I was in Williamsburg last night, and seeing all the young, pretty people reminded me of what I missed out on.

I can relate (except for the part about being in Williamsburg).

Speaking of being as old as you feel, I am spending the weekend in a farmhouse in the country with nine other people (mostly about a decade younger than me), a lot of board games, and ridiculous amounts of booze. I am looking forward to it, but the is a fairly loud voice in my head saying "I am too old for this shit" and I am not even there yet.

I am only comforted by the fact that I can leave early if I want and there's wifi.

The thing about the young, pretty people is, plenty of them are really unhappy. Some of them are having the time of their lives, but others are faking it, or fooling themselves, and actually paddling as fast as they can to keep up.

Happy Birthday Vortex!

As it turns out, the toughest thing about having bruised ribs (or whatever) is rising up from a prone position. Getting out of bed this morning was Not Fun, though I seem to be more or less OK now that I'm vertical as long as I don't stretch or breathe too deeply.

sj,

no doubt. I thought he had hired security guards. I think white-haired man can probably get around most security systems, but still he and Emily (after all this time) should have one.

Thanks guys. I was in Williamsburg last night, and seeing all the young, pretty people reminded me of what I missed out on.

I get that.

Combined with yesterday’s therapy session, it felt like a gut punch.

I get that, too. In a big way.

But I still think you didn't miss out on your best years, because they're not a fixed period.

You know how you're convinced you're this total dork, and then you go to intense analysis for eleven years, and then you finally start to believe you're not a dork, but then you realize that you're in late middle age, and the best years of your life have completely passed you by?

I understand completely. It's simply a case that there's only so much time left, and things you wanted to do didn't happen, and a hard-eyed look at circumstances will tell you about the odds of them ever happening.

I have also been resenting the hell out of the young, perky people who the world is fawning on and feeling like society keeps looking at me and thinking "You're still here?"

All the "Your best years are what you want them to be!", "Age is a number!," "I'm much happier now than when I was younger" doesn't make much of a difference, really. You feel like you feel. Embrace the curmudgeon-hood. Trip the next burbly youngster you meet into the gutter. You'll feel better, at least briefly.

Hey, does anyone have any tips I should know for making a Priceline bid on a rental car? It seems less fraught with randomness than flights and even hotels, so I'm not terribly worried. I don't actually have a preference for rental car company (like I do with hotels), and it's not like with flights where I might have to show up at 5 a.m. to get a flight.

I guess my question is: what's the best way to figure out how low I can bid without lowballing myself out of the acceptable price range?

(Hurr, hurr. I said "lowballing.")

This post brought to you by Holy Shit, We Are Leaving For Vacation In 14 1/2 Days And Will NEVER Be Ready.

I have also been resenting the hell out of the young, perky people who the world is fawning on and feeling like society keeps looking at me and thinking "You're still here?"

I would be resenting the young, except their career prospects suck in this economy (which will affect them their whole lives) and they'll have to deal with much more global warming and fuel shortages when they get older than I will.

Photographs of people being blasted by wind in the face are priceless