When did I get old?

Lately I've been feeling really old and by old I mean mature. It's hard to be surrounded by traditional college students all day and not forget that you're almost 10 years older than most of them. This old feeling might have happened gradually but I only started noticing it in the last few weeks.

Exhibit A: R and I were out for a friend's bachelorette party. It started tamely enough with dinner and then became a bar crawl. After the 6th bar we ended up in a night club, complete with LASER lights, smoke machines, and loud, booming music. We didn't stick around after that. We left because we were tired (it was shortly after midnight), it was too loud and the lights were giving me a headache.

Exhibit B: I was at a week long conference for our fraternity last week (Phi Sigma Pi). Once again I found myself surrounded by typical college students. They were out partying until the butt crack of dawn and I was in bed by 1am every night. Their main concern was the location of the liquor store (not too difficult because you can buy liquor in gas stations in Missouri!!!) while I was more concerned with finding a good restaurant and maybe a good bottle of wine.

Exhibit C: R and I are car shopping. She owns 2 cars and, technically, I don't have a car. Her Saab, Marty, is dying a terrible death and the treatment to heal one of his ailments would cost $2000. That doesn't repair the 500 other things that are wrong with the car (I exaggerate, but seriously the thing a lost cause). Those other things aren't a priority because they don't make the car a death trap. So needless to say Marty will be laid to rest, hopefully this weekend. R and I were car shopping last night. We had several discussions about how this decision would affect having a baby. We didn't want a new car because we don't want another car payment when R is on maternity leave, we wanted to make sure the car was big enough for a car seat and other baby gear (friends don't let friends drive mini-vans), we looked at safety features & gas mileage; we decided on 4 doors. I never would have done this a few years ago. I would have seen a car that I liked, driven it, and bought it. I never would have thought about any of that stuff....

I'm not sure if I miss being irresponsible and reckless but I do miss the idea of it.