Those 70ish Girls

Lackluster and Tired by Valerie Halla

My dear cousin and I were completely on the same page. We were texting one another. We were tired, unmotivated, lethargic, lackluster, listless, not to mention slammed, overwhelmed, and down in the doldrums. We were both having a case of the post reunion blues. That was part of it. I felt exactly as she did at the same period in time. We were both feeling kinda depressed with no reunions, parties, hotel continental breakfast buffets nor casinos to attend. No lipstick colors to choose. No outfits to coordinate or boots to wear There was nothing to really look forward to, except maybe a trip to the grocery store or pharmacy or secondhand clothing store. No free Krispy Kreme Donuts, high calorie salt-loaded snacks downstairs in the lobby, no cold drinks that resembled water but were sorta juice, sorta sugary, zero this, zero that, zero flavor. All for only 12 bucks.

Yes, we were down, down on the ground, as the Beatles once sang.

Mary was hoping to snap out of it soon. She was living the carefree life on the road, queen of RVing. Things were a bit challenging lately. Life happens, I was back working and saving my money for the next reunion, where ever and when ever the next one popped up. We had to be ready. I was trying to think positively. Maybe one of our relatives would invite us to their in-laws reunion. We could meet a lot of interesting people and just tag along, like that movie The Wedding Crashers, only we would be the Reunion Crashers. That might help us snap out of this sad sack situation. We would have something to look forward to. Our tour guide and driver, Billy, might call us any day to inform us of another gathering. He could find them pretty easily. He had connections. He could sniff them out. That would be exciting. Yeah, we could be packed in no time. Mary even had the perfectly darling red bag for travel, and had practiced a special technique of rolling her clothing which served two purposes: It kept the clothing from wrinkling and it saved space in your bag. She could be ready on the spot. She also bought stuff she didn’t really need and left it at the hotel for someone else to find and use! Genius idea. But that’s another story.

I think I’m feeling a bit better now, but my lackluster feelings are just under the surface. Maybe I’ll go to the gym tomorrow or stop and have a donut, a chocolate cream filled one. I can’t decide. Maybe I will stay home and practice packing. It’s serious ha.

Next time, I will tell you about my roommate on these excursions. She’s kinda sneaky, and gets up often in the middle of the night to seek leftover soda, food, Krispy Kreme Donuts, (the calories don’t count if you eat them in the dark while others are sleeping), or run off with the car to a casino or hang out at the Buffalo with old classmates til 2:00 in the morning. You meet such interesting and crazy people at these fun events, and some are even your relatives.