How did I become fifty?! Well, fifty-two, if you want me to be brutally honest. Just yesterday, all the possibilities lay ahead - and now, I just hope to not become a bag lady in my dotage. I have a career I love - well, most of the time, but more on that later. Nevertheless, I'm feeling the urge to move on - try new cities, new careers, new men! My Midwestern burg has run out of interesting men. The good news is, more are available now - usually second divorce! I, on the other hand, have never been married. At some point, on the first date, after the obligatory compliment, "How did a catch like you manage to elude marriage?"(yes, men my age use old school words like"catch"), they get around to saying what they really mean. "What's wrong with you that you've never been married?" Okay maybe they don't really say that, but that's what they mean. You would think that over approximately 35 years of dating that I'd have come up with an answer for that, or that I'd had the good sense to fake an answer. The sad truth is that I stammer and stutter, and say something to the effect of, "I don't know." Recently, I think I answered it as honestly as I can without therapy. I told the guy that I felt like I had all the time in the world, and before I knew it, I was 52. See, my mother married for the first and only time at 42 and had me at 43. So in my world, pursuing an education in my 20's, a career in my 30's, and cat parenthood in my 40's would lead naturally to my dream man at 42. Did not happen! But now, when I mention to friends that maybe I should find that dream guy and get married, to a person, male and female, they all say NO!
So, gentle readers, what do you say - could I adapt to living with a man at 52? Should I try, or should I focus on being a good cat parent?
