Wake-up call

Monday Mar 28th 2005

Yesterday I turned 30. I got good birthday wishes from family and friends, which was all good. During the span of pretty much the entire day, I felt somewhat depressed.. mostly because when I take stock of what I’ve done in life, I’m not too overly happy with it.

Granted, I did run my own business for a year and a half, and was able to get out “clean” without owing any monster debt. Not too many people can say that. While my job isn’t the best in the world, the bills do get paid - and at least I work compared to some people I know. I have my health, my well being and a few bucks in my pocket.

That’s the good part.

The only bad part about being 30 is that I’m still living at home with pop. Some label me as “loser” because of this, others say “Dude, I know the feeling, rent is expensive” - and it is. The entire reason I’m living at home is because of cost. The rent’s cheap, what can I say.

I joined one of those online dating service things because my birthday left me really lonely this year. In addition to the whole “30 and still at home” thing, the single thing doesn’t help out any.

On this service, I received what was probably one of the most sarcastic nasty replies (I wrote first) from a girl. It included the phrase “dead end loser” and pegged the fact I was 30 living at home. Note: In my profile I do check off the option of “living at home” because I believe in honesty when it comes to dating.

But anyway, ouch. That hurt a lot. A whole lot.

Here’s what I don’t understand. If a man is living with parents due to whatever situation, be it a failed marriage, fiscal woes or whatever, he’s a loser - even if he’s the nicest guy in the world. If a woman does the exact same thing and has to live with her parents, she’s considered just “being closer to her family”. Same situation, different gender, different label. For some reason, society labels the at-home thing “okay” for the woman and “bad” for the man.

Regardless of that, I got socked with it. Message received.

I am going to start making phone calls today and I’m getting a home of my own. I’ve scoped out a few places on the ‘net and I think I can afford it. There’s one particular place in Mystic which is looking quite nice…

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