Staying Up Late and Scaring Small Children

Any of my friends and family know that I am a night owl--I would do very well working the night shift. This is why people don't hesitate to call me in the late evening/early morning hours. So with that in mind, I don't know why my heart skips a beat every time the phone rings late at night, as it did the other night shortly after midnight. My first thought was panic. Then I saw on the caller id that it was C., so I got even more concerned. And the fact that she was calling from her cellphone made me think she was on her way here because she was in premature labor. (How in the world can one think that many thoughts in the space of 5 seconds!?) As it turned out, she was driving through the next state on her way to pick up her husband. G. drives an 18-wheeler and had a 36 hour lay-over and she went to get him so he could spend some time with her and the kids. (He has been gone for over a week and won't be back until this coming weekend.) She called me because she was bored and knew I was the only person she could call who would actually be up at that time. I've always said, one way or another, my kids would shorten my life.

Some people wish they could go back and spend their high school years over again. Or they want to have their college years back. Or the early marriage years were the best times of their life. I don't yearn for the past--I am quite content to be in the here and now. There are only two things I would like from way back when. The first is: I want my old body back! I want the pre-pregnancy, pre-hysterectomy, pre-gravity wrecked, pre-OLD body back! And to think I felt I was too heavy when I was in high school. What a fool I was. The other thing I want is my former ability to wake up and leave the house in less than 15 minutes. These days it takes me at least an hour to get ready to leave the house--and this is just doing enough to myself so that I won't scare small children, not so that I will look great! Oh, the toll time has taken on me.