Ten on Tuesday: 10 Things that Make Me Feel Old

Bridgett, I'm using this idea from you. What blog/site do you get the prompts off of?

1. Um, well, I'm getting married. At the ripe old age of 22. And this is something I'm actually really, really excited about - some people think it's too young. But I didn't want to wait any longer :)

2. Some of the kids at the school I work at were born in 2006. THAT WAS THREE YEARS AGO.

3. Some of Pete's students don't remember September 11. They were young, only five or six years old.

4. My grandpa died last year. I know a lot of people my age are losing their grandparents or already have. But he was the first family member to go. When we were in high school, Katherine and I always talked about how lucky we were to have not lost anyone in our family. We were scared that once one person died, everyone else would, too. That hasn't happened but it's still weird to think about.

5. I get excited about weird, mom-type stuff. Like aprons. Or buying a certain kind of flour. Or looking at used coffee tables on craigslist. However, I like this. I think I'm just an old lady inside.

6. I just turned 21 in April, and by no universal means does that age equal being old. But a couple weeks ago, Pete, me, and a couple of friends went to see Sufjan Stevens in Champaign. We sat at the bar for the whole show and I had a couple of beers. And I wasn't carded. And it just felt right, but it was weird, nonetheless.

7. Getting my own pictures developed. My dad is a photographer on the side of his real job and when I was younger, we (Dad and I) would load up my tiny little "100% Me" backpack from The Body Shop with all of the little canisters of film to be developed. There was this great place on Forest Park Boulevard that developed black & white film - the only kind he shot with - that always reeked of toner and chemicals. I LOVED it. I felt drunk with the smell. It made me lightheaded. But now that place is gone and I go all the way out to Schillers, on Manchester, to get my black & white film developed. Going there myself, in my car, on a highway, to develop my black & white film that I bought and took pictures with makes me feel old and way too independent.

8. Talking about Legends of the Hidden Temple with the kids at my school. One of them said the other day, "oh that's on some high channel on our TV and it sucks." THAT SHOW WAS MY LIFE. Me and my next door neighbor Doug were determined to go on that show and kick tail. We knew that the combination of us was best because Emme (my little sister) was too wimpy and his older sister, Lauren, wouldn't care and would just sit around and paint her toenails. Again, innocence.

9. Looking at Where's Waldo? books and knowing EXACTLY where he is on each page of the book I had growing up. I totally impressed someone with that skill today.

10. Working at school today, a woman came to pick up her four-year old boy. She asked where I go to school, I told her, she said she graduated from SLU in 2007. She's three years younger than me and she has a kid. A kid who talks and walks and stays in school all day and eats solid food. Not a newborn child. Not that I want a kid right now but I could totally have one if I wanted to. Weird!

Weird weird weird. Sorry like half of those are about kids at school. They definitely put me in my place...