24

I turned 24 on May 29th. I don’t think I’ve ever had a birthday outside of Illinois until this one, and even though it was fabulous, it was also definitely costly, and a bit surreal. You must be thinking, “24?! That’s so young!” And yes, it is young, yet I have this overwhelming feeling that I’ve lost something. What happened to all those ages that you look forward to? Driving at 16, voting at 18, drinking at 21… my big years have come and gone and here I sit, a 24 year old woman with nothing left but the chance to rent a van at 25 and social security.

For many years, I have been mistaken for way younger than my actual age. You know, the usual, “Are you even old enough to drive?” when paying for gas at the age of 19, the intense scrutiny of my ID when trying to get into the bars, and my favorite, “What high school do you go to?” Then abruptly something seemed to change. Instead of asking me what high school I went to, they started asking when I was going to get married. Instead of examining my ID with a microscope, they let me slide through the checkout with a case of beer and not a second glance. At what point did I go from looking 16 to 24? All this has really added to the surreal vibe of my latest birthday.

Even so, Brian has done his best to make it a nice one. Honestly, I didn’t care what happened as long as we have cannoli. And that we did! With a trip into the city, a museum, dinner, wine, dessert, trains, and subways, we were well over $100 on this birthday outing. It hurts a bit to think about since $100 was my monthly fun budget back in Normal, but I needed it. I needed the fun, and I definitely needed Brian telling me that 24 might be the best year of my life.

Update: Even with all of our recent splurges in NY, we are well on our way to our 50k goal. We have 35-ish grand between us, and 7 months to go! Now if I could only get a dollar for every time a bum hit on me or I got yelled at out of a car window…