Methuselah

Yesterday at 1:03 pm: MySpacing. Yeah, seriously.

I think I'd make a pretty good vampire. I've been reading Stephenie Meyer's Twilight and I feel like I could be quite happy "living" as an immortal blood sucker. Vampires are so dapper aren't they? Definitely the best dressed of the undead. I guess they don't have much competititon though.

My biggest challenge would be convincing people I wasn't out to harm them. I'd have to emulate Casper as much as possible; grow a pot belly, become more cuddly. Being a vampire would give me a good reason to remain a night owl too. And I wouldn't have too many responsibilities other than curbing my appetite around humans. Plus I could ask friends "Are you with me or against me?" in total seriousness -- and with deadly implications. Somebody bite me already.

I've been hanging out more with people at work. A dinner here or there, a group gathering once in awhile, a movie or two. Plus, because we're around each other all the time, the opportunity for personal conversations is ever present. The main thing that I find surprising is how not different we are (we meaning the managers), even with an age gap of up to ten years. I went to have some drinks with my kids this weekend and realized some of them were literally in middle school when I was in college. Think about that for a second. And it's not as if hanging out with them makes me feel old. I mean, I feel like I'm just about their age. We can relate to most of the same things, the conversation revolves around the same topics as with my other friends, it's pretty much all the same.

The biggest difference I'd say is that their life stories are a lot more truncated. I mean, they've been on Earth eight years less so that makes logical sense. Some of our young employees have been working longer than I have though. I got my first real job maybe four years ago? Some of these guys have been working full time since they got out of high school.

There's still a significant gap there though. It's like beneath their veneer of near absolute maturity lies a wide expanse of immaturity. Not literal immaturity but just things that indicate they're still really young. Then again, I feel this gap with lots of people even my age, as I wonder how old they really are, lifestyle and mindset wise, as opposed to biologically. I feel like I'm really only about 24. Like I've got some experience under my belt but I'm still new to the adult world.

Sadly, I'm really five years older than that so maybe I'll perpetually be behind my real peers. Which is weird because isn't losing a parent supposed to age you faster and rush you toward full fledged adulthood? Or maybe I did age faster and I would be even more behind if nothing had ever happened. Scary thought hunh?

A friend told me that her sister married a guy fifteen years her senior. That large of an age gap would normally make me disbelievingly wonder what the two could possibly have in common; but then I look around the table on Friday night and I'm the oldest person by at least six years and I stop wondering quite as much.

I do wonder when I'll start to relate more to people a decade older than me as opposed to a decade younger. Maybe when I get married, have a family, buy a house, have a savings account, start taking responsibility for others.

So basically, never.