TG #3

When I was growing up, my dad’s standard response to any question or comment regarding age, or getting older was “the alternative is unacceptable.” The alternative, as in, well…dying. We always kind of rolled our eyes and moved on without giving it much thought. This was on my mind as I was trying to come up with this weeks TG.

This weekend is homecoming at Rice. Its not a big reunion year for me or anything, but I’m still planning on partaking in various traditional festivities. Although I really enjoy seeing everyone (yes, I see most of them every football game, but hey it’s homecoming! Totally different) I frequently have that ‘holy shit I’m old’ sensation. Nothing, and I mean nothing, brought that home more than last night. Thursday night tradition the week of homecoming involves going to the Pub. That lovely on-campus establishment that helped fund my college days, and was the site of MANY good memories. The crowd that is still willing to go to the Pub on Thursday once a year, gets smaller every year, and we tend to go earlier every year to avoid the rush of students that shows up late. This year, while sitting playing stupid college card games, the young lady who was in charge of wrist-banding came over to our table and dropped a bomb on us: “oh I don’t need to see your ID’s, you’re all faculty right?” I wanted to crawl in a hole. A very deep one. One without perky college co-ed’s who lord their youthfulness over you, like a weapon of mass destruction. After I dried off the beer that I spit all over myself, I got to thinking about everything that has changed since those days. When I was in college I nannied for my cousins. Then: they were working on mastering the fine arts of walking and talking. Now: mastering the fine art of driving and being a teenager. Also on the cousin front: Then: McD had triplet cousins whose birth we celebrated by drinking 3 pitchers of beer at the Pub. Now: they are mini cheerleaders and Wii masters who can sing Happy Birthday to me in 4 languages (no, really). And in remembering all those changes that have happened since my days at Rice, I decided why fight it? Getting older hasn’t been so bad thus far. Yes, I can’t do everything I once could (including going to the Marquis on a weeknight and still show up for work the next day), but on the plus side, there’s a lot I can afford to do now that I couldn’t when I was scrapping nickels out of the tip jar at the Pub. Also, I’m wiser now than I was then. I can’t think of any examples of said wisdom, but I feel wiser, and that has to account for something! Plus, watching the next generation of my family, and my friends families, grow up has been fun! They might lord their youthfulness over me, but hey, I can lord my experience over them…take THAT perky pub bartender! Which gets me to TG #3:

Thank goodness for getting older, because as dad would say, the alternative is unacceptable.