ANOTHER PERSONAL TOP 10: YOU KNOW YOU ARE MATURING WHEN.......

10.  You are the proud owner of what you perceive to be one of your newer kitchen appliances, a bread machine, and you go to make a loaf of bread and you discover that one of the ingredients, powdered milk, has an expiration date of 1998 on the package.  You realize that a bread machine is not that newfangled.....

9.  You spend nearly half of that rare half hour of solitude in the house searching for your glasses so that you can enjoy that rare half hour of solitude in the house.....

8.  Your classroom story has the word stall in it, as in retail stall at a farmer's market.  When asked what types of things could be sold in stalls, one student answers, "Corn dogs!"  To satisfy your desire to be wise and a conversation starter, you inform the students that you have never had a corn dog.  The student gets wide eyed and exclaims, "You mean you're like 35 and you've never had a corn dog?!"  Another student yells, "He's not 35, he's in his 60's!"  You thank God for short attention spans and your ability to change the subject on demand.......

7.   Your spouse has threatened that if she ever finds the keys in the refrigerator, you're on the way to the home.  One night you are cleaning up after dinner and you suddenly lose the dishrag.  You search high and low for it but alas, it's nowhere to be found.  You surrender and get a clean one and finish the job at hand.  The next day you are thankfully the first one down in the morning and open the fridge to get the coffee out and there it is...your dishrag.  You quickly remove it and put it in the wash before you know who comes down......

6.  Your wife and son are singing in the choir at church and leave the house before you to arrive early to Mass.  You get yourself ready and dash to the car and the two minute ride to church seems like twenty.  You rush and get to your pew and sit and take off your coat and try to get comfortable.  You look down to make sure you've dotted all your i's and crossed all your t's when you got dressed and, lo and behold, your zipper isn't zipped!  You contemplate putting your coat back on to hide the evidence and go to the restroom to fix the problem, realize that it's a steep rickety old staircase that leads there, so you just pull it up right then and there....then look around to see if anyone was watching.  You sigh with relief when you realize that no one was nearby.  Another sign of maturity was not being phased by the whole thing.  Ten years ago the incident would have given you an anxiety attack.  This time it's back to business as usual.........

5.  You look at the picture hanging on the wall of your lovely daughter and begin remembering days gone by.  You flash back to her wonderful middle school days when you escorted her to the Father-Daughter dance at her school.  You are dancing a slow dance and you whisper in her ear, "People are gonna think I'm dancing with some young chick!"  She retorts instinctively, "People are gonna think I'm dancing with my grandfather!"...........

4.  You keep the hand lotion and the ceramic cooktop cleaner in the cabinet above the stove.  They are both white creams in tube like containers.  You reach for one of the tubes and squeeze a dab on your hand and go to put the tube away before you rub it in.  You gasp.  Your wife says alarmingly, "What's wrong?"  You remember the refrigerator incident you're trying to hide from her and you reply, "Nothing."  You quickly wash the cooktop cleaner off your hands while your wife is saying, "Didn't sound like nothing to me."  You confess that you accidentally put ceramic cooktop cleaner on your hands to help with the dryness.  The two of you share one of those laughing moments while you still conceal the dishrag in the refrigerator incident.  Aha!! Maybe the case of your dry chapped hands has finally been solved!..............

3.  Your kids are all drivers, save the last, who is poised to learn to drive, so you reflect on how many years you have been behind the wheel , and you think about the adults in your life, especially coworkers, and you realize that your driver's license is quite a bit older than most of them.........

2.   You return to the 1960's and smile:  A snowfall meant no school, walking to North Avenue Park with your sled and gliding down the steep slope with the foot high bump at the bottom that would send you and your sled sailing; building snowmen and snow forts for hours and coming inside with frozen hands and feet to some hot chocolate made by Mom; Going to the cul-de-sac where someone had piled all the plowed snow to form a frozen mountain in the center, and sliding down on your bottom for hours...............then you return to 2011: a snowfall means no school; driving on slippery roads; your children driving on slippery roads; shoveling; aching; fines for not shoveling; scraping windshields; freezing cold; panic attacks.........BAH!  Humbug!.............

1.  You embrace all of the above.  These are the moments that enable you to share a story or a laugh with someone you love.  You have lived and continue to live.  Surviving each moment, putting the little things in their place, tackling the big things, appreciating what you have, understanding what you don't, appreciating the highs and lows of the lives of those you interact with, showing compassion, listening, accepting differences.  You look at the approaching Christmas season as a gift and accept, though sometimes anxiously, the challenges of 2012:  the year you will remember those you have lost with a sentimental smile, the year you will continue to appreciate the fact that your children will continue to mature and share their journeys with you, the year that will see the first of the grandchildren, the year your baby will go off to college...... you'll be 55 and still alive!  You don't always find it easy, but you are glad that you have survived it to this point and that you can laugh at yourself a heck of a lot more than you ever could (You are hoping that it's not because there's so much more to laugh at)!!  You wish all you know a very fulfilling close to 2011 and may all the hard times of 2012 be trumped by little moments of laughter and love.

********************************************************************************

Maybe you just smiled, said a kind word or two, maybe you called during that difficult time, or  shared my pride in the accomplishments....in whatever way you've touched my life, I thank you and wish you MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY CHANUKAH,  AND HAPPY NEW YEAR................