Downer
September 18, 2008 | Filed under: Growing up is optional, Just asking
“…voting. Drinking. Car rental. Death. Welcome to our side” - Mrs. Flinger
Having a bout a hypomania often means starting one thing and promptly forgetting it because something else popped up in your face. I have a mind that wanders rampantly to all things simultaneously and at the end I kind of forget what I was thinking about prior because right now, while going through the paper mill known as my office, would be an excellent time to schedule that oil change. So during one of these mind excursions I went from thinking about returning phone calls to taking a trip to Texas this spring and how I would want to rent a car while there because I’ll be visiting friends who live way the hell out underneath an oil derrick or something and lo perhaps NOW is a good time to think about MARCH. Then I realized that by spring I won’t have to save an extra $750 to rent a car for 13 hours because I won’t have to worry about extraneous fees for losing a limb or returning the car minus a mile’s worth of gas or being under the age of 25 thereby making me responsible enough to have a child and go to war but not responsible enough to drive a car 20 miles. So! In the middle of that I counted down the days until my 25th birthday (38! I would like a wide angle lens, pearls and new car insurance) and then promptly came to the conclusion that after 25 life is pretty much a downer. I mean, you get these awesome birthdays that involve voting and drinking and then you get to rent a car without Hertz coming after you with a taser and after that there’s death and awesome bills to pay and car insurance. Met life: The gift that keeps on giving.
In the middle of writing all of this, my mother stopped by to say hello. We started discussing the economy and what would happen to my assets and 401(K) and then she decided that now would be the perfect time to remind me that I don’t get to retire for another 35-40 years. And now I’m banging my head on the desk and hoping that if I run around the parking lot naked someone will miraculously hit me with their Nissan. It’s all just death and taxes from here, isn’t it?
Aaaaand to continue with this hypomania induced nonsensical rambling about how awful and horrible it is to be an adult and have to be living and breathing and healthy while your checking account is about as dry as the Sahara in July; here is the PMSbuddy (courtesy of Sweetney’s linkblog). Which might be one of the most brilliant ideas ever especially since it seems that The Universe is PMSing as we speak hence the reason for why I’m bemoaning being forced to be alive after the age of 25 and for why I saw some woman lose her shit at the grocery store yesterday.
kristine says:
You are a nut! I say that in the best way. (I am shaking my head and smiling…)
P.S. My husband is my PMS tracker. I can start a sentence, he’ll detect my tone and he’ll stop me and say “You’re PMSing.” Of course I will then flip out and tell him how dare he compare a woman’s bad mood or need to disagree with him to PMS and maybe I just think what I think because that’s what I think and I have a right to think and feel what I feel and where does he get off… Then that night or the next day my period will start. (Gulp!)
nopasanada says:
Yes, I am a nut. I also have been totally harping on this whole quarter century thing instead of writing about the awesome wine I had the other day. In my defense; 24 sucked hardcore and if a year ago someone had said that X,Y, and Z would happen during the following year I would have asked about the medications they seem to be on. It was awful and in ways that I haven’t yet been able to describe nor will I ever. I now have a fear of 25 like it could be far worse (clearly. I could end up sick or something awful could happen) but because of this immense fear of things being far worse than they have been over the past year, I’ve turned into a complete fucking downer. So, I’m sorry but I’m not.
Sarah says:
Just yesterday my close-to-retirement co-worker was talking about how she’s almost out of the game and I thought about how I have another 30 years of work. Don’t worry. I’ll spit in her coffee today. That makes it even, right?
Nic says:
I turn 26 in 18 days and have been having the same thoughts since 25 is going to be OVER and maybe I should do things like, oh, I don’t know, not wait 11 months to renew my driver’s license.
Jennifer says:
Oh hell. I’m 33. It never gets better…..until my 4 year old smiles and tell me I look thin. I love that child.
Alexa says:
Personally? My early 20s were awful. They were fully of excitement, sure, but I think I was expecting them to be the highlight of my life, and instead they were hard and confusing and GOD I’m glad they are over. Things have gotten appreciably better every year starting with 25–I hope it is the same way for you.
Rhi says:
NOTHING good happens after 25. I’m turning 30 and my damn insurance doesn’t even go down.
Allie says:
Oh my God. People are PMSing in your world too? Because it’s been an ever-loving shitstorm of crabbiness over here, and I cannot figure out if it’s the moon phase, the weather, or if the store just ran out of everyones favorite brands of g&t ’cause folks are craaaayzay.
I include myself in that. Yeah hypomania? Sucks.
Jess says:
I turn 29 in two weeks. It’s an age of no significance at all and it is still freaking me out.
Alison says:
I agree, the entire world seems to be PMSing.
Reese says:
Okay, you are not even 25 YET? I just turned 32. Suck it.
And (not because I’m old, either) when I go to the movies and watch all the previews before my Feature Presentation, I forget which movie I am there to see by the time it starts.
My husband and mother find it nearly impossible to converse with me because while they are trying to hold a single conversation with me I am trying to have three or four at once, with them.
Abi says:
The car rental price cut seems like the worst present ever, but what I worry will happen is that you’ll get caught up in all of that Quarterlife Crisis bullshit. All of life is a fucking crisis. If it weren’t we’d just get bored.
nopasanada says:
Sadly or not so sadly, I am doing what I want to do so there is nothing for me to get in a crisis about since what usually happens is that some 20-something isn’t doing what they want to be doing so they freak out. Or they’re not sure how to do what they want to do and so they freak out. I’m doing what I want to do with no plans to change my profession at anytime in the near future. Everything else is rather extraneous. There are other things I would *like* to do that go beyond what I’m doing now but, I hate to say it, in that regard, I’m pretty happy.