Last night Jan invited us for dinner again. Her mom, Gayle, was in town and Jan wanted us to see her. When we arrived we found ourselves in the middle of a dinner party for the Organ Guild. Sietze deVries, the visiting organist from the Netherlands who will perform in recital this evening, and his wife Sonia, were the honored guests. And we thought we were going to a little family dinner. I was a little underdressed in my flip flops.

Funny story. I was standing in the kitchen with Jan and Gayle as they cleaned up. A woman came in from the dining room and asked who made the cake. Jan replied, "Mom made it." The woman proceeded to tell her that she was in charge of the food for the reception following the recital the next day. Obviously she was stressing out over it. Jan offered to bring the remainder of the cake and to make a big pan of brownies.

At this point, the woman looked at me and said, "Mom must like to cook." I didn't really know what she was meaning by this, so I just stared blankly back at her.

"You must like to cook," she repeated.

"She didn't make the cake," Jan said. "Mom did."

At this point, Gayle piped up and said, "I'm her mom."

Now you have to know that Gayle is 78 with a trendy blond haircut. She looks at least 15 years younger than her age. The woman looked at me, then back at Gayle.

"You're her mother? I thought you were her younger sister."

Excuse me. And you thought I was her mother? (Moment of awkward silence ensues.) Even Jan might have felt a little insulted by now.

"So about the brownies..."

I wandered off to the side, feeling aged and well, to be honest, ugly.

The last thing I heard the woman say was, "I feel about this big." I'm sure she felt worse than I did.

So last night as I was brushing my teeth I looked at myself in the mirror. I didn't look 80. Or even 65. I looked just like myself. Just right.

Ya gotta love life. : )