Whatever happened to days when you could lay down on the floor and spread out the Sunday funny papers for an hour of laughs? Who can afford all the papers? Anyway, Sundays now are filled with church, after church activities, catching up with everyone's blogs, writing your own, reading the news, writing, calling, or chating up family, and making sure you're up to date with whatever online social network you subscribed.
I'm at the time in my life when so many things have disappeared and so many other things are new, that my head whirls trying to keep up with it all. I used to think--nothing after that, just thoughts. I could report on what kind of clouds were in the sky, which way the wind was blowing, and how warm the sun was on my face. Now I consult weatherbug.
Without my consent I seemed to have given up window shopping, long walks, long reads at night, sitting out on the porch, and watching for sunsets. I used to have time to be bored. Being bored meant I had to get out the picture albums, or doodle, or invent a new recipe.
When did I stop spending time thinking about stories? The time was that I would think out an entire plot, dialog and all, before my fingers touched the keyboard.
I'm not saying that life isn't good anymore. I'm not even saying that life was so great back then. I'm simply saying that it's different, and sometimes I miss the old things I used to enjoy.
I miss stopping doing the dishes to go answer the phone. I miss the teenager who used to pump gas for me and wash my window while I watched and smiled. I miss only having five choices on TV so I could leave it and go do something else without saving what I didn't see.
I miss not feeling guilty about not exercising, eating right, or being pleasingly plump because I'm daily bombarded with the guilts for all of the above.
I miss the newspaper because I don't have time to read the well thought out stories anymore. I miss magazines, ditto.
Most of all I think I miss daydreaming. I used to spend hours thinking about someday, but not so much anymore. I miss the Sunday funnies.