Years, Lovers, and Glasses of Wine

These are things that should never be counted.

I heard this recently, at the most opportune time in my life. After surviving seven weddings in 2015 and my something-after-25th birthday, I feel qualified to say that at this age the challenges are proving to be far from what I expected of my 20s.

I woke up one training day in May with a strong and serious pain in my right hip. I've since ran a marathon through it, and tried to continue to run, finding excruciating tightness throughout the summer and into the fall, 5 months later.

I had my receding gums grafted in August.

I again found myself with the common tinea versicolor skin fungus from heat/humidity/sweating across my chest, just ahead of a strapless bridesmaid obligation. Common, but this has been an adult problem for me.

I also recently found myself deciding a haircut plan based purely on the notion that "my hair is still young" and "soon I will have dry, nasty, old lady hair" - so I kept it long while I could.

I assumed that I was being carded every time I was at a bar/store because I lived in Utah, which is true and based on the liquor laws of this lovely state. But then I left the state. Many times. To Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Maine, and Vermont. And I wasn't always carded.

My little sister just turned 24. I thought I was 22?? But she's younger than I am...? Still working out the plausibility of this one.

And this was the year I had three weddings and a bachelorette party in the month of August. I remember the years when August was only dedicated to my birth, and as a Leo that's fairly important.

I went to seven weddings this summer. In 2015 that's a sure sign of being in your "late-twenties" (which I am still calling my "mid-twenties" - at least until I am 29-and-a-half)

I have a year-round job and it's not teaching English in a foreign country... I even have health insurance that I pay for myself.

Half of my life ago I realized that boys were a thing, and I was a late bloomer.

The tragedy of realizing the next benefits of age come with retirement are setting in slowly, 6 years after the last age landmark.

The other two pieces of this great life motto I'm not going to speak to, though not for lack of content. By that I mean I have two words: Open Bar.

One final anecdote, hopefully to whet your long-overdue appetite for my mediocre writing: I woke up from wedding #5, on my best friend's bed, realizing I had managed to go to sleep without taking care of any pieces of my nighttime routine, purely throwing on a flannel top as sleepwear, and with a house full of other wedding guests. The brother of the bride saying, "you know what, guys? If any of us ever get married, my only recommendation is NO OPEN BAR".

I'll second that. While I'm not counting any of the numbers above, I am not sure I want to count past seven. Seven weddings in three countries and five states. Some bottles of wine, but also other varieties, too. But I'm not counting, just drinking a lot of water now.