Senior Moments

I am currently living in the same house I have lived in since the day I was born. The only difference is that over the years my older brother and sister have grown up and moved out, but my grandmother has grown up and moved in. Some of us lucky ones know how fun it is to live with a senior citizen: I'm doubly lucky. My father, John, is seventy, and my mother's mother Janet is sixty-eight. (My mother is forty-seven, and I know it may seem kind of strange, but they're a match made in Heaven.) Would I trade it for the world?...yes.

That comment about being lucky... I was kidding. Don't get me wrong; I love them both, but let's just say it is not the teenage dream to live with two people who are both four times your age. As a very young girl, I learned that the living room is not the place to talk while Daddy's watching television or we will all soon be as hard of hearing as he is. Since my grandmother moved in over the previous summer, we now have two remote controls and the two of them duke it out like children with plastic swords. My father is now the proud owner of a pair of snazzy wireless headphones which generally help keep the battle zone from getting too intense. My mother disagrees, but I find it amusing when he puts the headphones on but forgets to turn the T.V. down, so they really make no difference whatsoever.

The volume of the television is the pleasant part; however if one is forced to choose to listen to one T.V. or the other, the decision is a tricky one. Will it be Law and Order or Medium? The West Wing or Wheel of Fortune? Women's tennis or golf? I'm not exaggerating. Sometimes I come down the stairs terrified of what I'm going to find because I hear a grunting Roger Federer on screen. If you come visit me at home, please bring something pleasant to listen to just in case.