Sunday, June 11, 2006

Methuselah

Greavsie's having a mid-life crisis, as is Billy (my birthday's coming up soon and I'm thinking of having one too, they're all the rage you know) but it reminded me of the following conversation overheard on the bus:

Girl 1: Yes, I really like him, but he's being all flaky, he's talking about going off to Thailand and travelling.
Girl 2: How old is he?
Girl 1: He's 40.
Girl 2: Oh, he's not even having a mid-life crisis, it's just a quarter-life crisis...
Girl 1: Right...

Now, I was always very poor at maths, but just how old is this man planning to be?

15 comments:

DC said...

Maybe he made a pact with the devil as well.

Annie said...

As well? Did Greavsie sell his soul to the devil?

Anonymous said...

A "quarter life crisis" was an expression to talk about people having their mid-life crisis earlier in life, like in their mid twenties instead of in their 40's.

I think your girls were just confused.

Maybe they were going through a quarter life crisis dating someone going through a mid-life crisis.

Annie said...

Thank you for clearing that up Adrian. I'm a bit confused about this mid-life crisis thing and want to do it right. How do you know when to have one? It seems dependent on knowing exactly when you're going to die. Spooky.

But now you tell me that people can have them in their twenties - so age is nothing to do with it - more confusion...

Anonymous said...

Buy a fast car and sleep with a girl in her early twenties (preferably a blond) and you should be sorted.

David said...

I had to postpone the mid-life crisis due to a lck of funds.

I'm renegotiating for 43.

Anonymous said...

I was twenty years old and on a train going to a friends twenty first birthday party. This is in that most alien of foreign countries - the distant past.

Two boys, brothers, were sitting nearby discussing an old train they had just seen in the station.

"It was really ancient!" said the one who looked about eight.

"No, it wasn't ancient," said his brother who looked a much more world weary ten. "It was just old. Ancient is really, really old. Ancient is, er, its, well...Ancient's over twenty isn't it mum?"

His mum refrained from clipping him around the ear but I never felt young again.

Billy said...

Re: quarter life crisis, from Generation X by Douglas Coupland:

mid-twenties breakdown - a period of mental collapse occuring in one's twenties, often caused by an inability to function outside of school or structured environments coupled with a realization of one's essential aloneness in the world. Often marks induction into the ritual of pharmaceutical usage.

Got to love the last sentence!

Annie said...

Adrian, damn, disqualified because I can't afford it and um, not that way inclined.

Greavsie - I'll start saving now.

Changing Man - ha! At school some year 6 kids were writing a report on my class assembly and wrote in it "Miss Black is 56..." (about 22 years out)I know exactly how you feel.

Billy, I think Douglas Coupland is very wise, despite seeming such a space cadet. I wish I'd have known about the mid-twenties breakdown, it would have made a whole lot of sense of things for me...

Del said...

I had something of a mid twenties crisis (maybe I still am), and know plenty of others who've had it much worse than me. Essentially, it comes from shooting out of university, getting your first job, moving into your own place... then a few years down the line you sort of run out of steam.

You're in too deep to have the freedom you think you ought to have. You're working hard, and can only see a future of working just as hard over and over, but you're skint. You're getting older, and you're still single.

Luckily I found Jesus.

That's the name of my dealer.


(Not really)

Annie said...

Del, you made me laugh - you're welcome round here anytime.

Anonymous said...

"Miss Black is 56..." (about 22 years out)

Really? You are very active for a 78 year old.

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

Heh, if a guy I like starts to talk about going off to strange places without me I'd think he doesn't like me.

Anonymous said...

I am very bad at maths, consequently numbers are a mystery to me, so; I have no idea what age I am. Therefore, no conception of a midway point and no crisis - ta dar!

Annie said...

The Changing Man *brandishes shotgun* Get off moi land!

GG! You're back! Hoorah! We missed you. Yes, it reminded me of that joke, "my parents didn't like me much. When I come home from school one day they'd moved house."

You're so right Em - always knew there must be a good reason for my innumeracy.