I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. Ever since, I've tried to be a little more flexible.
How many women out there will eat at home because their husbands didn't suggest going out to dinner until after something was thawed? Does the word "refrigeration" mean anything to you?
How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched "Jeopardy" on television?
I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, "How about going to lunch in half an hour?" She would gasp and stammer, "I can't." Check one:
"I have clothes in the dryer." "My hair is a mess." "I wish I had known yesterday." "I had a late breakfast." "It looks like rain." And my personal favorite:
"It's Monday." My sister died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.
Because we Americans cram so much into our lives, we tend to schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect. We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Stevie toilet trained.
We'll entertain when we replace the living room carpet. We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.
Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of "I'm going to," "I plan on," and "Some day when things settle down a bit."
When anyone calls my seize-the-moment friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of roller blades and skip the elevator for a bungee cord.
My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my hips with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process. The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.
