"Dude, this is most likely our last show together," confessed my BFF Tarah at the June 6th Jane's Addiction/Nine Inch Nails PNC Arts Center concert in NJ.
I met Tarah in 1991. We were students at Nassau Community College. We experienced tons of stuff together. We took Nutrition class together. We studied together. We smoked cigs together. We had sleepovers. We shared secrets. We’d sit in the Garden City coffee shop on Franklin Avenue on Thursdays and enjoy pea soup together. We had each others backs when people made fun of our off-beat fashion sense and most notably, we attended dozens of shows together throughout the '90s from Lollapaloozas to the Beastie Boys to Jones Beach shows to Beck in Virginia because I was pissed that he sold out NYC...
Growing up kinda sucks… Buying houses, having babies, I mean, I know this is the natural progression and that something must be wrong with me to not be excited about it all, but the bon voyage to youth is a bit painful. Sure there will be BBQs and I’ll attend baby’s first birthday parties and communions and graduations and all that, but it’s just, I dunno, I don’t want to grow up. Like, yeah, I’m “old” but mentally I’m not. I’ve been married less than one year. We rent an apartment. We listen to the same music we liked when we were in high school. We play video games. My husband drinks too many beers. I think not being homeowners or parents aids in extending the immaturity.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally NOT complaining. It’s just that Tarah verbally pointing out the reality of her and her husband embarking on the inevitable next step in adulthood made my heart sink. They’re looking at houses and planning on having a baby soon. Once that happens, our late night phone convos will come to a halt. The IMing at work will disappear as it did with our friend Rene, whose full-time job at Travel & Leisure has since been replaced with trips to the playground, mountains of laundry, walks with the stroller and new puppy and whipping up healthy meals for her husband and their one-year-old.
I feel as if I’m stranded in Never, Never Land alone while my friends cross over to Adult World. Am I alone in this, really? Does anyone else feel this way? Is this like a late-in-life quarterlife crisis?
