A pet peeve that is larger than you and I.

For some reason older women who are around the age where they could be going through menopause (which can vary, as does the way women can show their age), seem to like to imply to younger women, such as myself, that they are going through menopause. Like it's some big, bright, gold star they gladly flaunt on their chest.

The other day (I'm actually writing this several days after June 8th, I just haven't really felt in the, um, feisty writing mood this past week), I was visited by someone in my office who was implying that she was going through the "change" without actually saying that she was.

Where I sit, I'm either freezing to death or sweating like I ran a mile (and yes, I have ran a mile in my younger days as the "Hardest to get moving" track star at my high school, thank you very much). This particular morning, the temperature of the air blowing upon my head paired with the my clothing choice for the day actually made me feel nice and toasty -- not too hot, not too cold, as the bears in Goldielocks said, "just right."

So here comes my visitor, whom by the way, I dread being visited by, and as she was walking towards me, she was saying, "It's hot! Aren't you hot!? It's soooo hot! I'm HOT! It's really hot over here!"

Mentally I was already cringing at the reality that this person was visiting me for some unknown reason, and also because she was spouting off how hot she was when in fact, it was not hot.

"I dunno. I'm usually freezing, so it feels fine to me," I muttered in a 'I'm recognizing that you're coming to visit me, however, I'm not going to be too friendly to you' way.

"I'm just soooooo hot!" she exclaimed.

That's when I realized what she was doing because this is not the first time I've encountered the older woman telling the younger woman how hot she is and oh boy, she's just sweating!

So my friendly meter dropped immensely at this point.

The one thing that I hate more than anything else is when older people have to point out how much older they are than younger people, even if it's by a few years. Women do the particularly annoying thing of using their menopause experience as the one that tops all experiences for other women. I guess that's because I could have had sex already by now, had a few kids, seen life a little bit, have some years of work and education under my belt, could possibly be a divorcee or a even a widower, so what else can an older woman have to top me? The lack of their monthly visitor. Wow. Go figure.

The thing that not too many people know about me is that I've experience menopause for about three months. I've had those famous hot flashes that older women like to brag about. Why I went through this is another story altogether, but now, when I have to listen to an older woman exclaim how hot she is, I just want to punch her really hard. BAM!

I'm just the wrong person to do this too. Be forewarned. I don't take kindly to this "I'm older than you" braggartness. I know what a vinyl record is and in fact have crates and crates and crates full of them. I know who Glenn Miller is and that his name is spelled with two N's and not one. I know that the first movies to feature talking were in fact called 'talkies.' I'm also quite aware that TV hasn't always been around.

So I may be young, but don't underestimate my brain power and what I've been through.

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Okay -- So this is what I wanted to say last week, and while I still do feel this way and always will, I had my first experience of being 10 years older than another person and wanting to play the "I'm older than you" card as much as I could, but I didn't really go there. Especially when the person I was talking to thought during the whole time we were talking that I was his age because I do look like I'm 10 years younger than I am. Then I started doing the, "when I was moving in with my husband and starting San Jose State, you were only 12" silent mental games. I could also finally see how young a young person was and how much fun it would be to torture them with the, "when I was 10, you were even born yet!" crap. Or even better, if he's 22, then that means he was born in....1984 (yes, I had to use the calculator) and I was in 4th grade and in love with Duran Duran.