kicking puppies is bad

I think it is normal for people my age to start feeling old. I hear my friends often talk about feeling tired, and wishing they could stay up later like they did when they were young. But I’m not feeling old in that way (or maybe I am, but that is a different rant). I’m just feeling old in a different way.

This past week I was at the Stratford Festival in Canada. At all three of the performances I attended, I looked around the theatre and realized that the crowd was composed of octogenarians and me. Apparently people my age don’t enjoy performances of Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde or Gershwin.

At one point during the weekend, I had a lovely breakfast with a woman in her 80′s. She initiated the conversation by assuring me that she had talked with my mother the evening before. I tried to convince her that it probably wasn’t my mother she had talked to, but she insisted it was. Later in the conversation, she informed me that I was 14, and that my mother had spoken very highly of me. I suppose I should be flattered. At least I don’t look like an octogenarian. In fact, I am often mistaken for being slightly younger than I actually am; probably because I hang around senior citizens so much. They think everyone looks young.

I often find myself surrounded my senior citizens. Part of this is because I enjoy their company. I’ll admit that when I started volunteering as a senior line dancing instructor at a retirement community, I *knew* I would be surrounded by senior citizens. It was part of the job description. I also realize that most of my activities aren’t typical of my age group. Ballroom dancing is a hobbies that doesn’t generally attract people my age. Apparently scooter club isn’t either. Who knew that scooters were so popular with senior citizens? My recent cross stitch patterns probably aren’t the ones that most octogenarians would choose, but I realize that even subversive cross-stitch isn’t exactly popular with my age group. I probably won’t meet people my age at the yarn / needlework stores.

The problem is that I don’t seem to like activities that other people my age enjoy. I don’t enjoy bars, nor do I enjoy most of the dance clubs in the area. I don’t really like the pretentious graduate student wine/cheese parties (although they are better than bars). And unfortunately bars, clubs and pretentious parties seem to be what people my age are supposed to enjoy. I think I might have the mind of an 80 year old (hopefully without the senility – although I will admit to being fairly absent minded at times). Is that a bad thing?