Choose Your Own Adventure

This past weekend I chose to miss a friend's annual winter celebration of birthdays. For the past four years, I think, I've trekked to the bar with tens of other wellwishers. I even made it last year, 7 1/2 months pregnant and all. But after we worked on crown molding all day, the thought of driving to the city to a party that *started* close to my typical bedtime was not a pleasant one. Not to mention that we hadn't lined up babysitting.

Bar parties were de riguer throughout our twenties. $20 all you can drink for three hours! These events were fabulous for all involved those years right out of college. It requires virtually no planning - just find a place and send an evite. It seemed that at least every other week, there was an all you can drink night somewhere. Good bar, bad bar, we didn't care - after all, it was just a place to start the evening, to warm up to whatever would come on later. It was all a preface to the last call at Beaumont's or DejaVu, or whatever terribly trashy afterhours bar we closed the night at.

The stories that came from those early bar nights were always top notch, because you either knew everyone personally or directly through another guest. You could easily find out who made out with who, who was kicked out, who cried and who fell asleep in the bar bathroom. The recap of the weekend events, sometimes taking well into the next week, provided amusement during those long tedious work hours as we waited for next weekend to begin.

We're closing out our twenties now, and the bar nights have dwindled. I can only think of three that stood the test of time, one being this past weekend. I may make it to one this year. Whereas $20 for three hours was a losing bet for the bar when I was 24, this year they'd make money on the deal. We are all straddling our wilder youth and our more sedate 30's. Even the diehards are cutting back on the endless nights out.

Having a baby has certainly accelerated the process for me, because I will be up at 6 AM (on a good day!) and I have to be able to take good care of my son. It doesn't mean I don't miss going out and getting silly drunk, it just means I don't have it as an option. I took a different route in the Choose Your Own Adventure.