Monday

Long day, though I can't say much went on. I heard from Rachel and saw her at the dojo, so that was cool. Trying to keep things light for a while yet. I think my only concern so far is how busy she is. Very typical grad student, and that might be an impediment to anything for a while yet.

Not going to worry about it :).

I got to talk to someone I knew when I was kid today. Ran into them in Kroger's in West Chester. She stopped me, and I completely didn't recognize her. She said she didn't really recognize me either, but had overheard me say something when I was on the phone and knew it was me. It was kind of strange. She complimented how I looked, said I looked better than I did in high school, wanted to know how things were. She asked about my ex-wife, and I explained that situation to some extent to her since she went to high school with her. She was shocked, and very apologetic. ( I still don't get that really, it happened, no one could control that, and that's that.) She showed off her new child, which was a very cute little girl not more than 6 months old.

Now, all this stands out in my mind perhaps because I had somewhat of a crush on this girl when I was early in high school, but she never really gave me the time of day. My, how times change. I won't say that she blew up, but it's close. She looks closer to 40 than the 31 she is, and I mean that in most negative ways you can think of. I could tell she was shocked I didn't look the same. (I'm actually in better shape right now than I was in high school, and I wasn't too horrible then.)

It made me feel really good, and really bad for her at the same time. If she is any indication of what marrying early and having kids does to you (and my brother and his wife are starting to look this way at 27 for him and 23 for her), then no thank you. Everyone looks so stressed, so tired, so OLD. I guess perhaps I'm glad in that aspect that I'm no longer married.

It may be selfish and vain I suppose, but I tend to think of it as mature and patient instead. Those things will come when they come. People live longer nowadays anyway, no need to rush and have kids by 30. 30 isn't the halfway point of life anymore like it was for our grandparents and their parents. There are no wars to shorten our lifespans, and medicine gets better every day. When women in their 60's can have children these days (regardless of whether or not you think that's right), why is everyone in a rush to have them right now?