I Feel Old When...

I don't always feel old...but lately it happens. Like today when someone in the teacher's lounge told me she wasn't ALIVE during the Iranian Embassy Hostage Crisis in 1980ish. Um, hello....I know, I know, I was the obnoxious young teacher saying stuff like that about 19 years ago. But now it is ME having that stuff said to me. Oy vey, when did this happen?? So, occasionally I feel old when things like this occur:

1. The younger teachers at school don't show up to a party/gathering until about an hour before I have to go home and take the babysitter home. The sad part is though....that usually I am OK with the fact that I can't stay up until 3 a.m. anymore, lol...

2. Fashion trends from my high school years are all the rage. Seriously, I never WANTED to get rid of my leggings. But I did, and now they're back in. Except you know the saying...if you wore a trend the first time, you are too old to wear it the second time around. I am bitter about that. My body screams for a tunic and leggings....and maybe some really cute patent leather wedges. (Ok, I can still wear those, but in my mind the outfit isn't complete...)

3. I haven't heard of the bands that the younger teachers from #1 talk about at the parties I can barely stay awake at.

4. The drunken, disorderly people at sporting events annoy me instead of amuse me. It used to be funny...now I just wonder what my kids are thinking. Are they amused or freaked out?

5. I understood all the steps of refinancing my mortgage this past month. When did that happen??

6. Some of the sitcoms on prime time televsion make me gasp because of the sexual innuendo they spew at 7:30 p.m. (Oy, vey....and then I have to decide if the boys are listening and if I should shut the tv off! How dare network tv do that to me!)

7. The gray hairs come faster in between coloring processes than they used to. Unfair and very costly....This is why it is good that gray comes later though. I couldn't afford this maintenance and upkeep 10 years ago.

8. I can remember EVERYTHING they discuss on VH-1 "I Love the 80's" and I talk to the tv about it. The really bad part is that it doesn't seem all that long ago...until I do the math. And then I am horrified and need a drink...

9. I am forced to say things to my children like, "When I was your age we didn't have the internet and I had to wait for my parents to drive me to the library to do my research! Get up there to the computer and just do it now!"

10. Students or barely former students Facebook me and I have to tell them that only grown- ups (those high school or older) are allowed on my Friends list. Oy....I'm the gatekeeper now. Shoot me...

I don't feel old usually when I look in the mirror or when I am out having fun....but saying certain things really bring it home. I have been out of high school for 23 years, married for 14 years, teaching for 19 years and my first class of 4th graders are about 27 or 28 years old. Holy crap....It is kind of funny, some days.

Whenever I want to feel really young I think about all the things people would say if I got killed by a bear tomorrow..."Oh, she was ONLY 41!"; "She was so young and had so much left to give!" Blah, blah, blah, and ha ha ha....