"Turn that noise down!"

Exactly when did I get so old, I'd like to know. How did it happen? I still feel like me but now I'm an adult--I no longer have the opportunity to die before I grow old, not that I wanted to or anything, but it's always nice to have options.

Today, I had parent/teacher conferences at my two older boys' schools and heaven help me if I didn't relate better-for the first time in my life-to the teachers! Don't get me wrong: I still HATE school uniforms and think they are ridiculous and would happily support whichever young people would like to actively protest at the board of education against them. But...the chemistry teacher that my son railed against so loudly about on our way to the school: He's really nice. And Z's middleschool English teacher: I could see us being friends.

And this weekend, I was a Friendly Adult Presence (FAP) at the Southern Appalachia Young Friends (SAYF) retreat. I love being with the teens but had to actively work to remember the feelings and emotions of teen years (except the everpresent sexual tension, which I remember with great fondness). I happily sat and talked with the other adults. I slept in a room with several young women. At one point, another FAP came into the room to see if there was room on the floor for her sleeping bag. After she left, one of the girls-a very sweet but very blunt 13 year old, said "I hope this doesn't become the old geezer room". ME?! A GEEZER??? Ouch.

Except the music. Most folks my age and older have really lame taste in music. But then, most young folks listen to either really lame music or music that I've never heard of or music that hurts my brain. Ok, what I mean is that it's hard to find many people with similar taste in music to my own. So that I wouldn't have to listen to iPod playlists put together by disco aficionados or heavy metal enthusiasts, I brough my own stack of cds; music I thought the teens might enjoy: Violent Femmes, XTC, Talking Heads, Ani Defranco, Billy Bragg, the Replacements "Pleased to Meet Me". No one mutinied so I guess it was tolerable to them. Oh yeah, I did try to sneak in some Woody Guthrie which got made fun of and removed from the playlist in it's third track, but I think I did pretty well with the rest of my choices.

Rock on.