I am Fun!!!

I have forgotten how much fun I am. I like to sing at the top of my voice, dance on tables, tell inappropriate jokes and throw out witty comments and one-liners. And although I sing off key and have no rhythm of which to speak, my enthusiasm for these activities is usually quite infectious. 

I just spent a weekend at Queen’s University, yes I was even on Aberdeen Street, celebrating my 20th reunion with old friends with whom I used to be very close who only know me as this person. And that is how I know them. For 72 hours that is who we all were and it was one of the most fun weekends I have ever had. I got maybe a total of 8 hours sleep in two nights but I didn’t even feel tired (until Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…) An 18 year old frosh called me "Hot Alumni." Ex-boyfriends gave me the "look." Even though I’ve aged and gained weight and have a messy kitchen, overdue library books, a daughter who won’t sleep through the night and I can’t seem to fold clothes without creases, they gave me that old look that made me smile, blush and then smack them on the shoulder and say, "go buy me a beer!" I got my hands purple at an engineering party and then went to the laundromat for some Tide to wash it out. When I asked my purple partner in crime why we didn’t know about Tide back in the day he reminded me that we never actually worried about getting the purple off.

I went to the pub at which I used to work, learned a few new games and taught some old ones. Teenagers, the same age as one of the ones in my house, the same age as those that I teach, thought I was cool…because I am "Alumni."

My friends and I told the same stories, but they were funnier this time, having not heard them in twenty years. The year band, who’s name I cannot even print here because it was so funny then and so inappropriate now played at the campus bar and the students who work there said they were going to come to our next reunion because they had never heard live music at Alfie’s!  Men in their 40’s body surfed off the stage and a couple of the women rushed the drummer. 

And I was fun!  I am very lucky. Working with teens, I manage to have some fun in my day fairly regularly, but I don’t very often get to be fun anymore.  I make lunches and beds and set curfews and expectations and get frustrated when they don’t get met. I seem to pick up the same dish over and over again and am forever trying to wring that last drop of milk out of a bag that has been put back in the fridge empty. I am a chauffeur and chef and laundress and tutor, but very rarely am I fun.

Since I got home on Sunday, my computer has died, the bank that holds our mortgage has had some major malfunction, the Gaffer has been showing her displeasure at my absence, my car is starting to make unhealthy noises and there is something wrong with our drains, but I am not fussed. Partly because I am too tired but mostly because I know how to have fun and be fun and with those two skills behind me, everything else will be a breeze.