Getting old is so weird! Mike and I were discussing the other night that people you grow old with....spouses, friends, siblings....don't look their age. What I mean is I know Mike doesn't look as old to me as he does to the general population, and I know he doesn't see me as old as the rest of the world. Same thing with our close friends and siblings....we just don't look as old to one another. It holds true when one looks in the mirror, as well. Sure I look older....I can't deny that....but I know I don't look as old to myself as I do to others.......and Mike is convinced he is THE youngest looking almost 49 year old on the planet.

Then today we get our college alumni magazine with pictures of a few people we know. Now we haven't seen these people for 25 plus years..... man, .what a shock!!! They all look so damned old!! Mike, of course, assured me that he looks much better than these guys....but I bet were they to see our pictures they would be just as shocked. They don't have that "familiarity cushion" that helps us look a bit younger .

One of the true gauges of growing older is reading about classmates.....peers....who have died. Mike was shocked to find an ex-roommate of his had died and I found the name of a friend on my dorm floor who had died. Mike and I were both out of touch with these people, but it still hits hard, especially when you remember them as you last saw them, in their early 20's. I feel sure we will be seeing the names of more people we know in the "In Memoriam" section of our alumni magazine. It's just a cold, hard fact of growing older.