Malfunctioning Synapses

We have a bunch of twenty-somethings working in my section at my agency (both technical and legal). I really like them all, but find myself talking to two of them more than the others. We sometimes just sit and talk about things: life, work, family...you know, stuff. I never really thought of the difference in our ages until recently.

For example, last year, I was talking to Maryanne about a friend of hers who was having a baby. She said the friend had gotten a sonogram. I said a sonogram was my son's first baby picture and she turned to me, incredulously: "They had sonograms back then?" Imagine my surprise at hearing that phrase "back then" so soon in my life! I laughed out loud and answered: "Why, yes, we did. We even had cars back then." We both laughed, but I think she was a bit embarassed. I, on the other hand, thought the whole thing was funny... until a couple of days later.

Barely had I recovered from the "back then" experience when my co-counsel on one of my cases told me about the training session he had attended the week before. He had been bored because they had stuck him at a table with a bunch of old guys. "Old guys?" I asked, "How old were they?" "You know, forties and fifties," he said. "Wow!" I said, "That old!" He got all goofy and tried to back pedal. I can't remember what he said, but I laughed because he was digging the hole deeper. I told him to just keep it up because someday he, too, would be on the receiving end.

I think he likes to come into my office to talk because he knows he will make me laugh. Although he's three years older than EO, he sort of reminds me of my son. This morning he was in my office telling me the reasons he liked working for the government as opposed to a law firm. "First," he said, "you can have a life away from the office." "And B," he added, "you get far more experience sooner than you would at a law firm." He was right, of course, but I laughed out loud and asked him if he had seen "Home Alone." First and B. He understood and laughed, which leads me to the title of this blog. Malfunctioning synapses. Obviously, judging by the fact that AK is a very bright young attorney, I knew he was merely suffering from malfunctioning synapses, something I, myself have experienced.

To put him at ease, I told him about my own synapse malfunction two nights ago, when my favorite husband and I were flipping through channels and he stopped on a bicycle race. You know the one. The scenery was fantastic. "Where is this?" I ask. "It's the Tour de France," my favorite husband answers. "The Tour de France is in Finland this year?" I ask. "No, it's in France." Looking at the clock in the corner of the screne, I wonder: "Why are they using a Finnish clock?" No sooner were the words spoken than I realized my mistake. The "Finnish" clock only had one "n" in it. You know, finish? As in finishing time? Duh!

Does this mean I'm getting old? Surely not! After all, anyone's synapses can malfunction at any time. Right?