Donkeys on Pleasure Island

Frank:

Well, gee, that's interesting how you have thrived in these jobs where it's basically a lot of young people partying and having fun in a vacation-like atmosphere.  I would really suck in a situation like that.  I would become more and more morose and difficult, casting a pall wherever I went.  I wouldn't last long, or rather, I wouldn't be hired in the first place.  It's pretty good that you continued to do well in a job like that, fairly recently, the Park City job.  What were you at that point, fifty?

If that's the environment where you feel at your best,  I have no idea what the next step is.  Those jobs sound to me like "Pleasure Island" in Pinocchio, where all the boys all run off to the fun theme park and become donkeys.  I'm not sure what happens when you're a donkey and you're in your mid-fifties, but I'd imagine you're not welcome at Pleasure Island any more, except maybe as a maintenance guy, somebody a moralist can point to and say "So, boys, you see what happens if you run off to Pleasure Island?"  But then, middle age is where a whole lot of people have to make difficult transitions, so you're certainly not the only one.  The unfortunate thing is that you are now afflicted with this discomfort around people, so I'm assuming that even if you found a Pleasure Island for people in their mid-fifties, you still wouldn't be interested.  

Well, I can see why you like television, anyway, because television is mostly all based on watching supposedly attractive young people running around, partying in a vacation-like setting. It's like being part of the gang again, except you're only watching. You will be interested to know that we watched the last hour of "The Bachelorette" last night -- we were in between DVD's.  Wow, that's all I can say.  Where do they get these people?  It's like they've all being given some kind of steroids that take whatever physical features are considered handsome or pretty in American TV culture, and they exaggerate those features to a preposterous, laughable degree -- kind of like Dudley Do-Right, with his overdone cleft chin -- and they they hair gel all these monsters and ship them off to Croatia, give them unlimited alcohol, and then….. shit.  All I can say is, who needs LSD?

Speaking of Croatia, maybe you could become a vampire.  I think that's pretty much the background on most vampires… they spent their early lives partying at some Transylvanian resort, until the awful day comes when they realize they are getting old, and the carefree babes don't feel carefree around them any more.  So they become vampires.  Have you tried biting a young woman on the neck?

I wonder if you can make the transition from having fun being around young, attractive people, to having fun being around middle-aged, not-so-attractive people?  That pretty much sounds like the crux of the matter to me. 

Okay, so I understand I'll be in Tahoe at a time when it's not at its best, the weekend.  That's okay, as long as I don't get run over by an RV or something.   

--edward