I never thought of myself as old until this year, my 70th birthday. Something about that number made me realize I'm now officially an elderly woman. I have entered the realm of geezerhood, or maybe it should be geezerette. It does seem the feminine version of geezer should be geezerette, right?

What I can't figure out is how the heck did this happen? Whatever became of all those years? How does age just creep up on a person like this?

I can remember when I thought thirty was old and anyone over fifty was ancient. Besides, I don't feel seventy, and how can I, I've never been seventy before so how the heck would I know how seventy is supposed to feel?

Then there is the matter of my hair; it is still the same nondescript brown it has always been. I wonder if it will turn gray now that my mind has accepted the fact of impending old age? Nah, that's not gonna happen; my oldest sister is eighty-eight, and her hair never turned gray. Gray hair doesn't run in our family, heart disease yes, but not gray hair. I guess one can't have everything.

I have noticed, in the last fifteen years or so, that the guys no longer whistle or make remarks such as, "Whooee baby, I would like a piece of that," when I walk past them. Now they either look through me or polite me to death by opening doors and calling me Maam. To be honest, it is refreshing.

There are some good points to being older. Senior citizen discounts, being retired, so I have time to write silly stuff like this, watching all those folks gathering to watch a ball drop and being glad I'm sitting cozy at home and not there in the middle of that huge crush of humanity. Being young is wonderful, but this being old is rather comfortable.

It's true that my seventieth birthday caught me off guard and slammed home the fact that I'm getting old, but now I'm over the initial shock, I believe I can handle it. I'm still healthy, my body parts all work good, I don't look half bad for an old gal, and my mind seems fairly stable. My husband might disagree with that last remark, but what does he know?

I have decided to live the rest of life to my fullest potential. I saw a quote on the internet that sums up the way I feel. I changed one word, instead of martini I prefer coffee. Here is the quote:

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, coffee in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, "WOO-HOO, what a ride."

Whenever I feel depressed or otherwise out of sorts, I'm going to read this story and remind myself that life is good and age is just a number. I look forward to whatever life throws at me, and of course, all the new contests to enter here on FanStory.