There comes a time in a gal's life, when you look around and think "things have changed." Maybe it's when you have a kid, or you're married, or your happily single with no drama. Whatever it is. It's kind of prolific.
Mine came this weekend, when I found myself dancing around a kitchen table in my friend's house at 10 p.m. on a Saturday night. Here's the long and short of it: I was invited to a surprise party for my friend Peter's fiancee Katie. While I love both Peter and Katie, Peter was first Geo's friend, and I know them by proxy, so I don't know too many of their "non Geo's friends" friends. So when I walked into the party, I knew not ONE PERSON. No familiar faces. Nada. Peter was distracting Katie elsewhere before her grand arrival, so I was on my own for awhile. I haven't been at a party where I don't know anyone in, well, a zillion years. So, there I was...a girl on my own. Trying to small talk my way through the jungle that is female strangers. It was, uh, rough. I threw around a few insults that were meant as jokes, and it was bumpy for awhile. I was waaaaay out of my element. I wanted to retreat to a corner and just text Geo about how weird it all was without him. Instead, I forced myself to get back out there and make some new friends.
Cut to: The dance party. After about 4 hours of mingling and forcing people to adapt to my sense of humor, a few people I knew showed up, and it was all good. I had been drinking Stella Artois all night, so I was feeling very mature, too - you know, because it wasn't like PBR or something. Others had been getting quite rowdy, and someone turned on some Journey and the dance party started in earnest. There were only a few of us at first. We looked like idiots, but it felt great.
I threw out some of my best Xbox Kinect Dance Central moves, and I'd like to think people were finally starting to come around to appreciating my unique additions to a party. This whole time, the 6 or so of us who were dancing, were actually dancing AROUND a kitchen table. It was weird. That's when I was like "This is...um...different. Where are the strobe lights? Shots? Loud gangsta rap, like in the good ol' days??" So we decided to move the table out of the way, and at least get a dance circle started. The rest of the party showed up to dance, instead of just staring at us, and it all just started to feel right.
But for that one minute when I was drinking responsibly, unfamiliar with all the rest of the party-goers, and had decided to just dance around a kitchen table, I felt so un-Pharony. Like a version of myself I would have made fun of when I was in college. But, it didn't last long, and eventually, I fell back into my old routine of being awesome. It was a little like I had grown up a little in that weird in-between time. No more was I the young, naive girl drinking rum and Coke's who was perpetually trying to fit in - no, I was the older, mature girl drinking non screw-top beer, trying to fit in. I guess some things never change.
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