Older Than I Am

This is a phrase I've found myself using more and more frequently over the past ten years or so, usually when I'm talking to my daughters. I'll start to tell them a story, usually something amusing I saw in a store or restaurant. I find myself saying "an older woman (or man)" to describe the person because that's often part of why the story is amusing. You know, old people and their oddities. Then I find myself stopping and clarifying, "you understand I mean older than I am, right?" The thing is, I've never worried about my age. It probably started with my mom's attitude about growing older, "It's better than the alternative!" This was in direct contrast with her mother's belief that a woman should never tell her age. In fact, the one time this gentle woman ever got truly angry was when my mom pushed to know her age and her mother chased her around the dining room table. I think my life has just been too busy to spend much time thinking about it. There was the time when I was at a doctor's office and was asked my age. I had to quickly subtract my birth year from the current year before I could answer. Fortunately, it was a easy subtraction problem. Math is not my strong suit. Now, of course, I know exactly how old I am and wonder how the time went by so quickly, but for the most part I don't feel old. Which why I often refer to other people as "older than I am." I enjoy being the age I am. At some point I realized that I had the right to spend my time on the things that interested me. Consequently, I can't do the TV Guide crossword puzzle, unless they're featuring classic shows, and I can't answer any of the current culture questions on Jeopardy. The thing is that for the most part, I don't want to know them. It doesn't bother me in the least that I don't. If someone I trust recommends a movie or TV show, I'll check it out, so I guess I'm not totally out of the loop. But there is so much that is passing me by. And I happily wave bye-bye!