growing old with you...

my lovely great aunt pauline recently made a major transition in her life.

she went from living independently in her cozy little town house with her little dog.

to an independent living facility without her little dog.

this is pretty big move for someone in the 8th decade of their life. but i really think aunt pauline has one of the youngest hearts i know.

(side note: isn't this thing sweet? its a high chair. its a stroller. graco just doesn't make 'em like this anymore. i mean, sure, my kids would be doing suicide dives out of it since it doesn't have straps and doesn't meet current safety standards... but wouldn't it look great in my kitchen?)

our recent visit up north included more than just raisins and hospital visits. we also got to visit aunt pauline at her new digs.

and let me just tell you, i want to live there when i grow up. the place is awesome.

i mean, not only is her apartment nice and cozy, but the entire place is great with puzzle tables scattered about in cozy nooks, gourmet meals in the dining room, activities all day including arts and crafts and Wii games, shopping trips, bingo...

and there is even happy hour. every afternoon where, "you can just bring a soda or something. but some people... some people bring the hard stuff." (wink, wink)

it has a very welcoming feeling. a mixture of summer camp and dorm life, all rolled into one. some of the great memories of my life. (minus the walker-parking in the dining hall.)

its kinda like the not-a-care-in-the-world season. (of course i know this is not the case when you have to wear emergency call buttons on your necklace.)

while spending time with aunt pauline, my mom joked that it wouldn't be long before she had herself a boyfriend to sit in the other cozy chair in her living room. she laughed. she's quite a foxy lady, and i'm sure this will be the case. should there be a worthy ol' gent out there for her...

so it got me to thinking. someday, when i'm living there, parking my walker to eat my supper, putting puzzles together because someone else is vacuuming my room and taking out my trash...

you know, living the good life in my Depends...

i just can't imagine being there without anthony.

you know, thinking of aunt pauline's new boyfriend and all, i just can't imagine having to start all that business all over again so many years from now. i can't think of why i would want to begin again with someone who hasn't been there since the beginning (or the beginning that began when i was 23... you know what i mean.)

i just simply don't have the energy to explain to someone why i put salt on my grapefruit, ice in my milk and chips in my sandwich.

if survivor is in its 125th season, we can still ask each other on thursday mornings, "so, who's going tonight?"

we can still have our sometimes weekly "so, tell me your hopes and dreams" conversation...

i can still tell him all about the characters in my latest book...

i can roll my eyes and sigh with disgust if his channel surfing stops on ultimate fighting...

and when we put on our bifocals to look at pictures of our grand kids and read letters from ella about how her children just won't sleep, answer calls from bennett about his child's latest stunts that landed him in the ER, or when mason tells me his baby screams all the time, it will be nice to have someone to laugh with about the irony. i want to sit there with someone who can see me grin and he'll just know that the grin means, "haaa haa haaa! so there really is a such thing as karma."

its just nice to have so many wonderful memories with such a wonderful man.

not to say we won't get tired of each other from time to time. that's why he can go play wii while i do puzzles.

let's just say... once you marry your best friend, it just doesn't get any better than that.

so, in other words, don't go dying on me, anthony. we have lots of memories still to make.