A New Threshold

I think I've crossed into foreign territory: I have a newfound passion for crossword puzzles.

Before Saturday, I generally avoided crosswords. I never understood the clues or could divine any of the solutions. Or if I could, it was only one or two words out of a whole puzzle. But apparently, I have enough life experience now to make sense of at least some crossword puzzles.

Yesterday at work, though (forgot to mention that -- I'm making survey calls most evenings for a little extra cash before school starts -- I assure you that the joys of repeatedly being hung up on are manifold), we were doing a survey about newspapers with NYC-dwellers. People who live in NYC do not take kindly to survey-interviewers (because we aren't telemarketers, after all), and at the end of two hours, I'd logged two completed surveys.

That's about the time I asked the guy sitting next to me if I could borrow his newspaper -- and if I could work on the crossword puzzle he started. I shocked myself with getting 1 Across AND 1 Down right off the bat, and me and the guys on either side of me spent the rest of the day on that and another crossword puzzle.

I enjoyed myself so much that, on Saturday night, I bought myself a Penny Press book of crosswords to keep me occupied at work for the next two weeks. And I'm really, really looking forward to doing them.

Does this mean I'm old now?