Sometimes the Universe Conspires to Send You a Message

I just got an email today from an organization's rep who wrote:

I volunteer to help spread the word about a new free Urinary Incontinence online support group. As I know this falls within your interest I thought that you might want to help us in the quest to reach as many people as possible.

At first, I laughed out loud. Then, I got a little creeped out: HOW does she know this falls within my interest? I've never mentioned incontinence on this little blog, so she obviously didn't read the blog to find out about this area of my interest. And, in fact, I've never mentioned this topic to anyone, so she must have been reading my mind to find out about this area of my interest.

And then I realized that apart from those nightmares that all extremely pregnant women have that their water breaks while they are up front teaching a class in a lecture hall full of 300 students (what? you didn't have those?), I've never had any serious interest in incontinence in my life.

Which only makes me wonder what this rep knows about my areas of interest that even *I* don't know.

And in other disturbing thoughts: did you hear that Melissa Gilbert is starring in the musical stage revival of the show Little House on the Prairie? As Ma. Now, obviously, she's a leetle bit too old to play "Half-Pint" Laura. But there is something more than a little saddening about realizing that the idol of my youth, the girl whose romantic life as a homesteader filled my girlish dreams of adventure, is now old enough to be that pretty, care-worn, always-a-little-exhausted Ma.

Which means, of course, that I am now old enough to be that pretty, care-worn, always-a-little-exhausted Ma.

Got it, Universe. Thanks.

Melissa Gilbert is a middle-aged mom + ominous reminders that I really ought to take an interest in problems of incontinence = a very clear message.

It's obviously time to do something juvenile and foolish just to prove that I've still got it.

If only my memory weren't so patchy, and I could actually think of what something appropriately juvenile and foolish might be.