It Ain't All Eating Peanuts and Drinking Coke

When I was a little kid, I hated going to bed. Couldn't stand it. I'm a natural night owl. Plus, I just knew I'd be missing something. I'd be in my nightie, teeth brushed and face washed, dancing around, begging and begging to stay up. My Dad would look at me, "You think we'll just be sitting around drinking Cokes and eating peanuts, don't you?" "Yes!!" This wasn't a completely unwarranted conclusion on my part. I'd find empty Coke bottles and the peanut jar lid with one peanut left in it (Dad never bothered with a bowl, he'd just pour peanuts into the lid) in the living room. I just knew they were having a good old time without me. If there was Coke drinking going on, I wanted in on it.

And I thought that was what being an adult was all about. Staying up late, sitting in the big chair, watching whatever you wanted on TV, eating peanuts and drinking Coke. And I could not wait. I was going to be the best adult ever.

Now I know that, with three kids, my folks were waiting until bed time to have enough quiet to string 2 thougths together. And they probably weren't sitting around yucking it up. They were returning the house to some semblance of order after whatever catastrophe me and the sibs had cooked up that day. There was all the stuff that you couldn't do with 3 rugrats hanging on you, and the sooner they had us off to bed the sooner all that could get done. What a gyp. And I don't have kids. But I still find that my evenings are often full of restoring order after chaos. Dishes and laundry and vacuuming and bills and grocery shopping. Obviously, as a kid I underestimated the workload that comes along with getting to stay up late at night.

But every once in awhile, I do get those moments, when everything's clean, nobody wants my money, all's right with the world, where I just get to enjoy that time before my now very late bed time, thank you very much. I get to sit in the big chair, eating peanuts, sipping an ice-cold Coca-Cola and enjoying life. Yeah, adulthood is pretty good.