Growing Old

Some events this weekend have made me come to believe that I am growing up and maturing, which reminded me of my second favorite Outkast song (spottieottie doesn't make sense in this context) which reminded me of the season and foliage we saw while driving, which inspired this post. Enjoy!

"trees bright and green turn yellow brown
autumn leaves must fall down
growin old"

Bill is engaged. For some reason this hurts more than my own, probably because the number of single friends I have is dwindling rapidly.

Bill's sister, who as a toddler ran into our apartment, yelled "Billy!" and gave him a huge hug is fully grown and like 5-foot-5, but Alison insists she's only 10.

I actually reached an agreement with Jeff, in which we were able to watch the Mets-Cardinals and Penn State-Michigan games in a mutually advantageous fashion.

I am actually going to give Jeff credit. Before the PSU game he said he was taking the under because it seemed "like a 17-10 game." And indeed it was. Good job, Horse. Oh wait, Horse is dead.

I didn't curse at the Mets until I was sure no kids were around.

I didn't make fun of Matt's blazer. At least not to his face.

I really was screaming in excitement for the cocktail shaker, not Magglio Ordonez' walkoff home run.

I only ate 3 pieces of cake.

I drank coffee. Ok, it wasn't coffee it was beer. But it was in a coffee pot.

But the biggest sign that I am growing up:
I avoided a potential reprise of the infamous "Rudy Galindo is straight" incident. I was talking with Alison's dad about the 1969-1970 sports scene in New York. We discussed the Knicks and Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals. He described Willis limping onto the court. I said he made 2 baskets and didn't score again. He said "no, 3 baskets." Of course, I was right and he scored only 2 baskets (scroll way down). But I didn't press the issue because I'm more mature than that now.


But I do have some growing to do.
After the Mets lost, double barreled beer pong action broke out. Alison claimed she was better than me so I challenged her to a 1-on-1 best of 3. If she won once, I'd admit forever she was better than me. If I won all 3, she had to admit I'm better than her, and let me play with Bill any time she is his partner. I tried to intimidate Alison in Game 1 by overfilling my cups and hoping I would win quickly and spread it out. That didn't happen. She got me down to 1 cup before I beat her. Then I knew I had to get tough so I stepped up the trash talking. I dominated Game 2, but faced another stern test in Game 3. We were down to cup v. cup but once again I came through. But I was so focused I forgot one thing. It was Alison's engagement party. All her family was there. And I was screaming at her. So now they all hate me, despite my protestations that Title IX says beer pong is a gender equity game and men and women compete evenly. Anyway, I guess I'm not that mature yet. But there's still 10 months to the wedding.