Slow Down; Enjoy Life

October 11, 2008 - Since I have been blessed this time around with a husband that can somewhat afford me, I have had lots of time to slow down and really enjoy life for the first time ever. Many times I see things that I might not have noticed before in this often hurried and crazy world we live in. For instance, just the other day as I was walking out of Wal Mart toward my car, I noticed a woman standing alongside the first row of cars. This alone would not be so out of the ordinary, but it was her stance that was hilarious.

Picture this, as I will do my best to describe. This woman was middle aged, but older than me (HAD to be! she had more wrinkles and gray hair), quite short, perhaps 5 ft. 3-ish; she was standing with her legs spread apart, with one hand on her hip and the other one straight up in the air holding a set of keys, and flicking her wrist! It took me just a second to realize what she was doing.... YEP! YOU GUESSED IT! She was calling her car! It was the overall "look" that tickled me to death, NOT that she could not find her car.....Heck, I loose my car at least once a week.

Now I don't know what make or model car she drove, but that car never "answered" her from the time I walked out of Wal Mart until I made it to my car far out in the parking lot.  I purposely drove back down the row of cars toward this woman standing so "prominently" with her arm flickering in the air. She seemed to have given up on locating the car in that area as I saw her walking between the rows of cars in the opposite direction.  However, the memory of that of that little lady flicking that wrist of keys constantly for that car was priceless. Such little things as that would have passed me by 2 years ago when I was running, running, running from work, then the grocery, then home, then perhaps to a school function or otherwise. Now, I can just enjoy the little things that even parking lots can bring.

Then there was my trip to the movie a week ago. The new chick-flick, "Nights in Rodanthe" with Richard Gere and Diane Lane was showing and I wanted to see it. Unfortunately, my dear neighbor couldn't go, so I decided to go to the Friday afternoon debut all alone. All was good as I entered a sparsely filled theatre. There were probably 10 or 12 people total in the theatre. Afterall, it was 1 o'lock on a Friday afternoon so in my mind this was the PERFECT time to come see the movie alone. I decided to go to the opposite side of the room and sit about half way up where NO ONE was anywhere around. Soon, a couple entered the theatre and of all the empty seats in the place, wouldn't you know, they came all the way over to the other side of the theatre and sat right behind me! Geeze! What's up with that? Well, that was ok, but they began talking and talking and talking and I quickly decided that they might not ever stop talking (a BIG pet peeve of mine during a movie), so I quietly gathered my popcorn and drink and moved all the way down to the opposite side of the row (20 seats or so - totally empty row).

So now, I'm back on the side of the theatre where you enter as you come in, but still there are so few people in there that it doesn't matter and by this time, the movie is only minutes away. I've settled in my seat and I'm getting into my popcorn and the ads for the upcoming movies, when all of a sudden a HERD of white-and-blue-haired old ladies enters the theatre. What?? You have got to be kidding me? This is a chick-flick? There might be wild, uncontrolled sex scenes here, adult language, and/or other things you may not want to see or hear. Are you sure you are in the right place??? All these thoughts were racing through my head as I had to laugh at myself for even thinking this. Why not here? Why not now? This was the perfect time and place for them to "escape" to. AND GUESS WHAT? YEP, YOU GUESSED IT.  They slowly began moving up the steps toward me.

After discussing rather loudly where to sit, it was decided that they didn't want to sit "too close" to the front, but that just about where I was sitting would be great. So, one by one, they all came and sat around me like hens in a hen house. I was the only brunette among 10 or 12 gray and blue-haired ladies. I was silently laughing at the thought of me among all these women and even moreso, at what the movie might hold for us all.  Needless to say, it was a rather "calm" movie in the way of other chick-flicks I have seen, with only a few "ah-ha" moments. However, it was a wonderful movie altogether. It was about real love and the passion to go after that love, no matter the cost. I think those older ladies knew what they were doing afterall and the real joke was on me!