XXVII

It's my birthday! (he shouts through a large cardboard tube)

Signs that I'm now "of a certain age":
-My cooworker Chad says to me today, "By the time I was 27, I had a wife and kid!"
-Patrick Batemen, the psycho-killer/wall street big-wig played by Christian Bale in American Psycho is the same age as me
-A week ago my friends and I had an extended conversation about hair-loss.
-I have a real adult job and spend more time then I'd like to admit thinking about buying a condo.

The funny thing is you always end up growing older, so I'm sure in a few years I will look back at my concerns as a 27-year old and laugh at my innocence and envy my youth. C'est la vie. You can't really ever come to terms with aging because it isn't a neutral process that you can try to disengage yourself with. It's almost by definition a negative, subtractive process: one year closer to the grave, one year more of wear and tear on your body. All you have to measure against it is learning & wisdom; thankfully the brain works on a slightly longer timescale then the rest of your body, but even it too will begin to disintegrate eventually. And women have it even worse, let there be no doubt. At least we men can look up to people like george clooney who are allowed to grow old largely naturally and still be praised for his salt-and-pepper good looks. Women are done after about 21, if we're to take the pages of Us magazine seriously (which we all do on some level, much to our own horror).

The best we can do is accept the unacceptable because it's innevitable. We grow old, our bodies break down and we die. Sweet! That sounds awesome! :)