This is Your Future... dun dun daaaaaa!!!

Yesterday I worked later than usual so by the time I got home and finished dinner I was like a zombie. My husband (I really need to think of a good nickname for him because this "my husband" thing is starting to make me feel like some 50's house Frau who quotes everything the Mister of the Manor says) kept telling me to workout. Go to the gym, I'll watch T.D. Or take a walk with or without the dog. Whatever. You'll feel better. I pried my squishy post-baby bottom off the chair and decided he was probably right. I hate when that happens!
I take my trusty Ipod and the dog and we are off. I start with a nice brisk walking pace and it's beautiful outside. It's not too hot or too bright. I meander the streets past my townhouse neighborhood and on into the single family homes in the hilly area. Got to love hills for the squishy tushy. As I'm making my final loop I notice a group of teenagers hanging out on the curb in front of one of the homes. They are all dressed in black, complete with dyed black straggly/shaggy cut hair, leather wrist cuffs, combat boots and Misfit t-shirts. Aaah youth. Keep in mind I have my Ipod on and it's turned up pretty loud. I know my hearing is suffering at the hands of Apple but I won't think about that now I'll think of that tomorrow. The dog is the only one acknowledging them. I'm quite sure they said something like- Cute dog, as I walked past but again, I couldn't hear them. I briefly smiled and let the dog pause a bit. Then, in classic teen fashion they started making Woo-ing noises and yelling at me. What was being said I have no idea because Diddy's Bad Boys for Life was beating in my ears. I know they didn't like me ignoring them. So they are making fun of me so what. But, it got me thinking- I used to be them. I dressed in lots of black. I dyed my hair and thought I, along with my friends, was so deep, dark and tortured. We were a humorously morbid crew in high school and we liked it! One of my greatest wishes in my teenage girl heart was to grow/file a pair of fangs out of my front teeth and sport the undead look. It made me want to turn around, pull out my earbuds and say. Hey, get a good look at me! I'm 30. I drive an SUV, have a kid and husband at home, work in a grey cube and live in suburbia. I used to be just like you! But, guess what you end up right back here! This is your future kids! Get a good look! SCARY HUH?!? And with that all the little Goth kids run screaming into the house. No, seriously I think that every time I see those kids and they think- there goes another breeder. Sigh.

We all think we won't change or trade in our ideas but we do in some ways. It's truly inevitable. Hopefully, we keep that memory though of what it was like and what we were like as kids and don't lose it in all the "seriousness" that is adult life. If I ever do please sit me down in a room and make me listen to Henry Rollins, Souxsie and the Banshees and the Cure and I'm sure I'll come around again. Now, where did I place my fangs?


(Boston Terrier photo courtesy of Rachel Lauer, Toronto, ON, Canada)