Good morning, star shine! The earth says hello!

Today is the first anniversary of my 29th birthday. Last night I went to Olive Garden for dinner with my two sisters and two of my nieces. Then we met the rest of the gang down at Clearwater Beach (a very touristy area). We watched a few street performers, gave some money to a monkey, got some faces painted... the usual, right? After church today, I went over to Valarie's where we had a "picnic". Our original intention was to go to the park for our picnic, but the rain forced us to have a picnic on a blanket in the middle of Val's living room. Then we had some VERY delicious cake which said "Happy Birthday Tracey" because they spelled my name wrong at the bakery. Oh, well.

It seems that, as your birthday approaches, you begin to notice situations where your age becomes apparent. I have had a few of those occasions happen to me in the past couple of weeks.

I had the opportunity of being one of several judges at a local Battle of the Bands contest a few weeks ago. It was so much fun, but I have never felt so old in my entire life. The bands were made up of mostly teenagers; the fans were mostly teenagers. The first band began to play, and I was thinking, "This is pretty cool." I have to say that I was impressed with several of the bands there. There was some good talent. Back to the first band... the first song began, and I was jammin'. Then the guy began to "sing." I put sing in quotations marks because he was just screaming into the microphone. I couldn't even understand a word of what he was saying. I don't know if the song was about love, friendship, or baked beans. I thought, "wow. am I really that out of touch with what the teenagers like to listen to?" But then I told myself, "of course you are. You're almost 30!" It was an eventful night. I got hit on by one of the boys there. That was interesting.

Also, this week at the library, there was a boy there who is one of our regulars. He's there every day, and we know his name; he knows ours. He's a good kid. Anyway, he was standing at the desk talking to me when a teenage girl came along. She is also a regular. During the course of the conversation, she used a swear word. The boy looked at me, looked back at her, and said, "Don't swear around the elderly." Well that blew my mind. I scoffed at him, and he immediately explained that he didn't really think I was elderly. I forgave him. When I was fifteen, I thought 30 was elderly also.

I think it's just because I spend a lot of my time at work with teenagers that I feel old sometimes. I certainly don't feel old among my coworkers. I am the youngest one. You should spend a few minutes with some teens if you don't get to do it very often. You'll be amazed. I always thought, "It hasn't been that long since I was in high school." But these kids use words that I have no idea what they mean. They play video games that I can't even begin to understand. And they are so technologically savvy that it's scary. Seriously, if your computer breaks down, ask a teenage boy to fix it. Nine times out of ten they can do it, and do it quickly. So, yes, I feel old sometimes when I'm surrounded by teenage angst and hormones, but I would not go back to being 16 for anything. I'm glad that chapter of my life is over... it's long over. So, to 30 I say, "Hello and welcome!"