The mystery of the elderly Russian Mind.

A couple weeks ago, some friends and I were discussing just how quickly time passes once you reach a certain age -- particularly twenty-five. I was telling them how my time is measured by two things (1) brushing my teeth and (2) receiving a daily email indicating that my server stats have been resolved.

The log crunch is usually delivered between 9:30 to 11:00, depending on how much traffic we have received. When I get the email from my dear friend, "Cron Daemon," I usually breathe a heavy sigh and say "another day gone."

That's cheery, to the extreme.

But wait, there's more.

And so, when I'm finally ready to go to bed, I find myself washing up in front of the bathroom mirror. As I brush my teeth, I can't help but look at my tired-old eyes and say "Not you again. Weren't you getting ready for bed like five minutes ago? Oh yeah, that was yesterday."

We've got to get out of the house more, I guess. Being confined in an apartment has a way of eating at your well-being. And, I don't think Oleg, our downstairs neighbor, wants to hear any more of our fighting about pings or Netscape 4.0.

Speaking of which: A couple weeks ago I actually ventured downstairs to get our mail; usually Ben handles the important stuff that requires leaving the apartment. On my way downstairs, I met up with Oleg and his wife. Making small-talk (I assume), Oleg advised, in a joking manner, that I should "not to work too hard."

Since that conversation, I've been trying deduce the true meaning of his cryptic advice. Does he hear us talking and fighting about work at all hours? Or, does he think we're lazy because we don't have real jobs that require us to leave our apartment? Or, even worse, does he think we're odd because we don't leave the apartment enough?

Of course, considering that it's currently 3:30 am and he's walking around downstairs, it would sort of be a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Or something like that.

Comments

[Jeff]

If you think time moves fast now, wait until you have children! ;-)

One theory for why it seems time moves faster as we get older is that as we get older, each day becomes a smaller percentage of our total lives.

Sounds good to me. But wait till the kiddies come.

[Sydney]

I thought, "Don't work to hard," was a generic statement people said just so they don't say the same thing over and over. Like "Take care, Take it easy, Have a good day, Give my regards to the S.O., Don't work to hard, etc."

Maybe you are reading to much into his statement. I think he was just wishing you well. Unless he is one of those passive agressive types and he was really trying to stick it to you. Either way...I wouldn't worry about it.

[Alex]

It's all a matter of perspective... Some people say that because if you're working harder than them, they feel bad, jealous, lazy, etc. It's an interesting way to put people down...

In other words "Gosh, you are working so hard you are making me look bad, so--- don't work too hard, ok, geez!"

And yes, with kids, forget about 3:30 in the morning. You'll be sleeping hardy.

[denise]

funny how everyone just assumes you and ben want children, huh? maybe you do. we don't but everyday we get the "wait until you have children" bit.

anyway, there is a medical theory that our brain processes information differently as we grow older making time appear to go faster. maybe it's because fewer truly new experiences happen to us as we age. "the road to always seem longer than the road home". or something like that.

[Pfish]

I've noticed this happening to me too. Only with me it happens on Thursdays, which appropriately enough is today. This is Ted Casablanca's fault--the guy who writes the E! gossip columns--and I used to go to his site, read the column, and then sigh because it would be a whole week before more Ted. Now, I go, and I think, wasn't I just reading this. No, that was last week.

Sigh.

The whole time passing thing is even worse when you realize life is slipping by and you are nowhere you want to be.

[Leandra]

wow, Pfish, I read Ted's column too. Between that and the Fashion Police (on wednesday) it seems like my weeks fly by! :)

In all seriousness, I work from 8 to 5 everyday and if i leave the house in the evening as well (to go to a class or grocery shopping, etc.) the day seems like a big blur by the time I get ready for bed at 11.

I can't help but wonder sometimes about the things I didn't do and that one day I might not have as much free time as I do now... (and kids are nowhere in the picture)

[Erica]

Why is it that we have all these devices in our lives (computers, cars, phones, microwaves, etc.) to make tasks faster but all we find is they make our lives just fly past us. I'm imagining a clock with hands going round faster and faster.

Can someone apply the brakes, please?

[Pfish]

Leandra: I love the Fashion Police although frankly sometimes I find their fashion sense bewildering.

[robyn]

I have a neighbor named Oleg as well. "Like Leg-O! backwards!" he said when we met.

[eliot]

Erica: I agree completely with your sentiment. All I dream about is finishing my computer engineering degree and getting as far from a busy life as possible. I'm hoping to open a vegeterian restauraunt / coffee shop in some nice little town somewhere (preferably in gorgeous Minnesota).

Mena: Ever tried taking up an outside activity? This summer I decided to start biking for 20-30 minutes every evening. As soon as I get home from classes, I change into my biking clothes and get out of the apartment. Although I don't have enough time before dark to have a very strenuous ride, I feel refreshed by being away from computers, people, phones, and homework. Sometimes I go watch airplanes take off and land at a nearby airport (a small one)... simple things to change the scenery and get my mind on a completely different track.

Thanks for the beautiful MT release and movabletype.org make-over! Both are really fantastic.

[meryl]

When my second child was born, I had settled down enough to know that I needed to cherish each day with both kids. Though, I reduced my working schedule in half and made a bigger effort to be with my family... time still went by too fast. Yet, there is just one thing that time doesn't go by fast enough for me... but that's my little secret. :)

[Duran]

Time is definately moving faster. I'm only 33 years old, but the days have gotten significantly shorter in the past, say, five years. I thought this was only my concept of time, something that was only happening to me in my mind. But, just out of curiosity, I did a search using the words TIME FASTER OLDER on google, and I was shocked.

One website compared time and life to a funnel. We're born on the outer rim of the funnel, moving in slow circles. As we age, we move closer and closer to the center, spinning around faster and faster (and then the scarey part) until we simply slip through the hole at the bottom.

I first noticed that time was moving faster last year. I began to think about the things that I had not done in my lifetime, the things that I had always said that I was going to do. Now, last year is like last month to me. I still haven't done some of the things that I had planned, but I'm working on it very hard.

I know that I'm here only a short time. I don't take naps anymore, and I try to make every second of my day count towards something productive. I'm writing a novel, I'm learning to play the piano, I've learned sculpture and sewing. I'm beginning to code, I work nine hours a day, I've committed myself into a long term relationship. I've adopted a pet, I try to keep my house as clean as possible, I've started a garden. These are only some of the things that I've done in an attempt to make the days a little longer--but it doesn't work.

What does work is this: Today when I enter into what I know is going to be a boring three-hour business meeting, I know that in the snap of a finger, it's going to pass painlessly and all I have to do is pay attention. When I need extra cash and payday is still five days away, I rest in the thought that it's not going to be long before I'm standing in line to cash my check at the bank. It may seem like one day. And those tasks that I'm working on? I want to do something that, in a hundred years from now, someone will pick up and wonder who I was. It may be the book I'm writing. I generate about five pages a day...but at the rate time is going, I'm going to have the book done in what seems to me to be one week. Some day, someone is going to open that book and read it and think the same thoughts that I thought so many dusty years back.

I used to wonder what "Seize the day" meant. Yesterday I found out.

God bless you all.