She’s an Elderly Lady in Everyday Ramblings
- Dec. 15, 2014, 3:26 p.m.
- |
- Public
It was bound to happen eventually if one is long enough in a particular body. I got on a relatively crowded bus with a cloth bag full of groceries on Saturday afternoon and moved towards the back and a large man in about his thirties with a very nice leather jacket and knit hat on got up and asked if I wanted to sit down.
I said sure and he gave me the inside seat, which I wasn’t thrilled about as I knew I was getting off relatively soon, but gift horses and all… He then said, “I don’t think my wife will mind.” And the woman across the aisle said, “Oh, no problem, she’s an elderly lady.”
Wow.
It has been a hard year in some ways but not that hard.
Then the guy with the jacket, who now had me trapped, pulled out his phone and showed me a picture of his 4 day old son with an unusual name that meant something like Brave Dude in Hopi. Then I got to see a picture of the 2 year old and the 5 year old. He said he was still working on getting access back to the 7 and 9 year old.
So after that I am taking the elderly lady comment to mean that it is apparent that I am no longer of childbearing age. I can deal with that.
If I don’t think about it too much.
I feel like I am living with at least one two year old… Diego has figured out how pulling the receiver of my work phone out of the cradle drives me batty. So now he has an arsenal of behaviors that get my attention. There is knocking my expensive glasses on the floor, shredding the toilet paper roll, chewing on my MacBook Pro power cord and now the phone. I unplugged it over the weekend. And I’ll need to get a new bedspread.
But the kids are sweet and curious and playful and healthy. And when they sleep, they really sleep deeply. I am having trouble coming up with terms of endearment for them though. That was Mr. Finch’s job. It was a family trait I discovered, creative and affectionate nicknames.
So I did start calling Diego, Eggo, like the waffles, and that sort of morphed into Eggs. Eggo is a keeper at least. Carlo, who is so laid back I almost feel like calling him The Dude. Eggs and The Dude? Hmmm. Eggs and The Dude and the Elderly Lady.
They are both gray cats and I realized this morning as I was pulling on my sweats and my slippers that, umm, I have taken to wearing gray clothes at home! Oh no.
I had a nice weekend but it was not long enough: lots of stuff going on this week plus a full work-week ahead. We have a cold flu thing going on around here and last week there were five families in isolation up on the unit so I had no takers for my yoga class. Hope they are all feeling better tomorrow.
I might hear today about renting the room at the church.
Last updated December 15, 2014
Johnny Carcinogen ⋅ December 15, 2014
"Elderly lady".
Ouch.
Lyn ⋅ December 15, 2014
Diego is certainly a hoot.
Now I'm wondering if calling my nephew and his wife the kids is as annoying to them as the elderly lady would be to me.
Zipster ⋅ December 15, 2014
OH my, that's akin to the first time the bag boy calls one "ma'am". Still, age is relative. I love all your terms of endearment and that you're wearing gray. Sort of your new family color?
elaine2 ⋅ December 15, 2014
There used to be the saying that we had three stages of womanhood: Maid, mother, and crone. Now we have redhatters!
woman in the moon ⋅ December 16, 2014
I laughed out loud- actually - at the 'elderly lady'. You are anything but an elderly lady and so am I. Though I am many years closer than you are. I like that he showed you pictures of his kids. That was a nice touch. I wonder if 'older lady' would have been quite as stinging as 'elderly lady'?
Ashley ⋅ December 16, 2014
Be a proper "elderly lady" and post pictures of your cats!!
seedys ⋅ December 16, 2014
Wife probably said "elderly lady" because she was jealous that her husband chose to seat a beautiful, competent, lovely Mrs. Robinson-type woman beside him for the ride!
Deleted user ⋅ December 16, 2014
"elderly lady" ... if they were of indigenous culture, as I judge maybe from the name, could it be that it was meant in a complimentary way? If an aboriginal person around here wants to, and judges you will be OK with it, they'll often call you "auntie" if you are senior to them and they want to show respect. It his me hard the first time, to not be thought of as a peer, but I'm not, so I suppose it's better than "old bat" or something. I do notice that I call myself an "old woman" a bit at times ... maybe I'll stop that.
noko Deleted user ⋅ December 16, 2014
I like the idea of this, the respected elder auntie but they were not indigenous. They just thought the Hopi name was "cool". The kids up on our unit have the most creative names these days. There is one named Bodhi.