I'm Not Getting Older, I'm Getting Sillier
I recently turned another year older, and I am noticing a change in the way my birthday is being treated by people around me. Aside from the multitude of birthday greetings pouring in from friends online, when I speak to people in person, they now start to say "Congratulations" as much as they say "Happy Birthday". And when I think about it, that may be appropriate. It may be better to tell me "Congratulations"... and in, "Congratulations, you survived another year."
Okay yeah, I'm only 32, I'm not getting old or anything, but being in graduate school, each year does seem to become more and more of an ordeal. Grad school may not be the only cause of this. There's also the fact that I live in Philadelphia, around constant sources of stress. Things like idiot drivers, psychotic cabbies, traffic jams that appear out of nowhere for no good reason... I don't drive much because I can take mass transit, but it feels like when I do drive, I am taking my life into my hands, because some wackjob may try to take my back end off because I decided to parallel park somewhere, or I may have to slash across three lanes of traffic to reach an offramp because nobody will let me move over gradually.
I also live around Phillies fans, so I have to put up with sudden irrational delusions of grandeur such as we saw yesterday when they signed Cliff Lee. Yes, I get it, they have 4 really good starting pitchers now in Cole Hamels, Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, and Lee. But don't you think it might be a LITTLE premature to start planning the victory parade down Broad Street for next October? Considering the Phillies had 3 of those 4 "aces" last year and didn't get out of the NLCS. Considering the team that beat them, the San Francisco Giants, then beat Lee twice in the World Series en route to winning it all. Considering that the Giants return all those pitchers that befuddled the Philly bats, and the Phillies have not replaced (and won't replace) Jayson Werth in the lineup.
I give you two things to chew on, Philly Phan. The 1971 Orioles, lauded as the only team in the modern era of baseball with 4 20-game winners... LOST the World Series. In fact, of the 24 teams to have 3 20-game winners in a season, only 5 won a world title. Pitching, despite what you may think, is NOT everything. And the other thing to consider, Philadelphia... the 2001-2008 Yankees. Lots of dollars spent, lots of expectations of rings, ZERO world titles. And the fact that so many Phillies fans are acting more and more like Yankees fans in expecting trophies to just be handed to them for spending the dough will make me laugh THAT much louder if they fail again in 2011. Of course, it will be done in private, lest that become something that endangers my health.
Which brings me back to the whole "getting older" thing. Clearly, I'm not 100% fit as a fiddle anymore. Working out causes occasional muscle strains, eating certain things causes occasional trips to the medicine cabinet, but I do my best to stay healthy... most of the time. Consider that we as adults spend the whole year being healthy, and then we celebrate the accomplishment of making it through another year... with cheese fries, greasy 7-11 pizza, and later, copious amounts of alcohol. Or a variation thereof, I'm just giving you the Philly version. Your toxin-filled celebration may vary.
If anything, I take solace in the fact that even as I advance through my 30s, I resigned myself a long time ago to the fact that deep down inside, I will always be 13 years old. Consider the fact that I spent a good portion of the night before my birthday laughing at a video of an iguana farting in a bathtub. Then I tweeted the video. And my favorite radio podcast continues to play the sound from the video... so I'm still laughing at it right now. As long as there are farting iguanas, I will remain an eternal teenager. Clearly the qualifications for that have changed since the glory days of Dick Clark...
Perhaps I am growing to accept that I have earned the right to be silly. Based on the fact that my older relatives are quite silly themselves, I think it's my obligation to be an adult when it suits me, and to be a teenager... pretty much the rest of the time. I think being increasingly silly will balance out the fact that I am sure that in the years and decades to come I will become increasingly curmudgeonly. So, my readers (all 4 of you) have that to look forward to...
Okay yeah, I'm only 32, I'm not getting old or anything, but being in graduate school, each year does seem to become more and more of an ordeal. Grad school may not be the only cause of this. There's also the fact that I live in Philadelphia, around constant sources of stress. Things like idiot drivers, psychotic cabbies, traffic jams that appear out of nowhere for no good reason... I don't drive much because I can take mass transit, but it feels like when I do drive, I am taking my life into my hands, because some wackjob may try to take my back end off because I decided to parallel park somewhere, or I may have to slash across three lanes of traffic to reach an offramp because nobody will let me move over gradually.
I also live around Phillies fans, so I have to put up with sudden irrational delusions of grandeur such as we saw yesterday when they signed Cliff Lee. Yes, I get it, they have 4 really good starting pitchers now in Cole Hamels, Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, and Lee. But don't you think it might be a LITTLE premature to start planning the victory parade down Broad Street for next October? Considering the Phillies had 3 of those 4 "aces" last year and didn't get out of the NLCS. Considering the team that beat them, the San Francisco Giants, then beat Lee twice in the World Series en route to winning it all. Considering that the Giants return all those pitchers that befuddled the Philly bats, and the Phillies have not replaced (and won't replace) Jayson Werth in the lineup.
I give you two things to chew on, Philly Phan. The 1971 Orioles, lauded as the only team in the modern era of baseball with 4 20-game winners... LOST the World Series. In fact, of the 24 teams to have 3 20-game winners in a season, only 5 won a world title. Pitching, despite what you may think, is NOT everything. And the other thing to consider, Philadelphia... the 2001-2008 Yankees. Lots of dollars spent, lots of expectations of rings, ZERO world titles. And the fact that so many Phillies fans are acting more and more like Yankees fans in expecting trophies to just be handed to them for spending the dough will make me laugh THAT much louder if they fail again in 2011. Of course, it will be done in private, lest that become something that endangers my health.
Which brings me back to the whole "getting older" thing. Clearly, I'm not 100% fit as a fiddle anymore. Working out causes occasional muscle strains, eating certain things causes occasional trips to the medicine cabinet, but I do my best to stay healthy... most of the time. Consider that we as adults spend the whole year being healthy, and then we celebrate the accomplishment of making it through another year... with cheese fries, greasy 7-11 pizza, and later, copious amounts of alcohol. Or a variation thereof, I'm just giving you the Philly version. Your toxin-filled celebration may vary.
If anything, I take solace in the fact that even as I advance through my 30s, I resigned myself a long time ago to the fact that deep down inside, I will always be 13 years old. Consider the fact that I spent a good portion of the night before my birthday laughing at a video of an iguana farting in a bathtub. Then I tweeted the video. And my favorite radio podcast continues to play the sound from the video... so I'm still laughing at it right now. As long as there are farting iguanas, I will remain an eternal teenager. Clearly the qualifications for that have changed since the glory days of Dick Clark...
Perhaps I am growing to accept that I have earned the right to be silly. Based on the fact that my older relatives are quite silly themselves, I think it's my obligation to be an adult when it suits me, and to be a teenager... pretty much the rest of the time. I think being increasingly silly will balance out the fact that I am sure that in the years and decades to come I will become increasingly curmudgeonly. So, my readers (all 4 of you) have that to look forward to...
Labels: blogging
posted by Dave | 1:46 PM
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