Today was a rather hectic day at work, between video crappola and a staff-wide meeting with the new President of our organization. So, upon returning to my office after lunch, I decided to open up WinAmp and throw on some tunes. Mind you, I tend to listen to entire albums at a time…no “random” for me. My tastes are far too eclectic to throw my entire music collection on random — I’d end up having a seizure or dying of shock when the tracks roll from Enigma to Slipknot (it’s happened…not the seizures…but the transition…it was jarring to say the least).

First up was Jane’s Addiction. I hadn’t listened to them in a while, so I loaded up Ritual de lo Habitual and started rocking out. About 3/4 of the way through the album, for some ungodly reason, I decided to look at the date the album came out.

NINETEEN FRICKEN’ NINETY…?!?

That’s right. One of my absolute favorite albums of all time is now SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD.

I started to panic a little and started looking at the dates of the other albums I had in the queue:

Jane’s Addiction - Ritual de lo Habitual - 1990
The Cure - Disintegration - 1989
Jane’s Addiction - Nothing’s Shocking - 1988
Soundgarden - Louder Than Love - 1989
The Cure - Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me - 1987
Jim Morrison - An American Prayer - 1978
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine - 1989
Tin Machine - Tin Machine - 1989

I suddenly came to a realization…not that I wanted to come to the realization, but when it smacks you in the face with a 5 pound sledge hammer, you really don’t have a choice:

I’m getting old.

I used to joke about how to feel old: just talk to someone 6-7 years younger than you about cartoons. That was all fine and dandy…great joke…definitely poignant…but nothing compared to the realization that most of your favorite albums are almost 20 years old (if not older). That’s just one of those where you sit there…gape-jawed…staring at the screen in complete disbelief.

I mean…I remember the day I got half these on cassette (a thoughtful girlfriend bought them for my birthday my junior year of high school). I clearly remember ripping open Nothing’s Shocking and slamming it into my Walkman, giving her one of the earphones and finally letting her listen to the band I had been raving about lately. Not her style of music, but she could appreciate my enthusiasm for Jane’s Addiction.

The list above represents some of the most fun times of my life…but it’s rather depressing, at the same time, to realize that those times were roughly 20 years ago.

Can someone email me a spare walker and a case of Geritol?