I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older or because I’m lost in disability world, but 2007 just flew past me, and I have little memory of the whole blurry 12 months. In fact, reading the year-end reflections in the newspaper remind me just how “out of it” I am.

My younger sister had severe asthma and allergies as a child. I can remember my mother commenting that she had a “missing decade” from her life (mid-1960s to mid-1970s) when she had no idea what the current events were. I thought that was such an odd thing; to be so “out of it” that you didn’t know what was going on around you.

But now, as we start our decade year of having LuLu in our family, I realize that I, too, have been “out of it” for nearly a decade. And I’m astounded at what I don’t know. I know absolutely nothing about pop music or pop culture. Most of the faces glaring at me from the People’s Magazine cover are unrecognizable. And technology just keeps moving on without me too. I had to do a quick search on the internet to learn the difference between Bluetooth and Blu-ray. Yikes, is this a sign that I’m getting old or am I just pre-occupied???

I’m sticking to the latter. Ask me about the latest interventions for autism, the statistics of international adoption or how trauma affects a developing brain. And I’ve got those topics covered. But I have no idea who Fergie is…ok, I have some idea, but couldn’t identify her music. And I wouldn’t recognize Miley Cyrus if I hadn’t known her dad the decade prior. And what is a Wii?

So, life as most Americans know it, is passing me by. I haven’t seen most of the movies that the critics list as the year’s best. And who has time for Oprah’s book club, when I could be reading about Tourettes, attachment or special ed law?

Not knowing the basic “in the news” items of 2007 is at times embarrassing, like the day that I had to ask whether John Edwards or Mike Huckabee were Republican or Democratic candidates, or just last week when I needed a crash course in who Benazir Bhutto was.

Time marches on. And if I blink a couple of times it will be 2009. And maybe it’s ok to be so focused that many things pass you by. The things that matter around here don’t. I know a great deal about caring for my daughter’s special needs. I also keep up with all Broadway musicals, thanks to Kay’s intense interest (yes, Hairspray was the only top movie I saw last year!) And the first day of 2008 brought wins for two of our favorite football teams. How ‘bout them Dawgs! And go Mizzou! (and, as MSNBC reports, they showed the BCS what they missed)


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