Sorry...?

[liralen]

I'm posting a lot today, sorry about that...

... but... John said I had to post this, so I shall.



Last night, while I was in the line to get into the caucus, a lady and I were talking for a while as we were thrown together as we were sorted into our registration lines. We were both saying that we hadn't ever caucused before, and that it was kind of cool and then she said that she'd probably had a lot more chances than I had.

I wasn't sure what to say to that other than, "Uhm.. maybe..."

She smiled matronly at me and said, "Well, how old are you?... You can't be much more than 20..."

I blinked. "Uhm. I'm.. uh... 44." I hesitated because I had to calculate it in my brain...

The shocked look on her face was priceless. It was pretty obvious that she hadn't meant it as just a compliment or just a flattery. She really, really thought I was in my early twenties. "You can't... no, uhm, I mean... " she was pretty flustered.

"Really... thank you. It's okay, I still get carded," I said wryly. No reason to embarrass her about it.

"Wow... you are so... "

"Lucky. I mostly call it luck." I said, giving her a way out.

"You are. Very lucky indeed. I would never have guessed..." she shook her head, and then we were at the head of the line where they'd just about run out of registration cards...

It's odd. I've been feeling older than dirt lately. Someone's mom asked me if I had my hair highlighted to get those even strands of white through it. She was equally flabbergasted when I said it was natural... you're too young to have white hair, she said. The doctor at the allergy clinic was flabbergasted when I said I was retired, and he told me that I was too young to do that, but I have. I wonder if that's part of what's making me feel so old and tired in some ways.

Been through the business battles, led people (some of whom were much more skilled than I, nothing is as humbling as having someone lay skills better than mine ever could be at my feet for me to use), got bloodied, and then kept going at it and we got through to quite the prize... but the cost has been so high... and it was so hard to leave my people behind. I just feel so old and look so young and still probably have so much ahead of me. It's just an interesting and odd kind of place to be.

Comments

Heh...

[izzylobo.livejournal.com]

Try finding out if University of Colorado at Boulder has a gaming club.

Nothing makes you feel weirdly old/young as hanging out with a bunch of undergrads (who, at this point, could some of them be my kids without it being weird and "you could have at least graduated High School... and that aside is really convoluted, but I'm leaving it the way it is) and gaming with them.

It's even more amusing when some of them proclaim, quite loudly, that there is no way I could be so close to celebrating my black balloon birfday, because , well, I just couldn't be over thirty yet....

(me, with my temples coming in all Reed Richards, only it's the whole side of my blooming head, and not just little silver patches over the ears.... Although, the fact that I'm lighter now than I was at thirty might help).

I take the complements when I can get them, these days....

Re: Heh...

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*grin*

Yes. You take 'em where you can get 'em. I'll be at a mini gaming con next month, I'll see how it goes. *laughter*

[incandescens]

That is rather neat. :)

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*grin* It is.

[beckyb.livejournal.com]

I recently had the experience of people thinking I was in my mid-twenties and in my mid-fifties. On the same day. It was mostly people thinking I was like them, whatever that was. Age is elastic.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Wow... perception of age does seem to be very elastic... it's interesting that your folks just thought for them to be like them. That's pretty cool.

[archangelbeth]

*beth asks, self, how old am I?*
*self replies, about 27, maybe 29*
*beth does math. self, you are off by nearly 10 years there*

Age is weird. Yay for boggling people!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Wow... I love your self conversation. *grin*

Age is weird. Yay for bogglement!

I don't know how old my self thinks it is... there's a friend I have who does past lives therapy and he's promised me a free session sometime. I should do that, just to see what comes up. *laughter*

[silkiemom.livejournal.com]

So, were you wearing the boots at the time? :)

The last time I bought wine (for Thanksgiving) I wasn't carded. Sniff!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I was not wearing my boots at the time. Maybe if I had... nah....

Sniff! How sad about the non-carding. They usually do that to you, too, I bet. *grin*

[kjc007.livejournal.com]

Working at the comic shop, age and time-frames come up a LOT.

People consistently express shock that I'm 37 (they guess MUCH younger). Now, whether that's because 37-year-olds are too old to work at comic shops or whether I look young (which many people say I do, but I think it's just because I don't have any kids to artificially age me :-) or because my clients have been reading so many comics that their eyes are goin' bad, I'm not sure.

When I was younger, people always assumed I was older (VERY serious looking child and teen, that lasted well into my 20s) and I never got carded until after I was 21. My Mother used to say I was born 45, so I figured that when I reached ~23, things would even out. And I was right! After 23, people started guessing my age all over the place.

Now the guesses hover around late 20s, early 30s.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Hee. Very cool. Yay! I'm not the only one! *dance* *dance* *dance*

[kjc007.livejournal.com]

Not the only one!

Maybe it's cuz we treat life as both thinky and funny.

*grins*

[liralen.livejournal.com]

We do. THAT is very cool.

*hugs*

[outintexas.livejournal.com]

Well, okay, you DO have to admit that 44 is awfully young to be 'retired' :-)

(you have no idea how much I wish I could retire some days... in fact, it's the reason I play the lottery, just hoping for getting the OPTION to retire!)

It sounds to me like Universe has heard you feeling so 'old' inside, and is tapping you on the forehead to let you know how young you still are. There's lots of living yet to do.

When I was out having drinks for my Birthday last weekend, some friend-of-a-friend got stuck talking to me. Well, she didn't seem to perceive it that way, but I did, because I couldn't imagine why this young 20-something would want to be talking to an old fart like me. She finally got around to asking my age (which birthday is this?) and was literally shocked by the answer. She thought I was maybe 32 (only off by 11 years!). Of course, the shock was reversed, when she said she was 28 and I had imagined her being 22-24 tops.

And so it goes :-)

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Well... okay... I'll admit it, I'm way young to be retired. I get my retirement shock and my mid-life crisis all in one package. *grin*

Yeah... I like your tapping theory...

And, hey, you're interesting, as a person. You're nice and fun to talk with from what I remember, I can see why she'd want to talk with you. *grin* I like talking to you and it's not just to trade old-fogey stuff. *laughter* Maybe I should remember that, too. But, yeah, age guessing is really hard.

So it goes...