I Miss Drugs: the domestic lives of aging hipsters

Posted by
#Philosophy#aging#trends#videos

The video is part of a series from I Miss Drugs, a Twitter feed and a series of very short web videos that skewer the all-too-familiar-to-me life of the gently aging hipster. It reminds me a little bit of an update on Will Farrell’s infamous “Maybe later we’ll go to Bed Bath & Beyond” bit from Old School a decade ago… except of course they’re making jokes about Etsy and Trader Joe’s. Witness:

It’s funny: in my 20s, these videos would have scared me, and tossed me into a bratty and rebellious introspective tailspin of, “OMG I REFUSE TO BE DOOMED TO BECOMING OLD AND BORING!” From the perspective of the later half of my 30s, however, I have a total sense of comfort with where I’m at and what I’m doing. Sometimes, that involves being out until 4am dancing my ass off, but more often involves dorking out over an ugly pillow I’m madly in love with, or watching Hulu with my husband while our kid sleeps in his closet.

Yeah, every once in a while I miss the wild chaos of my early 20s, but mostly I’m just REALLY INTO THIS FUCKING PILLOW. Domesticity fits comfortably. There’s not much else to prove.

So, what are some of your favorite #imissdrugs moments?

About the Author: Ariel

@findyourafterglow

Author of three editions of the Offbeat Bride book and its sequel (From Shitshow To Afterglow, the ultimate offbeat breakup book) Ariel Meadow Stallings is the publisher of all the Offbeat Empire web properties. She lives in Seattle with her son. To read her latest work, follow @arielist.

Comments on I Miss Drugs: the domestic lives of aging hipsters

  2. Some of my online acquaintances were confused by these videos, but I thought they were very funny and bittersweet. I think they really strike me because I simultaneously love ‘being an adult’ and also miss the wild, invincible recklessness of youth. It’s a bit ironic but very human to have this amazing, content life but also yearn for a time past.

  3. Sometimes when I’m up at 7am on Saturday morning feeding my baby organic sweet potatoes while my husband makes us soy chorizo omelets, and we talk about what we should get at Ikea, I think, man…10 years ago I went to bed at 5am and woke up at 2 or 3 in the afternoon to eat cold pizza and smoke cheap cigarettes. It’s weird how much things have changed, but meh, I liked my life then and I like it now. I just like different things.

  5. This is funny. And it could be depressing. Except I just spent a weekend partying my ass off while the babe spent a weekend hanging out with his “brothers.” So they partying might be more planned and more infrequent, but if you want those wild and crazy moments they can still be there – and they make the quite, hulu nights feel all the more like a safe refuge.

    • I think that’s it: when I want to party, I get it on pretty hard. I just don’t feel the need quite as often, and that feels pretty much… comfortable. 🙂

  6. Just watched all of these videos…and can relate on so many levels. That one about the perfect night? That was me and my husband this past Sunday when we realized that Season 2 of the Walking Dead was finally available to watch instantly on Netflix. My 24 year old self would make fun of me for living like this, but damn it I have no regrets about my 9:00pm bed time!

  7. I’m not an aging hipster or raver. I came of age in the decadent 80s. Gay leather bars and copious amounts of snorted (not shot up) cocaine, mushrooms, lsd, oh god, the memories! I do miss a lot of it. But I am glad about where I am now too, college educated (although the degree came really really late) children grown and gone, nest so quiet it is eerie. I’ll take my DVR and lean cuisine with a glass of wine any day of the week. The cocaine fueled dancing nights were great, but I am pretty sure my body couldn’t take it any more anyway!

  9. Episodes 1 and 2 did make me miss drugs a little. My life is so mild compared to where I was 10 years ago, but it is not like these. I think it’s the interior monologue to Episode 2 that killed me a little inside. Perfect Night though…that was the best.

    • I realized I have had a “Simple Human” moment. It was when I saw the Mister’s auntie’s toothbrush. I saw it and thought, “One day, I hope to have an awesome toothbrush like this Simple Human toothbrush.”

  10. I work with/around a lot of teenagers and college students, and I tell them “just wait”. I partied HARD in college, but at 30, I’d rather sit at home and watch Game of Thrones and drink wine out of a box with my husband than go out to a bar. If I go to bed past 11, I’m blasted the next day at work. I’m glad I had my party life, because now I can enjoy this domestic simplicity rather than wonder if I’d be having more fun if I wasn’t wearing pj’s.

  11. As a 20 year old this is what my nights with my boyfriend are like (although we’re not super committed and settling down, just lazy I think xD ). I’m pretty sure I didn’t think it was as funny as the people really living that life did but it was enjoyable to watch for sure 🙂

  12. Bwahaha. I had to cover my face and laugh for a bit after the second one. Yup, I’m 25 and this is becoming my life… I feel domestic as what. Oh well. Small pleasures, right? There’s nothing wrong with finding happiness in a glass of decent-ish wine and a couple episodes of a funny show, and then getting eight glorious hours of sleep.

    • wow, 8 hours of sleep still eludes me at 45. Probably all the damage I did to my metabolism back in the day. And they tell me that I am reaching the age where it will probably never happen for me. The Elderly don’t sleep well or through the night, apparently.) So it is likely that childhood was my one chance to sleep a full 8 hours.

  13. Ohmygoodness. The second one killed me. I love doing that with my boyfriend – cheap bottle of wine, pizza, and something good to watch. Generally in bed by midnight. I’m 22, he’s 24. >.> We do some partying on the weekends, plus the occasional convention, but lead pretty awesomely domestic lives most of the time.

  14. Oh, this is dead on. I can remember being 23 and swearing that my rock and roll lifestyle would never end. Now, in my late 30s, my idea of a perfect evening is my sweatpants, my couch, my dog, my sweetie, and something great to read. Maybe if I’m feeling really froggy a beer to go with it. And I’m not unhappy with my life at all; I’m very content. If you had told me when I was a young’un that I’d end up that tattooed almost middle aged woman hanging out at the feed store talking about chickens with old dudes and getting really excited about making my own yogurt, I’d have told you you were crazy (and possibly kicked you with a steel toed combat boot).

  15. I think bittersweet is the perfect word for these videos. I’m currently 8 months pregnant, nesting like crazy, and loving my new grown-up life with my husband. But having spent the weekend sober at my best friends party-hard 30th birthday party (wishing I could be in bed by 9pm)I felt sad and jealous too. I guess it’s finally time to accept that part of our lives is over: or at least on hold, for a little while!

  16. I went to Trader Joe’s for the first time in years last week. I was like a kid in a candy store. So what if I seem old to others? I still feel like a kid.

  17. I finally got around to watching these, and I agree that they are bittersweet. I just wish that they didn’t feel just a smidge anti-woman. “Susan says, Susan says” like it’s Susan who’s driving him to be the person who he is now. It’s like I can hear his 23 year old friends in the background “Forget her man! Let’s go out and party!” I think that I just get tired of the old trope of the woman “domesticating” the man when, in my household at least, it’s much more of a 50/50 proposition.

  18. BWAHAHAHAHAaaaa….Homemade pizza, Wild Vines Blackberry Merlot (I likes the sweet, cheap stuff), Season 5 Big Bang Theory, and the boys ( 11, 8, and 5) at grandma’s! It’s a perfect evening. At 45, I am missing my 20’s, but I wouldn’t want to re-live them…except I do wish I had those knees again instead of these. My darling still insists he’s 16, even though he has 10 years on me.

Join the Conversation