Chick? Bird? Fox? Cougar?

There was an annual National Cougar Convention in Palo Alto this week. Since I've always been a little slow on the uptake, I only found out a short time back that a "cougar" was an older woman in a relationship with a younger man. Think Demi Moore.

So does that make me a cougar?!? I mean, Ed is 11 months younger than I am. I remember when being called a "fox" was sort of a good thing. But Cougar?? It just doesn't have the same ring to it.

My first cougar experience was at the ripe old age of 20 when I dated a young man named John who was 19 (thank goodness for proofreading - when I first typed this I put his age at 10!!). He worked in the mail room at my company and he was very cute (back then we called boys "cute" and it was okay). But the age difference actually made me uncomfortable! I mean, I was almost legal and he was still a teenager! Yuck! So that ended after a couple of dates. Especially after he was kissing me goodnight at the front door and my dad opened the door as loudly as possible and said in his best radio DJ voice - "About time you got home!!" Apparently I was a few minutes past curfew (yes, even at 20 I had a curfew). So John became a distant memory.

My mother dated after she and my dad got divorced and the men were always 15-20 years younger than her! But she looked so young and was such an energetic person that she couldn't abide being with a 60-year old man. You have to remember, 25 years ago 60 year old people were winding down. Unlike my generation where we're just gearing up!

Anyway, the older you get the less the age gap matters. So I hear. I would still have a very difficult time "dating" a man who was close to my son's age. Just too awkward for me. Also, I don't think Ed would like it!