2008?

Invariably, at every New Years party, someone asks, "What do you have planned for (enter year)?" This usually happens toward the beginning of the party before the champagne has started to take effect. Later on, it is due to the champagne that ridiculous resolutions are made.

Well this time when the question was asked it struck me that 2008 is going to be so wildly different than 2007 that I don't know if I will even recognize myself in 6 months. That is, if everything goes according to plan, and by plan I mean that there is not much of one.

In the last couple of years I have moved to a cheaper place to live, gotten rid of my car, and dropped the idea of buying my own place and therefore stopped saving for it. In short, no financial responsibilities. If I felt like going out to eat all week, so be it. Night out on the town? No worries. Night out on the town two or three nights in a row? So what. That awesome jacket/shirt/pants/whatever in the store window? So mine.

Starting yesterday that all changed. I am now back on a student's budget. No more calling for a delivery of chicken parmigiana with garlic bread and opening a bottle of wine for dinner. It is back to 101 creative ways to cook top ramen. The expensive and in a perfect location apartment I have will have to be traded for a cheaper pad and hoofing or busing it. Going out with friends every other night will be limited to happy hour once or twice a week...

You get the picture.
Doing all of this before is not that distant of a memory but after the last couple of years will take some getting use to.

Then there is going back to school.
This in itself is not so much a problem, but after numerous visits to different colleges, if being given a tour or talking to "advisers" who I swear do not look old enough to drink (legally) and keep calling me ma'am is any indication of what I will be experiencing in class, then I am in for a shock. Back at UCSB and SBCC I remember there always being that one older person in class. They did not hang out with the rest of us after class or join any study groups, when they talked in class their input seemed foreign or "old" and they were always chummy with the teacher because they seemed to "understand" each other. Well I am going to BE that person for some now.

I keep promising myself that I will try and not give any knowing smirks when someone brags about how "smashed" they got last weekend or complains about their roommate not doing the dishes. I keep saying to myself that I will not befriend the teacher and chat with them about topics unrelated to the class, well at least not in front of everyone. I will try and not start any sentences with, "Well I remember..." or, "Well, it use to be..."

Yeah, we will see how that goes.

But of course the biggest change in 2008 is moving to Portland. It is not that Portland is that strange, it is actually a lot like Seattle and only a three hour drive away, it is that I am moving by myself.

For half my life living at home I shared a room with my brother. When I moved to Santa Barbara it was with my friend Dre. All seven years in SB I lived with at least one other person. When I moved to Seattle it was with Greg. Of course this was with the intention of him getting his own place as soon as we got up here, but with in two hours of being in Seattle I begged him to stay awhile. It was six months later he moved out.

I have been living in my own place for two years now, but that was after I had enough time to get myself acquainted with Seattle, make some friends, got a job - basically get settled in. I still can not bear to be alone for more than half a day.

But I guess I will be getting use to that soon too...

I think I am going to go have a local micro brewed beer right now, while I can still afford it, am able to share it with others, and they will not look at me as "old" for doing so.