I’m on vacation. And when I’m on vacation, I wear comfy shoes. Not that I wear killer stilettos at any time. But on vacation? I wear my favourite New Balance slip-ons. Because I can :).

The other day we went on the #1 foodie tour in the country: the Portland Epicurean Excursion. It was wonderful ~ began w/ ‘drinking chocolate’ (AKA hot chocolate so thick you can almost chew it :)), moved through Pearl Bakery’s breads (yumm…gibassier), then had local mustard & catsup and amazing pizza and olive oils and… 🙂 All incredible.

But at the bakery I was walking in my comfy shoes and fell flat on my butt. Skidded in wet flour (isn’t that stuff supposed to be gluey?) and landed on knee, butt and leg. Totally ungraceful. Made me remember how I flunked ballet.

There have been times in my life when this would have totally humiliated me. Today it didn’t :). I’m fascinated by that. I know — who cares?? Well, I do. I find myself, as a result of having the time to do so, thinking. Reflecting. Wondering why things — including me — are the way they are. And I thought about how much it has to do with growing older.

Wasn’t it Bette Davis who said aging isn’t for sissies? It really isn’t! Things stop working much earlier than I thought they would: the running, the dancing, the things I did in my misspent youth, turn out to be not so good for your aging body :). Joints hate repetitive motion. They go south :). Literally migrate one away from the other.

So when I landed on my butt, I found myself actually grateful. NOT that I went kersplatt, but that the two dysfunctional joints that sometimes work as my knees weren’t trashed. Are they black & blue? Yep. But they still work. And that’s the difference :). 20 years ago, I would have been worried about the effect of my tumble on my audience. Today? My concern was only that I could get up, continue on the tour, and not miss the amazing food ahead.

And to me, that seems like a real improvement. Maybe I’m finally growing up…?