One of my favorite movies is “Gross Pointe Blank”. It features John Cusack as a hit man who has lost his ”taste” for killing. John’s character Martin Blank undergoes a career crisis while trying to reconnect with a lost love and figure out the meaning of life. This re-living of and re-lieving of past teenage angst occurs for Martin during his trip home to Gross Pointe, MI to attend his tenth class reunion. While my tenth reunion wasn’t comedic film noir there definitely were some surreal elements…like wow we were all adults able to legally drink together…at a bar…instead of some farmer’s field! Amazing!
How weird the number is now the big “2-oh”. When did this aging happen? How can I be twenty years out of high school, and still be the same silly person who laughs too loud at body noises? When does one become an adult?
Next question: what do I say when someone asks, “How are you?” Do I give them a heriditary hemochromatosis update, assuming that the asker knows about my disease and wants said update? Do I answer with “fine” and leave it a that…assuming that the asker knows nothing about the HH and probably wouldn’t want to discuss health issues like old people discussing their latest aches and pains. (I mean we can save that for the 30th reunion, right?)
So in honor of the upcoming festivities I decided to make a list of stuff I’ve done in the past ten years. Not in any especial order. Just stuff.
PS : as this memory exercise is probably more exciting for me than YOU…you have no obligation to me, dear blog reader, to keep reading this…
In the past ten years I…
Saw Paul McCartney in concert, went up in the St. Louis arch, camped in the Smokies (Smokey National Park has no shower facilities…be warned!), learned how to cook cheese cake, decided I believed in God, taught high school, ran 15 miles at one time, started grad school, dropped out of grad school, owned four horses, lost my grandfather, learned how to ride saddle-seat and dressage, quit teaching high school, went through an aimless what does it all mean? phase, laid drunkenly face down in my in-laws back yard, moved, worked as a Vet tech, was trained how to take and process x-rays and to analyze fecal exams, renewed my wedding vows, got two new dogs, was diagnosed with a genetic disease, got confirmed, lost and regained the same 10 pounds, jumped a horse for the first time since I was 16, became an international travler by visiting all the NAFTA countries, started going to college AGAIN (say “again” with a slight Arkansasian accent, please), figured out that Oreos were gross, worked at a rural school district as an aide, found out why corn has to be de-tassled, realized that my hair is always going to look like I am a refugee from an 80′s pop-rock video (why fight it?), toured Mayan ruins, became a vegetarian, started eating meat again after my brother-in-law tempted me with chicken wings, became an “auntie”, realized I really wanted to be a mother, ate sushi in Puerto Rico, fell in love with the skeleton statuettes made for Dia de los Muertos, discovered hummus and pita chips, started teaching Sunday school, started lifting weights, realized that chihuahuas have really tiny bladders, made a bunch of friends, broke my first bone (tarsal), drove a ski-boat in the Lake of the Ozarks (still haven’t seen Party Cove), found some grey hairs in my bangs, (YIKES!) and accepted that the older I get the less I know.
“Everyone is taking their life’s stock. I say leave your livestock at home.”
