Quote for Discussion: I’m Older Now edition

(heh….Whippersnapper! Get off my lawn! @11 – promoted by buhdydharma )

So, during the last week, at an undisclosed time and place, I turned 31.

Things I’ve learned since turning 31: Who fucking cares?  Thirty-one is a dull signpost.  None of the sentimentality of turning 30.  None of the whatever I expected being in my thirties would mean when I was younger.  I met a girl who had been on The Real World this week, and she told me that I looked like I was her age.  I have no idea how old she is, but that was quickly forgotten when she got pissed that I had no idea who she was, having not watched MTV in something like a decade.  I can remember discovering The Afghan Whigs when I saw the video for “Conjure Me” on 120 Minutes in high school.  See, I can date myself.

Here are some quotes which speak to me now that I’m 31.

A man walks out of his apartment
It is raining
He’s got no umbrella
He starts running beneath the awnings trying to save his suit
Tryin to dryin to tryin to dry but no good

When he gets to the crowded subway platform he takes off both of his shoes
He steps right into somebody’s fat loogie
And everyone who sees him says “ewwww”
Everyone who sees him says “ewwww”

But he doesn’t care cause last night he got a visit from the Ghost of Corporate Future
The Ghost said take off both your shoes whatever chances you get
Especially when they’re wet
He also said

Imagine you go away on a business trip one day
And when you come back home
Your children have grown
And you never made your wife moan

And people make you nervous
You’d think the world was ending
And everybody’s features
Have somehow started blending
And everything is plastic
And everyone’s sarcastic
And all your food is frozen
It needs to be defrosted
You’d think the world was ending
You’d think the world was ending
You’d think the world was ending right now

Well maybe you should just drink a lot less coffee
And never ever watch the 10 o’clock news
Maybe you should kiss someone nice or lick a rock or both
Maybe you should cut your own hair cause that can be so funny
It doesn’t cost any money and it always grows back
Hair grows even after you’re dead

People are just people
They shouldn’t make you nervous
The world is everlasting
It’s coming and it’s going
If you don’t toss your plastic
The streets won’t be so plastic
And if you kiss somebody
Then both of you’ll get practice

The world is everlasting
Put dirtballs in your pockets
Put dirtball’s in your pockets
And take off both your shoes
Cause people are just people
People are just people
People are just people like you

People are just people
People are just people
People are just people like you

The world is everlasting
It’s coming and it’s going
The world is everlasting
It’s coming and it’s going
It’s coming and it’s going

~Regina Spektor, The Ghost of Corporate Future

I hope that our few remaining friends
Give up on trying to save us
I hope we come up with a failsafe plot
To piss off the dumb few that forgave us
I hope the fences we mended
Fall down beneath their own weight
And I hope we hang on past the last exit
I hope it’s already too late
And I hope the junkyard a few blocks from here
Someday burns down
And I hope the rising black smoke carries me far away
And I never come back to this town
Again in my life
I hope I lie
And tell everyone you were a good wife
And I hope you die
I hope we both die

I hope I cut myself shaving tomorrow
I hope it bleeds all day long
Our friends say it’s darkest before the sun rises
We’re pretty sure they’re all wrong
I hope it stays dark forever
I hope the worst isn’t over
And I hope you blink before I do
Yeah I hope I never get sober
And I hope when you think of me years down the line
You can’t find one good thing to say
And I’d hope that if I found the strength to walk out
You’d stay the hell out of my way
I am drowning
There is no sign of land
You are coming down with me
Hand in unlovable hand
And I hope you die
I hope we both die

~The Mountain Goats, No Children