wandern gehen: Young at Heart

As I mentioned previously, my brother and his friend Chris came to Munich for a visit a couple of months ago (during their college spring break). Being surround by "buggers" five-and-a-half years younger, I was reminded what very-early-20-something-dom is like, while also being made to feel twice my age.

I know, you are probably thinking, "How could you possibly feel 54 (that's twice my age and almost my parents' age...and oh man, that's scary!) when you look like you're 18 (or 14, for that matter)?"

S. O. T.
Stage. Of. Life.

Anyway, what difference does it make whether or not I look young (besides the fact that when I actually am 54, I will be thankful that I still look 18)? Until then, can we please just accept that I am 27 and move on?

Zum Beispiel:

During our wintertime Boston visit, I was the only person carded for my choice-beverage during our Snow-Milder FAMILY (meaning parents included) dinner in the North End. Even my five-and-a-half-year-younger sibling was there and ordered a drink without being asked for ID. Then, on my March 2010 US Tour, I was carded when...wait for it...I WENT TO SEE AN R-RATED MOVIE at the Village with Ginia. Annnd, to top that off, two years ago I was presumed to be an eighth grader while leading a junior youth group bowling trip in good 'ole NC.

Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, my brother's trip...

See.

I am getting old,
AND forgetful,
AND I have arthritis in my hips.

Yikes!

To spare you another crazy tangent, I am going to skip the gory details of the internal dilemma sparked by my brother's visit about the Grenze between being youthful (i.e. drinking a Mass or three at the Hofbrauhaus, horsing around, and playing "drunk driving" - don't worry, that's my brother's nickname for a card game - until 3:00am)...

and being mature (providing daily wake-up calls so my younger guests wouldn't sleep until 1:00pm and miss everything the day/Germany has to offer and packing my brother's suitcase so his souvenirs wouldn't break)...

a.k.a. (most likely) my fear of getting older, which probably stems from the fact that my college graduation was almost exactly five years and two or three days ago AND there is already a Facebook group for my 10-year high school reunion (where does the time go??).

Wow.
Longest run-on sentence EVER.
And, I clearly already went on another (hopefully shorter, but probably longer) tangent.
Oh well.

From now on, in place of worrying about these things, I am going to focus on being young-at-heart.

And with that, here are the photos: