What childhood “upgrade” did you miss?
For me, I missed the one that allowed me to take spelled L-E-T-T-E-R-S and make them into words. If someone spells something to me and it is any longer than four letters, I am lost.
I also missed the upgrade that made me like vegetables. I still don’t like onions, peas, peppers, mushrooms, etc.
I missed the one where you take all your toys and put them up at the end of the day. I could fake it when I was a child but that was because I was coerced. That doesn’t exist now that I am an adult so I just leave books, computer things, or whatever else I am playing with and just leave it how it was for days at a time.
I still refuse to make my bed. I thought maybe I’d understand the logic behind it when I grew up…but I still don’t get it. 
The reason behind listening to the obvious and the tedious. Yes, it’s good manners, but I honestly (at 43) try to avoid such situations at all costs, now.
NO-I do not want to sit thru your pics of
batMitzfah/wedding/trip to Duluth/grandchildren/Nascar event.*
Yes, I’m a churlish bitch. At least kids of a certain age get away with rolling their eyes…I can only plaster a smile on my face and disengage my mind.
*this does not apply to a single pic or even 4-5…it’s the people with 5 packs of pics under their arm that I flee from.
And I missed the bit about cocktails/appetizers before dining. Wine with dinner-no problem. If I start drinking and eating canapes–that IS dinner to me. <sigh>
I missed the one that makes you coordinated. I fell down twice in two days, and boy was I banged up but good. 
Robin
Eating without getting food on my face.
I missed the one that taught smalltalk. I can’t give it, and getting it bores me to the point of saying something provocative in order to liven things up. I avoid mixers like the plague.
Me, neither. I’m just going to be sleeping in it again in a few hours, and no one’s going to be looking at it, and even if they were, I could care less if a bed’s made. I don’t think it reflects on me as a person. I just do not understand the point.
Sharing. I don’t mind sharing, just sharing with people who constantly need to borrow or share the same thing. If this is a 16th day in a row you’ve asked to borrow a pen from me, I think it’s about time you get your own. I usually start making lame excuses for my lack of borrow-able pens, etc. on about the third day in a row.
What Shagnasty and Asimovian said.
Also, I missed the upgrade that was supposed to make me stop liking children’s television, literature, etc.
I guess I was out sick on the day that all the boys in my school got their Good With Tools upgrade that lets guys magically pick up socket wrenches or whatever and fix cars and do plumbing and assemble bikes for their wives and girlfriends. I mean, I look under the hood and all I see is rust and wires.
I also missed the upgrade that makes it possible to watch sports for days on end without getting bored out of my mind.
And I must have been left off the email list when they sent out the Remember Where Things Are After You Put Them Down service patch for guys.
I still hate vegetables.
I want to eat dessert first.
I want to eat chocolate at will.
I want to go first. I have to force myself not go push ahead and go first.
I also want to be served. I hate serving people.
I must have gotten your upgrades for both of these because I can spell very well *(triple-checking post for the obvious) *, and I love veggies. Mushrooms and onions and peppers are delicious!
And I’m the one people come to and ask, “How do you spell … ?”
I must have been out sick the day the day the upgrades were installed for Math, though. Anything more than basic third-grade addition and subtraction and I need a calculator.
I’m not sure why “upgrades” is the phrase being used here, but I think I know what you’re talking about. (I’m 31 for the record).
(1) I never started drinking or smoking, or even wanting to drink or smoke. As a kid, you (presumably) don’t drink or smoke, which is something you’ll either do, or at least consciously not decide to do, when you get older
(2) I never started drinking coffee
(3) I never started preferring fancy desserts over simple desserts like ice cream and (at the very height of fanciness for me) cream puffs and eclairs. This is kind of true for food in general, but particularly for desserts.
(4) I never stopped enjoying playing. As a kid, you run around and play with toys and read books while the grownups sit around the coffee table chatting. I still don’t really enjoy sitting around the coffee table chatting. I enjoy DOING THINGS. There will probalby be some chatting during the doing things, which will genuinely enhance the experience, but chatting qua chatting is not for me.
(5) I never really had teenage disillusionment/rebellion. I never felt the urge to do things just to piss off my parents or other authority figures. And I never had a moment when I realized that my parents weren’t as awesome as I’d thought they were. In fact, my parents ARE awesome. They may not know everything, but they never claimed to, and they know a LOT.
(6) As far as books/movies/music, I never stopped liking almost all the things I liked as far back as Junior High. My #1 Favorite Movie then was Back to the Future, followed by things like Star Wars. Neither of those is my favorite movie now, but they’re both very high on the list. My #1 Favorite Book then was the Dragonriders of Pern series, which as fallen a bit further in my estimation, but I still love books of that genre. My #1 Favorite Piece of Music then was probably either West Side Story or Beethoven’s 9th, both of which are still at the absolute top of my list.
Cap’n Crunch, CoCo puffs and Apple Jacks.
And appatently my sense of humor.
The fact that I’m 35 and I find Sponge Bob Square Pants to be quite humorous; is proof positive.
I, too, missed the “you’ll like coffee when your older” upgrade. On the rare occasion I have some sugared-up coffee, it makes me feel like I’m on speed. Awful. I decided over a year ago that I was done with coffee, period. It’s better this way.
When I was little my dad once let me have a sip of his beer. I thought it was awful. He told me I’d like it when I was older. Nope, still think it’s awful.
Me, too, except instead of being provocative I tend to monologue on some topic that everyone should be utterly fascinated with, like using public key encryption systems for secure electronic voting or how lasers work. Yeah, I’m a riot at the parties and a Casanova with the ladies. :rolleyes:
Stranger
I missed the eating without getting food on my shirt upgrade.
I don’t dress in black as a fashion statement. It’s just the only color that doesn’t show the stains!
This is also true for me, and the same goes with beer. In both cases, I was told that it was a taste I would acquire as I got older. And my comment was, “Why would I want to work at liking something I hated the first time around?”
To this day, people still insist to me that beer in particular is an acquired taste, and that it’s good for general social situations. I have NEVER found myself in a situation where I was at a disadvantage for despising beer. In fact, it often makes for an interesting ice breaker.
Whoops…didn’t see your post. What you said, in its entirety.
I missed the take stuff out of pots/tupperware and put it on a plate to eat it upgrade. I figure why dirty up two dishes when I can just eat out of what I cooked it in?