Hi, Remember Me?

Well, I'd say that quite a dry spell took hold of "Venus". It's not that I haven't had anything to say or share; life hasn't stopped and the world certainly hasn't quit turning on its ever-troubled axis. I'm just struggling to find the time. Wait, no, that's a lie. I *have* the time, I've just been using it otherwheres for awhile (read: Mafia Wars). Don't judge me.

Anyhoo...

My whole life I've been fascinated by the aging process. I study photographs of myself and other friends and family members and analyze the gradual impact that life and gravity inevitably take on us all. It's mind-blowing - to me. No one else seems phased by it so I suppose this makes me a freak or an oddity of some sort. Strike that - I'm just curious.

There's a video game which has been pre-loaded onto my Crackberry where the player takes fire at bricks in an effort to obliterate them and move up to the next level. The bricks, untouched by my digital ammunition (BTW: why is it "ammo" and not "ammu"?) are bright red at first but once they start getting hit, they begin to fade, crack and eventually disentegrate into nothingness. Whenever I play this game, I'm reminded of the stages of our lives. Why? Who knows. (and I haven't even had my coffee yet this morning...)

I've gone to two high-school reunions - 10 and 20. At the 10-year reunion, everyone had filled out and turned into adults. The girls looked about the same and many of the boys evidenced the effects of too much keg time. And a surprising number of them (boys, not girls) had already begun to lose their hair.

I had little interest in "re-connecting" (all the same stupid questions over and over again and they all begin with "So..."; "So, how've you been?", "So, what have you been doing since graduation?", "So, what do you do?", "So, wanna hook up and see if the old flame is still there?" [I just threw that last one in to see if you were paying attention]). It's all just awesome eye-candy as far as I'm concerned.

There was a girl we went to high school with - I can't recall her name off the top of my head - and she always wore Wrangler jeans, cowboy boots, cowboy shirts and a mullet (but it was the mid-80s, so mullets were plentiful. Unfortunately.). She was a cute girl, but looked tough, was tough; I'm pretty sure she was a total badass - what was her name?!

Anyway, you know the routine of high-school reunions: Bar night on Friday, formal dinner on Saturday, family picnic on Sunday. Well, that Friday night I ran into my BFF, Becky. I asked her if she was going to the Saturday night dinner and she said she hadn't bought a ticket for it. Well, my husband at the time decided he didn't want to go, so Becky and I went together - it was awesome. Not awesome festivities-wise, but the people-watching was incredible. The kids who were uber-popular in high-school were the ones who put everything together, so it was ultimately all about them - the speeches, the 45 minute-long slide show ("Oh look, another picture of so and so, isn't that...nice.") Really, in looking at all those pictures, you'd think that only 15 people graduated from Bear Creek High School in 1985 (there were nearly 400 of us).

So, we were sipping on our Zimas when we spied a woman across the room wearing a floor-length red gown and looking every bit like a pageant queen with her fabulous long, blonde hair. Everyone at our table was whispering "Who is that?!" and gawking at her like she was a movie star or something. After about an hour, we still couldn't figure out who she was. Was she the wife of one of our classmates? Was she (gasp) one of our classmates?

As with anything of interest or import, questions will be asked and the answers will eventually make their way back to those in wonder (thank god for the busy bodies of the world). As soon as the news reached our table, you could hear the sound of our collective jaws hitting the table. It was mullet-girl. Suzanne? No, but something with "ann" in it...

Anyway - she looked freaking amazing.

Okay - I have about five minutes to reel in all these tangents. Aging. When I sat down to blog, aging wasn't the topic I was going to address (I didn't actually have a topic which probably explains this rambling mess). I was just going to say that I've been having a hard time balancing my time - getting everything done - getting enough rest - not eating enough of the right foods or getting enough exercise. I realized the other day how important it is to find the time - especially now that I'm in my 40s. I feel like I'm in a race to make myself as strong and healthy as possible just so my body and brain won't conk out on me unexpectedly.

It's no longer about looking good - it's about feeling good. It should have been about feeling good from the start, but we're stupid and shallow when we're young and we think we're impervious to everything. (Okay - I lied just then when I said it wasn't about looking good. When I got laid off and had nowhere to be for a year - well, let's just say it was a good week if my hair got washed three times. Looking like crap does affect how you feel about yourself - so go take a shower and put some lipgloss on for god's sake.)

Okay - I have to go (take a shower, actually). I don't have time to wrap this one up in a neat and tidy bow, but thanks for hanging in there with me; I'll re-visit this again soon. As soon as I figure out where I was going with it.

Her name is SueAnn Miller!