An evening with the young pack.

   On my sons twenty- third birthday my husband and I were surprised to be invited to his party. I told my husband that wild horses couldn't keep me away from partying with the cool, younger crowd.
   As we set off that night I thought to myself, "who drives an hour for pizza?" When we arrived the sweet little hostess questioned if we were sure we were there for the "Doug party" and promptly took us to the bar. After assuring her none of those "older people" were Doug she led us upstairs to the table where eleven twenty-somethings sat in lively conversation. When we approached the table all conversation stopped and we stared at each other with a great generational canyon between us. It was at that defining moment when I realized how old I  really was.
  A wave of panic came over me at the thought of holding their attention in conversation. Would they smile and pretend they were listening all the while wondering who invited the old people? I took the high road and mostly listened to their conversations. For all you who know me you know this was very hard, I was at a party and most of my fun stories were out of date or had no relevance to someone just starting out in life.
  When it came time to order our dinner we shamelessly used the light on our cell phone to read the menu. It was dark in there, who eats pizza in the dark? Some people, namely me, like to see their food before they eat it. We searched the menu for something that sounded good and would cause the least amount of digestive problems later.
  After eating, they all discussed going for donuts and Terry and I started off for home, after all it was 7:45 and we would barely make our nine o'clock bed call.
  On the way home, as I was digging in my purse for my Rolaids, we tried to remember the days of eating anything we wanted and staying up all night (without severe consequences). Although it was fun to hang out with such a great group of kids, I'll take the slower paced, easy-going, life I have the privilege of living right now.

                     We are wearing Beard Hats, my favorite son, he's so much fun.