How many are you?

I get it.  I'm not in my 20's any longer.  Heck....I'm almost not in my 30's (yikes!) but In my head, I am forever in the 25 range.

In a way, things haven't changed.  I still feel like I'm trying to figure out which direction to go in and I feel like no matter what the choice, I will never get there.  Being older does have advantages that I never thought about until now.  I have life experience and the mindset to appreciate it, learn from it and hopefully put it into practice. As intimidated as I am by some things, I am increasingly more confident in others.  All of this is great but I still have a hard time grasping the 'older' thing.

When I was young, everyone above the age of 18 was old and parents and grandparents...ancient! I think about it now and realize that it's all about perspective.  I have started to forget about the age of others but rather, I focus on whether or not I can relate to someone.  Maybe it's not on every level, but I can usually find some common ground.

Last night, I went to American Eagle to do some Christmas shopping.  I happen to love the store.  Not everything in it, but I do have quite a bit of their clothing and have for many years. Some of the things are a bit young for me but many things I can still pass off as acceptable. ( If I'm wrong about this, puh-leeze let me know!)  I was in the guy's area looking at shirts for someone I don't see too often.  I'm trying to imagine what size he would wear.  With a girl, I have a reference point but with a guy....geez.......  The more difficult part becomes that I know how that some of their things run small, but others run big so I was trying to figure this simple shirt out.  I asked one of  workers if he could help me out.  No, I didn't pull the old lady move where you ask him to turn around and hold it up to his shoulders hoping to gather enough information to make a proper decision while telling him that the person you have in mind is a similar size. I simply asked, "Do you know how these shirts run?  I know some of your things run small but this looks ok in this size".
What do you think his response was?  Well, it didn't start with a direct answer.  I got, "Who are you buying for? Your son?"  Arrrrggghhhh!!!!!!  Really?  To a person that thinks they are passing for semi-hip, this was a full blown punch in the gut.  No amount of "Ma'am" could equal this.  I could barely muster a "No...."

I did some quick calculating this morning while I was rethinking this experience and it would be completely feasible for me to have a child in the 15-19 range.  The thing is, I don't.  I have a F I V E year old.

I really am a believer in the "you are as old as you feel" thing.  I see so many people my age that look and act like they are easily ten to fifteen years my senior.  I am active, open-minded and looking to have fun always.  That keeps me young in body and spirit. That in itself is why I took that simple comment to heart.  How couldn't that guy that I saw as 25 but was probably 18, see that?

The follow-up to that experience just re-enforced my getting older thingy.  I was in Target, on the hunt for Hamm from Toy Story.  I saw this stinkin' toy three months ago and didn't buy it but now, all of a sudden, Giada has it at the top of the list for Santa.  I sadly know the layout to most Target stores and I high-tailed it to the toy department.  After looking through the Barbie clothes ( does this girl EVER wear pants?), I found my way to the Toy Story section.

I was there, maybe a minute and some dude starts chatting me up.  Probably about my age.  I say that because I would normally say older but I clearly have no clue what I'm talking about. He asks if I'm done with my shopping for the season, comments on my interest in the different characters and then introduces himself.  Like we are now shopping partners and we will be there the rest of the night together shopping for our kids.  He has two.....WHY DO I KNOW THIS?! 

I got freaked out. I've been told that I over-think things too often.  I didn't know if he was hitting on me, stalking me or was just being nice.  It didn't matter.  I was not sticking around to find out.  I didn't find Hamm and I didn't need anything else in that section so I got the few things I needed on the other side of the store (with one eye over my shoulder, just in case he was a stalker ) and got the heck out of dodge.

Thankfully done with 95% of my shopping, I think hibernating until Christmas would be a good thing for me.