Homecoming

I went home last weekend for the first time since Thanksgiving. I realized at some point life was going to keep coming and this was the last chance in awhile. It was a really good weekend, too short like they always are, but some good time with family, old friends and haircut (courtesy of The Most Annoying Stylist Ever at the Aveda Institute. Yes, the haircut was $14 and my mom paid, but seriously, if "Mariah" approaches you at the AI... those two hours of your life are worth more than a bargain bang trim.)
Friday and Saturday night I spent with friends from high school, varying in relationship-- from my wife to ones I haven't seen in a long time. At some point, sitting around the table over a "Surly Furious" (or was it "Surly Bender"? Pictures to follow of me and my namesake beers) I realized I was the only one who wouldn't be married by the end of the year. Which was a strange realization, if only because that's a sea change from these people I met in 1995... The next night we spent at another friend's, who has a beautiful and rambunctious 4.5 yr old. After some roughhousing, she put him down and we all drank, played games and chatted. Everyone else left about midnight and she and I started talking about her upcoming adventure-- moving to California to create a blended family with her boyfriend and his two young children. Wow. I mean, not only is this actually something I know about and felt I could advise on (albeit from a kid's perspective) but... JESUS CHRIST ARE WE GROWING UP. Getting married and having kids is one thing, and something that's shocking as your peers are doing it in your early twenties... but discussing ex-wives and becoming a stepparent... this, I guess, is what is a rightly shocking rite of passage in our late twenties. Late twenties, here we are.

Not so relatedly, this is a post from a blog I read sometimes, and I think it's amazing. And sums up this male-female relationship dynamic problem I couldn't put my finger on myself...