Aging

I am going to offend so many people with this post. I realize that I'm making myself sound somewhat stupid and really young but these are my obeservations nonetheless. I have been spending some time thinking about "being old." I've been thru so much inside my head with grandma passing away. She started me thinking about a whole lot of things, esp. about how I will one day be old too. Well, hopefully. Then I have now started (yet another) new job at a home health care and hospice company. So all day long I'm doing task after task that enables elderly people to get the care and medical service they need. By the time these people get to my company they are in pretty bad shape so keep in mind my daily contact with "old people" points out the downfalls of being old. I'm sure there are many many great things about being old but that is not what I have observed recently.
My dad got home today. I love to poke fun at my dad and pick on him. He never quite understands that I'm picking on him for my own amusement but he takes it well anyway. Today I watched my parents try to put the lid back on a shampoo bottle. Mom says, "Help me. I don't know what I'm doing! This won't close." Dad takes the bottle and even though he can clearly see it's broken and won't fit together starts making an attempt to get it to close. He's sitting there only half caring and trying to appease his wife. She's standing there waiting for her hero to save the day as she stares into open space without a thought in her mind. For a few minutes this shampoo bottle took over every thought process they had. It was hilarious. As I sat there and watched them it was clear they were having an old person moment. By old person moment I mean that I've always noticed little things that only old people do. Such as...get trumped by a small household item, fear and resistance to computers or technology of any kind, forgetting where you were going or what you were doing, not caring that you are wearing 17 different colors and patterns none of which match, not being able to figure out the tv remote or cordless phone, or simply getting wrapped up completely in the tiniest chore/task. Don't act as if you don't know what old people moments I'm talking about. Don't get me wrong. I love old people. Seems to me that you are old for more of your life than not so I have no reason to be prejudiced to it. This will be offensive, but when I was very small, from my first memories by grandparents were OLD. Guess what? I'm grown up and have children and my grandparents are STILL old. So yeah, I get it. Don't hate because I'm not going to be young forever. I'm not hating. Just simply observing. I just simply think that the habits of shall we say "Seriously life experienced" or "Driving at the full speed limit impaired" persons are sometimes amusing. I think when I'm old I will do old people things just to irritate my children and amuse myself. You can get away will all kinds of stuff when you're old. If you get caught just pretend you don't know where you are and what's going on. What are they going to do? Force you to stop being old and unaware or forgetful? Seriously, it could be hard to remember that you are supposed to put your pants on in the morning so if you want to hang out in your underwear all day go ahead. If anybody objects just pretend you thought you already put them on this morning. Assisted living places are better than hotels if you ask me. I call them the old people dorms. I'm sure it's just as fun as college having your quilting buddy down the hall or your connect four opponent next door. I'm going to end up being a decrepit old person now just for having said these things. I just think that there is a lighter side to all the limitations of aging. I'm tired of scheduling people to get baths and injections and PT and whatever else all day because they can't do it themselves anymore. I hope I am a fun old person. I don't want to hide in my house and let life happen to me.