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Time flies when you're having fun
(by Jennifer Botkin Phillips - September 10, 2008)
Having acclimated to the shock that we are now in September, I’ve learned I’m not the only one wondering what happened to summer. When I mentioned to my friend,
Beverly , the other day that I’d only made it to the shore once this year, she was lamenting that she hadn’t even gotten there at all.
And, now, here we are with the school buses back on the road, the kids invading the local Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts, and only one 112 days until the end of the year.
I ask myself, how does this happen? Perhaps those sages who proclaim that the days pass faster as we get older know of which they speak.
Sometimes I feel like Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally (1989), in the scene when she’s whining over turning 40. Harry ever so gently asks, “When do you turn 40?” Sally, already distraught over a broken relationship, wails “in four years.” And, we thought it was at least the next day or so.
To tell the truth, Meg Ryan I am not, nor am I anywhere near 40 even though I heard somewhere that 60 is the new 40. For a moment, that’s sounds pretty grand, and then I remember the year of my birth. And, then, I feel antsy and that I’d better hurry up and get on with it if I’m going to do everything that I want to do while I still can.
Over the weekend I came across a clipping in the travel section of The Record about
Paris on a shoestring. Going to
Paris (yes, I know I may be dreaming) is now written down on my “places to go” list… right next to my “things to find” list which, believe it or not, includes locating my passport. Something I’ll definitely need for crossing the
Atlantic Ocean . No, no, it’s not stolen or anything… just misplaced by the lady of the house and sure to pop up in a most unlikely place when I’m not looking for it. You know, like they say finding romance in the lettuce aisle at the supermarket happens when you least expect it.
I don’t really want to hurry life along. I just want to have everything done by the time my plane takes off. Later this month I’m flying out to California to visit
Visalia , the town I grew up in, see my family, and attend my 45th high school class reunion. There’s packing and planning yet to do, and with a little discipline, maybe I’ll even lose a few pounds. In spite of over three weeks to get ready, suddenly I feel as if there isn’t enough time.
Kind of like September’s arrival. I knew it was coming and yet I still find myself in awe that it’s actually arrived. They say, time flies when you’re having fun. That must be it! This was the summer of the fun factor.
Scientists recently came up with a theory for why time flies when you are having fun – and drags when you are bored. The research, by the French Laboratory of Neurobiology and Cognition, shows that concentrating on time passing, as we do when bored, will trigger brain activity which will make it seem as though the clock is ticking more slowly.
Ah, I get it. It’s our perception of time. Or, as the researchers found, “It is thought that if the brain is busy focusing on many aspects of a task, then it has to spread its resources thinly, and pays less heed to time passing” (from BBC News 2005).
One recent weekend, friends and I visited Lambertville and New Hope, Pa. Between a boat ride on the Coryell’s Ferry River Boat Rides, named for the ferry that transported General George Washington’s army across the Delaware River in present day,
New Hope, Pa. , my attention was flitting from the charm, character, novelty stores, art galleries, and the train. The day flew by.
While on the ferryboat ride up the
Delaware River , I wore a pink ball cap with “High Maintenance” written across the front that evoked a rather interesting conversation with a fellow passenger. A lovely, older women with a beautiful and kind face seemed fascinated by the quip and told me she herself was a high maintenance lady. I was a little embarrassed as I’d not purchased the cap myself, but we were all thoroughly entertained by this women’s affability. Boy, we were in for a surprise.
Before the ride was over, we learned that her name was Brynn Noring, former model and aspiring starlit. Actually, that was her name when she was on the cover of Life magazine August 15, 1949. A New Yorker, who trained for a year under contract with David O. Selznick, Ms. Noring was still a beauty even at 83.
Indeed, time does fly when you’re having fun.
Until next time…Top blonde… on the run!
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