Missy The Fashion Girl

I am old. No really I am old. No I didn’t receive my new AARP card nor did someone buy me a case of adult diapers for mother’s day. I know I’m old because my youngest niece turned 16 this week. I thought she was going to be 15 and felt old but then realized that she wasn’t 15. Oh no she has gone and turned 16 and I asked for some prune juice and a shawl be brought to my rocking chair.

I don’t really know Missy very well because quite frankly I wasn’t around when she was birthed. I got to see snippets of her as she was growing up all the way across the country from me. I would catch an occasional glimpse of her little dimpled self at Christmas or summer vacation. Sometimes we would all gather at Nurse Meme and Trooper Bob’s house for no apparent reason and eat copious quantities of food. These were the times when I could touch feel and see my little niece. I could observe her and try to hug and squeeze her.

You see Missy came out of the womb a fashion plate. I think from the time she popped her head out into the sunshine she decided to create her own style. She would take a cue from the fashion of the day then put her own spin on it. She was fascinated with make-up and color. One time when she was about four while visiting Nurse Meme she decided that she needed to apply some fuscia colored lipstick to Nurse Meme’s white carpet. We all thought that Meme was going to have a conniption fit or worse but it all worked out and Missy continued her experiments with color.

I guess you could say that she is a colorful person. Oh I don’t mean she just wears colors. I mean her personality and outlook on life is colorful. She started playing softball when she was almost still a toddler. I still don’t know how that little bitty girl swung that big old bat. She developed a talent for pitching. It was funny to watch this little girl standing on the pitchers mound lobbing balls at girls twice her size and taking them out almost every time.

She is an enigma to me. I mean here she is all dainty and blinged out lobbing softballs, riding the waves and boarding down snowy peaks. She does this all in her own style and grace. So all of a sudden she is sixteen and dating and ready to drive. Where did the time go? Time flew by and I missed so much of it.

Happy Birthday Missy. I hope we can get to know each other much better in the next sixteen years. Oh and stop making me feel old.