electric

Good God. Please overreact unnecessarily to a compliment.

Take a look around at your peers, and you'll see why people are surprised that you are 35. A lot of people don't take very good care of themselves. It's hard to tell when someone is eighteen, but decades down the road, somebody who smokes, drinks, overeats, and doesn't wear sunscreen or something like that will be fat, wrinkled, and pockmarked and such. Understandable, but not very attractive.

I would argue that it's much more annoying to be mistaken for 12 all the time. I routinely get handed kid's menus at restaurants and laughed at when I try to buy beer. I'm 21. As an apology, people always say "You'll be grateful for looking young when you are forty". Assuming I don't go gray at 25 like my dad or some shit like that.

Anyway, I know how pet peeves are, but settle down. You're a knockout, and I doubt that will ever change.

[Edited on May 28, 2006 3:36AM]

[Edited on May 28, 2006 3:39AM]

Look at how many times I edited that. My goodness.

So a year later, and more mentally stable, I would not have written that, mainly because Frank Scott said exactly the same thing, but nicer, days before me. Secondly, I would have phrased what I initially said differently. Saying something like 'you look good for 35' sounds like a backhanded compliment, as in 'you can walk really well for having fallen down the stairs recently'. What I meant was you are really attractive, and you look like you are 28 at the most, so it's pleasantly surprising to hear you are actually 36.

I'm unbelievably open minded about age, to the point where it weirds some of my friends out. I had a crush on this girl I used to work with, thinking she was in her late 20s, early 30s maybe. She's actually over forty, and has a daughter that is only 5 years younger than me. Wow. God that was fun.

I completely understand your reaction, and it was justified. Sorry.

all the best,

Jon