So here I am a few weeks ago hanging out with my peers. I'm on the left. The guy in the chair, Aaron, a.k.a. Mr. Dark, is also my age. He's all of 23 days older than I am.

My high-school reunion was this weekend. Some pictures from it have been posted.

Here we have some of the guys I went to high-school with. This is what someone in the vanilla world, with the "healthy" small-town lifestyle looks like at my age.

And here are some of the girls from the Class of '85, also exemplifying what 40-something looks like in the vanilla world...

... and this would be my wife (who, to be fair, was Class of '87 - somehow I think there is more at play than two years difference.)

Can someone explain to me again how life in the big city with all the parties and night-clubbing, with all the drinking, smoking, loud-music, and whatnot is going to make me old before my time again? I'm really not clear on how that works. I must be doing it wrong.