Notes From the Rocking Chair
Okay, so I'm trying to forget that another birthday is looming (end of this week). My sister says age is just a number. Yes, younger sister. But life has been finding ways to remind me that time is marching on.
1) Sunday, a friend invited me to a baseball game. Angels vs. Red Sox. Although I've been a baseball fan most of my life, I've never really had a favorite team. I did have a few favorite players, but once they were gone, so was my loyalty. I discovered that it's the game itself I love, not so much the major league aspect. I now prefer to watch minor league and even Little League games in small, fan-friendly parks where I can actually see the action.
My friend, however, has been Ms. Angel Fan since birth. She's so loyal, she didn't mind sitting in the hot sun, way up in the right field pavilion. She doesn't mind going to a huge, generic-looking stadium, because *her* team plays there (they swept Boston on Sunday, which was impressive).
She asked me when I'd last gone to a game with her, and I realized that it was 1992! She and her ex-husband were dating then. Another friend who went with us Sunday, along with her 15-year-old son, was a newlywed (son arrived a year later).
2) "Mamma Mia" is now a hit at the theater, too late for me. I went through my ABBA phase from 2000-2002, a bit self-consciously. I almost wore out my greatest hits tape (yes, audio tape). Still know all the words to the songs. Can even sing "Chiquitita" and "Voulez-Vous" in Spanish, courtesy of Menudo (one of their producers must've had a thing for ABBA too). So now that I'm over it, the show comes out and is a big hit. And I wouldn't have to feel self-conscious anymore. *Sigh.* I always was ahead of my time.
3) The ARC-reading has confirmed what I suspected: my novel manuscript is actually MG, not YA as advertised. *Oops.* At least reading YA makes me feel young (or maybe immature), because I still don't like dark, edgy, sexually-explicit material.
4) Just toured the house where my grandmother and aunt used to live, now newly renovated (my cousins spent almost $50,000 fixing it up to sell). It was like an episode of "Extreme Makeover." The living room carpet was replaced by wood flooring; new carpeting in the bedrooms; new sinks, counters, appliances, garage door, landscaping, etc. Grandma and Aunt Kay were major pack rats, so I'd never seen the house completely empty. All that space, and now there's no reason to go over there again....
Time marches on.