So, I am on a trip to Texas.  If I was to make a trip to anywhere in the United States, Texas is, I'm pretty sure, the last place I would pick.  No...Florida.  Then Texas. 

But, here I am anyway, not to see Dallas itself, so much, but visiting with some in-laws who are all good folks.  And there are dogs, and a toddler, and these are cool things to be around no matter what state you are in.  So, it's good.

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Some random, odd milestones have hit me in the last few days.  Maybe it's because I have a milestone birthday looming in the not-so-distant future.  (Yes, I'm going to be 35 soon.  Shut up.)  Or maybe it's because both my sons seem to have finally arrived at something like independence and fully-formed adulthood.  Anyway, I was walking through the airport yesterday, playing a common mental game for me -- it is not a fun game, but I can't seem to stop playing it.  It is called "Older and Younger."  Each person I see, I attempt to determine if they are older than me, or younger than me.  Than I.  Whatever.

Over the years, of course, the majority count has shifted to where most people seem younger.  I do have one advantage in this game -- I am among the very youngest baby boomers, so there are a disproportionate number of people older than me.  This advantage will wear off as the older boomers get too old to be wandering around in public places, but for now, it does seem to help. 

However, in this particular session, there was a new and rather horrifying wrinkle.  I should have anticipated it, but somehow I did not.  There are now full-grown adult people, traveling without parents or other supervision, some apparently traveling on business, who are younger than my children.  Good Lord.

Not many -- my children are only in their mid-twenties.  But -- it is possible.  Some time ago I actually hired someone younger than my children.  That was a bit of a shock, but it was a very entry level position, and I got through it.  People in entry-level positions usually aren't traveling on business with laptops and bluetooths (blueteeth?).  Maybe those travelers just looked really young.

I take some comfort in the fact that when people hear how old my kids are, they usually still act surprised.  Either I look young for my age, or I just meet a lot of very kind people.  Either way, it's good.

The other milestone is with those children themselves.  Sadly, you cannot have adult children and still be young yourself.  But, adult children begin to repay you for the horrors of adolesence.  The other day, I told one of my sons that he might want to change his voicemail greeting, as he sometimes gets business calls.  And he did.  Because I suggested it!  And the other one, actually wanted to go to a movie with me, and we then had a great talk over dinner about the relative merits of that film and others we had seen recently.  It doesn't surprise me that he is a thoughtful and intelligent person.  It surprised me a little bit that he finally thinks the same of me.  So, that's also good.

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This afternoon we have indulged in some self-esteem boosting television.  First, we watched a show called "outrageous behavior" or something like that.  Mostly people taking various sorts of spills and tumbles while doing things they should have known better than to attempt.  That isn't fun for long.  But there were a few more interesting moments.  My particular favorite was a town, near the ocean, who were troubled by an enormous whale carcass ensconced on their beach.  I understand the problem.  But why they thought that blowing the whale to smithereens was a good solution -- wow.  The thing is, whales are huge, and whale smithereens -- also pretty big as smithereens go.  There were 200 pound chunks of dead whale flying through the air.  Cars as far as a quarter mile away dented by whale debris.  Just...wow.

Then, we watched part of a great classic film called "The Terror of Tinytown."  You've probably heard of this, it was a Western where all the actors are little people (or midgets, as they were referred to at the time.)  The writing was horrible -- it would have been a pretty awful movie with a cast of average-size people too.  The acting was mostly horrid.  There are little people who are fine actors, but the proportion of them cannot be more than in the general population, so many poor actors were cast simply because of their size, I suppose.  There was a great deal of singing -- apparently the citizens of Tiny Town singing together while engaged in their various daily duties.  Midgets are, apparently, a cheery people.  (!)  And, of course, there is the whole deeply disturbing and cringe-inducing concept that anyone should make a movie cast entirely with people who are unusual, so we can all laugh at how funny it is that they are unusual.  Hard to believe there was ever a time when this seemed like an acceptable thing to do.

But, perhaps a good thing that they did, because now we can all feel much cleverer and more enlightened than so much of the rest of humanity.  So, also good.