31

31

To be honest, I didn't even realize I was turning 31. For a while there I thought I was turning 32. So perhaps I should be thankful that I over shot my own age. I can take some refuge in realizing that I'm one year less older than what I thought I was going to be.

I'm not 31... I can't say I ever was too excited for my birthday. I mean, I don't throw parties or anything of the such. I don't even spend it with family. To be honest, the last time I have had a birthday meal with my parents was at the very least a decade ago.

They're usually out of the state traveling or I'm busy working and it's always been left up as an I.O.U. One that I haven't cashed in - I'm not even sure why not. I mean, it's a free meal after all. Then again, I would have to deal with my family for more than an hour.

This means that I haven't really done much for my birthday in the past. Make no mistake, this isn't feeling bummed out that I'm getting old. I certainly don't feel old. I mean, I still look like I'm in my early 20's and by god, I just realize that I have a zit.

What the hell? My perfect Spaniard skin can't be tainted by this ugly bump on my face! I guess that's just proof that I'm de-aging as I'm going along. Though that shouldn't come to any surprise. According to some study, I wont start feeling old till I'm in my 50's and can't get my dick up... in fact, studies back up that claim.. By suggesting that men start feeling over the hill at age 59 while women start feeling that at age 29.

A new study has revealed that women consider themselves old at 29 - half the age of men who don't feel over the hill until they are 58.

A quarter of women say they felt old as soon as they spotted their first grey hairs.

On the other hand, men tend to think they are still young until they can no longer perform in the bedroom, according to the study by Avalon Funeral Plans.

It is thought that this gulf between the sexes is because age perception is so determined by society's attitude towards youth and beauty.

"In our society the attractiveness of women is quite important. Men don't have to be good looking but, for some reason, it's important for women to look presentable," the Daily Mail quoted psychologist Professor Cary Cooper from Lancaster University as saying.

"Magazines are all about youth and are filled with young, attractive women. Women then start to perceive themselves as old when they no longer feel like this, when they don't feel trendy or fashionable.

"Men, on the other hand, don't have to be good looking, it doesn't concern them."

He added: "At 30, women have matured, they're expected to think about getting married and starting a family.

I'm turning 31 and from what I can tell, I'm getting far more compliments and I do get hit on by women when I'm at the pub way more now than I ever did when I was in my early 20's.

Now, I always knew that I shared my birthday with Francis Ford Coppola. I always thought that was pretty cool. Especially since the field I work in is said film industry. Though I'm pretty sure the only thing we have in common is that we enjoy film, wine and were born on the same calendar day.

But here I am, ten years after I was legally allowed to buy alcohol and consume it without the cops giving me shit for it and I realize that it's also another holiday. Another day in history that is pretty significant...

You see, the sale of beer was finally made legal after prohibition on April 7th, 1933.

Sales of beer in the U.S would become legal on April 7, 1933, provided that the state in question had enacted its own law allowing such sales. The beer had to have an alcohol content less than 3.2% (4% ABV), compared to the 0.5% limit of the Volstead Act, because 3.2% was considered too low to produce intoxication. On the evening of April 6, people lined up outside breweries and taverns, waiting for midnight when they would be able to legally purchase beer for the first time in over 13 years. Since then, the night of April 6 has been referred to as "New Beer's Eve."

So I guess it's only fitting considering my latest wave of alcoholism. Don't call it alcoholism, call it celebration of capitalism. The sale and consumption of alcohol - woooooo!

So I'm 31 years old and a bit wiser for it.... and yet I'm sure I'll still be doing the same silly things I always have been.