Getting Old

Tonight I accompanied Katie to a pastor’s appreciation dinner hosted by her young adult group at church. The dinner was delicious and afterward we played cards, at least our table did. One of the men at the table suggested going to the beach afterwards. No, not suggested, cajoled. He pleaded and teased to get people to go. A few actually did decide to head over, (about an hour away for those who don’t live in Oregon), and weren’t planning on being back until 3 am. I had initially given a maybe response but already being tired, I changed it to no around 10:45 pm. They gave me such a hard time, assuming I had just said yes. At this point I turned to Katie and begged her to show me another way out of the church so I wouldn’t have to walk past them. (They’d been trying to get me to go for an hour by now.) Katie refused. (But don’t worry, I’m putting spiders in her room later. She says I’m EVIL! for saying this.) The truth is, and I can tell you the truth because no one besides Katie reads this blog from that group, is that it was the first time I had met those guys and the girl going along was quite a bit younger than I. All of them are trustworthy folk and I have no doubt I would have been safe but besides the fact I would have frozen to death in the frigid sea spray of the Oregon coast at midnight, they were going to get coffee on their way out of town which for me, would have neccesitated a bathroom stop somewhere on the way, or even on the beach. Considering my new aquaintanceship with them and the prospect of a warm bed at home, (as well as a bathroom versus a hole in the sand,) I stuck to my decision and said no. Now, let me tell you when I was in college, I remember leaving for the beach at 9:30 at night and it wasn’t a problem. We built a fire and had a great time. (They were going to build a fire tonight too.) But tonight, it just wasn’t as appealing to me as it was eleven years ago. The late night drive, the cold, not having any friends of my own, (even though I think I ought to make more friends as mine keep moving away), even the picture of falling asleep by a bonfire wasn’t appealing enough. I am officially getting old.

365-09 #58