Not So Flirty

I really should change the title of my blog; it was cute when I was both flirting and fifty, as well as "flirting with fifty". Now I am fifty-four, and flirting seems like as foreign a concept as . . . I don't even know what. I've done better at getting out and doing more, sometimes with friends and/or family, sometimes alone. When I went out on Saturday night, it was "with the girls", although there was one man in our group -- the fiance of one of "the girls". Actually, meeting that couple was one of the highlights of the evening. They were young and festive, in love and happy, and just delightful.

For whatever reason, I don't often find myself in the company of men -- or, at least, of men my age or thereabouts. This can be a source of trouble sometimes. At one of my son's recent gigs, I asked a family friend of one of the other band members if the tall gentleman he was talking to was attached. As it turned out, he was, and not only that, but I discovered he was under thirty. Oops. I seriously thought he was at least in his forties. And the same night when one of my son's friends came over and sat next to me to save me from a creepy guy, we were chatting and for some reason I mentioned I like tall guys. "You're tall," I said to him, "but you have a girlfriend." He replied, just a little too quickly, "I don't have a girlfriend." So that hung in the air a while. I changed the subject. He's a great guy, just way too young for me. I don't know that he was offering, but I wasn't going there (no matter how tempting it may have been). I'm pretty sure my sons would think I'm a "good catch" -- to the extent that they think about such things -- but not for their buddies.

What I have discovered, and my friend I met up with a few weeks ago echoed the same sentiment, is that when you are older, it's harder to meet people. My friend said she has started taking her dog out with her so she doesn't feel like she's going out alone. I'm not big on taking my dog places. I do realize that many of the activities I've chosen to involve myself with have been unlikely places to meet men, which I wouldn't go so far as to say is a goal, but I'll also say I wouldn't mind. Weight Watchers, sewing class, dinner theater, my son's gigs, and work are not necessarily "romantic opportunities". At least I'm out having fun, and in some cases doing something productive, and that's more than I had been doing. I remind myself that when the time is right, I'll meet the right person. Maybe in the meantime, I should hone my flirting skills. They're quite dull.