Being a Grown-Up. (April 14th, 2007)

Being a grown-up. Current mood: excited Category: Friends
I have 5 absolutely fabulous girlfriends that I could not live without. Each one of them serves a very specific purpose in my life, completing who I think I've become, and in some cases, keeping me from becoming something else...in a good way. It was only recently that I realized, that though I've known most of these people for YEARS and have been through a ridiculous amount of growth with all of them, that we have suddenly become grown-ups. This was not communicated to any of us, I believe, and frankly, I feel a little insecure in regard to the promotion. I'm sure it had to happen one day, but now? Really? Where is the evidence? For starters, all of us have jobs that we either love or have to be doing for the moment because we realize that we have greater responsibilities that need to be addressed, such as husbands or savings accounts or house payments or money for graduate school. See? That right there. Husbands. Savings Accounts. Mortgages. Graduate School. Those are grown-up things. Well, ok, maybe not graduate school for everyone, but the point is that people worry about different things when they have a master's degree. Secondly, with those jobs comes money. Though we may be on budgets, we're making money like grown-up people because we have grown-up jobs. Third, our lifestyles. It used to be ok to buy a bookshelf at Wal-Mart because it was just going to get dinged, scratched or thrown-up on, but now, I think we all find ourselves looking at nice furniture...made of real wood. This alone is an accomplishment. The desk at which I am typing this blog was my very first "on my own" kind of desk for my first residence off-campus at school. It has a matching bookcase and printer cart. I used to love it. It is in the same condition that it was when I first got it, but now it looks like it belongs in the room of a 12 year old. Point Three-B that I would like to add to the lifestyle factor is that we like to spend our money on clothing that will not wear out after 3 washings...even though it may cost a touch more. We like boutique shopping, organic food restaurants and fried macaroni and cheese, and we're not afraid to order dessert. Because we can pay for it with our grown up job money, or split it, if the aforementioned responsibilities restrict our budget from having our own portions. Lastly, our conversations have become grown-up, too. Where we used to talk about boyfriends, clothing, and generally who is doing what to who and where and how, we now talk about...wait. That's the same. Just replace boyfriends with husbands for some of us, and it's all the same stuff. I suppose this all had to happen eventually, and it's good that I'm able to share these strange transition years with wonderful people like my friends. I got to spend a fabulous weekend with my talky friend, who can carry on two conversations with me simultaneously, and who says it's ok to drink 2 cups of coffee in one's pajamas every morning. I haven't seen my extraordinarily fabulous friend who is living the performer's dream in a while, but just when I start thinking about how cool she is, she manages to leave a goofy comment on this myspace page. I think she's telepathic.My brain twin who-can-look-at-me-and-know-exactly-what-I'm-thinking-because-she's-my-brain twin-friend, my cynical realist see-through-the-bullshit-friend, and my look-on-the-bright-side of-everything-friend and I are long overdue for our annual get-together and photo session. We're slated to appear in Oxford this summer, but sorry Miamigirls...Only grown-ups allowed on this trip.