My standard reply to the above question is, “YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME!!!!”

So, for years, all I heard growing up was that as you got older you had to give up your toys, and pretty much everything that gave you joy, and suck it up and work at a job that hopefully didn’t make you want to kill yourself every day, and if you were lucky after 50 years you’d get a pension and a gold watch, and be able to retire and be able to do things you loved again.

Yeah, I thought that sounded like bullshit, too.

I kind of still do.

I mean, parts are pretty necessary.  You do need to find a thing to do for money that doesn’t make you hate yourself too badly.  But as to the rest of it?

Well, the days of working in the same job for 50 years until retirement are long gone.  I still find it funny that companies that will not hesitate to lay your ass off so the CEO can afford another yacht expect employee loyalty.  Puh-lease.

And let’s face it.  Not a lot of companies have that kind of longevity.  We live in a world of start-ups… and shut-downs.

But that is neither here nor there.

My big epiphany regarding what I think does and does not entail being a grown up happened when the Geek Husband What Rules and I were living in our first apartment in Seattle.  I was up after about three hours of sleep after working my second job, because insomnia is the worst, and playing Diablo II, and I was craving some ice cream.

I sat there, killing skeletons and quill rats thinking, “I sure would like some ice cream with chocolate sauce and peanuts.  But it’s way too early in the morn… Wait a minute.  I pay the rent on this apartment.  I bought that ice cream and chocolate sauce and peanuts!  I can have ice cream for breakfast if I damn well want to.”

Fifteen minutes later, the GHWR came out to me eating ice cream while killing skeletons and quill rats, and said, “What happened here?”*

I paused the game, turned and said, “I’M A GROWN UP!!!”

Then went back to my game.

He stood there and looked at me for a few minutes before shaking his head and going back to bed.

We have had many moments like this in our marriage.

But it was the moment when I decided that being a grown up meant that after paying the bills, I could buy myself all the stuff I’d wanted as a kid that we could never afford.

To me being a grown up does include all the boring horrible shit like a job, bills, and figuring out where you’re gonna live.  BUT it also means  buying yourself a limited edition Winter Soldier print off of Society 6 because I fucking want to.

*”What happened here?” is a common question uttered by the GHWR.  The answer almost universally makes him shake his head and walk away.