Birthday Eve

One more day till I'm one year older. Oh goodie.

I called my dad today... he said I'm getting to be too old to be his daughter because he's been telling everyone he's only 49. I told him he looks good, but not that good.

My sister called, to remind me that I'll be a year older tomorrow. Oh goodie, said I. Then I told her that I read somewhere that 50 is the new 30. Being that I'll be 53, that makes me 33, according to that "new" way of counting.

My sister told me that a store clerk asked her for ID last week when she went to buy cigarettes. (You're still smoking?! ) She wasn't upset when they asked for her ID... she's 45 and is very young looking, so she was pleased to show her ID and prove that she was old enough to buy the cigarettes. (She's still smoking????) I told her that maybe 40 was the new 20.

I think we both look younger than our ages. And it must be in the genes, because most of our family looks younger than they are. My dad doesn't look 86, and my Aunt Dolly will be 93 this year and she looks about 30 years younger. Aunt Dolly has always stuck to the same rules: "Keep busy. Ask no one to do anything for you unless you cannot physically do it yourself. Sit down as little as possible during the day. Don't turn on the TV unless they're showing a movie produced before 1949. Get a good night's sleep. Take care of your hands."

My aunt will be 93 this summer... she still does everything she's always done, with the exception of driving. And I'll bet that if she didn't live in super-busy NY, she'd be driving still. She is still a size 6 and when she's all dressed up and made-up, she's still a "doll." (Hence, her nick-name.)

Then there's my aunt's food rule--- "Eat real food." She will buy nothing that says low-calorie, low-fat, lite, or low-carb. She will only eat the real stuff. "It's not what you eat, it's how much you eat." Aunt Dolly has been saying that for as long as I can remember. My aunt loves chocolate, and she bakes the world's best chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Her portion-size for chocolate is about the size of a Hershey's Kiss. And my aunt can cut the thinnest slice of chocolate cake for herself and make it last longer than the thick slab she will cut for someone else.

When my dad came down here to visit us a few years back, I cut myself a slice of cake about the size that my Aunt Dolly would cut for herself. Then I cut a 'normal' size slice for my father. He looked at his slice, then looked at my thin slice. He sat there shaking his head and told me that only Aunt Dolly could've taught me to cut a slice of cake that thin.

And what's wrong with that? said I.

That's not a slice of cake... that's a postage stamp, said he.

I got my cake-slicing from my Aunt Dolly, and my sense of humor from my dad.