Getting older

In the last 24 hours, check that, 12 hours, I've come to the realization that I am, in fact, getting older. I'll tell you how I came to this conclusion.

Over the weekend, TJ and I made plans to attend the "Ancient Order of Hibernians St. Patrick's Day Parade". For those of you from St. Louis, you will know this as the "Dogtown Parade". For those of you not from St. Louis, this is the only parade that is actually on St. Patrick's Day. This is the parade that (in true Irish form) is full of drunks pulling wagons and riding their bikes all along the parade route. This parade is NOT to be confused with the St. Louis Downtown Parade, which costs tens of thousands of dollars to put on and is full of elabourate floats, old convertibles, Irish dancers, and media coverage. The annual budget for Dogtown is a couple of hundred bucks for beer at the planning meetings! :)

So, as I said, TJ and I made plans to go. Nieces were taking off work today AND tomorrow so they could go and enjoy themselves. In-laws were going to take kids out of school to go. We invited a neighbor to go with us. We were going. We called a friend who lives just off the parade route. They have always offered their house as a "home base"... ie, real toilets. He said his driveway was spoken for, but we could park in front of his house on the street. Sweet. Guaranteed parking. The Catch? They close the street off at 9 am. No big deal, we'll drop the kids off at school at 8, be there before 9. Easy! Then TJ informed me that the parade doesn't start until 11:30. Ouch. That's roughly 3 hours of standing around doing not much of anything watching a bunch of drunks having "fun". You see, this, my friends, is where I start to feel old. Read on...

Not 5 years ago, I would have been just fine with this plan. Drop the kids off, get to the parade, and start drinking a few beers, find someone who can bring them home, enjoy the parade and get home while the babysitter is going over homework with the kids. Fast forward to today, and I'm thinking... I could be in and out of Sam's and have everything put away before the parade starts. The laundry that was finished last night needs to be folded and put away. TJ leaves town tomorrow and has content to learn. Drink beer? HA! TJ is training for a sprint triathalon, so he has quit drinking all together. We have a cub scout meeting and acting troupe right after school today... we have to make dinner before getting a kid off to basketball practice and another off to the batting cages. Hell, we have to pick the kids up at 3!

So instead, today, I'll be grocery shopping, TJ will be studying, dinner will consist of a Korean beef dish, and I'll wake up tomorrow morning sans hangover. Good Lord, I'm old.