New Crayons

I'm 41 years old as of recently (sorry no birthdate announcement - stupid identity thieves ruining my birfday and junk).  I love birthdays - even the hard ones like last year's big FOUR OH.  :shudder:  I mean, how can I get upset about the fact that I survived another year? 

So, I was looking to get myself some goodies to celebrate my continued survival.  I roamed up and down the aisles of the local department store.  New jeans?  Not until I can get back into a size 12.  The shirt and shoe selection at Podunk Dept Store stinks.  They had some cute summer dresses, but I have nowhere to wear such pretties.  (Plus, I don't think I can pull off tube-top dresses anymore.  The top shelf is a little too large for such gravity-defying feats.) 

I wandered over to the new book rack.  And then I remembered my TBR pile from hell.  No new books* until I make some headway through that.  As I turned away from the books, trying hard not to weep, I noticed something in the school supplies.

A big shiny box of Crayola crayons.  96 colors!  In all my life, I've never had the BIG box of crayons.  Hell, I was lucky if I got the 64 color box as a Christmas present.  And that had to last me all year. 

But I'm 41.  I have a 17 year old kid getting ready for college.  I'm way too old for crayons.  So I turned away and went back to roaming the aisles in search of the perfect birfday present for myself.  The CD rack was a proliferation of Country/Western intermingled with Lady Gaga and Coldplay.  The DVD section didn't have anything I wanted to see enough to pay $20. 

I couldn't find a damn thing and I sure as hell didn't want to drive an hour to arrive at Walmart.  Bleh.  Plus, my mind kept going back to that shiny new Crayola box.  I'm 41... I should be too old to color in coloring books... 

Screw it.  Who says I'm too old to have crayons?  And who cares what they say if they do? 

So, I went back and bought that big box of crayons.  Then I went to the other end of the store to pick up some new coloring books.  (Who's stupid idea was it to put the crayons and the coloring books on opposite ends of the store anyway?)  I got one there - the selection sucked - and picked up another four at the local dollar store.

And when we got home, my off-to-college kid and I sat in the living room, coloring to our hearts content.  Oh, the new colors are so wonderful.  I think I like 'asparagus' the best.  And the books we found had the best pictures.  I think my indigo and jungle green dinosaur** is brilliant, and daughter's cute kitten should be hanging in the Louvre.

It was the most fun we've had together in a while.

I am 41 years old and I got crayons for my birfday.  It was wicked awesome.

When was the last time you did something that you were too old to do?  How much fun was it?  And if you haven't done anything too young recently, get yourself out there and buy some crayons already. 

* no new books = no impulse buys of books I wasn't already planning on buying.  I'm still ordering books.  Okay, so I'm still occasionally buying on impulse, too.  It's a sickness.

** so totally not Barney colored.  Plus, he has magenta spikes on his back.  So there. =op