Gapers Block has ceased publication.
Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni.
✶ Thank you for your readership and contributions. ✶
TODAY
Sunday, January 19
Fuel
lacey / February 22, 2006 1:34 AM
Saturday I turn 27. I plan on celebrating by not having mono.
Carlotta / February 22, 2006 1:55 AM
50. Yep, 5-oh.
Freddie / February 22, 2006 3:18 AM
19. 20 in a few weeks.
kate / February 22, 2006 4:17 AM
25 of almost 2 weeks ago.
It's fun.
However, my most consistent hangout is an old man neighborhood joint. ...where they think asking me if I'm 32 is a compliment.
*Nothing against 32* - I'm just not there yet...
D. / February 22, 2006 4:30 AM
Fifty-six (Sweet Lord).
printdude / February 22, 2006 7:01 AM
In physical years, I am 37. (37?!?!?)
My mental state has bever made past 14.
michelle / February 22, 2006 7:06 AM
24 going on 25, but look like i'm about 19....i know i will be happy to look younger in a few years, but right now it is still annoying.
Dillon Horn / February 22, 2006 7:31 AM
29 tomorrow, thanks for asking!
Sarah / February 22, 2006 7:36 AM
I'm 25. And a half.
Gary / February 22, 2006 7:53 AM
39, looking at 40.
Andy / February 22, 2006 8:17 AM
34...the new 24.
em / February 22, 2006 8:19 AM
29. As my sister reminds me, 'that's 11 years from 40!'
MikeH / February 22, 2006 8:33 AM
36...the new 26 (thanks, Andy), with younger looks and an older soul...
paul / February 22, 2006 8:37 AM
Old enough that I sometimes have to take a second to remember when asked.
40.
Dino / February 22, 2006 8:45 AM
39 and bald as a cue ball... but no gray yet!
Archie FlorCruz / February 22, 2006 8:51 AM
26, yet no longer young enough to know everything
kt / February 22, 2006 8:57 AM
old enough to know better.
33
(or, refer to it, the larry bird birthday)
ivy / February 22, 2006 9:01 AM
32, but it keeps changing every year, so I sometimes I blank on it.
Can't I just say "1973" when someone asks my age? Just like a wine vintage?
sherm / February 22, 2006 9:01 AM
I just turned 40, look mid 30's, feel mid 20's.
Paula / February 22, 2006 9:04 AM
36. I turn 37 on Friday.
Michael / February 22, 2006 9:10 AM
29. 30 in October. I forget-- to whom do I relinquish my youth when that comes around?
jima / February 22, 2006 9:13 AM
Old enough.
eep / February 22, 2006 9:18 AM
27 and two-thirds.
j / February 22, 2006 9:19 AM
25, though I act like I'm 15...
roderick / February 22, 2006 9:24 AM
Quarter of a century.
Jason / February 22, 2006 9:26 AM
26 physically, about 66 everything else.
Oketo / February 22, 2006 9:27 AM
28 years, 350 days.
robin.. / February 22, 2006 9:27 AM
in four months i will be 27.
twenty-seven! twenty-seven! the greying has begun! the twisted ankle is STILL not healed! the fertility has become an unexpected topic of discussion! the friends are now beginning to marry! the desire to own a house has arisen! twenty-seven, the year in which i tell aging that if the house is a-rocking, it should not bother knocking; it should, rather, enter at will.
Mo / February 22, 2006 9:28 AM
28. I look young though, but that's not always a good thing. I just stopped getting carded for R movies last year.
Leah / February 22, 2006 9:30 AM
My email addy gives it away every time. I'm 28, 29 in about a month. Then I'll be 29 forever.
red / February 22, 2006 9:30 AM
31 years, 7 months and 6 days
hench / February 22, 2006 9:31 AM
29. yep.
Avril / February 22, 2006 9:32 AM
33! Life (and sex) gets better after the age of 30. ;- )
LoadZone / February 22, 2006 9:42 AM
twenty seven.
I still feel like I'm lying when I say that.
20 and 23 were probably the boringest/most depressing/slowest years of my life, so my effective age is twenty five (or twenty nine depending on how you look at it).
Dean Rank / February 22, 2006 9:44 AM
35. You know, Avril, I've been telling people that for years. Uhhh, five to be exact. So true!
anne / February 22, 2006 9:53 AM
29, now and forevermore.
Carrie D / February 22, 2006 9:53 AM
29. But come my birthday in May, like Leah, I'll stay 29!
coot / February 22, 2006 9:57 AM
Old enough that if I had a kid when I was in high school, he'd be old enough to vote and drink.
jennifer / February 22, 2006 10:02 AM
28. and here i will stay.
Andy / February 22, 2006 10:03 AM
31. I have to remind myself sometimes that that's actually my age. Like most people, I feel (and look) much younger. But overall, I'm happy to be in my 30s. The mid to late 20s were kind of depressing.
slb / February 22, 2006 10:05 AM
I'll be 30 in two months. everytime i get freaked out about it i think about how much life has improved since i was 25. i'm really starting to think that life gets better as you get older. although i wouldn't mind having the body and energy of an 18 year old, i'm really glad i don't have the angst and awkwardness.
though i do still get carded all the time.
Deb O. / February 22, 2006 10:11 AM
41. And still wondering how I got here.
Baldeesh / February 22, 2006 10:15 AM
25 - and my last birthday was the best by far!
I even enjoyed all the incriminating photographs over the next week as they were being posted on the internet...
Steve / February 22, 2006 10:15 AM
Frank Thomas' uniform number.
In another four and a half months, I'll be able to tell people that my age is the same as the number Heinie Manush wore in 1938.
Then we'll giggle, 'cuz Heinie + Manush = a comedy doubleheader.
jk1 / February 22, 2006 10:22 AM
I like what Ivy said.
I'm a '73. Or, for conformists, "32"...
The important thing that I'm always trying to remind myself of is that time passes more slowly the more new ideas and experiences you have. It's so easy to get set into a comfortable pattern or think that you'll do something later, and then before you can register it, a year has passed.
Spence / February 22, 2006 10:30 AM
I've entered my quarter life crisis about 6 months ago....assuming I live to be 100.
Ian / February 22, 2006 10:31 AM
41 and 1/12th and very happy about it!
Life post-30 has been a great time, so long may ageing continue!
leah / February 22, 2006 10:34 AM
28.
Wait, is that right? I always have to think about it.
It's like the faux-adult age. Some peeps are getting hitched, some are buying places (meee!), some are birthing. But no one's doing all 3 things. We're just testing out being grownups.
Justin / February 22, 2006 10:36 AM
25 has been good.
sarah / February 22, 2006 10:43 AM
28, feel 30. look 28.
amb / February 22, 2006 10:44 AM
thirty. no problem saying it, and in fact looked forward to turning thirty. what's with all the thirty haters? you can have twenty-nine. twenty-nine sucked.
Duff the beerman / February 22, 2006 10:52 AM
You have to be 30 to enjoy MGD.
nicco / February 22, 2006 10:56 AM
F Scott Fitzgerald wrote in The Great Gatsby, "I'm 30, Im five years too old to lie to myself and call it honor"
....but I'm 23 so I always believe my own lies
julie / February 22, 2006 10:56 AM
i'll be 26 this year.
Dunl / February 22, 2006 11:04 AM
I'll be 33 1/3 on April 28.
ben / February 22, 2006 11:05 AM
28 in three weeks
charlie D / February 22, 2006 11:41 AM
42
jennifer / February 22, 2006 11:44 AM
twenty-five and more than a half. and yes, I recognize counting the half puts me somewhere in the category of a five-and-a-half year old child who is excited about turning six. and why shouldn't I be excited for the coming years?
in many ways though, I feel much older than my age.
sky / February 22, 2006 11:46 AM
25. Halfway to 50. At the beginning of this year I was determined that my 25th year will be my best year yet....it's been a little slow thus far.
winediva / February 22, 2006 11:48 AM
I'll be 36 next month. Wow...no longer an "early 30's". I guess I'll just have to look forward to my Desperate Housewives phase.
jtrain / February 22, 2006 11:49 AM
36
When I was in my 20's I was relieved to not be a teenager anymore.
In my 30's, I'm glad I got over being in my 20's.
I assume things will keep getting better.
A for Attitude!
Flips / February 22, 2006 11:54 AM
33. I have to think about it every time the machine at the gym asks me, and I always find myself shocked that it's not 32 anymore. When did that happen?
It's a weird number, 33. 34 in a few months, and that just sounds really odd to me for some reason. 33 has kind of sucked, so maybe 34 will be a lot better. hope so.
So, yeah, '72. But still waiting for someone to come and arrest me for impersonating an adult.
MikeH / February 22, 2006 12:10 PM
I'm encouraged by all the thirty- and forty-somethings responding here. On more than one occasion, I've wondered if I was the resident old man on GB...
lp / February 22, 2006 12:14 PM
70. 30. and 27.
fluffy / February 22, 2006 12:25 PM
37 -
You couldn't pay me enough money to go back to my 20's - that's when you make all your mistakes, find out who your real friends are, and hopefully go through a humbling stage. In my 30's, I feel wiser, stronger, smarter, sexier. I am more confident now. I'm more obsessed with strength/happiness/learning than youth. I look forward to my 40's :-)
Kevin / February 22, 2006 12:34 PM
42 and hating every minute of it!
m / February 22, 2006 12:34 PM
I'm 33. If every day is a marble, we each get a jar full of about 30,000 marbles to play with if we're fortunate. I've used up a little over 12,000 marbles.
A. / February 22, 2006 12:36 PM
Aging is a passive thing, it is something that just happens to you and I recenty found myself on the other side of 34 which prospectively depressed somewhat. That is until I took stock and very quickly realized I was smarter, better and more focused in almost every aspect of my life. In short " life" had indeed gotten better with age (the sex thing is also true). The notion that this could potentially continue in subsequent years made me rather excited about the prospect. Yeah... we live in a culture obsessed with youth and there does seem to be some sinister subtext that getting old is bad but I have come to realize that these things are inherently false. I know 34 is not that old respectively but I am adopting the state of mind of someone who is in it for the long run just in case I make it to 40.
Sabrosa / February 22, 2006 12:38 PM
Twenty-fo...fo sho!!!
Eamon / February 22, 2006 12:48 PM
31. Love it!
e_five / February 22, 2006 12:51 PM
43.
I think the best age to be is 24. I like having experienced everything I have, so it's a difficult proposition to make that trade, but 24 is old enough to know better about most things and still young enough that you have plenty of time to adjust to changing circumstances.
An observation/suggestion for the young people-- each year of your life seems progressively shorter, so take full advantage of your youth. The reason is pretty simple... one year of a 40-year-old's life is about 1/35th (2.9%) of their consciousness, while one year of a 15-year-old's life is about 1/10th (10%) of their total conscious experience. When you get older the time goes by faster each year.
Y A J / February 22, 2006 12:59 PM
Really, I don't keep track. I wish I could just say "late 30s", not to be coy but because I don't keep track. I guess I just care about milestone birthdays, so once or twice I decade I know my age, otherwise it's pretty vague.
My husband keeps track of these things and I see that he said 37. So I know I'm 37 too.
PJ Chmiel / February 22, 2006 1:05 PM
28.5 with one foot in the grave. Some say "live fast, die old," but I've never seen myself living to an old age.
bam / February 22, 2006 1:08 PM
Thirty eight.
jen / February 22, 2006 1:09 PM
ah, a solid 29 i am, but i'm actually looking forward to my thirties.
Jill / February 22, 2006 1:11 PM
Ivy - I used to deal with a client at my old job who referred to people like that. Whenever we discussed a person's age, he would say "He's a '73 vintage". It took me a minute to realize that he was actually telling me their age. It made me think of cars. While I never discussed with him why he used such unique phraseology - he said it often, and he always came off like it's a perfectly acceptable way to indicate the age of a person.
By the way - I'm 27.
Brandy / February 22, 2006 1:13 PM
I was born forty. Currently thirty-two.
ANnie / February 22, 2006 1:14 PM
I'm 31! Today is my birthday, thank you very much!
Veronica / February 22, 2006 1:14 PM
24. I'm told I still look like a teenager, but I don't buy a second of it.
ivy / February 22, 2006 1:17 PM
Dunl -- everyone should have a 33 1/3 birthday party where they spin records and, ahhh, spin more records!
A "Record Birthday Party."
Same goes for 45.
And I can't wait 'till I gotta crack out the ol' 78s...
Cody / February 22, 2006 1:22 PM
25yo, I had some work done.
Lody / February 22, 2006 1:23 PM
27 in May... 27 seems like such an odd number. 25 was cool, 26 has been ok so far... hopefully the closer to 30, the better things will get!
esskaycee / February 22, 2006 1:34 PM
Amen to that, amb -- 30 is a billion times better than 29 ever was. 29 blew. Go 30!
Gapers Block / February 22, 2006 1:42 PM
I will turn 3 years old this year!!!
Hal / February 22, 2006 1:46 PM
42. And you ask on the day that I noticed that the grey is starting to come in on top. Which is cool, actually. It looks like I'm going to go grey in the same was as my dad.
R / February 22, 2006 2:38 PM
I'm 21 years old.
pat / February 22, 2006 2:48 PM
I like Jack Benny's idea of saying 39. Granted, as the calendar flies, I'm not quite there yet, but here are days I feel like i'm that old or ostensibly older (every time I find myself saying "those kids...") and there are days that I totally act like a little kid (my love of nintendo and amusement parks speak to that).
matty / February 22, 2006 2:49 PM
24
Christy / February 22, 2006 3:21 PM
I've never felt my age -- whatever it is or was. In some ways I feel older, in some I feel younger. I'm astounded that I'm alive. Really, all that works together to make us exist is mind-blowinging complex. Thanks to things evolving the way they have, I've been breathing for 37 years and 71 days.
tony / February 22, 2006 3:23 PM
Just a few days into 25. I don't feel any different than I did before, but I absolutely dread the future.
vit / February 22, 2006 3:28 PM
33
D / February 22, 2006 3:59 PM
36.
I don't miss what I experienced and what I felt like in my 20s. However, I *do* wish I could re-do that decade, armed with the confidence and relatively carefree outlook I have now.
Staci / February 22, 2006 4:20 PM
I'm 28. I don't mind it and I'm not worried about getting older. I'll be 29 in May, so maybe I'll worry then, but probably not.
dayzella / February 22, 2006 4:31 PM
32.
Old enough to know better, young enough to seriously consider doing it anyway.
Alice / February 22, 2006 4:59 PM
30.
B-day's in May. Gemini, Year of the Rabbit, and all that stuff.
Leelah / February 22, 2006 5:09 PM
As of Feb 8th, I was closer to 40 than 30.
I'm 35 1/2.
BZ / February 22, 2006 5:17 PM
34.
straightanswer / February 22, 2006 5:31 PM
25
Mister C / February 22, 2006 5:42 PM
I'll be 43 on Cinco De Mayo.
Jennifern / February 22, 2006 9:10 PM
1963, Mom was walking me in my pram when JFK was shot.
Being 42 is awesome,life is grand.
Ellen / February 22, 2006 9:26 PM
47, today! Birthdays are always better than the alternative, y'all!
mike-ts / February 22, 2006 11:25 PM
41. I'll second Ellen - don't complain about having too many birthdays, complain when you stop having them. Being older doesn't always = being old. I'll never be "that guy" yelling at the kids not to cut across the lawn, and music didn't stop being made the day I graduated high school.
I like knowing that I saw the first Sesame Street when it was broadcast on Channel 5, and the last Cartoon Town on 32. I saw (on live tv) Ernie's 500th, and Hank's 705th, as well as the McGuire/Sosa home run derby.
I hear people mention how this and that are from their era, and I bristle, since my era isn't over until I am. The past is an ok place to visit, but to hell with living there. Like Minnie Minoso did in baseball, I plan to step up to the plate of life in every decade that I live, as long as the Good Lord gives me the good health to do so.
Joe / February 22, 2006 11:39 PM
I am 36, but I'll be 37 on July 19. I look much younger than I am, which I guess will be an asset later, right? Still funny getting carded by people 10 years younger than they are and watching their expressions...
mike / February 23, 2006 12:17 AM
26.
Getting older is rad. I will most definitely be an old man at the park yelling at kids skateboarding, not because I think they are destroying public property but because their kickflips and shove-its suck worse than mine did.
-----
christian / February 23, 2006 7:48 AM
I turned 34 in January. I was told not that long ago I look younger, something like 26, I guess.
steven / February 23, 2006 8:21 AM
34, back in november. the fact that i'm staring at 35 is hard to believe. i still feel like i'm in my 20's. i definitely have a lot more to accomplish...
Shasta MacNasty / February 23, 2006 8:31 AM
33
Turn 34 in September. I'm already thinking about 35 and how close I am to having to start getting yearly mammograms.
D. / February 23, 2006 10:35 AM
What do I win?
Kevin / February 23, 2006 11:04 AM
I'm 29, but I totally think of myself as a 30something. And I'm so glad that those people that told me that high school would be the best years of my life were completely off base.
jk1 / February 23, 2006 11:32 AM
Mike -
I'm always thinking stuff like that. When skaters and freestylers ride by me, at least on a weekday, I know that if they perceive my presence at all, they think I'm just another conformist Loop office worker.
Not a former flatland freestyler, who still has his vintage 1990 Haro in storage and who used to ride from Hyde Park to Oak Street three days a week in the summer, while dodging roving gangs of bike thieves, police and unpredictable drivers.
But I see them. I smile a little to myself when they botch the simplest tricks. I smile bigger though when they break through and land one, maybe for the first time.
CVAL / February 23, 2006 12:20 PM
Thirty-Seven, which embodies: 2 marriages, 5 homes, 110lbs gained, lost, and re-gained, 6 jobs, 5 colleges and/or universities,@ 300 pairs of shoes,9 U.S. Presidents,6 foriegn countries,15 U.S. States, 7 girlfriends,2 hospital stays, and 8 Cars.
"Just the facts Mam, just the facts."
Bill / February 23, 2006 1:11 PM
i always thought i would be special, and that God would cut me a break and never make me turn 30, but he did in june of last year. i still feel 23, though.
jam / February 23, 2006 1:48 PM
24
i'm glad to hear older people say that the mid to late 20's weren't all that great because i was under the impression that i was going about it all wrong and wasting my "youth". i thought this would be a time when i would still be partying my ass off but really all i want to do is stay home, stay warm, and sew or cook.
Rebecca / February 23, 2006 2:36 PM
25. It feels like a good age. I'm enjoying it.
dan / February 23, 2006 3:20 PM
too old for this shit.
Neta / February 23, 2006 3:33 PM
40 last September. The psychological spasms are just now beginning to subside.
Another Mike / February 23, 2006 3:37 PM
Ah, skating. My first skateboard was shaped like a surfboard and had big wide Vans wheels and narrow trucks. My favorite was a Garry Davis ("GSD") eye-design deck. I could ollie over park benches on that thing. I lived on skateboards from sixth grade to my junior year of high school. I bashed the hell out of my body but never had a serious injury. My shins still have dents in them. And I can still actually land a kick flip.
I bought a skateboard a few years ago when I was 29. I think it was a subconscious oh-my-god-I'm-almost-30 attempt to relive my old Southern California skating experience. I told myself it would be good exercise. I went to Burnham skate park and started carving around. I was years older, a foot taller and nearly a hundred pounds larger. And the decks had gotten a hell of a lot smaller.
I broke my wrist within five minutes.
ang / February 23, 2006 3:49 PM
26 and JAM i totally agree!
Carrie / February 23, 2006 4:12 PM
26, thanks for askin'
Dorothy Zbornak / February 23, 2006 8:38 PM
I'm 25, and already 20 feels like it was a lifetime ago.
Moon / February 23, 2006 8:56 PM
Old enough to remember the Summer of Love and the Eisenhower administration.
Tim / December 31, 2006 10:12 PM
40. Not a great year, not a bad year. I liked my 30's far more than my 20's. I don't think you need to be of any age, really to feel 'alive'. If anything, I'd only re-do some of my 20's just using some of what I know now. Oh well. Life goes on.
Sir Charles / February 5, 2007 8:00 AM
23 dating a 18 yr old!
Bitter-Sweet but happy!
Ahem, most female peers look down on me.
The combination of a baby face, far from barry white voice and ability to party till 7 in the a.m leaves them thinking I'm in high school!
Far from that, as I hold a stable job, pay my bills and moved out of the nest!
Like Bryan Adams says in "18 till I die"...one day I'll be 18 goin on 55!!
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Andrew / February 22, 2006 1:04 AM
We know it's impolite to ask, but hey, we're curious.
Me, I'm staring down the barrel of 31.