Almost Friday....

Almost Friday.

Almost.

Let me tell you about almost being 30.

It's all about holding onto the wee bits of 20-something-hood while you can.

Let's break the 20's down into two segments...the first half and the second half.

The first half is pretty exciting. You're probably still in school for a good chunk of it, but it's a crazy rollercoaster of grades, recruiters, job hunting, and who's got the biggest post-university (or college, whatever) salary (I myself, with a starting salary of $34K, most certainly didn't have the highest one out of my graduating class). Even before you graduate, people start getting engaged. And in the next 2 years after graduation, everyone you know gets engaged.

It's also one of the first times where you're making semi-decent money and able to spend it on stuff for your new life...this is where you start thinking IKEA is the next best thing to sliced bread.

Then...when you start getting to the second half...things start to go downhill.

You start to realize around 25 that you can't hold your liquor like you once could (note: being Canadian, my drunken lush days started at 18, not 21). You start getting inundated with things like water bills, car tuneups, and possibly even a layoff or two at your once-fabulous job.

If you're married, then you're dealing with the hell of merging two lifestyles. If you're not married, you're wallowing in self-pity over why all your friends are married except you (please don't even try denying that that's true for the majority of chicks. All my single friends my age or older wallow about how lucky I am that I'm married, whereas I wallow to them about how fabulous it is that they can decorate their bathroom in French Provence without a guy complaining it's too girly).

There's added job stresses...approaching 30, you need to start focusing on your career. None of this entry-level BS.

Some of the previously-mentioned married friends are now popping out babies, and you're wondering if you should too.

Some of your friends drive BMWs and you're wondering whether you can afford to get an oil change in the same car you bought post-graduating.

Did I mention that you can't hold onto your alcohol anymore? The novelty of getting hooched up and going out long wears away. You long for the Saturday night sitting in front of the tv relaxing.

The wrinkles. The itty bitty ones. Your older friends and coworkers think you're nuts, but your friends your age know what you're talking about. You find yourself in serious conversations over skin treatments. Not just skin care....skin treatments.

I'm going to be 28 soon, and I realized today I'm wearing a top I bought when I was 18. TEN YEARS.

I remember thinking that my high school reunion would be so far away. (note: I don't think my high school is having a reunion, but if we did, dammit it would still feel too early.)

I feel like being 28 is all about keeping up with the Joneses. I have one coworker who I think her husband is fabulously loaded, even though her job I'm pretty sure doesn't pay as much as mine does (not that I make anything fantastic, but I'm average I guess). She drives a cute Volkswagon, she always has ADORABLE outfits, and they're constantly traveling.

Then there's my other coworker. She bought her home at the same time as I did, but I think she got a little bit of help from her parents. Overall I feel that we're pretty "equal" to where we are in life and financially, but then she also got pregnant...because both her family and her in-laws live here in Orange County AND her husband works weekends which gives him an extra 2 days a week that he can look after the pending baby while she's at work.

I, however, have no family here...and the cost of childcare in Orange County runs around $800 a month, if not more for a child under 2 years...dayam! First off, healthcare and laws on that stuff is better in Canada...so they get 1 year of paid maternity leave. A YEAR. What do we get here? 12 weeks unpaid. Basically the right to keep your stupid job. Yeah thanks. But most of them also have pretty much quit the workforce. Sigh must be nice. I know financially they're probably hard hit as a result, but if I could quit my job and look after kids I would do it in a heartbeat...we just can't afford it.

(Sidebar: so why am I living here? Well because this is the only place short of living in ghetto LA for my husband's industry. And as crappy as the costs are, it IS gorgeous and it's in the top 10 safest places to live in the US).

Basically I feel like in the timeline of life, late 20s just blows. That crazy start you got to post-college life comes to a very slow crawl as you gasp for breath trying to keep up with all the other 20-something Joneses.

Shoulda.
Woulda.
Coulda.
But didn't.