1 Job Change:
This is a terrifying early warning sign that meltdown is imminent. When he comes home and announces he is leaving his 30-year career in insurance to open a home-brew supply business, you know you're in for a bumpy ride.
2 Death-defying behaviour:
And potentially widow-making. This is when he comes home and announces he is going to take up rally driving/BASE-jumping/big wave surfing. "Life is short," he philosophises. "I don't want to die without ever having thrown myself off a cliff."
This is a terrifying early warning sign that meltdown is imminent. When he comes home and announces he is leaving his 30-year career in insurance to open a home-brew supply business, you know you're in for a bumpy ride.
2 Death-defying behaviour:
And potentially widow-making. This is when he comes home and announces he is going to take up rally driving/BASE-jumping/big wave surfing. "Life is short," he philosophises. "I don't want to die without ever having thrown myself off a cliff."
3 Grooming:
When one day he looks in the mirror and sees some old guy looking back at him. Eeeek! He panics, ditches his trusty barber for a stylist who does highlights, books in for a back wax and buys a new wardrobe and some musky scent.
4 Reverting to twenties behaviour:
This classis attempt at recapturing lost youth usually involves the suddent desire to go to music concerts, drink excessively, and live on nothing but junk food and two-minute noodles. This will ultimately undo or lead to point 5.
5 Exercise frenzy:
He's at the gym three mornings a week and watches his reflection in the window as he lifts the new flat-screen out of the car. One of the few MLC symptoms to be encouraged.
6 Outrageous purchases:
You come home from work to find a Harley-Davidson Fat Boy/Hummer parked in the driveway and a 65-inch flat-screen TV installed in the shed. That money was supposed to last you until your were 90, but it's nice to see him smiling - for a change.
7 Flirting:
The old "have I still got it?" trap. It's a nagging question that leads many a man of a certain age to drop his voice an octave, lean casually on reception desks while flicking back his newly highlighted hair and say things like,"Let's hook up for a Cosmopolitan," to girls younger than his own daughter. Mostly harmless but can lead to over-inflated egos and/or arrest.
8 Seeking out old loves:
This is either in the obvious form of finding his first girlfriend on Facebook, rediscovering the rush of skateboarding or digging out his old amp and bass for a jam. This is a desperate attempt at reminding himself of who he used to be and why people liked him. Can lead to bouts of self-absorbed nostalgia and using words like "cool" a lot.
9 Irresponsibility:
He get the words "free spirit" tattooed across his shoulders, starts paying for everything on credit and stays up until 2am watching soccer.
10 Excessive reminiscing:
"Remember that time when the band played and we all stayed up all night drinking beer and talking about how one day we'd ... blah blah blah."
When one day he looks in the mirror and sees some old guy looking back at him. Eeeek! He panics, ditches his trusty barber for a stylist who does highlights, books in for a back wax and buys a new wardrobe and some musky scent.
4 Reverting to twenties behaviour:
This classis attempt at recapturing lost youth usually involves the suddent desire to go to music concerts, drink excessively, and live on nothing but junk food and two-minute noodles. This will ultimately undo or lead to point 5.
5 Exercise frenzy:
He's at the gym three mornings a week and watches his reflection in the window as he lifts the new flat-screen out of the car. One of the few MLC symptoms to be encouraged.
6 Outrageous purchases:
You come home from work to find a Harley-Davidson Fat Boy/Hummer parked in the driveway and a 65-inch flat-screen TV installed in the shed. That money was supposed to last you until your were 90, but it's nice to see him smiling - for a change.
7 Flirting:
The old "have I still got it?" trap. It's a nagging question that leads many a man of a certain age to drop his voice an octave, lean casually on reception desks while flicking back his newly highlighted hair and say things like,"Let's hook up for a Cosmopolitan," to girls younger than his own daughter. Mostly harmless but can lead to over-inflated egos and/or arrest.
8 Seeking out old loves:
This is either in the obvious form of finding his first girlfriend on Facebook, rediscovering the rush of skateboarding or digging out his old amp and bass for a jam. This is a desperate attempt at reminding himself of who he used to be and why people liked him. Can lead to bouts of self-absorbed nostalgia and using words like "cool" a lot.
9 Irresponsibility:
He get the words "free spirit" tattooed across his shoulders, starts paying for everything on credit and stays up until 2am watching soccer.
10 Excessive reminiscing:
"Remember that time when the band played and we all stayed up all night drinking beer and talking about how one day we'd ... blah blah blah."
courtesy of Reader's Digest, August 2009
