I’m probably not the only one my age who gets confused. In the middle of a conversation, either the wrong word will come out of my mouth, or I can’t remember what I was saying. My brain becomes a wasteland and the harder I try to remember, the more lost the word becomes. I know when I’ll remember the word. At 2am when my brain races and I can’t sleep, I’ll text my friend, worried she is losing sleep too. She, of course, is wondering why I’m texting her in the middle of the night because she forgot the conversation when I did. If you didn’t know, with seniors, confusion travels in pairs or groups. This is particularly helpful when none of us can remember something important, and we all reassure each other that we’re perfectly normal.

Sometimes when I look into a mirror, I’m shocked when an old lady stares back. I feel a young girl is trapped inside me, and I’m shocked that my face went from 16 to 78 in a day. When that happens, I call a girlfriend and we go shopping. Shopping is a female cure-all for everything.

I get in the car; happy the convertible top is down and the sun is shining. I love feeling my hair blowing in the wind while the radio is blasting rock n roll. But the radio has Daryl’s Fox News on. No Fox for this chick today! My adventure requires groovy tunes, but the radio is stuck on Fox. I turn off the radio and start singing “Sweet Little 16,” and forgot the words. I pressed a button and the top rises. Trying again, the windshield wipers start squishing dead lovebug goo all over Dary’s windshield.

Feeling defeated, I went into the house.  Daryl said, “I thought you were going shopping for some cute things.”  I replied, “Sebring never has any cute things; I’ll shop TEMU instead.” Daryl asked, “Weren’t you picking up someone?” I said, “I think so but for the life of me I can’t remember who? But no worries, I’ll remember at 2am and will text her!”