Are We Mature Yet?

Hello friends, and welcome to my little birthday celebration! The theme for today is FUN. Thank you to all of you who have already left me good birthday wishes. It has made my day much brighter already.

I have to admit, I am not taking this well. I had a little breakdown last night and Dave is now threatening to give me therapy gift-certificates for my birthday! My sister is threatening to send me a coffee mug that says "Lordy, Lordy, look who's Forty"!

So, let's have a little fun.
I want to show you this handmade card from my dear friend Tracey, which has given me a great trip down memory lane:

On the front is a collage with the following quote

To exist is to change
To change is to mature
To mature is to go on
Creating oneself endlessly







The middle is more paper collage and the obligitory four-zero.











Then, I turned it over for something I totally wasn't expecting. Photos of Tracey and I circa 1991, from our years as roommates in NYC.

On the left side is a picure of me, with wild eyes and the caption "Have we arrived at mature yet?" I am sitting on the side of our bathtub (so I don't make a mess) in our teensy West Village apartment, leaning over the tub making some kind of drink concoction that involved dropping a shot glass of something into a beer and drinking the whole thing down in one gulp. Something like that. I think it might have been Amaretto into a beer and it tasted like a Dr. Pepper.

On the right is a photo of me (after partaking of the beverage, from the look on my face) with Tracey behind me saying "I hope not!"

Since I've been reminiscing, I will relate a little Em history. After college in Philadelphia, I moved to New York to pursue fashion design. I met Tracey through a mutual friend who brought us together because we both knew how to sew. We still laugh about that, but I have to admit, having the ability to sew was pretty unusual in the 90s, especially in New York. We didn't just love to sew, we had a lot more in common besides that, and became great friends and roommates.

Here was a typical Friday night for us: She would walk to my office in Time Square and pick me up and we would take the subway up to the Upper East Side, where there was a bar that served the ladies free beer until 7pm. We'd mingle amongst the yuppies partaking our little hearts out until after 7, when we'd take the subway all the way down to the West Village, getting out at 6th Street where there was a Ray's Pizza and getting a slice. We'd walk to our apartment at Christopher and Bleecker, where we'd put on loud music, eat, drink (see picture above) and get ready to go out for the evening.

We'd head out atabout 11pm, to somewhere in the Village, usually Peculiar Pub or Red Lion on Bleecker Street. We had the best time, chattering endlessly, until the bars closed down at 4am. We'd walk home, stopping at Zito's bakery where they'd be bringing the bread up the conveyor belt from the basement, and if we called down the hole into the basement the son would come up and sell us a loaf. We'd take it home, sometimes eating it on the way, but usually saving it for french toast the next morning (approx. 1 or 2pm the next day).

After "breakfast" the next day, we'd hang out, sometimes going to the Park, sewing, shopping, until we'd be ready to repeat the process on Saturday night! We were grown up girls with jobs, living on our own in New York City and we thought we were so "MATURE"!

Good times. It was one of the most fun times of my life. The thought of staying up til 4am on a regular basis is completely foreign to me now! Obviously, with 3 kids, a minivan and a mortgage, things are very different. But I hope that I can still have as much fun as that girl did. One thing I have learned by now: it's all in the attitude.

So in an attempt to change the pouty attitude I've had for the past few days, I am offering up a contest. Fun! Here's what you have to do. Leave me a comment. Give me some moral support! Tell me what is fun about being forty! Tell me something that you have found fun on the blog. Or just de-lurk--you decide, no pressure.

Everyone who leaves a comment on this post by Sunday night will go into a drawing to win this. 3 fat quarters of some springy quilting fabrics I've picked up at recent quilt shows, and 2 mini-skeins (50 gms each) of Sophie's Toes. June Wedding and Froggy. Enough to make booties, shortie socks, regular socks if you striped them, or a Chevron scarf!

That should start those creative juices. Have fun!