What is it like getting older?

[GalaxyX]

36, feel fantastic.

Same here, I feel awesome.

It helps that I exercise regularly (although I can't even attempt half the level of weights I could do in my 20's) and I try to eat as healthy as I can.

Also having a near stress free job helps. There's a lot of things that I would change if I could go back in time with my current knowledge. But for all I've been thru, I'm actually in a pretty good place in my life right now.

As for getting older, I do worry about it, but if things go well, I should be healthy and strong going to my 60's. Then we'll see what happens.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Thanks guys, I appreciate that. Also, just as a word of advice, while it is a truly magnificent film, almost magical in its way, 5 Centimeters Per Second is not something one should watch, for the first time, when depressed.

No ass massages in that one?

 

[Amaris]

Thanks guys, I appreciate that. Also, just as a word of advice, while it is a truly magnificent film, almost magical in its way, 5 Centimeters Per Second is not something one should watch, for the first time, when depressed.

No ass massages in that one?

Nope! It's a story about two childhood friends who grow up together, and are separated by distance when they attend different schools. Over time they try to reconnect with one another, but it seems that life always interferes. Eventually, they have become adults who now carry different perspectives on who they are and what they want in life. It's a fantastic movie, but very bittersweet at best.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Yeah, I can relate to that experience. I suppose most of us can to some degree.

 

[Galileo7]

 

[Amaris]

Yeah, I can relate to that experience. I suppose most of us can to some degree.

I think that's why it resonates so well. Most of us have loved and lost, or pined for another only to find that what we expected and what we got were two different things. Dreams are dangerous when we attach them to a specific person.

What's wrong?

 

[cooleddie74]

My first serious romantic relationship right out of high school was probably one of the hardest breakups I've ever gone through, and after the ridiculous amount of late-teen infatuation and physical attention I poured into that relationship I'm glad I'm now 40 and so much more realistic and mature when it comes to what I want and what I expect out of a partner. For all the things I had going for me at the ages of 17 and 18, man, I was an absolute and complete idiot when it came to dating and relationships and was way too emotionally vulnerable to be involved with somebody at that crucial moment in my life.

 

[Australis]

^ Yeah. It's good to get to a pont where your brain controls your gonads rather than the other way round.

 

[Amaris]

I can honestly say I never had that problem. I always stayed in complete control, even if it did get really difficult, what with an overpowered sex drive. Of course, when I was 17, I was a Super Christian, and I took the faith seriously. Now that I look back on it, I kind of* want to kick my own ass.



*definitely

 

[Australis]

That's OK, we look back on the stupid shit we did when we were 17 and want to kick our own ass too, said everyone ever.

 

[cooleddie74]

I was an honors student who got high grades and graduated near the top of my class, but if I had to tell my 17-year-old self anything about dating and sex it'd be like the Cher scene in Moonstruck, only it would be a huge frying pan instead of an open palm across the face. I was a Vulcan in the classroom but a Pakled with the ladies.

Sometimes I sort of had to find ways to make myself go.

 

[Amaris]

That's OK, you look back on the stupid shit you did when you were 17 and want to kick your own ass too, said everyone ever.

I'm more about what I didn't do, rather than what I did, though.

I was an honors student who got high grades and graduated near the top of my class, but if I had to tell my 17-year-old self anything about dating and sex it'd be like the Cher scene in Moonstruck, only it would be a huge frying pan instead of an open palm across the face. I was a Vulcan in the classroom but a Pakled with the ladies.

Sometimes I sort of had to find ways to make myself go.

I was an honors student for a while, and then I just burned out my sophomore year. I went from a 4.0 to a 2.1 inside of that school year. You'd have thought someone would have said something, but no one did. Anyway, I started bringing it back around my Senior year and ended school with a 3.45 GPA, so not too bad.

 

[cooleddie74]

Well done, man! Reviving a floundering GPA is far from the easiest task when you have just a year or two left before graduation and sending off college applications.

 

[Amaris]

Well done, man! Reviving a floundering GPA is far from the easiest task when you have just a year or two left before graduation and sending off college applications.

Thanks! It worked, too. Not a week before I graduated, I received a letter from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University offering me admission. I wanted to go so badly, but it was more than 900 miles away, the tuition was really high, and we had no money.

 

[cooleddie74]

I know the feeling. I got accepted to a school and had to let them know I couldn't attend because I couldn't get enough grant money together in time for the start of my first year. Thankfully I had backup plans for other colleges and things worked out, but it was disappointing that my first choice didn't materialize.

In retrospect it was for the best. The commute back and forth would have been a huge annoyance and pain in the butt.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I was just a poor boy from Dorchester who got transplanted to the suburbs. I went straight to work the Monday after I graduated and I've been at it ever since.

As far as women go, I guess my biggest regret is a girl I knew in junior high. She was a cute little nerdie Trekkie like me, but she lived on the other side of town (I got bussed to junior high because one of the other junior highs burned down and we had double sessions). But I had a different circle of friends and was involved with another girl, so nothing ever happened. I sometimes wonder how things could have gone differently. On the plus side, that other girl was Rose Kennedy. How many people can say that they once dated Rose Kennedy?

 

[RandyS]

That's OK, you look back on the stupid shit you did when you were 17 and want to kick your own ass too, said everyone ever.

I dunno. These days whenever I look back at 17, all I can think is I'd like to be 17 again.

1987 gave me some shit, but overall, it was a MUCH better year to me than 2014 has been.

 

[Amaris]

Yeah, 2014 has been a shitty year for me, too, Randy. I sincerely hope 2015 is better, and not just for myself.

 

[Australis]

That's OK, we look back on the stupid shit we did when we were 17 and want to kick our own ass too, said everyone ever.

I dunno. These days whenever I look back at 17, all I can think is I'd like to be 17 again.

1987 gave me some shit, but overall, it was a MUCH better year to me than 2014 has been.

Oh fuck no! 1975 was the year I started fucking up badly.

 

[Kelso]

I'll be 34 in a month.

My twenties were fucking terrible. I married my High School girlfriend and it was a fucking disaster that I couldn't escape from because we had a child and the wife didn't work. So I spent all of my time toiling away at menial jobs to eek out a living. All of my financial decisions were wrong, the house and the car were both too expensive. So I wound up working 90+ hours a week to support a woman who hated me and a kid that I never saw but I didn't have enough money to buy a Goddamn $0.99 drink at the gas station if I was thirsty.

But everything is better now. Really, I'm at the perfect age. I'm not young, but I'm not old. I've been around long enough to avoid the foolish mistakes and stay out of trouble. I've managed to become successful at one of those jobs I thought was terrible and worked my way up into management- the company treats me really well (we just went to Cancun) and I have a great team working under me. I'm on my second marriage and it couldn't be better. My daughter is 8 years old- which is a really fun age. She's old enough to have fun with but not to the age where she thinks that everything Daddy likes is stupid. I have her 50% of the time and we have a great relationship.

And a cool thing about being 33 is that I've lived long enough to see some genuine change in the world.

My knees are weaker than they used to be and my hairline is going, but life is pretty grand.