Stealth Blog

Wow, so, this kind of fell off the radar.

Not that anything interesting has happened in 3.5 months.

I'll be 37 in just under 3 weeks.  I also got carded at the movies on Saturday.  That used to annoy the hell out of me, but now it's just silly.

[... Actually, let me explain that.  Obviously, I look younger than I am.  I always have.  Part of it is that I have a small torso and long legs, so even though I'm 6'2" I "look short" unless I'm standing right next to something or someone for a height comparison.  The bigger part, though, is that I didn't really physically start maturing until about 18 or 19, so that at 22 I still looked like a 13-year-old.  I didn't "grow into my face" until I was about 25, at which point I started to look like late-teens.  I pretty much haven't changed a lot since then, though being a bit more muscular has helped bump me to the "twenties" category at least.

Now, I'm sure most people have had minor experiences with age discrimination as kids or teens; we often look back and laugh it off as "probably deserved it" or "I really was naive", but it's a real thing.  It's harder to laugh off when you're 25 and still have people telling you things like "when you actually get out of school and have to face the real world".  It's even harder when you're 30 and they're still doing it.  I actually have snapped, thank you very much, at people in the last few years who try to pull that on me professionally.

So, yes, looking young is something everyone thinks is a huge benefit and I shouldn't complain, but please understand why something as innocuous as getting carded bugs me.]

My dad is/was the same way, though if anything I'm "better/worse" (depending on perspective) than he was: smoking and drinking really do age you, physically, so that by the time he was 40 he actually looked early 30s. 

What else - oh, I'm going camping in 2 weeks.  Well, I'm actually taking 2 weeks off to go camping and to the cabins in Guerneville and maybe something else, but the camping is first.  4 days in Yosemite with a friend I haven't hung out with since high school.  He's a pro photog, so we'll be dragging the cameras and tripods everywhere.  Should be fun.

Well, assuming I don't have problems with the hiking, which I guess does bring up something that happened.  I dislocated a rib in late April (gardening can be dangerous), which totally screwed up by fitness schedule leading up to the trip.  Basically, I couldn't do any real exercise, even walking more than a mile or so, for 6 weeks.  To this day, I still feel it a little after my workout, but not to the point of being more than just a slight muscle tension.  I should be okay for the hikes, but there's always the possibility that I'll over-do it.

I'll try to post some pics after the trip.