So...I decided to blog about growing older and how I feel as it progresses. How I feel as I go through it, deal with it. You have to understand that if one ( me) is fortunate enough to be healthy, you feel pretty much like you always did. You say to yourself, "What is old, anyway?" Then, people begin to tell you.
For instance, right after I retired in '08, I thought that I should get out of education and do something else. I did not want to teach. I did not want to sub. I wanted nothing to do with a school. I checked into going back and getting a little degree in medical transcribing or something like that. Right out of the gate, a nice young man said, and I quote, " I can't believe you want to take a course at this stage in your life." "What stage is that?" asked I, knowing full well where the Wells Fargo Wagon was heading in his mind.
Subbing looked good.
And subbing is good. The pay is pathetic but I love "kissing it off" and going home after school. Teachers and Principals never get to "kiss it off and go home any where near after school. I usually teach 3,4 and 5 year olds at a public school Montessori magnet. They keep me informed about my oldness and and its effect on various body parts.
Early on last year we had a conversation about my neck.
"What is wrong with your neck?"
What's wrong with my neck? Was I listing left or something? I actually had no idea what they meant - I mean - maybe I had a spider bite.
"What do you mean 'what is wrong with my neck?' "
"Dr. E, it has little lines all over it."
"It does?" "Well..... my neck is old."
"Does the rest of you look like that?"
Does the rest of me look like that? "Oh my goodness, No. Just my neck." They smiled and said, "That's good."
OK. What was I supposed to say? That everything gets lines and wrinkles - or rusts as it gets old. That they will get old. They will have the same kind of neck? I should make 3 year olds suicidal?
I told them I was 112.
I decided to get a new doctor. I had to have a new doctor because I was perfectly healthy. My old doctor had no time for perfectly healthy "older" people and did not seem to understand that maybe we are healthy because we check in from time to time. Anyway, it made sense to meet the new doctor before I needed her. While waiting in the little room we all have to go to wait after we wait in the big room, I saw posters. For weight reduction? Not exticing. Ah ...Skin rejuvenation and various other products to fight aging. Erasing wrinkles! So I asked, "How about some information on "that." The Doctor said, "It's too late for " 'that.' "
Too late for that?
Is that a sentence?
