How I can tell I'm starting to get old.

These Italy photos have nothing to do with getting old but i can do that since it's my blog. 

Selfie on the train out of Florence

I'm 57 years old.

Do you find yourself doing this? I am often shocked by the number of years that have passed from a milestone event or when i first saw a favorite movie. Then i calculate those same number of years and come up with how old I will be and it scares me since those years feel more like they happened only a half dozen years ago instead of twice that.

For example, it doesn't feel like it's been 12 years since my wedding to Brian. Yet when that much time passes again I will be 69 years old. The Shawshank Redemption movie came out in 1994. I so remember when that movie was released. I will be 77 years old when that much times passes.

Yikes.

i liked the font on this sign

That's how i know I'm getting old. I continually do this! Am i weird?

Other ways that i can tell:

1. I get irritated with hearing the kid's gleeful screams from the pool.

2. My eyelashes are getting skimpier, yet my eyebrows are getting more wooly. Plus my eyebrows have many gray hairs!

3. I have always had wrinkles, the parenthetical ones between my eyebrows actually had to be airbrushed out of my first wedding photos in 1978 (at the age of 21.)

OMG, i just did the math on how old i will be when that much time passes. I will be 93 years old. If i'm lucky. 

4. I know i'm getting old because i need a calculator to figure all this out. (I used to be so much better doing stuff like that in my head.)

5. Anyway, back to what i was going to say about my face and getting older. (Digressing is another sign....) I have always had wrinkles so that's not the big deal, what i don't like is getting more jowly!

6. I keep having to upgrade my reader magnification. First it was 1.25, then 1.5, and now it's 1.75, all in the space of less than three years. I have about 14 pairs of readers lying around the house. The people who manufacture readers should be shot. I can never tell the power of my readers because i can't read the little inscription on the stems that tell you.

7. I am probably going to have to give up running soon. I have plantar fasciitis in my right foot. It comes and goes. Probably started with my beauty bark injury last September. Some mornings and evenings my heel hurts so much it is painful just to walk. Then it goes away, only to come back. I've been running for more than half my life - since 1980. And this makes me sad.

OMG, when that much time passes again I will be 91 years old! 

8. I still like to listen to my music loud, but now i'm not so sure if it's not because i am getting hard of hearing!

9. I still read a lot. (In fact i have already read a dozen books this summer.) But i find myself going back to re-read or find out who is who because i have trouble keeping the characters straight.

10. The reason i am able to read a dozen books is because i am up for nearly two hours at least every night reading since another sign of age is not sleeping well.

11. I still write checks. I don't own a cell phone. And i still play cds and DVDs instead of streaming movies from netlfix. (Because our main TV is still one of those analog types.)  I still blog. However, at least i have finally used an ATM machine!

12. But i can't remember my PIN number anymore.

13. Oh, i think i just remembered it!

Dear Abby Gives Good Advice....again.

Sigh. I have been waiting for years to take over Dear Abby's job. I love giving advice to people even when they don't want it, imagine how fun it would be to dole it out to people asking for it?

What could be a better job for me, right?

But in the past year, Abby has stepped up her game. And after reading this morning's paper i wish i could call her up and have her over for wine.

Dear Abby letters

On July 11, 2014 the headline is "Child Still Resents Parents Who Skipped Graduation".
This 26 year old woman is "angry and frustrated" even though years and years have passed since they "disappointed" her. The reader writes: "But I guess I haven't ever truly forgiven them for missing those events."

The parents did not attend her elementary graduation because her Mom's father had just died. They didn't attend her junior high graduation because her mom had stitches in her nose from being hit by a golf club accidentally. And years later they didn't attend the younger siblings graduations either.

Abby writes back:

"When I was young there were high school and college graduation ceremonies with cap, gown and diploma, but none for children leaving elementary or junior high. At most, the event might be celebrated by going out for a family dinner.

Frankly, I think that the multiple graduation ceremonies, while they may make cute photo-ops - dilute the importance of the one from high school. If you want to "do something", rather than vent your anger at your parents, it would be more constructive if you made a point of attending your siblings' graduations in the future. "