!