college kids

my husband steve and i had a date tonight. our plan was to go downtown and have dinner and then go to this bar and see a band that we have been wanting to see. unfortunately though, steve was on call for our date. we left our house at 6:30 and in the 15-minute drive to downtown athens, his phone rang no less than seven times. and as it turns out, someone had broken or severed or dislocated something or other and he had to go in and deal with it. rather than wait at his office, i decided i could better spend my time downtown. so he dropped me off.

spring break is over and the college kids are in abundance at all of the downtown bars at 7pm on a friday night. i stopped by the globe, a bar that has been on the corner of clayton and lumpkin for a million years and has beers from around the world. i had a local pale ale. as a side note, i was sitting in front of a sign that said (and i am quoting exactly) "we go to jail if we fail to check your ID. please have IDs ready when ordering alcohol." i wasn't carded. so i finished my ale and i headed over to the restaurant where we were planning to eat dinner, the last resort. i managed to secure a spot at the bar alone and immediately thereafter, a swarm of college girls descended on the bar, completely surrounding me. i didn't intend to eavesdrop, but i couldn't help myself, i was alone at the bar, surrounded by beautiful young girls chattering away - about nothing. the conversations were so stupid and meaningless that it made me quickly try to remember whether i, too, had had such stupid and meaningless conversations at bars while seated beside real people, desperate for a night out away from their children. i decided that my conversations may have only been slightly more meaningful. but it made me realize that i didn't want to be that young and stupid again. and that it is totally overrated. i mean really, when you take away the freedom, the friends and parties, the total lack of responsibility, the tighter, firmer skin, the perkier breasts, the thicker hair, the better attitudes, the ability to drink more and stay out later, the flat stomach and the ability to recover from a hangover by having a mcdonald's cheeseburger and a large coke, there really wasn't anything that special about it.

eventually steve arrived and after checking with the hostess and realizing we still had an hour and a half wait for our table and a babysitter on the clock, we decided to head on home. we picked up some pizza on the way and headed back to our more responsible and important lives.