When you're little, you think grown-ups have it made. Nobody's telling them when to go to bed. Nobody is telling them to eat their peas. Nobody is telling them to stop making fart noises with their mouth.
When you're little, you have no idea how horribly wrong you are.
When you're little, you have no concept of mortgages or bills. No concept of jobs or deadlines or stress. No concept of fashion or weight or health or growing old. Stress is an unexpected spelling worksheet. Happiness is an extra pudding cup.
Come to think of it ... even as an adult, happiness is an extra pudding cup.
No ... we adults are constantly doing things we would rather not do. I'd rather not sleep with a CPAP ... but I'd also rather not stop breathing at night and die. I'd rather not go to work every day ... but I'd also rather not live in a cardboard box under a viaduct. Life is full of choices ... and the choices almost always involve choosing the lesser of two evils.
Let's take for instance this weekend. Last night I got a text asking if I wanted to go see "Into the Woods" with a group of friends this weekend. Flash answer? No. For several reasons. Reasons such as ... I like the musical and I doubt the movie will live up to my expectations ... or ... I should be going to my house this weekend and finish getting it ready to put on the market ... or, most honestly ... I really just want to relax and watch a movie at home in my yoga pants.
But kids ... here's the problem with being an adult. If you're honest with yourself, you make decisions that are the right decisions ... for the right reasons. Even if those reasons hurt.
A year or so ago, my life drastically changed. I lost K ... and that was hard. Then it got harder. I had friendships with daily contact ... friendships that I'd had for decades ... that literally disappeared in a matter of weeks. My office closed and women I dearly loved ... women I considered my tribe ... they moved states away.
When you're a child, it's easy to make friends. You have SO much in common. "You go to first grade? Hey, I go to first grade TOO!" or "Hey, you like Scooby Doo? Hey, I like Scooby Doo TOO!" As we get older, we gain experience ... we gain hobbies ... and people who we're compatible with slowly start to whittle down. Education and work ... books and music ... all the things that make us who we are ... it's harder to find people we "click" with.
And so ... it would be easy to turn down the invitation ... to stay at home this weekend while Stoney goes to his fantasy football meeting. To put on my yoga pants and watch some cheesy movie and be by myself for awhile. That would be easy. But I need to keep these new friends ... to stay in touch ... to spend an afternoon with them laughing and talking. It's not the easier thing to do ... but it's the better thing to do.
Being adult isn't all it's cracked up to be. I think I'm going to go home tonight ... maybe make fart noises with my mouth ... and have an extra pudding cup.
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