Surreal.
OMG.
Today I had the most surreal experience of my life - to date - and that's saying something.
I keep reading how many of us saying we're 40 or more-something but that we don't feel that age at all. I count myself among that number...don't feel a day over 19, but as Indiana Jones says, "It's not the years, it's the mileage." I get older but learn just how much more I don't know and that feels great.....I'm supposed to be this "grown up." When the hell did *that* happen? At any rate........
But then there was today. Dad and I took my nephew Russell (dad and nephew of choice... if anyone needs explanation about that, ask me later) to Dickinson College in Carlisle today. 25 years ago, I met Russell's mother (my sister of choice, Hilary) at Dickinson. We moved Russell into the dorm - her same dorm. I grew up in Carlisle, she went to college there. She lives in California now, and is there. I'm in loco parentus on this coast.
At every moment I kept turning around expecting Hil to be at my side, or just showing up in a minute so we could go have tea, or taking her ugly, lovable dog Bruno for a walk.... or .......I don't know. I walked into the Holland Union Building and the smell of that building whapped me upside the head...the *same* smell. Dad and Russ were off doing something and I stopped dead in my tracks - frozen in that moment. All the ghost memories washed over me at once and I whipped out my cell phone and dialed my sister.
"Hello.."
"Hil?"
"Yeah....?.."
"I'm having a time warp moment.......Um.......where are you? You're supposed to be *right* here. You were here a minute ago. WE were here a minute ago... When did this happen?"
We both work in academia.... it's a common occurrence that, at a certain point in an academic's career, the students stay the same age and we aren't anymore. Hil, in her typical fashion says...
"We haven't gotten older, silly. They've gotten younger."
and we laughed til we cried.
I wouldn't trade these moments for anything in the world.
HOWEVER.
I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the experience of memory echoes in the same time space as the now.
Ow. brain hurts.
Today I had the most surreal experience of my life - to date - and that's saying something.
I keep reading how many of us saying we're 40 or more-something but that we don't feel that age at all. I count myself among that number...don't feel a day over 19, but as Indiana Jones says, "It's not the years, it's the mileage." I get older but learn just how much more I don't know and that feels great.....I'm supposed to be this "grown up." When the hell did *that* happen? At any rate........
But then there was today. Dad and I took my nephew Russell (dad and nephew of choice... if anyone needs explanation about that, ask me later) to Dickinson College in Carlisle today. 25 years ago, I met Russell's mother (my sister of choice, Hilary) at Dickinson. We moved Russell into the dorm - her same dorm. I grew up in Carlisle, she went to college there. She lives in California now, and is there. I'm in loco parentus on this coast.
At every moment I kept turning around expecting Hil to be at my side, or just showing up in a minute so we could go have tea, or taking her ugly, lovable dog Bruno for a walk.... or .......I don't know. I walked into the Holland Union Building and the smell of that building whapped me upside the head...the *same* smell. Dad and Russ were off doing something and I stopped dead in my tracks - frozen in that moment. All the ghost memories washed over me at once and I whipped out my cell phone and dialed my sister.
"Hello.."
"Hil?"
"Yeah....?.."
"I'm having a time warp moment.......Um.......where are you? You're supposed to be *right* here. You were here a minute ago. WE were here a minute ago... When did this happen?"
We both work in academia.... it's a common occurrence that, at a certain point in an academic's career, the students stay the same age and we aren't anymore. Hil, in her typical fashion says...
"We haven't gotten older, silly. They've gotten younger."
and we laughed til we cried.
I wouldn't trade these moments for anything in the world.
HOWEVER.
I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the experience of memory echoes in the same time space as the now.
Ow. brain hurts.