At 30, Can One Still Have Fun?

Recently, I was asked to see if I wanted to grab a group of my girlfriends and head out to the bar sometime in the near future...the person asking was the guy I have been sudo talking to. I say sudo cause it's by text only - no actual voice contact. He is apparently going to be going out with his guy friends the same night, and 'may be' we can get our entourages to meet in the same place by the end of the night, and it will be 'fun'.

This is called the 'pre planned bar drive by'. Its a way for your friends to check out the other person in a totally judgmental way and get away with it. Just to fuel the fire, more than one person at this juncture of the evening will be three sheets to the wind. Which will quickly be followed up with the sentence "so and so really isn't like this for reals. honest" Insert inappropriate words, phrases, looks, grabbing and emotional outbursts, and the next morning is usually very awkward.

I spoke with one of my colleagues today at work about this situation...at which point I received a blank stare followed quickly by the words "I don't like this and in my opinion his stock is decreasing. At 30, do you really want to be stressed out all night about potentially seeing this guy all drunk and then getting super bummed if for whatever reason you guys do not run into each other by accident on purpose? No. Make him take you to dinner. Coffee. Drinks. Something other than this."

And she is absolutely right. I have grown past that bar scene drama. I was raised with the sound logic that if you work hard and manage your responsibilities well, that "fun" will happen and life will be grand. I am going to assume however, that my parents were talking about what happens after all the kids move out and retirement sets in, not what they were experiencing while us kids were growing up.

In some ways I feel caught between two different worlds...the young side that wants to party all night and make friends with guys named Captain and Jose...but the more responsible side is kicking into high gear and I am not sure how to have 'fun' with this side yet. Cookie cutter houses all in a row, with white picket fences, 2.5 kids, a mini van with store and go seating and a dvd system, deck building, garage tool borrowing and kids themed birthday parties really scare the bejesus out of me.

I guess that the only thing I can do at this point is to give this responsible side a slight twist and see where it takes me. Just keeping the fingers and toes crossed that it will still be fun.