Hold Onto Sixteen, as Long as You Can....

Above: a lyric from John Mellencamp's "Jack and Diane"...because I saw him in concert this week at Casino Rama! I'd been hoping, for a long time, to one day see him perform live (how long you ask? well, I can still remember when he was JOHNNY COUGAR..before I was sixteen!). And the tickets were still kind of expensive (mostly because Casino Rama shows generally run about 75 minutes, tops - they want people to go back out and gamble). But I was prepared to possibly be disappointed (yes, I'm a pessimist) because Mellencamp is almost sixty, because fifteen years ago, when I saw Rod Stewart--who would have only been about forty, the age I am now--he pulled out a stool, put on glasses, and read song lyrics like an old man. Ouch. Mellencamp, I am happy to report, did not disappoint. He sang. He danced. He chatted us up. He swore. He's obviously got the "hold onto sixteen" thing down.

Things I did this week to hold onto sixteen:
- went swimming in the lake
- went hot-tubbing with friends
- went to a Mellencamp concert!
- read a YA novel (Somewhere in Blue)
- ate chocolate syrup right out of the jar
- firmed up plans for the next concert: Bon Jovi!
- stayed up as late as I wanted and slept in the next day

Things I did this week that did not make me feel sixteen:
- shopped for a new bathing suit
- had my physical and was told that I now need regular mammograms, as I am over forty
- tried to be my own "hand model" for a Maybe Never, Maybe Now book trailer and realized that my hands just looked too...old. Older than a sixteen year old's, anyway. Had to recruit a friend's daughter, who was perfect with bitten fingernails and chipped blue polish.