old friends

my girlfriend's birthday bash was terrific! so many beautiful friends, all of their stories, and only a few days to get them all told! we barely slept - everyone stayed with s, sleeping on the floor, the couch, anywhere horizontal. and we danced - oh, but that was tangible joy! in college, we danced every weekend, sometimes during the week, anywhere the cover was free or cheap. the music took us back, to tight-ankled jeans, shoulderpads, big hair, bigger earrings, bright colors, pointy shoes, and new independence that gave us the people we are now. the music got inside us and moved us like we hadn't moved in so many years - we all talked about how we'd stopped going out dancing and wondered why, when it was so beautiful.

more dancing is what we need. i think it would improve the world.

xxoo.

hitting 40

my best friend is turning 40 this summer and is throwing a huge blow-out of a party later this month. most of the college group will be there, and we have been assigned to deck our bodies in 80's regalia and prepare to dance all night. my 40th was earlier this year and i did not have the trauma i hear others have. i'm just glad to be here, basically healthy and happy, with lots of love given and received.

what is it that makes people become upset over how old they are? 30, 40, 50, all of these are supposedly dark, horrible days full of wailing and gnashing of teeth over wrinkles and pot bellies and promise unfulfilled. how can anyone not rejoice at one more year around the sun to make mistakes and find treasures and tempt fate? why should age mean that one must lose one's sense of humor and become grey and shrouded in Adulthood?

i have a grey streak in my hair. had it since i was twenty, and i earned it, thank you very much. the streak has grown over the years, and a few white hairs have escaped to the rest of my skull. this is what i hope: that i will never color my hair, that i will go completely white as the years pass, that i will keep my hair long or else cut it jessica tandy short, with my scottish ears sticking out proudly, a big head of permanent bedhead perched atop a pencil neck. i hope to laugh every day. i hope to be thankful for every additional year i'm given, that i won't waste time, that i'll spend time thoughtfully, and with people i love who love me. i hope that i won't be lonely in my old age, and that someday i'll have a family.

ooo, and that i'll win a lifetime supply of oreos.

xxoo