Apparently, I’ve reached the stage of adulthood in which I must wear socks around the house. I’ve always been a barefoot kind of gal, so this came as quite a surprise.
I do wear socks with my walking shoes or boots, but when I get home I shuck my footwear and let my tootsies go au naturel.
But this winter I started feeling the cold.
Last week, I donned some fluffy pink socks that Derek had bought me a while ago, and noticed they said “Kissable” on the sole.
If you have to wear socks, I guess it’s not a bad thing to be kissable.
It’s not just my toes that are noticing the chill. Last summer, I started grabbing a sweater before I left the house.
One evening as we headed out to enjoy patio dining at one of our favorite restaurants, I wondered aloud if I should run back inside and get a sweater.
“It’s 80 degrees!” Derek said.
I paused.
“Yes, but a breeze may come up,” I said. “Or what if we have to sit inside and the air-conditioning is set too high?”
He shook his head.
“You’re the one who insists on sleeping with the bedroom window open all winter long,” he pointed out.
This is true, but sleeping next to my husband is like sleeping with a sturdy old-fashioned furnace (and just as noisy).
While a newfound appreciation for socks and sweaters doesn’t necessarily indicate advancing age, my recent multivitamin purchase is certainly a harbinger of decrepitude to come.
I’ve never been a supplement fan. Other than whopping doses of Vitamin C when the crud is going around, it’s been 20 years since I last took a daily vitamin. That was because I was pregnant, and then nursing our youngest son.
Before that, it was Flintstones chewables.
When my kids were little, I dabbed in gummy vitamins for a while, but the habit didn’t stick.
At my last eye appointment, however, the doctor noted the developing stages of age-related macular degeneration.
“It’s common in nearsighted people as we age,” he said, and he recommended a supplement known to support macular health.
Did he really have to say hurtful things like “age-related,” and “as we age”?
“And of course, you’re taking a daily multivitamin,” he added.
Gulp.
Nevertheless, I took his advice to heart and immediately purchased vitamins specific to eye health. At my next trip to Costco, I looked for a multivitamin suitable for women of a certain age.
It turned out to be the exact supplement I purchase for my 89-year-old mother.
This sock-wearing thing is proving to be a slippery slope!
The good news is, I’m not totally ancient, yet.
I know this because in November my mom had a dental emergency. Now, this is not normally good news, but it gave her an excused absence from her quarantined retirement home, and it gave me the first opportunity to spend time with her since late September.
Mom likes to introduce me wherever I take her, even if it’s to people I’ve previously met on numerous occasions, so she introduced me to the receptionist and to her dentist.
“This is my daughter. She may look young and beautiful, but she’s a GRANDMA! Can you believe it?”
Who knew a mask-wearing benefit is camouflaging mom-induced blushes?
But more important, this goes to prove that I may have advanced to the sock-wearing, sweater-toting, vitamin-popping age, but I’m still not too old for my mom to embarrass me.
Cindy Hval 