For me, it came this morning, at the age of 27 years and eight months. I woke up excited, because I knew my new dining-room furniture was being delivered later today. Past indications of becoming an old person were: * House-hunting with my last girlfriend and enjoying it * The first time I opened the paper and tossed aside the Sports section in favor of the Business pages * Feeling sheepish buying a PlayStation game However, I fear that none of these things was as strongly indicative of Old Fart Syndrome as excitement over a dining room table and four chairs being delivered.
Hell, if that's the case, I was old long ago! I remember when I was 21 moving into my first unfurnished apartment and being excited about my new dining room table, aka, Major's desk.
Hearing "Nirvana" and "ten year anniversary" in the same sentence. The video for Smells Like Teen Spirit debuted on MTV on my 18th birthday by the way.
I was talking with some friends at lunch several months ago, and I actually uttered these words, " When I was a young man..." I stopped in mid-sentence and just started laughing. That was all I could do.
I understand that one. My wife looked at me funny when I told her that I wanted an XBox for Christmas. After she gave it to me, she told me several times that she kept the receipt and that I could return it at any time. (Instead I bought 4 steerings wheels and my inlaws sit with us and race Nascar...it's a blast. Just don't ask me to race using my thumbs...who the h*ll drives using their thumbs, anyway?) My kicker was knee surgery (from a skiing accident). They removed most of my cartilidge from one knee so now I cannot (er, not supposed to) run. WTF?? I had the surgery so I could run again, then they tell me afterwards that I cannot run at all anymore. I think limitating things like that can make you feel old pretty quick.
Actually, I don't feel old yet. Maybe that's because I still do things like buy all my furniture from IKEA. It's hard to feel mature when you spend six hours putting together a sideboard using only an allen wrench and instructions written in Swedish. So what does your dining room set look like?
Old is only a state of mind. Those who choose to adapt it...are old. Those who don't, will remain eternally youthful.
I know when I felt grown up.....January 18, 1989, at 9:04pm, watching my first child being born. I felt old on July 17, 1994, at 1:20 pm, watching my third child being born. My back hurts!
how about when you start getting excited about receiving bare necessities for Xmas, like socks and underwear? That makes me feel kinda old...
You must be under 30. Anyway, to be honest with you, I kind of agree with you. I just bought a $250 radio controlled car and am about to get another $400 Nitro car. Yes, that's right, I've spent damn near $1000 on toy cars. I doubt I'll ever grow up... I think it's true what they say that as men get older, their toys just get more expensive. I still act goofy. I try not to take the world too seriously, which is strange, because at times I can take this BBS so seriously. I believe people put so much pressure on themselves trying to do what everybody else is doing instead of what they want to do. I remember the first time I felt old was when I was taking a Calculus course at Houston Community College for the fun of it (stop laughing) and was helping this cute 22 year old woman find the area under her curves (yes, it was integration... another geek joke). I had just dropped out of college to work for a company so I could make a whopping $20k/year and invest my time learning "real world" computing as opposed to the crap taught in college. This woman was knockout beautiful... I mean Jackie O, refined, sexy, beautiful... not Palm Beach Tan wannabe pretty. I knew she was loaded just by the clothes she wore. Anyway, I felt pretty cool because she was impressed with my knowledge of the subject matter, even though it was remedial calculus, lol. So I'm walking out of the class feeling all good about with this girl next to me talking about how thankful she was for the help. All of a sudden some guy comes from behind and says "Sir, you left your pen in class". I died that day. I died a thousand deaths that day, never to be re-born again. Never a day did one word slice through the being of a man like the word "sir" did that day. For that day, a man walked into a calculus class and left a shell of what he was... I was "only" 25 at the time, I think. That's cool though... I've talked several co-workers into buying $400 toy cars we race in a vacant neighboring parking lot... their wives aren't happy.
You act like you were the one giving birth. Shut up. Think how your wife must've felt, you insensitive male!!! Back hurts... indeed. Try carrying a 20 pound weight on your stomach for about 9 months and see how your back feels.
Last year when I was coaching some kids and they asked if I was 30 something. . . . Also when i play ball and try to cut, my body just keeps going in the origonal direction, I dont know why, mabey it has something to do with the 40 pounds I have gained since high school
Hearing Diseased Monkey (I'm not even going to attempt the upper case and lower case letters) call everyone dork-butts, thinking it was a cute enough statement to be interested in learning more about her, clicking on her profile and learning she was born in July of 1984.
Having the good ol "what are some the the greatest cartoons" conversation with some younger co workers and they had no Idea who Tom and Jerry was! Not to mention HE MAN and Skeletor.
When my the first of my ex's got married. It should be noted that I'm 21. My father said he felt old when Byron Scott became a head coach, so I guess he turned 'old' about a year and a half before I did.
Dont know about the last one but you must have some really young coworkers (Middle School maybe) to not know about Tom and Jerry, I am still in H.S. and remember them (not well, but I remember them) The moment I think that I will feel old is when I have a kid and I am telling him about the Rockets first two championships.
I have always felt old (and I don't mean this in a more mature/cool way). I knew I was old when the doctor said I had arthritis in my knees. Actually I feel younger now. When I was ~20-22 peopl always thought I was 25+. Now that I am clean shaven and only really associate with people who are older than I am, I feel like a kid. Of course, BGM called me old in chat once. That still hurts.
