don_hoodventures

OK, I’m 66 now and when I was a few decades younger, it used to drive me nuts to hear seniors constantly talking about Medicare, pensions, retirement, Social Security, and hip replacements. I was thinking, “Man, these folks need to get a life and find less boring things to talk about!”

Well, now I’m the one who’s the senior, and yes, I’ll admit to talking about “senior topics” to folks around my age. I mean, these matters are important and they affect our daily lives. But I take care to tone it down a bit around the younger folks, remembering how bored I used to get with such talk. Even as a senior myself now, I tend to get bored with people around my age who seemingly can’t talk about anything but “Hey, at what I age do I start getting Medicare Part A?.” Or, “Tryin’ to figure out if I stick out the job another two years how much that would add to my pension.”

Really, fellow Baby Boomers, you complain about stereotypes but at the same time you perpetuate them!

Of course I have friends around my own age. But a lot of my friends are a lot younger, and I don’t mean 40’s and 50’s. I’m talking more like 20’s and 30’s. Mostly around 30.

Why? Well, I am conventional enough. I don’t need to be around people who tend to make me even more conventional. Although I think my brain works in some very unconventional ways, my habits, interests, and lifestyle are pretty conventional. Young people make me see the world through different eyes, different senses. They have… and this is generalizing… a different outlook on life. I have found that most young people have a more energetic, eclectic, and active outlook on life. They are less self-conscious, more spontaneous, more energetic, more adventurous. An old fart like me can benefit from these fresh attitudes and outlooks.

For instance, my co-blogger Don, has taken me to restaurants in areas of Houston that I don’t normally frequent, like the Heights and West University. I had never heard of these restaurants and would have never sought them out on my own. He even took me to a men’s clothing store in the Galleria… I never go to boutique clothing stores. Kohl’s, Target, and even Walmart normally suffice for me. Unfortunately, although I am rather slender, even the fullest cuts on shirts in this particular store were so tapered that the small beer gut I have popped the buttons. Another 30-something comes to mind, this one female and from Mexico. I had a devastating crush on her while she had me firmly planted in the friend zone. But that’s not the point. At least not the point I want to make now. Marisela is an avid runner and came from her home in Mexico City to run the Houston Marathon in 2016. She stayed with me for three nights. Separate bedrooms… sigh. Anyway, I have to say it was one of the most memorable weekends of my entire life. Marisela filled me with energy and her constant smile put a smile on my face. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever smiled as much as I smiled that weekend. Marisela’s smile and energy were contagious and I was seriously infected. Everywhere we went… and we went all over Houston… her smile, her energy, and her adventurous spirit motivated me, made me feel alive. I will never forget when we were watching an Eminem video on my computer and she started rapping along with him. I found the lyrics and printed them out and then we both were rapping along with Eminem at full volume until a neighbor knocked on the door and complained. As though I would have done such a thing on my own…

Of course we did a lot of driving that weekend in my bright red Honda Civic Si. At one point I noticed Marisela fiddling with something and the next thing I knew she had the sunroof open and had put her hands up in the breeze. I HAD FUCKING FORGOT I EVEN HAD A SUNROOF!

And so it goes. There was a romantic/sexual overtone with Marisela (at least from my side). The question of why old geezers like me tend to be attracted to younger women is a topic I won’t go into in any depth here. Aside from the fact that I am a dirty old perverted man, there is the biological factor to consider—that men are, in terms of evolution, attracted to the most desirable women of child-bearing age.

But I digress. I have mentioned just Don and Marisela, but many other young people have helped this old man see things differently, showed him different options, showed him different ways of acting and living.

Now about my prostate medicine…