Old-ilocks?

Lately I have been a little less than giddy about my upcoming birthday. I see 18-year-old celebrities enjoying private-island vacations for weeks on end, frolicking mindlessly in the ocean with nary a stitch of cellulite in sight. (Not that I have any either, mind you!) This is not my life, friends.

Because every publication under the sun seems to post a person's age behind their name, whether they are political figures or jobless socialites, it's easy for me to see who is "my age."

That whole concept is interesting. What is "my age" anyhow? Growing up I was typically the youngest in my class with a late summer birthday. I turned 18 just a few weeks before going to college. I considered people to be "my age" if they were in my graduating class.

At a previous job, filled with fabulous twenty-somethings, one girl asked another if a new hire was "our age" or not. "No," the second girl replied, "I think she's a grade or so behind us." They were each seven or eight years out of high school, but they took the (three month!) age difference between them and another PYT to be quite significant because it resulted in a whole school year's gap.

All that said, I look at pictures of folks on Facebook or in magazines and try to guess their ages before I know them. Do they look older than me? Younger? I'm terrible at it.

Reporters rave that the former "Waity Katie," a spinster in the making, now has the "glow of youth." Happy girls are the prettiest girls indeed!

Lately I find I have more in common with people who are in a similar place to me in life, regardless of their age. Whether there are similarities in job interests, spiritual lives or parental duties, those things seem to matter more now than how old a friend was when Titanic was released.

If Rory Gilmore were real, I don't doubt she'd have a Pulitzer in hand by now...

So these days, as I feel older my the minute and pluck the random curly gray hairs that are sprouting atop my head, I find myself taking comfort in the fact that "my age" includes Beyonce, Natalie Portman, Alexis Bledel (RIP Gilmore Girls), Jenna and Barbara Bush, Ivanka Trump and our very favorite Duchess, the former Kate Middleton - and her husband too, for that matter!

These girls have traveled the world to serve the underprivileged and founded successful non-profits. I was proud to get a few emails out today and keep Mac clean and fed!

And while she is "my" age, I'm going to avoid claiming Britney Spears 'til her hair is less skank-tastic. Sorry, Brit-Brit, but you have far too much money to sport such icky extensions.

(Disclaimer: Hopefully this will be the last self-indulgent, entirely superficial rant for a while. Worrying about your age is a first world problem and I'm surrounded by so many wonderful, loving people that I wouldn't go back to 21 if I could. Seriously. That said, it is amazing to me that there are famous people a full dozen years younger than me and newly graduated Ivy Leaguers have become best-selling authors at the ripe old age of 25. How is that possible? Puts my to do list in perspective. Prodigies!)