No Longer a Fantasy

     I can remember receiving an invitation to join AARP at the age of 48.  To consider I was a senior was unthinkable and only happened certainly after retirement, which seemed light years away.   I laughed at the suggestion that the cell phone of my generation was called the jitterbug with capabilities only to make and receive phone calls in large print, and to announce to a long standing fast food line, that I needed a senior coffee reflected insanity.  The use of Lady Clairol was products of my parent's generation and my use of L'Oreal Preference then upgraded to Feria was only to enrich and enhance my hair color.

There was no major motivation to cover the massive gray appearing but rather the few that popped up now and again, usually caused (I thought) by parenting teens.  Reading glasses, heart, joint, and brain vitamins, arthritis creams, and anti-aging cosmetic formulas were for older others, certainly not me, until today, 10 years later!

When did it happen, how did it happen, why did it have to happen?  I can only imagine my fairy godmother had dementia and when she waved that magic wand for transformation to a younger me it all backed fired and suddenly senior was what I awoke to at the stroke of midnight!

These last 10 years seemed to have stopped and I suddenly awoke from a coma to discover I'm not only a senior but one who no longer wants to upgrade.  As I sit at my computer facing the dreaded pop-up window asking to install the newest upgrade to one of my most favorite programs, I contemplate whether I will recognize anything on the page ever again.

 I am constantly confronted with spyware and trojans that the programs I have just don't seem to eliminate, which sometimes makes working on a computer stressful certainly not user friendly.  What frightens me most is after the change and I click the mouse to install it, I am no longer able to navigate what turns up on the screen.

Please don't ask me how I got Google, AOL, Yahoo, Ask, Webroot, or any of the other 10 toolbars on my Internet site.  And if I were taking an exam to cover some of the technologies that have taken place these last ten years I would probably only get one answer correct, that would be "OMG" a three letter text abbreviation for "Oh, my God"...the expression I am often feeling with this ever changing world of cyberspace.

We only have ourselves to blame for in trying to save money, we bought into a program of text messaging for our children which kept cell phone calling affordable.  I recently had to spend another $10 to my cell phone bill, as my younger daughter, stopped answering her phone calls and in order to keep in touch I had to text. 

Then in order to understand her response back to "please drive carefully and responsibly" I got "UG2BK!"  What the hell does that mean, which led me to invest in a periodic TEXT MESSAGE TABLE for valuable text conversation of "You've got to be kidding?"

Kidding I'm not...by the time I had put 80 songs on my Ipod Nano that held, I believe, 200 songs, they had created the Nano of 5000 songs and video capabilities.

Books are now downloaded to a small screen computer called the kindle.  Cell phones, not only do they take your pictures, but do almost everything else available to a technological guru.  The flipping up, down, across, in and out, only makes me dizzy and in order to read not only the numbers but who might be calling on my cell without finding my reading glasses, the jitterbug is sounding more like the phone I need.  "OMG" how awful is that!

I have come to another crossroad in my life, how to be comfortable in my skin.  It may take awhile, as it is all new and I'm not quite sure I like it.  It certainly won't include gray hair just yet, comfort in gray for me will take time, but I am willing to consider senior moments, as they are happening more frequently and I'm not embarrassed by them, they only make me "LOL".  I use to think that meant "Lots of Love" until my older daughter used it in a message on facebook and "Lots of Love" made no sense.  If you are looking to feel comfortable in your skin come join me and we can grow comfortable together with laughs at our everyday situations including our over sized Prince Charmings and the realities of aging fantasies. "HB!"