there's nothing like joining facebook to make you feel old

Apparently the Augusta, Georgia, Westside High School class of 1987 turned out to be a little on the slack side. They're holding their 20th reunion in May, 2009, which is, um, yeah, a couple of years late. Now I certainly can't complain too much as my very own slack ass didn't even graduate from WHS, but you know me, always looking for a cause to champion/complain about. But enough of that, and on to the actual subject...

In the process of finding out about the 22nd year reunion, I was encouraged to join facebook.com as a way of keeping up with the info being distributed. And, upon doing so, I discovered I'd gotten old. But you know what the cool thing is about that? So has everyone else! There's maybe a few a handfull one or two or possibly three folks who look as good as they did when we were in HS. The thing about seeing people as they get older is that all the good looking ones, well, most of them just don't look so good anymore, and a pretty fair amount of the folks that were only so-so in high school are now pretty attractive, like they've grown into themselves. And then there are those for whom there wasn't any hope for in HS and they're still in that same condition today. And to make all those used-to-be-good-looking people I just offended feel better, feel free to tell yourself that I fall into this category.

And so many people chose different career paths than I'd expected they would, but some of them, I can totally see how they're in the job they have. In some cases it's like the super smart person in school is now the guy picking up your garbage and the guy you thought would be picking up your garbage is now a CEO. It's funny the paths our lives take. I couldn't even begin to tell you how I ended up where I am. But yet, here I am.

The other day I was trying to do a decent self portrait and after an hour I finally got 2 that were only 75% horrible instead of the usual 95% horrible, so I started doing post processing on them. While looking at the photos in high resolution, I saw things I hadn't really noticed before, like baggy eyelids, a quadruple chin (which is pretty much the en-tire reason I hate being in photos to begin with) and crows feet (not even feet actually, or even a single foot, more like just a really long toe) protruding (sounds like it's a wart or something, doesn't it?) from my left eye. How, I wondered, can this be the face - we're not even going to discuss the body - of someone who truly feels so young on the inside? And do you know what I discovered? It was my kids, 2 husbands, a lack of good judgement relationship and just plain ol' life that put them there. And you know what? I earned those puppies!

Let's Say Thanks

Although it's after Thanksgiving, please take a minute or two out of your day to visit Let's Say Thanks.  It's a website sponsored by Xerox that sends cards to American troops overseas to let them know how much they are appreciated.  Most of us cannot imagine the difficulties of being away from our family and in harm's way as they are, so let's let them know that we appreciate all they do to help make the world a safer place.

walking in a winter wonderland