While We're Young and Beautiful

I've been thinking a lot about being young and living the life I live lately. I often look around and think, wait, how did this happen? Who am I? How did I get so lucky?

I spent the weekend partying with friends and bopping around town. Saturday night, dressed ridiculously in shorts and dress shoes and a pair of borrowed brown Ray-Bans and with equally ridiculously dressed friends, I had a few drinks at home, caught a cab downtown to a friend's birthday, hung around, caught another cab down to Houston Street to go out somewhere else. Easy and carefree and living like we have money, my friends and I are up for anything. Our cab got caught in a huge traffic traffic jam on Houston, so we jumped out and walked quickly through the light drizzle. My shoes clacked loudly, we laughed at how silly we and what we were doing was. But why not? Why shouldn't I live like this?

We are ridiculous, but why shouldn't we be? This is the time.

At the bar we sat in open windows, leaning out and hollering at people on the street. We drank beer and wine and played a half-box of Jenga. We talked and laughed and reveled in our youngness. Afterward, we went to a diner and ate food packed with enough calories for an entire weekend.

Monday, Meghan and I attended a Gossip Girl premiere party at Southern Hospitality on 76th and Second. Tuesday, we went to Serena Williams' book release party at M2 Lounge and drank and danced. Last night Jenny and I went to a press screening of Matt Damon's "The Informant!" Tonight I have a date.

"Hello! Are you single!?"

Is this being young, is this being me, or is this me taking advantage of being young? "Two people, separately, were like, "So I heard YOU had fun last night," Meghan told me over chat the morning after our night dancing above a room of 200 rich people and Serena Williams. "I'm like, is this not normal behavior for people our age? I did have fun, but same shit, different night. We do this every week." And it's true. We do this every week. Are we just lucky?

Looking around now, it's hard not to think these are the best times of my life, but I've thought that before and it just keeps getting better. When does it stop? Is there a cap on happiness one can achieve in life? If so, I fear I'm approaching mine. Of course, I don't like my life with that fear. And maybe that's why it is the way it is. Maybe I'm lucky because I've been presented with certain opportunities, but my life is amazing because I take advantage of all of them.

Pre-platform dancing.

Meghan later added: "It's a foreign concept to me that there are people in the world who have never dance on an elevated surface." Honestly. Why isn't everyone living like this?