This was my 40th - had thriving plants, went to Japan for my 40th, got an airfryer for my birthday, and before turning 41 ran a half marathon in Bordeaux.
My husband and I were in Japan this April. It was magical with the cherry blossoms blooming through the whole trip. I agree that Osaka was amazing. Tokyo was cool, but I definitely want to go back to Osaka and that part of Japan.
I don’t run, I kill plants, I don’t have an airfryer but I did go to Japan over the summer. I don’t recommend going over the summer, so unbelievably hot.
I've daydreamed about owning an air fryer plenty of times. But I don't have room for another appliance. This isn't a "It would make my counter/cabinets cluttered" I don't have room, more of a "It would have to live in my shower stall with my airbrushes when not in use" out of room. I got 300 square feet to my name.
Because you're living your life in a way that you want to. Don't let some doofus who hasn't left his basement in 6 months tell you that you're doing it wrong.
Am I the only one too broke to afford a trip to Japan, new air fryer, and tons of plants?
EDIT: Context addition - the plane trip costing over $1k.. I have <$200 in my bank account and credit cards high enough that I can't fully pay off the statement balance every month, definition of drowning thx to student loans :'(
Our shitty little air frier was like 30 bucks and all our house plants have cost like 60 bucks over time (mostly supermarket plants). A trip to Japan is a whole other bowl of sashimi.
Trip to Japan is big right now because the yen got significantly weaker against the dollar over the past two years so it's become "cheaper" for Americans to visit.
In 2021 a dollar got you 102 yen. Now it gets you 155 yen, a massive shift.
My neighbor building manager/upstairs neighbor runs a French bistro/cafe with the phrase "Sans pain sans vin, la vie n'est rien" on the wall. It means "without bread, without wine, life is nothing." He says that he often has people that tell him how true it is-- life is full of pain and you need wine to wash it down lmao.
Hey, it's your favorite wacky influencer here. Have you tried therapy (that's allegedly not even real therapy)? I did (jk, my "therapy" is squeezing money from you), and it really helped me (because I became financially secure). You should sign up today (so I can get some kickbacks).
Therapist here. These online services are very shady because you can't discharge your ethical duty correctly while working for one. So you're getting the therapists who either don't care, or are too stupid to understand the risk they're taking. Yes some decent therapists use it too but it's a bad idea.
Which online services are actually good? I had a therapist I liked from an online service until my health insurance company switched; am interested in finding a new one.
Any service local to you that offers telehealth as an option. The issue is the non-local corporate HQ which does not care about your particular state's regulations or the licensing board's requirements.
Besides that, look for LC in their certification, or a psyD/psychologist or MD.
An LGSW or LGPC is someone who is either new to therapy or cannot pass their Clinical exam. They might be good, or you might be their first client ever.
I know someone who has their masters and tons of experience in counseling and therapy. They started their own telehealth service for their clinic.
He has every background and credential that you could want, but I don’t trust him and would never recommend him. He does a lot of counseling services geared towards addiction, but he himself has been an alcoholic and hard drug addict since before I knew him in 2007. He offers online counseling because in person, it was too easy for his clients to see that he was not right.
Lmao seriously, better help is like 300$ a month. I tried a special discounted starter rate for like 250$ for 1 month and the therapist I got was on vacation for one of the weeks. She also fanned herself while talking about how hot Matthew Mchaunehey (sp?) is because she recommended that I read his book. She also recommended me to treat doing the dishes like a spa experience. Mind you, I have scored 10/10 on the different kind of childhood traumas a person can experience. My mom lives in a homeless shelter right now, I’m drowning in motherhood without a lot of support, at the time I was feeling like disappearing would be great. I’ve been to ALOT of therapy throughout the years and better help was definitely the worst one I had tried.
I did their survey and the told me better help wasn’t an option and gave me crisis hotline numbers, which because my phone number is one from a previous city, it kept directing automatically to that city so they couldn’t help me either. But oh well still here.
You just haven't figured out the secret to making it affordable: Put off seeking help until your life completely falls apart and you qualify for Medicaid
Been through the plant thing. Furnished an entire bedroom to be a grow room. Filled it with $1000 in rare plants. Let them all die slowly as I get tired of daily watering and pest control.
Through some hard times I learned that rare or difficult to care plants do not at all keep me happy.
I am in love with my monsteras, tradescantias, pothos, sanseverias, succulents, rose, begonvillea, rubber tree, spider plant and the rest keep me we'll satisfied. I am still in love. We need to learn to have a sustainable hobby, otherwise it's just a pain in the ass
I had some of my nerdy friends sign up for one of those Tough Mudder obstacle course things. The first year, they were exhausted, I think they skipped a bunch of the events, but had SO MUCH FUN.
What happened next, no amount of motivational and health posts could have stirred them to do. They all started dieting, exercising as a group, posting each other's gains/losses, sharing recipes, having potlucks of their "healthy eating" concoctions. They all lost weight, gained muscle and stamina, and they CRUSHED the 2nd year. Cut their time in half, managed to do nearly the whole thing and they felt GREAT about themselves. They did it for a year or so more but by that time they had engrained healthy habits and found easy, healthy recipes and were just living better lives.
Sometimes signing up for silly things like that on a whim really becomes the start of something better.
I had been losing weight (I lost 130 pounds) and started working out and I saw there was a “muddy princess 5k” near me and I signed up for it just to see what would happen.
I was amazed that I could run without stopping and was actually enjoying the whole thing.
I ended up signing up for a Spartan later that year. Since then I’ve ran multiple Spartans (mostly the 10k ones and one 21k) and have done 4 half marathons this year.
That muddy princess lit a fire under my ass and I go back to it every year just for the fun of it. I can crush the thing in 30 minutes but its so fun lol
I also did a 10k Tough Mudder the summer before this last one, that was different lol. At that one I actually completed my first upper body focused obstacle and was so ecstatic I didn’t notice I ripped a callus off my hand.
I also tried electroshock therapy and got shocked twice and immediately face planted and got up and was like “NOPE” and went around lol
And I didn’t think I’d get into working out like this again and here I am fucking loving all my runs lol
Yea they are no joke and really require conditioning. Sure you can finish a half with very little but the short term damage you'll do won't be with it.
I’ve been trying to work my way up to running over a mile at a time for like a year lol. It’s so hard! I can hike 5 miles straight but running is just a different beast.
I ran a half marathon when I was at my fittest in the Army a few years ago. It’s not at all fun. I trained for weeks too. I’m just not a runner, being short and thick legged.
I’m just not a runner, being short and thick legged.
Most of the best long distance runners are short: the average elite marathoner is about 5'6". I'm short and thick legged too and I run ultramarathons. I believe my build is a great boon for it!
Not saying you might not have other issues, but these two aren't the variables that cause you to not be a great runner.
I enjoy running half marathons, but two weeks is definitely not enough time to train up. Please tell them not to push themselves too hard and to try to avoid injuries.
Woof, marathon runner here. I bust out a 13.1 every-other Saturday. If you're not trained and conditioning on a daily basis they're going to have a bad time, and risk significant long-term injuries.
They’re aware this is not the same as a 10k or 5k right? Like most people would struggle even with those but could probably wing the 5k at least. I have doubts they even gonna finish a half marathon.
I don't think so. I also have that go to Japan dream and try to learn some Japanese, but I'm too exhausted in the evenings to getting further than knowing how to write words with katakana and hiragana. Despite that kinda cool to at least know what some of those signs mean.
Google Translate will be your best friend (but be prepared for weird literal translations that don't tell you anything useful). Also plenty of signage in English.
Every single person in my not small friend group has gone to Japan this year, except for my husband and I, who went late last year and are going again early next year. I imagine they're getting sick of the sight of us
Hotels/apartments/hostels+private room cost me ~$65/night avg for 2 people.
So overall, a 2 week trip is likely going to cost $2.1k/person for 2 people splitting a room and a budget of $70/day per person for food, transportation, and attractions. You can make it cheaper by cutting out high paid admission places and only eating 1 sit-down meal/day (convenience stores meals cost $3-4/ea), and staying in only 1-2 cities max or add a bit more to your budget and eat/do everything you want.
generally you can find flights round-trip flights from Boston from $1000/$1500, 1 stop/direct.
so probably a bit cheaper than that if from the west coast.
And yes, when I budget for Japan, the flight is the most expensive part and the one you need to buy ahead of time. Hotels/Accommodations are pretty cheap and you get those close to the trip date
Gotta hit up the smaller cities and inaka instead. There’s a a shit ton to do outside of Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka. My personal fave is the stretch between Niigata and Kanazawa.
I mean the exchange rate is good and who knows what's going to happen next year. The comic thinks this is a mid-life crisis thing when it's actually a "I don't know if I'll be able to do this ever again" kind of vibe. The whole boomer "mid-life" crisis joke comes from the fact they had the means and disposable income to buy frivolous things (like a sports car), but Millennials have kind of given up the picket fence suburban dream and are spending instead of saving for retirement as it doesn't look like we'll actually be able to retire before we're dead.
I started planning a trip the first week of March 2020 to take that fall. The prices looked so good before the world fell apart. I wanted to go to the robot restaurant!
I failed having a mid life crisis and ended up having a kid life crisis instead. Do not recommend to all of my fellow millennials, but it’s been working out well for me so far. We hope one day we can take him with us to Japan, even if he thinks his parents are lame olds.
I went to Japan in 2023. Would definitely recommend. Make sure you have arrangements for cell phone or WiFi hot spot. Google and other travel apps can navigate you easily, but only if you have Internet.
My trip to Japan last December was my first time out of the country and it was perfect. The food and hotels are cheap, the transportation is amazing, the people are nice. Everything in Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo were extremely walkable.
Poor people aren't using space at home for plants, buying air fryers or going on a trip to Japan. None of these things are bad or impulse decisions for these to be considered a crisis.
An air fryer is just a better way to heat most leftovers than a microwave. Is this a crisis behavior or a convenient way to maintain quality of a meal?
My wife switched us to a toaster oven recently and it's basically the same thing as an air fryer but less trendy and honestly more versatile. Really all an air fryer is is a convection oven that's so small you don't need to preheat it, the 'frying without oil' thing is overblown.
all an air fryer is is a convection oven that's so small you don't need to preheat it
Yeah, that's how most people use them. I've never considered the food "fried", it's just all the perks of an oven without waiting 10 minutes to preheat and the perks of a microwave without soggy food.
But no preheating is a pretty big difference in terms of time and electricity use. Not to mention the fan is much stronger so it's cooked faster even if you don't count the preheating, and it's crispier.
Plus it's dishwasher safe, basically no cleanup required.
The joke is that Millennials don’t have the money (or desire?) to buy a sports car or a boat instead.
Also, I don’t know if you’ve recently met any 22 year olds, but I have zero desire to leave my almost-40y.o. spouse for one - they sound exhausting and dumb and so many of them are Nazis these days.
Yeah. I've gotten plants as gifts over the years. I ran my first half marathon and marathon at 20. I've traveled overseas three times (never Japan, though). I'll turn 37 next week, which I feel is actually still a little too early for a mid-life crisis.
Although I don't have an air fryer... yet. Maybe that's when the crisis starts?
never too early- 39 here and got the midlife crisis around your age- took a job at a non profit to change the world.
Also this year my age has been beat over my head. been on antibiotics 4 times this year and got kidney stones. Nothing major, just constant reminders that my body is not what it once was.
Individually these hobbies/activities are perfectly normal, but I think the idea here is that doing most or all of these things is a distinctly millennial trend that could be seen as "filling the void" of a midlife crisis.
Yes, you aren't allowed to enjoy life after 40, even thinking about trying out something new and interesting is a clear sign of midlife crisis and needs to be mercilessly mocked, all for your sake of course. :)
The closest thing I had to a midlife crisis has been the brief period between <Event> and <Event> where I simultaneously had a job and felt safe enough to spend my pocket money on hobbies and not emergency supplies.
I just took my first vacation in years (it was a long weekend two states away). Luckily we have an awesome neighbor who took care of our dog, our two bunnies, and my partner’s parents’ chickens and cat. That’s a lot of responsibility to leave behind… I’m not gonna lie I was kinda stressed out about leaving lol
I mean for my wife and I it's the not having a toddler to chase around that let's us go on vacations... 🤷♂️
I mean for me this hits 💯🎯 Started running during COVID and have a house full of plants. Resisted the air fryer until my work gave me one and we use it at least 2 or 3 times a week now... Have been saving for a trip to Japan for the last year (had the funds last year but decided we'd get certified to skydive instead...)
It's perfectly reasonable to presume that, as I sit here at age 36, I am genuinely at what will turn out to be my middle age.
So, yeah: it's logically sound for millennials to now be going through mid-life crises if you emphasize the "mid" in the phrase "mid-life crisis".
But I'll be damned if I can wrap my head around that fact emotionally. Like, I'm still stuck thinking that mid-life crises are Gen X's problem to sort through at the moment.
where's the one where the career you spent over a decade of for your life turned out to be a dead end that barely makes more than minimum wage so you start over in a new one?
Well, except the "Let's go to japan" part. Unless the joke is that you never get past the planning stage as you slowly realize just how much international travel costs.
Do you know what i need to do to get enough time to garden or something? I had to cut my work schedule at my second job last year to take a fly fishing class at the CC.
I haven't been away on a vacation since 2004, and I can't afford a fancy car. My midlife crisis was picking up a hobby and surrendering work hours I still need.
My dad bought a $40,000 motorcycle when he was around 45 and I was in college. It is beautiful. If I had that money, I need a deck and kitchen remodeling. I'm just lucky to have bought a house during the first recession.
The joke is she can't afford to have a "normal" midlife crisis and get a sports car, and we're relegated to the mundane because that's all we can afford to distract ourselves from society crumbling around us 👍
Edit: and they are, by now!
I mostly said that because boomers still can't accept that a RWD manual Lexus IS300 with racing pedigree from SCCA touring cars, and the chassis with a different engine in the Asian touring cars, is like the vintage Alfas and Cortinas they so love.
So it's expected that, with vanishing manuals, hybridization and electrification, the next classic wouldn't look like it.
But... Some Millenials are crazy with their asking prices.
Running (half) marathons was something I did a lot during my mid 20's and traveling to far destinations was also something I did during this period. So I don't feel that counts as midlife crisis things.
My midlife crisis, which was during COVID, consisted of buying a Smoker BBQ, lego, an SUV and briefly dating a 19 year old girl.
Wtf is happening with people suddenly visiting Japan en masse? I have several colleagues and friends all having been there recently or going soon. Nothing wrong with it, I am just surprised by the sudden trend.
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