Fountain of Youth

Every year, every month, every week, I notice some new blemish or change in my body.  On a daily basis, I can tell myself that my appearance hasn't changed that much, but when I look back at pictures, I cannot deny...I am aging. Therefore, I find myself enjoying youthful compliments (or clinging desperately to and replaying them in my head) when someone throws one my way. Yesterday, I met a young girl, around age 11, that felt compelled to pay me one of these such compliments. I realize by this next reference, I am aging myself considerably, but it is the closest comparison I can make. When I was a kid I used to watch Leave it to Beaver reruns, yeah one of those shows that was originally broadcast in black and white, and this girl was my very own Eddie Haskell.  Overly complimentary, so much so, that I had the suspicion that she was actually making fun of me.  She kept telling me that I looked, "16 years old at a distance." I laughed her off several times, as I was embarrassed that she kept saying these things in front of other mothers. I KNOW I don't look even close to 16, I am not delusional. Yet, I had this flicker of pleasure every time she said it anyway.  Ugh!  Maybe she was referring to my acne? At any rate, not that I took her seriously, but she completely negated any possible pleasure when she referred to Steven Tyler as the hottest man alive. This girl clearly has skewed perceptions.  When she asked me if I agreed that Steven Tyler was hot, I threw up a little in my mouth before I answered.  I said, "Don't you think there is something ODD about his mouth?"  She answered enthusiastically, "Oh NO!  He is beautiful."  Then she said, "Oh wait.  I see your wedding ring.  I guess you have to think your husband is WAY hotter than any other guy." While that isn't necessarily true (I am only human), I do believe my husband is considerably hotter than Steven Tyler. But I didn't want to dispel her marital illusions, so I assured her that was indeed true. In the end my brief toe dipping in the fountain of youth resulted in a bucket full of reality water being dumped on my head. Sigh.