Ten Years Later...

          It seems that none of my friends go out anymore.  Maybe turning thirty means it’s time to slow down.  Maybe being married means you can’t go out with your girlfriends.  Maybe having babies means you become captive to your house.

          In any case, I had been craving a night out.  After all, I’m not married, a mom or an AARP member.  (At least, not yet.)  Plus, I recently lost twenty pounds and had just bought a new going-out shirt.

          So imagine my delight when one of my roommates from college said she would be in town.  She wanted to go out to some of our old haunts with me and another former roommate.  Finally, a night out!

          The three of us used to be quite the trio.  We partied, danced, drank, met boys, stayed up late, laughed.  So I knew that this girl’s weekend was exactly what I had been missing: a bit of my past.

          We met for dinner but they were late.  Traffic, weather, the usual.  Not a big deal.  Eating late though turned out to make everyone feel bloated, full and sleepy.  But never mind, we still had plans to go out to a bar.

          Except when we got there it was too crowded, our feet hurt, there was no where to sit, the music was too loud.  Plus, there were obnoxious, young twenty-somethings all over the place!

          At one point, as we watched an uber-drunk guy literally fall over, I got a bit sad.  These girls used to easily stay up until four, five in the morning and there we were yawing at a mere midnight and desperately searching for a place to sit down.  How many times could we utter, “wow, we’re so old.” 

          While we watched the younger set flirt, dance and down drinks at the speed of light, we stopped trying to fit in to our younger jeans.  We gracefully stood up and decided to go to IHOP.  There we could sit comfortably, have some coffee and just talk.

          So that’s how I ended up at IHOP until four in the morning.  We talked about memories from college and laughed at our former selves.  But I couldn’t help remember how we used to talk about clothes, bars and Britney Spears.  Now we were talking about mortgages, weddings, babies and, okay, still Britney Spears.

          I think I realized at IHOP that things had changed.  Somehow, we had traded gin and tonics for hot tea and coffee.  The last time the three of sat at that very same IHOP was the night of our college graduation.  At twenty-one, we wanted to be an actress, a lawyer and bum around Europe.  Maybe some plans didn’t pan out, but the nine year road between visits to IHOP had also provided some wonderful insights.

          For example, I’m a lot more secure in my life now than I was all those years ago.  True, I used to go out more and party it up.  But underneath the slutty tank tops and high heels, I was so insecure; constantly wondering if I was doing the right thing and worrying about what people thought of me.  Now, at age thirty there are traces of insecurities but over all, I know that I’m in a much better place. 

          Sometimes it’s sad to think that certain parts or your life are over.  It’s hard to let go.  But just because I’m not enjoying keg stands and glitter does not detract from enjoying the night with two old friends; catching up, laughing about wearing glitter and doing keg stands.

          Besides, when I went to the ladies room and heard a drunk girl crying and throwing up, I happily returned to my table of hot tea and coffee. 

Some things are better left in the past.