When Did I Get Old?

A really weird thing has happened.

I went from being the youngest person at work and generally among the people I know... to... being one of the oldest!

I know this sounds stupid, but it really did seem to happen all-of-the-sudden. Where did the people who are older than me go? Gosh, I hope they didn't already die! It's as if I went to sleep one night and awoke to a completely different reality.

Worse of all is that I have also started to look older. Argh. Who made the rule that when you hit 50, your parts fall apart? (I guess I have to assume some responsibility for this happening since I hate to exercise and I love my comfort foods.)

The very worse part of this unfortunate transformation is how other people are now treating me. They have absolutely NO RESPECT for me, a middle-aged woman!

• Men don't hold doors for me any more.
• Younger people rush to beat me to the front of lines.
• Other middle-aged women push me aside with their gigantic hips and protruding butts.
• Children step on my feet and bounce balloons off my head and aren't corrected.
• Cars splash mud on me as I wait for the light to change, and,
  
• People let elevator doors close on me as I'm entering.

It's enough to make a grown woman cry - but not me! I'd like to know "what the f_ck is happening here?" I've decided I'm not going to let people walk over me. Here's what happened to me yesterday... (prepare yourself a sordid tale of immaturity...)

As I was making a left turn into the metro parking lot, a woman in a van zoomed around my car on the right side and turned shapely in front of me - going very fast. This was a very dangerous thing to do and she nearly took off the front right fender of my car. I guessed she was hurrying to drop off a passenger who had to run to make the morning commuter train.

Nope. She just sat and talked to her passenger, obviously not in a hurry.

So, when the passenger finally exited the van - and the van's driver remained sitting there, blocking all the other cars behind her - I gave her ONE SHORT TOOT of my horn. After all, we all had places to go and things to do.

Suddenly, the female driver jumps out of the van, rushes up to my window and yells at me, "I'm gonna punch you in da face, bitch!"

What?!!

She gets an attitude with me after she passes me on the right, causing me to swerve to avoid hitting her, and after waiting for her and the passenger to take their sweet time doing whatever the hell they were doing while everyone else was stuck behind them.

Weird! Totally weird!

Well, I started laughing at her and that made her even more mad. So she calls me another name. And, then she gets back into her van and doesn't move. Unbelievable.

I only have one word for her behavior...

IGNORANT!

Simply ignorant.

I wonder if she would have treated me that way if I'd been 20 or 30-something. Makes me think. (BTW - I've added a link to another blog called BlondSense. There's a post there about Hillary Clinton and gender/age discrimination. Perhaps this is NOT all in my head!)