I Am Too Old For This...But I Can't Wait To Go Back Next Year

Okay friends, we have a guest poster today.  It is my sister-in-law Jenni.  Jenni is The Party's younger sister and the mother of 5 and 7 of the Survivor Series.  Jenni is a Marketing Manager at an accounting firm and is very creative.  She's been trying her hand at writing lately, so I thought we'd have her over to visit.

During the summer I had her write about something she thought other moms might relate to and here's what she came up with.  I thought she did a great job!  You can tell when you read this that Jenni has really matured (read - gotten older like the rest of us) in that the Jenni from college once went to Cancun for Spring Break and brought tons of peanut butter crackers with her so she would not have to waste any money on food. You can also tell that Jenni is a little more relaxed of a person than The Party.

Bet you didn't know
Dewey Beach had
their own motto.

Every year 8-12 of my closest friends get together for one blow-out weekend in fabulously fun Dewey Beach, Delaware. If you have never been to Dewey Beach, it is an experience, to say the least. Our love for Dewey started the second we graduated from high school. We literally threw our graduation caps up in the air, piled into a car with everything we needed, and headed to the house we had rented for the summer. (Side note – What were our parents thinking letting a bunch of 17-year-olds live at the beach for the summer? I am sure my brother, aka The Party, just loved the fact that his little sister was living at the beach. Not.)

Anyway, somehow we all survived that first summer. This turned into several summers of living there full-time, which then became many summers as weekenders. We have now settled into what we are now...a bunch of married/engaged ladies who have left their significant others, kids, 4-legged kids, and responsibilities home for our one weekend a year of Cosmo reading on the beach, giggling, and just pure fun in Dewey.

One of the funny things about being almost 40 and going to Dewey is that every summer I have to prepare myself before-hand by hydrating, getting plenty of sleep, and crash dieting. My biggest preparation is mentally repeating over and over again that I WILL stay out past 10pm.   I WILL stay out past 10pm.

Something new that we have been doing to prepare for our trip is turning on Top Hits on Pandora so we will actually know the songs they play while we are on the dance floor.

So, since Girls Weekend (GW2012) is right around the corner, I thought I would brush off a list I prepared two years ago after coming home from the beach and freshen it up a little

The Top 10 Reasons I Feel Old in Dewey

Jenni's friend Jenna is very
organized and crafty and
probably makes everyone
matching stuff like this so that
they will all look cute on the beach.

10. You are told that “oldies" music is anything from the ‘90’s and under. (Note the Pandora comment)

9. When talking to a random 24-year-old kid on Rt 1, you tell him you have a cute babysitter (rather than friend) you can hook him up with.

8. You get called Ma’am by the waitress on Suicide Sunday at the Starboard. (WHAT?!?!?)

7. You are one of the first people on the beach after a “wild” night of partying with homemade PB&Js because, of course, you come to the beach prepared with food (btw, a Special K Strawberry Crisp bar, ginger ale and Advil are the perfect hangover cure. This is a proven fact).

6. The conversations with your girlfriends have changed to cooking, kids, and how tired you are all of the time.

5. You ask the girl next to you on the dance floor if she knows how to do the Percolator (one of your all time favorite songs) and she says it was “before her time!”

4. You are proud of yourself for staying out until 10pm. (Ha...this said 11PM two years ago.)

3. You start talking about how many years you have had “girls' weekend at the beach” and realize it is your 14th year, then you add on the 7 years you lived at the beach or have been a “weekender” at the beach.  You then remember that the 20th high school reunions have all already passed.

2. You party like rock stars for one weekend and say, “I don’t know how we used to do that EVERY weekend.”

1. You learn from a different 24 year old that you are called a Fossil.   That’s right, not a Cougar, but a Fossil because you are a bunch of ‘old’ women who are out but who are all happily married/committed so not looking to hook up.

I limited my reasons to ten, but the list really could go on. I am sure after this year’s trip we will add a few items to the list.  Every year we end the weekend saying ‘we are way too old for this’ but miraculously, after a few days, we are all texting each other that we can’t wait until next year’s girls weekend.  I mean, really, who wouldn’t love a great time at the beach, no kids hanging off of you saying how bored they are, and not having to cook or clean.

So ladies.....are you ready for GW2012????  I sure am!   Right after I make sure the laundry is done, the hubby knows where the kids need to be while I am gone, there is plenty of food in the fridge (even though they will eat pizza all weekend), and the house is clean.   Oh, and I will stay out past 10pm, I WILL!!!

**Update**

Just FYI, on my 2012
Girls' Weekend we
stayed in one night and
watched the Olympics, but
we're still cool.
No, really,we are.

Most of us, not all, made it out past 10pm every night. I am happy to say that I made it out past midnight both nights!

3 out of 9 of us (not me) ran a 5k race on Saturday morning. You know you are getting old if you can control your drinking enough that you can run a 5k the next morning.

This year instead of being called Fossils, some guy screamed at us on the dance floor ”GO MOMS!!!!”   Like he was complimenting us or something for having decent dance moves AND being moms.   WHATEVER!