Getting older.

For some strange reason, dear readers, it seems that a lot of conversations I've been having with friends (especially this weekend) have been about aging and changes in lifestyle that accompany an increased number of birthdays. I feel that I have kept a fairly decent balance, in that I maintain the late night habits and a level of alcohol consumption that I have enjoyed for the past few years of my life, however I do find an increased desire to settle down a little bit, meet someone nice, and not feel so bad that the nights of wild partying are much fewer and further in between than they once were.

Still, I was having a conversation with a friend over dinner tonight, and she said that someone once told her that everything changes with everyone around you when you're twenty seven. As I am dangerously close to the halfway point of my twenty seventh year on this planet, I have looked around and noticed that while not all the changes have happened just this year, in the past couple of years, the stats on my friends are skewing a lot. Friends who read this, don't worry - I couldn't be happier for all of you. I wish you all years of happiness and well being. I consider myself honored to have you all in my life. Nonetheless, I look around and see that most all of my closest friends are either married or engaged. There is one baby (though not a baby anymore...) and one on the way shortly. People's bedtimes are now far closer to sundown than sunup, and even the weekend festivities that once took us to the not-so-wee hours of the morning are now breaking up before last call.

I guess there isn't a real point to this, no greater realization about myself of my general condition gained in the writing of this post, but as I stand here at 1:45 in the morning, looking forward to yet another day of this peculiar age, I am wondering when some of these changes will start manifesting themselves in my life, but as of this time and date, the right-here and the right-now; I can look upon my empty bed, my ringless fingers, and my cozy little hovel and say "better you than me."