1. When I get annoyed at celebrity couples who’ve had a baby together but are hesitant to get married because “it’s such a big commitment.”
2. When I make references to movies like Porky’s and Animal House to my young work colleagues and they stare at me blankly.
3. When I see online articles expressing rapturous childhood nostalgia for the 90s…a decade in which I graduated from college and grad school and got married, and thus for most of which was a fully functioning adult.
I’m not a witch, I’m your wife!
4. When I watch hot shows on HBO and Showtime and Netflix, and shake my head at how they feel obliged to feature nudity (just women, usually) and massive amounts of cursing, just because they can.
5. When my back hurts.
6. When I realize that my workout regimen is all about playing defense.
7. When I go see the new Captain America movie in the theater, and involuntarily flinch and duck when people are fighting.
8. When I realize I spend most of my mental energy worrying about work, and wondering if I can retire earlier.
9. When my ankles swell up after long plane flights.
10. When I realize that yes, my back hurts and my ankles swell up and I worry about work and I’m over-sensitive about TV shows, and all these things do make me old, but they’re all better than the alternative.
A Harmless Vice 
The alternative: being young again? Impossible! Or not being? Won’t be around to care! Being older and thus more decrepit? Yes, that’s it for me.
I’m just looking forward to the time when I don’t care what people think, AND I’m financially independent. Man, that’ll be great.
Hang in there: it’s worth it, I know — what with modest state pensions, teachers’ pension, mortgage paid off and the occasional income because our professional skills and knowledge are still valued we are comfortably well off compared to many but not obscenely so. But it’s going to be — is already — harder for subsequent generations here in the UK and no doubt elsewhere. Hopefully not you when your time comes.
I am younger than you (I was not an adult in the 90s) but am reaching an age where some of this is becoming true. I HATE seeing those nostalgia lists that include things like pokemon, as if that was something that ADULTS NOW were playing as CHILDREN. GAH! (although interestingly, I have seen people of ALL generations posting those ‘better in the old days’ ‘the sunset was our curfew’ nostalgia lists, because apparently nothing has ever changed, we just think it has). A lot of my coworkers are younger than me, which makes me feel like I am doing nothing with my life – where the hell are all my contemporaries? Oh, they have proper careers and own their own homes. And I superficially fancy a guy at work, and after looking him up on facebook have to face the fact that there is the possibility he is TEN YEARS younger than me and still legally an adult. This is sick. Sick and wrong. And finally, adult characters on TV are now occasionally played by actors who are younger than me. No no no no no no.
By the way, I found your blog because Campion is awesome.
Nostalgia is a funny thing – we all have selective memory about the time we grew up, I think. It’s strange to realize that we’re getting older and the faces on TV and in movies are not. I saw Divergent with my kid yesterday, and all the stars were babies and Ashley Judd (only a bit older than I am) was the mom. Crazy!
I’m sorry you feel frustrated about your work situation, but I’m sure that not all your contemporaries are as successful as you think. And why not fancy the 10-years-younger guy at work?
Hooray, another Campion fan! We should start a club. I’ve tried to analyze why I’m so obsessed with Campion and Allingham’s books, but haven’t figured out it yet. Maybe when I do, I’ll write a blog post. Cheers!