When we grow up

You know you are getting older when your evening entertainment/ exercise is a walk around the neighborhood (followed by ice cream of course).  However, to keep ourselves feeling young we often have discussions about things we will do and have when we grow up.  These days most of these conversations revolve around kids and things we will do with them.  Of course most of those things are basically stuff that we want to do anyway and think it would be fun or more socially acceptable to do with a kid in tow.  For me this includes playing basketball at the park, turning the house into a nerf war zone, and eating pizza four times a week.  I think turning the kitty room back into an actual decorated part of the house and setting it up for kids would top Kristin's list.

Another big topic is always what kind of house we will have when we grow up.  We both grew up in houses with plenty of yard and enjoyed being outside so life in a townhouse has limitations.  Having spent the first two years of our marriage in a second story apartment it felt like we had entered the promised land when we moved into our townhouse with a spacious patio backing up to the woods.  While we still love the patio, there are still a few downsides to town home living.  The largest is sharing walls with neighbors.  We currently have wonderful, quiet, friendly neighbors and hope they stay the same as long as we live here.  This has not always been the case.  Our first neighbor liked to jam out with the bass cranked so high our teeth rattled.  The second neighbor mounted her tv to the wall adjacent to our bedroom and left it running all night loud enough for us to hear.  We've also experienced snores so loud we could hear them from our room.  Needless to say there is a lot to be said for a self standing dwelling.

The lack of a yard also just makes me long for yard equipment.  I find myself wandering agri supply wishing I had things such as a lawnmower, utility trailer, pressure washer, air compressor, leaf blower.  It's ridiculous!  I know that once I actually have a yard I will habitually procrastinate actually doing real yard work, but I can't stop wishing I had a reason to buy these things and a place to store them.  Another issue with communal dwelling is my innate fear of people watching me.  I love playing basketball, but cannot go play at the park because I get so nervous that people will watch and laugh at me or worse yet ask to join and utterly demolish me.  This is where a child would come in handy.  People might believe that I am playing down to not discourage the child when in reality I would be playing at the utmost of my potential to keep up (another reason we need a young child).

Another fun topic is what we will spend money on when we actually have any again.  My idea of justifiable purchases with discretionary spending would be guns, bikes, and a Volkswagen Golf R.  Kristin's might be more towards decorating the house, nice trips, taking the kids to old navy.  We go back and forth so that we can have this all ironed out when the time comes.  It's fun to think about and watch the dreams get more and more realistic the older I get.  When I was in high school I assumed I would one day drive a Lotus, by college I thought maybe a Porsche, up until dental school it was a VW Golf R, now my future dream car is a used GTI.

It all still seems far off, but in reality growing up isn't as far off as it seems.  The realization that this time next year may see us as parents really makes it feel real.  For now we really are extremely happy where we are, but that doesn't stop us from dreaming.  Dreaming of a small house with a few cats and a yard filled with a few kids playing basketball with their mom and dad on their own basketball goal.

~Buzzy