The Onset of Cognitive Dissonance

[taste_is_sweet]

Otherwise known as how I'm turning 41 this June. Yes, 41. Forty-one. The big 4 - 1. Ol' One and forty.

Aside from finally remembering how to spell 'forty', I've come to the unpleasant understanding that despite how I'm well on my way to decrepitude (occasionally feeling every second of it; believe me), I still almost constantly feel as completely unprepared for the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune as my kid, who is seven. Hell, sometimes I feel he's way more together than I'll ever be.

Anyone else feel like that, out there in the blogosphere? Like a total fraud who is going to be discovered for the completely green, soaking-behind-the-ears newbie to life in general that she actually is? At least sometimes?

Of course, I also get to add to it the small but sad daily reminders that I'm no longer 20-something and cute but 40-something and matronly. It certainly doesn't help that I live in a small city where the average age is something like 24, because of the big community college and huge university, each with their multitude of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed boys and girls running around. All of them so cute and vital and young enough to be my offspring.

And yet in my heart of hearts I feel like I've barely made it to 18, which is at least the legal drinking age in Montreal. If I felt like drinking, but I don't have the same tolerance I used to.

Comments

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

Baby, I thought you were in your mid-twenties. You just come across as so young and enthusiastic, like I mentioned. :)

You are such a fandom child! That's awesome. I'm so happy for you having found all this stuff and having so much fun with it.

[ride-4ever.livejournal.com]

Twenties! Hell yeah, that's what I feel like most of the time! *giggles and twirls you*

Wanna know how I came into fandom? (It makes me bounce all over again every time I tell it!)

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

Yes, of course I would love to know how you got into fandom. :D Feel free to PM me if you don't want to put it here, though.

[ride-4ever.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't mind putting it here for all to read. I delight in it! It was November 2009, and some friends invited me to Thanksgiving dinner at their home; the mother-in-law of the friends' daughter was saying "If you like Shakespeare, you should see this show Slings and Arrows"...well, I watched every episode TWICE and WOW all-round great show and it was the first time I had seen Paul Gross and I was all PAUL GROSS HOLY FUCKIN' WOW (and the exact moment that I felt everything about my world as I had known it shifting was when Geoffrey Tennant shows Claire what it is to be Hamlet's Ophelia). After that I went to watching due South in 2010, and after watching due South, some time in the summer of 2011 (here comes my discovery of online fandom!) I decided that because of the reference to "The Hand of Franklin" in the final episode of due South I wanted to know more about that aspect of Canadian history...I did a Google search for the phrase "The Hand of Franklin"...but what I got WASN'T history...it was a fic called "The Hand of Franklin" (a Fraser/RayK by akite), the first piece of fanfic that I had ever seen...and ZOMG my transformation began into the dSc6d fangirl and fic-writer and fancon-goer that I now am.

Whoa, check out all the links!

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

That's a terrific story. :D

In case you didn't get a chance to read about the Franklin Expedition, there's a very nice Wikipedia article here. And here's the famous and beautiful song by Stan Rogers, which I'm pretty sure Paul Gross sung on dS? Finally, here's the lyrics. :)

And I really enjoyed this book about the expedition.

I hate to say it, but you've watched more of Paul Gross' acting career than I have. But have you seen the movie Gunless? It stars Gross (of course), and has Callum Kieth Rennie as the villain. It was a lot of fun.

Re: Whoa, check out all the links!

[ride-4ever.livejournal.com]

Yay links!

Good Wikipedia article, some stuff there I hadn't known yet about recent scientific expeditions.

Stan Rogers *sigh*. I have several Stan Rogers CD's. So sad and horrible the way his life ended...and it's hard for me not to think about all that "future music" lost to us. I went to the concert his brother did in Chicago last year.

That book you rec, I'll check it out; I read a different one about the Franklin Expedition by the same authors that was written in the 1980's.

Gunless! LOL! Yes, I saw it (and I've read some Gunless fic, too). I've seen umpteen things that Paul has been in and umpteen things that Callum has been in...and I think I've seen ALL the things where they've been in something TOGETHER.

Re: Whoa, check out all the links!

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'd figured you knew about all of Gross' and Rennie's stuff, but I wasn't sure about Rogers. :) Do you remember the name of the earlier book on the Expedition?

Franklin Expedition books

[ride-4ever.livejournal.com]

The 1988 book by John Geiger and Owen Beattie was titled Frozen in Time : Unlocking the Secrets of the Franklin Expedition; the 2004 book Frozen in Time : the Fate of the Franklin Expedition sounds to be a later revised edition of the same book. Beattie and Geiger also wrote a "young adults" book about the Franklin Expedition, titled Buried in Ice : the Mystery of a Lost Arctic Expedition (warning for graphic photos which may not be appropriate for REALLY young readers : contains photos of the corpses unearthed by Owen Beattie's 1984 scientific expedition).

Re: Franklin Expedition books

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

It definitely sounds like I got the later version of the same book; thank you for telling me about it.

The corpses are freaky, aren't they? The autopsies--and the fact that they were even possible--were amazing.