Age is Just a. . . What?

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I hope you all had a nice long weekend. I did! Something happened to me on Saturday that has been happening to me quite frequently lately. First, I finally finished this massive revision I've been working on for a while, so Saturday night I went off to the grocery store to pick up some celebratory wine and crab legs for me and my husband. (Remember, my new positive mantra is to celebrate even the little things!). Anyway, while I was paying, I got carded buying the bottle of wine. Even though I'm in my early thirties, this still happens to me a lot, especially if I'm shopping alone without the kids. Usually, it's not a big deal -- I laugh and hand over my ID, and maybe the cashier will say something about how they card until age 30 and I looked under 30 and I'll say thank you. And that's that.

But. On Saturday, this cashier asked me to see my ID. I handed it to her, and she literally gasped. "No!" She exclaimed. "This can't be right." She turned it over, held it up next to the light, squinted. "You can't possibly be this OLD."

I felt a little uncomfortable standing there as the guy behind me started sizing me up, perhaps wondering how old I really was or what the hold-up with the line was. I'm not sure. I just nodded politely and told her that yes, I am this old.

"No!" she exclaimed again. "You are way too normal looking and cute to be *this* old."

"Is that a compliment?" I asked.

"Totally," she said. "That's totally a compliment."

So, I did the only think I could think to do, I thanked her, wrangled back my ID and paid.

But as I drove home, I wondered was it really compliment? Wasn't what she was really saying was that she expected people "my age" to look weird, abnormal, or not cute, that somehow despite my "advanced age," I'd been able to avoid these things? Phew! And then I decided that I really didn't care. I like my age. I'd actually much rather be in my thirties than be a teenager when life still felt so uncertain and messy.

How do you feel about your age? Do people mistake you for either older or younger than you are? And am I the only one in my thirties who still gets carded???