My own age

So this past month I am making a real effort to hang out with people my own age. This month I realized (sitting at home on a Friday Night) that most people I spend time with are either under 20 or over 80. This is not good. Not to say that those people are not good, just that it is easy to lose perspective on my life when it is always prismed through other generations.

Part of the issue is camp, I imagine. At camp we are all friends, and ageless. While I never lose sight of the maturity/age difference, I don't really think about it, notice it, etc. Then I come to school/work and kids in the same age bracket as my summer friends are now my inferiors, charges, students. This is a paradigm shift. Additionally I have Nana. Nana is not my sister, my husband or my child. This creates an interesting age relationship as our roles are kind of unique.

Now I have Robin, at work, and she is a good friend, but with three children under four, we don't have lots of time to "hang-out" and/or call and gab. LeeAnne, Bea, Jasmine are all in other states, which means I can gab, if I can catch them, but again, can't hang out. I noticed that with the exception of Lindsey, who helps me with Nana, I don't hang out with people, socially my age. Hanging out usually has to do with camp functions during the year, advising Explorers for my school or well, that's about it. I did/do have some friends my age in the area, but we all got so busy I lost touch.

So now I am reconnecting. In the process I'm also making new friends too, which is kind of interesting. I feel a little like a middle schooler ("Oh, do you think they like me?") but it's also kind of a new challenge. It goes well with the whole trying to get out and date thing too...

Here is the funny part. Last night I was getting ready to go to a "Trivia Night" I had been invited to at a local downtown establishment and Nana says to me,

"Don't do anything tonight you are going to regret in the morning."

"Nana, where do you think I'm going tonight?"

"On a date with a much younger man."

"Ah, well, I'm not. I'm just going to a restaurant to meet up with some friends for dinner."

"As long as that's all you are doing."

"Nana, I don't date the boys from camp."

"But that one came to dinner, wasn't that a date?"

"No, I was giving him advice about the girl he likes and he's my friend, so he came over."

"But you went on a date with him out a while ago."

"No, we carpooled to a meeting for camp. He's in college and couldn't afford the gas for the 60 miles round trip."

"Oh. Well have a good time tonight."

"Thanks, I'll try."

This is the other reason I need to get more friends my age. My grandmother thinks I am using the boyscouts as a dating service. While I am a little desperate for a date, I'm not that desperate. (Any of you who are from camp that are reading this, consider that your official notice... if you hadn't already recieved it... that I will not, no matter how much you beg, go out with you! Quit telling my Nana that we are! Actually quit talking to my Nana all together as you are giving her strange ideas!)

Also, while I wouldn't consider dating children "interesting" aparently my Nana thinks my life is a lot less boring than it really is. I'm not exactly flattered though.