I Wanna Dance!

By Lisabet Sarai

On my next birthday, assuming I reach it, I'll be sixty years old. I find this close to unbelievable, for a wide variety of reasons.

1. I still feel like I'm about twenty seven. Mostly that's the age I seem to be in my dreams – those lovely ones where I meet a stranger who's madly in lust with me... In fact, a good deal of time, even when I'm awake, I don't even feel like an adult, despite the wrinkles, gray hair, aches and pains.
2. I grew up during the Cold War, more or less certain that I was going to die in a Russian nuclear attack. We all knew that was what the future held. I didn't expect to live beyond thirty – certainly not beyond forty.
3. I look at my Lisabet Sarai head shot often enough that I forget what I really look like! (That photo was taken when I was twenty seven. You can see why I'd cling to that age...)

However, the calendar and the mirror don't lie. I'll complete five decades next January. To be honest, it doesn't really bother me. What I'm really concerned about is how to celebrate.

I fantasize about throwing a big party, inviting all my friends. Unfortunately, my friends are scattered from Boston to San Francisco, from London to Vietnam. The chances of getting them together in one place are pretty close to zero, especially when I'm half a world away from the States where the majority of them reside. What I'd really like is to have enough money to charter a jet and bring everyone here to Asia for a wild weekend.

A wild weekend at sixty? Why not? I want a party with sexy costumes and rock n' roll, plenty of wine and a bit of flirtation. I wanna dance! I want to stay up all night and take my bleary-eyed, beloved, friends to brunch the next morning.

Maybe I'll manage to arrange something along these lines – probably minus the chartered jet! I have a friend who has volunteered her vintage Victorian for a celebration. Though I'm not sure rock and roll really fits in that environment. I'd be too worried about damaging her antiques. Maybe I'll gather my friends (those who can make it) in a bar or club instead. I know a place where the DJ has a great collection of Rolling Stones, Creedence, and Deep Purple, and the clientele are tolerant of those who boogie...

I'm really not sure how I'll work this out. I have more than six months to think about it. I'll tell you one thing, though. I'm not going to let this birthday go by without some kind of celebration. You never know how many you have left.