Grown Ups

A weird thing is happening. I'm getting to that age where people are getting married and having babies. This has come around very quickly.

Within the space of a couple of months, 3 people I know have become engaged. The White Horse's best friend's wife has just given birth to a baby. Admittedly I'm younger than all of the aforementioned people, but not by much. All of a sudden I appear to be surrounded by grown ups.

Which was never more apparent then last weekend. TWH asked if I wanted to come along to his friend's birthday. I said OK because I'm trying to meet all of his friends at some point (he has a lot of friends). Now, I knew that his friend was part of a married couple, and I knew they had recently had a baby so the baby would probably be there. I figured I could handle one baby.

Except there wasn't just one baby. There were at least 4 babies plus a couple of toddlers thrown in for good measure. My palms started to sweat. One of the toddlers seemed to be approaching me and I couple feel drops of sweat gathering on my forehead. Here's the thing: babies and young children slightly terrify me. Before you start thinking that I'm some sort of crazy person let me explain. 1. I'm the youngest in my family 2. I have no aunts or uncles, thus no young cousins 3. My older brother doesn't have any children 4. None of my close friends have children 5. I didn't really babysit any children as a teenager, not any very young children anyway. In short, I've never been around babies or toddlers. To me they are the unknown. And I'm convinced they can smell my fear.

And I was surrounded by loads of them. Not only that, I was shown a glimpse into what my life could be like in 5 years time. Where your birthday party comes second to keeping the various children in attendance amused. Where you don't put as much effort into your appearance because your clothes will inevitably be covered in snot / mucus / vomit or something equally disgusting. And, where you need to carry half your life possessions round just to leave the house. It was very surreal.

However, it wasn't as terrifying as I would have thought a couple years ago. Babies still scare me. I still prefer birthday parties where you wake up the next morning not quite remembering what happened the night before and I love not having disgusting bodily fluids on my clothes.

But there's a part of me that's thinking I may yet one day be a grown up.

Grown-ups

We're adults. When did that happen? And how do we make it stop?
-Meredith Grey

Yup. We're grown-ups. I know this because today I took my car in to get an emission inspection and then wrote a check to the county commissioner to renew the tag on my car. (Special thanks to the state of Georgia for requiring all car tags to be renewed on your birthday. What a great birthday gift!) All the while thinking, this is such a grown-up thing to do. It is solely my responsibility to do this. If I don't do it, I will get a ticket. College is not grown-up. In college, my dad would have taken care of that for me.

Don't get me wrong. There are some awesome things about being an adult. Most of them, really. As a kid, I never would have been able to eat half a pint of Ben & Jerry's in the middle of the afternoon, straight out of the carton. I couldn't stay out as late as I wanted or drink tequila or watch any movie I wanted to. And of course there's the sex. We can't forget about that.

But before we get caught up in our Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, orgasmic reverie, a letter arrives in the mail from the county tax commissioner demanding a check so that you can drive to work legally. Or your car insurance. Or the student loans. (And to prove that I have been a grown-up for awhile now, I have officially paid off the entirety of my student loans. All of it! Am officially debt-free. Go ahead. Congratulate me.) And all the decisions that have to be made. Where to live? What to do with your life? It's all so very difficult. And stressful. Very stressful. But that's why we have ice cream. And the sex.