9:29 a.m. - March 07, 2007
The One Where Smed Becomes A Codger
First things first - thanks to everyone for leaving the comments yesterday, woot! Liz had a super-spectacular birthday!
Ah, yes, we're both over 40 (in fact, Liz hasn't QUITE spent 1/3 of her life with me yet - remember, I married a taller, older woman, because I RULE!) and you know what that means.
Sometimes, we just don't get these young whippersnappers nowadays.
Mainly, that's me.
I was a kid once, and I did some silly, silly things, like, well, that, and that thing, and hah, I remember that...
But I tells ya, this generation is a bit odd. Working on a college campus, and one for men, I see oddness afoot all of the time.
Sure, when I went to school here, at times we rolled into class wearing sweats and unshaven at times, but this generation thinks it's a rite of passage. I guess it's a contest to see how late you can roll out of the rack for your 9:00 class.
"Dude, it was 8:56 when my feet hit the floor, and I ran from the FIJI house all the way to Baxter and MADE it! Oh, and I caused a fender bender on Grant Avenue. But I MADE it!"
"Score!"
About once every four months, I am ultra-lazy on a weekend and don’t shower up right away, but you know, I just start feeling oogy after about four hours if I don't have a chance to shower and wind up taking a 20 minute showerfest.
Another thing with this generation is the insistence that some of these kids on wearing shorts and flip-flops or boat shoes with no socks in the dead of winter.
As I mentioned earlier, I saw a kid on Saturday, when the wind chill was officially "Arctic" wearing shorts and no socks.
It’s not unusual for me to walk to a meeting across campus in the winter, when I'm all bundled up with gloves, and see someone wearing a hoodie (unzipped) and shorts, carrying a cup of coffee.
Son, your Mom gave you a nice winter coat to wear, not to wrap your bong in for safe keeping.
But it's not just the kooky kollege kidz that cause me to shake my head.
At church, there are kids and teenagers who dress like they're in third period history on a normal Tuesday, and not church.
When I was a kid, I had to wear a tie, or a nice dress shirt, and nice dress pants for church. In fact, until high school, that was the only time I really dressed up. (In high school, we had to wear blazers and ties for basketball road games and to school the day of basketball games.)
Now some of the children do dress up. Katie adores dressing up for church. And I do realize that some of the families of our congregation are without the means for nice clothes for everyone for every Sunday.
But the kids from middle class homes, that come to church in hoodies and torn jeans? Wow. Some come in sloganized t-shirts as well. (At least they’re polite slogans on the t-shirts).
Then, of course, there was that TOP that the pastor's stepdaughter wore while I was giving communion. A cleavage-cut blouse with low rise jeans isn't what I'd call the most appropriate church gear, especially when you're an 18-year old redhead.
(Oh, she's engaged now and going to lay out a year even though she's been accepted by four colleges. And how is her mom taking the news? Thrilled. As in, put her head in the oven thrilled.)
If I tried to go to church in a hoodie and jeans, my Mom would hang me upside down and get medieval on my butt, and THEN call Dad in if I was still being insolent.
But hey, it's the aughts, and not the 70's and 80's. (And actually, some of the clothes I wore to church in the 70's, well, um...yeah. I had bell bottoms, leisure suits, and this fantastic silk print shirt with a wide collar. It was dark blue and had planets and stars all over it. Yeah, I was making it Disco Church. Get down!)
What really sealed it on the fact that we’re getting old and it's all different is this week's new preschool drama.
Katie, in the past, has palled around with some boys. Last year, it was Sonny, before he moved to Arizona, and then she said she was going to marry Patrick, the optometrist's son. But he’s in first grade now. (First grade also broke up the torrid love affair between Justice and Rafael. Ah, just like going to college, I guess.)
But this year, we saw her kissing a picture of Kaden, even though she said Kaden isn't playing with her. And then, just this week, she announced to Liz and me that she and Kaden were kissing the other day.
Monday night, she spent time working on a heart for Kaden. She had Liz draw the heart, and she colored it, and was going to give it to Kaden on Tuesday.
Well, I guess that Kaden didn’t want the heart, so she gave it to Kaylee.
Now, Kaden may not be interested, or he may wonder about Katie's intent, since she hangs around with Basim and Donny, and went to Ross' birthday party.
But what Liz and I are struggling with was that this is in pre-school.
I mean, it wasn't until first grade for me to have my first 'girlfriend'. Ah, Tina, Tina, Tina. How we sat together in reading. How we played together at recess. How we kept giving each other strep throat. Sigh...and then I moved.
I think Liz said it was second grade before she had a thing for a boy in her class.
But preschool? That's a bit early.
That's kids nowadays, I guess.
And by saying that phrase, I'm officially become and old fogey.
NOW STAY OFF OF MY LAWN! YOU'RE GOING TO RUIN MY HOSTAS!
(Mutter...grumble...)
