Posted to my old Yahoo 360 blog Thursday May 3, 2007 - 09:41pm, before being reposted here (CDT)
I've been getting a few Yahoo! 360 invitations lately, one of which came from this lady, who is about the right age to be a college freshman; the image links to her 360 profile.
So, beautiful young woman writes to me, saying that she would like to stay in touch, and my first thought.
"But I don't understand what she was writing about!"
Not even a whistful "oh, to be that age, again", just a "I wonder what her literary style is", before I suddenly have a mental picture of my younger self of some years back looking at me reproachfully and going "dude, you are now officially the world's biggest geek - when the pretty girl asks you if you'd like to talk you say yes". Then one very scary day, it occurs to you that that didn't occur to you, and you don't even want it to occur to you and wouldn't even if she were closer to your own age. Oh, and that while we're at it, that you have absolutely no desire to go club hopping at any point in the forseeable future, and looking toward the corner of the room, you've noticed that you have a favorite chair, and that spending a night in it doing your reading doesn't sound so bad.
I picture my younger self looking on, jaw dropping, going "this isn't funny, man, you're freaking me out, what's this PTA wannabee stuff, come on, ..." as he starts to fade into oblivion. There is no escape. My destiny has finally tracked me down. I've become an adult.
Would anybody like a nice, hearty winter vegetable soup?
