Thursday, August 19, 2010

Apparently I'm really old

Last night at French conversation group I brought up this article from the New York Times about the phenomenon of 20somethings taking longer to "grow up" - be financially independent, getting married, having children, starting a career. I actually didn't think it was a very good article, but that is beside the point. I was sitting with a woman in her late 30s, a guy in his 40s, two college students, and one guy who just graduated from high school and is starting college in a few weeks. I summarized the point of the article, and the high school kid says "yeah, that's a big problem for my generation."

I looked at him and exclaimed "how old do you think I am?!?!" I know that to a 17 or 18 year old a 26 year old seems ancient, but let's keep in mind that the article was actually about my generation, not teenagers!

Kind of a hilarious story, right? I had a good laugh about it.

You know what else makes me laugh? I saw a recent picture of my French ex and he got fat and ugly! Bwahahahahaha. I'm sure it's super bad karma to be happy about it, but he was a major jerk, so I am getting a hefty dose of satisfaction out of his ugliness and weight gain. This one will make me smile for a long time!

13 comments:

EconomicDisconnect said...

More power to ya girl! I cannot think of a bigger (fat) idiot that could hurt you or walk away.

In regards to the kid thing, I had an item up tonight which I hate paste but:
Robots That Make me Mad
I used to work with my Dad doing railroad work on weekends and most summers when I was younger. We did everything, from installing switches to new rail installation. The worst job was the new rail installation. This required extremely hard work to lay ties, drill the spiking holes, place the plates, align the rails, and a spike the rails down. Labor intensive. It would take a crew of 6-8 about 3 days of murder effort to lay 100 yards of rail. We did this quite a few times. We had hand tools.

I watched a railroad job done in Cambridge the past couple of days that was at once amazing and scary. The job was railroad tie replacement. These are the black wooden things the rails sit on. They go bad over time. To do this you have to unspike the rails, remove the ties, dig new tie placements, get the ties under the rails, replace the plates, and then spike them down. Rough stuff. Not anymore. Now a series of robots do ALL THAT WORK in about an hour or two. Two hours! The robots do everything!

I was 7 when I started railroad work!

Too many wimps in my opinion.

Unknown said...

I agree. It's a fact: assholes deserve to get fat and ugly!

shannon said...

A year ago, one of my students guess that I was 35 years old! After the look on my face, another one guessed 30! Still! Do I really look that old to them?? Jeez. Anyway, everyone is talking about this article. Guess I should actually read it...

And haha about your ex!

BlondeInFrance said...

Ahh you beat me to posting about the article! I'll just say what I thought was interesting was the line about how the car rental companies got it right about 25 being a cut off age, and automatically I was like, so did Europe! Definitely love the discounts and special stuff until 25 or 26, just because you turn 18 or graduate college doesn't mean you're ready to be totally independent! Though needing a cosigner until you're some magical age/income is annoying. I do like that in the states there's no age limit on the student thing, it seems so weird here that it's always "students UNDER 26" like you're being punished for going back to school later in life!

I had a private student who was 19 and was freaking out about turning 20 cause it's "so old", lol. And my 23 year old student uses vous with me, sigh.

Fat ugly exes are the best! He got what he deserved for being a jerk :-)

au soleil levant said...

GYSC - Can I hire you to go hunt down my exes and tell them what idiots they are? :) Amazing story about you working on the railroads with your dad. I can't imagine how hard and backbreaking that work was! And you were 7! I think you're right about the workers; most Americans are just lazy. Unfortunately machines are the way of the future as they cut down the costs of paying and insuring actual human beings. Like all of the toll booth workers on the Mass Pike. Eventually MA is going to wise up and automate the whole thing, and then what will those people do for jobs?

Sevonne - glad you agree!

Shannon - It must be a teenager thing! They think they're so grown up and mature, so to them we look like their parents and seem impossibly old. Quelle horreur!

Andromeda - Very good point about the discounts in Europe until 26. But then when you do turn 26 and are still poor and needing a real job that pays well, you're out of luck! I've never seen anything about "students under 26" though, but considering the French system of education and the fact that it is more difficult there to go back to school later in life, it doesn't surprise me.

Anonymous said...

Haha! take that ex! Don't you just love that.

I was taking photos of this kid at the gliding club.. he didn't have a camera and his parents didn't stay to watch him so I offered to take some photos for him of his trial lesson. AND, this lady asked me if I was taking photos of my son!! This kid must've been at least 14. Surely at 27 I don't look THAT old! Yes, I work outside and the NZ sun is not kind, but still! Grrrr.

I grew up in a rural community (only one in my extended family to attend uni) and friends/cousins/even my younger brother, have good jobs, KIDS, married... and I'm gona be almost 28 and need to borrow $ off my parents when I get home next year poor and need $ for a new visa!

But, I'd much rather have travelled, seen the world, experienced other cultures, educated myself etc before settling down even if this PhD is a nightmare!! haha.

EconomicDisconnect said...

Soleil,
yeas at first my dad only let me carry tools and bring water at 7, but by 10 I was working all the jobs and by 14 we would have contests. It was fun but really hard. One time we did almost 400 yards of rail spiking over a weekend and when I woke Monday my hands were still locked in the same position as if they where holding the spiking hammer!

You make excellent points about the automation wave.

Monique Geisler said...

I like knowing that bad things have happened to exes. Usually because they did bad things to me!!

It's totally natural to spy on them and be all creepy like that (I was really bad about that with my exes haha, oops).

And yeah... mid-20s seems weird!! I don't know who to associate with anymore!

Anonymous said...

Ah ah, bad things happen to exes...!

I felt super ancient when I took my classes at university this year. Like, I was using a pen and a pencil, NOT a trendy laptop. And students said "vous" to me - seriously, guys, I'm only a few years older!

EconomicDisconnect said...

I miss all the ladies I had the pleasure to spend time with, HA!

au soleil levant said...

GYSC - I think you could give John Henry a run for his money! And do you realize you've become a hero to every girl who has jerk-y ex-boyfriends? :)

Monique - everyone spies on their exes, it's just not everyone is willing to admit it. And now facebook makes it even easier!

Zhu - yeah, being vouvoie-ed is weird. Being called "madame" is weird too. I felt the same way when I was taking classes last year. I can't believe how young those kids are! I remember thinking I was so grown up and mature! Yikes!

I'm glad we can all bond over wanting exes to get fat and ugly!

au soleil levant said...

Ack! Kim! Somehow missed your comment. Sorry. I've seen pictures of you, and you definitely don't look old enough to have a 14 year old son! That woman just has a bad sense of how old people look. I definitely think you're right about traveling and seeing the world before settling down. And at least you have a committed boyfriend to point to if your family ever gets antsy about you getting married!

Mary Harvest Kitchen said...

I thought we weren't fb stalking our exes?

Also, very stoked to see the wig(s). Sorry the hair is being an (absent) nuisance, but at least you get to experiment with some new hairdoes?

love you, lady. xx