Monday, February 28, 2011

So I'm a Grown Up. But, Middle Aged? Yikes!

According to Studio 360, a show I heard on NPR, I am middle aged.




WHAT? That can't be! But. by their standards middle age is between the ages of 33 and 50. And in truth the fact that my source is NPR should have been a big clue, although I've been a listener for at least 15 years. None the less, here I am, smack dab in the middle of middle age.

The title of the show was "I realized I was grown up when..." This got me to thinking. When does anyone really become a grown up? When did I become one? I have a few litmus tests that I go by, but these things are not in the least one size fits all, so sing along where you know the words:

I realized I was a grown up when...

  1. I started getting excited about election day
  2. I realized that lying, in general is just lame
  3. I started to become exceedingly annoyed with people who use the word "like" more than one time in a sentence
  4. I was more interested in connecting with people on an intellectual level than a physical one
  5. I could moderate my drinking to get a desired affect: buzzed, happy, happy drunk, stupid drunk
  6. I learned to quit drinking before getting stupid drunk
  7. I started reading labels of every food I buy for calories, sodium and saturated fat
  8. Analgesics became a regular item on my shopping list
  9. I could be proud of my gray hair, but color them red or purple anyway
  10. I realized not only do I not know everything, but in the great realm of things I don't know shit
  11. I became comfortable with the fact that I don't know shit, and decided to do my best to know as much as I could
  12. I embraced who I am, not who I wanted to be, and interestingly I then became the latter
  13. The highlight of my day was getting hugs from my kids
  14. I started to recognize my parents' mortality
  15. I started realizing my own mortality