Writing cover letters after being reminded that it’s really an exercise in self-branding
Picking up one’s prescription
Keeping track of one’s money
Shoveling the walk for the third time in a single storm
Going to bed at a reasonable hour
Refraining from skipping out on obligations and sleeping in
Putting down Angry Birds
Explaining the recent past to young people
Having to say thank you when someone says you look good for your age.
even having to THINK about gray hair! not to mention DYEING said hair.
and . . . “explaining the recent past to young people”? but dave you’re so good at explaining the recent past to old people . . . : )
could you . . . explain?!?!
The Pillow Book of Dave!
Yes to cover letters. I wrote mine a long time ago and just periodically update it, but I hated writing it, hate reading it, and hate how it represents me to people I’ve never met (as a soulless, humorless, arrogant pig).
Lane, I thought it was well established that gray hair is sexy. Everyone likes it now, not just perverts.
Having to have a thing called a “contractor.” Having to have conversations about whether said “contractor” is good / honest / efficient / etc.
The early stirrings of retirement concerns…
Supposing we’re talking about adulthood in contrast with childhood rather than college, most of these are compensated for nicely by drinking, fucking, and choosing what city you want to live in.
On these terms, I think I can make my peace with any iniquity of adulthood except having to be in a specific place for eight hours every day. And writing cover letters. Nothing makes up for that.
Hmm. While I hate writing cover letters and picking up prescriptions and generally being old, I think I might still be adulthood’s hugest fan. This may change once I enter very-late adulthood, but middling adulthood is about a jillion times more liberated and empowering and full of funness than overly romanticized, anxiety-ridden, powerless childhood!
High five to swells on that. Maybe some little punks of televised teenagehood spend those years doing whatever they want, but I didn’t get around to any of that until well into adulthood.
Lane: gray hair is one of the perks of age.
Also wrt cover letters, I think I have made my peace with them. This past 6 months I was applying for jobs relatively frequently, and I started writing better cover letters than I ever have before (I think) and it didn’t seem like such a bad thing.
The early stirrings of retirement concerns…
This.
Another high five to swells.
Another perk of adulthood is generally Not Giving A Shit wrt what others think of your choices. I spent a good part of my adolescence and 20s worrying about that.
Other hateful tasks: paying into insurance, escrow, and a million other things that offer no tangible pleasure.
Taking more initiative in caring about/for one’s parents (which is fun until they are ailing).
Knowing one’s blood sugar and cholesterol levels. Unpleasant medical screenings related to age.
The perils of nostalgia.
The Perils of Nostalgia is the title of the memoir I would write if I were a drag queen named Ann Hedonia.
Thank you for the high-fives (right back atcha) but I fear that I have derailed the real topic of this post, which is not Why Adulthood Is Lame, but Hateful Tasks of Adulthood. While it definitely leaves childhood (even relatively happy childhood) in the proverbial dust, adulthood is riddled with such hateful tasks, a list to which I would like to add replacing one’s timing belt, getting mammograms, feeling increasingly anxious as one’s visual acuity diminishes, and trying to ignore giant piles of termite shit.
I like going to bed at a reasonable hour, but then I’m a morning person.
Becoming the parent to one’s parent.
Watching one’s rather lame alcohol intake.
Writing a will; updating a will.
Reading cover letters from young people.
Watching the elasticity fade from the skin below the eyebrow.
Picking up dry cleaning; god I hate it that 20 minutes lost every two weeks.
Ann Hedonia
Best blogging pseud ever.
Having had my first mammogram yesterday, I have been filled with dread at the thought of this and other, not too far into the future, medical procedures that will forever be part of the annual regimen.
I have to chime in to say that a colonoscopy is very high on hateful tasks of adulthood.