Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda...

Were they still together today (which is impossible for a multitude of reasons), yesterday would've marked my parent's 32nd wedding anniversary. I thought about this today because it's leap day and my mother used to tell me a story about how my dad wanted to get married on leap day in 1976 because he thought it would be, a. funny, and b. he'd only have to buy my mother an anniversary present every four years. In this sense (and in most others) I share my mother's sensibility in thinking that his joke is infinitely lame.

So now February's over and I'm more than ready for March to begin mostly because this month marked my first official month at the new job, February is colder than all get out, and March is always a fun month full of birthday and St. Patrick's Day goodness. This year watches me inch ever closer to the dreaded 27, when I can no longer call myself a mid-twenty-er, and when I'll officially have to succumb to the knowledge that I am, indeed, in my late twenties.

This is all sort of stupefying for me considering that I am now doing things that are proto-typical of a late-twenty-er: I regularly (and gladly) contribute to a 401k, I show up to work everyday (for the most part, gladly), and I socialize with co-workers. Okay, so the last one, I've always done, but I mention it because tonight was the first night I've socialized with people at my current job. Back in my Gap days, partying with co-workers was always a little bit seedier, but tonight's festivities had, I don't know... an air of respectability about them. My boss even bought me a drink for christ's sake. If that's not classy, I don't know what is.

After Monday I'll be 26 and I'm sure it's all downhill from here. Were one of my favorite magazines from my teens, Swing, still around, I just know I'd be identifying with it less and less. Bonnie was in her twenties when she subscribed to it and I got the dregs which I ate UP at the time. Swing presented a vision of twenty-dom glam that was so downright enviable, I thought I might shit myself. Little did I know the truth behind all those lies Swing so cleverly packaged.

Well... now I know that truth behind all those lies, and I also know why Swing folded. Sigh.