For whatever reason, this week I’m feeling old. The “OK Boomer” line has lumped the GenX generation into it. At first, I was like – boomer! ok, that’s not me, those are my parents. But then the articles all say that – no Doris, you are for sure in it. And then you watch a 17 year old try to use a rotary phone on Ellen:
What else? Oh, I’m constantly using urban dictionary to look up changes to the English language: “pop a squat”, “post up”, “stan”. Stan is a portmanteau of the words stalker and fan meaning a person who follows the Jonas Brothers around to all their concerts and then stands in line screaming to get a selfie with them and that ends up being quote unquote “the best day of my life”. Also, I can’t read anything as soon as I wake up because my eyes don’t really work that well anymore. I feel out of touch. I feel like any advice I give Vince is going to be a dated mess and that I should just give him a wide berth. How am I to know what it’s like to be a 17 year old boy in 2019? I think I actually have no idea. This past week, Vince hasn’t been at home because it’s tech week for drama – he gets in at 10:30pm or so – way past our OK boomer bedtime. So there we are, Jeremy and I tucked in bed at 8:30 pm, each on our own phone reading the NYTimes and then looking at each other and then Jeremy asks – so you wanna watch some youtube together? We look up some labrador puppy videos. (too cute!) And then Jeremy sighs, is this what it’s going to be like from now on once Vince leaves the house? It’s so quiet. And we are so old. Edda is around, of course, but she’s very quiet. And she is a homebody. And she’s not leaving anytime soon, so you know, it’s going to be a permanent triad. Well plus Max. And the puppy that I’m getting.
Also, this week – on some weird email list mistake – I started getting emails from alumni from my old MIT dorm. Inadvertently, someone started an email chain regarding the president at MIT and how he’s been addressing harassment on campus and how that related to Senior House. Senior House was closed down by the administration a few years ago because of both the low 4-year graduation rate and the relatively high use of illegal drugs. Somehow the emails reached all the thousands of people who ever listed Senior House as their residence and it’s turned into a kind of remincience of sorts. Anyways, it was kind of touching to read how important Senior House was to a lot of people. It was important to me, just because it taught me that I was a little oddball or quirky or that I liked being around slightly oddball or quirky people even with my very square personality. But take a look at this photo with the skull logo & the motto “Sport Death” and yeah, if I was an administrator, I’d shut it down too. Are you really going to let a bunch of kids at some high pressure school go around with T-shirts that say “sport death?” mmmm, no. Many on the email list indicated they stopped sending money after Epstein or Khashoggi, or someone even said they stopped sending money when they revamped our alumni magazine from magazine which showed how technology related in a humanistic way to the world at large to a more business/flashy approach – like the most important 35 under 35 technologists (in 1998!). Even though I graduated on time and I never did any drugs, I wonder if any odd-ball dorms exist on any college campus anymore? Do people live in dorms anymore? (I also have a feeling that it’s considered feminist to join a sorority now. Never would I ever. But maybe I would now.) Is it all sanitized and corporate – like a Panera or Chick-fil-A or a Grand Hyatt? Maybe the thing I want for Vince doesn’t exist anymore (not that I want him to graduate late and do drugs), he probably knows better than I do what’s what.
