Young and Old

My cousin and I were talking the other day about some of our aches and pains.  One of the things we agreed on was restless legs and pins and needles in our feet.  It is getting really sad when one spends at least part of any conversation discussing health problems.

Another thing we agreed on was the fact that even though our bodies were aging and aching, our brains wanted to stay young and were constantly on the outlook for new ideas and things to do.  She is around young people more often than I am so she knows the “in” stuff and people more than I do.  And, I reminded her that on any given day, MS can override my brain and turn it to mush for a length of time.

My husband loves westerns. Old ones, new ones and any other type of western.  He spends most afternoons watching them on the western channel.  I don’t mind.  Some of them I like and when there is one on I don’t, I mess around on the computer, cook or do other little odd jobs.  One of the kinds I don’t like are the really, really old ones.  I just can’t seem to get into them.

It is funny, but the older I get, the more I like modern things.  I used to love to write letters and mail them.  Now, it would be quite a chore to do so.  Many days I can’t hold a pen to write with.  Other days I can hold the pen but it won’t go where I am trying to tell it to.  I would hate to be the recipient of a letter I would write on one of these days.  An email is much easier and the response is so much faster.  I do, however, have some friends I write (type) letters to and correspond with through the postal service.  It is very frustrating to me after having an instant email response.

I also prefer email to using the telephone.  It may be a pride thing, but I hate to try and talk with someone when my thoughts won’t come together and my mouth won’t form words of any known language.  That, too, is very frustrating.

I have decided I am getting old……….or at least becoming one of the older generation.  I say this for several reasons, most of which I will not put in this post.  I have a short list of some to share, though:

(1)    I must be old because I cannot make myself get through the first five minutes of Magic Mike much less watch the whole thing. 

(2)    Going out to the movies seems so unnecessary when the movie will either be on HBO or disk in a few weeks.

(3)    I am satisfied with snacks for meals and don’t need a meat, veggies, salad and dessert to think I have eaten. (Meals are a hassle to figure out with Crohn’s)

(4)    Being near a bathroom when I venture from the house is more important than seeing everything in the store.  (This can also be applied to MS)

(5)    Being at home is a treat rather than a punishment.

Some things my inner self still loves even though I am getting older:

(1)    Loud music.  (It isn’t good if it isn’t loud)

(2)    Crazy clothes.  I can’t seem to make myself shop in the women’s section.  I tend to lean towards the younger styles.  I also like off-beat types of clothes.

(3)    Trying new foods.  When I was young I knew what I wanted to eat and rarely ventured out of the box.  Now I love trying new foods and learning more about how to prepare meals.

(4)    Playing games.  I was an only child in a neighborhood of few children and most were boys.  I learned to play by myself a lot with “pretend” being the main one.  Now there is a whole world of games to play on the interest.  (Big Fish is one of my dearest friends!)

There are many more, but you get the picture.  I guess we all are a mixture of young and old.  I hope that all of us stay more in the young category rather than the old.  One of the sayings when I was young was “don’t trust anyone over 30”.  Can we move that !along to at least 80?!