Well, I don’t hate my parents
I don’t get drunk just to spite them
I’ve got my own reasons to drink now
Think I’ll call my dad up and invite him
I can sleep in ’til noon anytime I want
Though there’s not many days that I do
Gotta get up and take on that world
When you’re an adult it’s no cliche, it’s the truth
‘Cause I’m an adult now
I’m an adult now
I’ve got the problems of an adult
On my head and on my shoulders
I’m an adult nowI can’t even look at young girls anymore
People will think I’m some kind of pervert
Adult sex is either boring or dirty
Young people they can get away with murder
I don’t write songs about girls anymore
I have to write songs about women
No more boy meets girl boy loses girl
More like man tries to figure out what the hell went wrong‘Cause I’m an adult now
I’m an adult now
I’ve got the problems of an adult
On my head and on my shoulders
I’m an adult nowI can’t take any more illicit drugs
I can’t afford any artificial joy
I’d sure look like a fool lying dead in a ditch somewhere
With a mind full of chemicals like some cheese-eating high school boy‘Cause I’m an adult now
I’m an adult now
I’ve got the problems of an adult
On my head and on my shoulders
I’m an adult nowSometimes my head hurts and sometimes my stomach hurts
And I guess that it won’t be long
‘Til I’m sitting in a room with a bunch of people whose necks and backs are aching
Whose sight and hearing’s failing who just can’t seem to get it up
Speaking of hearing, I can’t take too much loud music
I mean I like to play it, but I sure don’t like the racket
Noise, but I can’t hear anything
Just guitars screaming, screaming, screaming
Some guy screaming in a leather jacket
Wooah!‘Cause I’m an adult now
I’m an adult now
I’ve got the problems of an adult
On my head and on my shoulders
I’m an adult now– ‘I’m An Adult Now,’ by The Pursuit Of Happiness – a band I miss.
This musical interlude is relevant because yesterday, the Governator made the following announcement:
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the appointment of Mary E. Arand to a judgeship in the Santa Clara County Superior Court.
Mary and I were roomates in college. There’s some kind of rite of passage that you get to go through when your friends – especially friends you thought were kinda hot when you first met – are now judges. Sigh.
She will be an amazing judge; she was born to do this, and I’m incredibly proud of her.
As for me, it’s just guitars, screaming, screaming…
There’s a lot of truth to that song. But it seems to me that the first verse is far better than the others.
The rest of the song seems to focus on the aches and pains of growing up and growing old. How about the genuine satisfactions? The sense that you’ve made some progress on taking care of yourself, and now it’s time to take care of others: kids, neighbors, community, country. You know what I’m talking about.
There’s a calm joy in watching teenaged angst, and saying, “This too shall pass.” Realizing that you’ve been there, done that, and moved on. That you might even have something helpful to say, at least to someone else’s kid who might be willing to listen.
And once the kids are grown and out on their own, if you’re lucky, you get to learn a new meaning for the saying, “Youth is wasted on the young.” (“It’s not going to be wasted on me this time around!”) Or, if you’re especially lucky, replace “on me” with “on us”. There is an amazing joy of being grown up and adolescent at the same time. When you can both give and receive.
There’s a lot to be thankful for, including in growing up and even in growing older. Be thankful for it.
Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Ah, yes.
First person: Worse than realizing that someone you thought was kind of hot is now a judge is realizing that someone you’ve actually boinked, and thought was hot, but also knew/know is batsh*t crazy and a serious alcoholic… …is now a judge.
*sigh*
Memmmmoreeeees… MEH-mor-REES….
Dittos on The Pursuit of Happiness.
The past is still temptation.
The impossible, the undesirable:
Voices under sleep, waking a dead world,
So that the mind may not be wholly in the present.
T.S. Eliot
Ah yes, “The Pursuit of Happiness,” a fine Canadian band from my college days.
Not a bad song, either, when you consider that Moe (the lead singer) was in his late 20s-early 30s when he wrote it.
We’ll be able to deliver our congrats in person Sunday, when we’re over from Christmas dinner.
Glen:
Point taken. Didn’t someone once call the Popeye–Olive Oyl love triangle “The Unintelligible in Pursuit of the Undesirable”?
BTW, AL, I bet you haven’t cleared the copyright on those lyrics {/tease}.
Hey, Nortius – Infomration just wants to be free, I guess…
Merry Christmas to everyone!!