Monday, May 15, 2006

How old did that feel?

I went to the dentist this morning. I never particularly dread going because I take good enough care of my teeth that they rarely ever need to do more than give me a regular cleaning. The only thing I sometimes debate is whether to spend the money to be vane and whiten my teeth.

When I entered the exam room, the hygenist, Elle, made small talk by asking me how I spent Mother's Day. I simply mentioned that I gave my mother a call but didn't spend anytime with her since she doesn't live nearby.

In a very innocent way, Elle responded saying, "Oh, you don't have any children?"

Um... ouch. I felt like I got knocked off my feet by that one. With a polite smile I calmly said, "no." She continued to babble on about how her 10-year-old wanted to take her out to lunch at the park, blah, blah, blah. The whole time I could only think about her initial comment.

So what was it? Do I look that old? I know I have a new, shorter haircut... is it that matronly looking - eeck. Or did she look at my chart for my age and assume that I should have children by now? I probably should also add that all morning, whenever I thought about my age, I thought of myself as 36. Weird. It's bad enough I feel old, desperately want to be married, and have kids. It's even worse that people around me now provide me with these inadvertant reminders that my clock is ticking.

Besides fretting over the huge roach I had last night in my place (another story for later), this just was not the way to start the week.

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