los angeles: neverland reincarnate

i am 26 years old. i have serious job (albeit this is constantly in question) at a serious company. i am entertaining the idea of moving in with my boyfriend, i pay my bills on time, am saving for a serious down payment on a car, and yesterday was asked to if i wanted to do a 2ft beer bong.

ladies and gentlemen, meet my friends.

for one of my girlfriend’s 27^th birthday, she decided to have a good old-fashioned frat party. kegs, flip cup, beer pong, completely unharmonized sweet caroline renditions and jungle juice was all in abundance.

as i took a break and checked my facebook – which is officially now the wedding book – a realization hit me: los angeles is the town of lost boys (and girls). while nearly half of my social media reads as engagement albums and wedding boards, my friends and i are committed to a life of potentially post-prime debauchery.

i remember being 21, at the height of my college exuberance, going out six nights a week. never letting an 8am class or a long day get in the way of what the night could bring. i remember thinking, god… 27 is SO old. when i am 27 i will be settled, weeknight ragers will be far behind me, i’ll host fabulously elegant dinner parties and be a REAL adult.

the current reality: doing laundry, remembering to take my make-up off, and getting to bed before 2am…all small victories.

and it’s not just me. i live in an entire city that considers a non-hungover morning a bit of a failure.  l.a. forces its inhabitants to live in a state of permanent cognitive dissonance, one where age equals greater money and success (which requires maturity), but youth remains the strongest form of currency…resulting in a town full of lost boys and girls, refusing to really grow up.

hence 27-year old frat parties.

i imagine at some point we will all hit a tipping point, pack up our late nights, move to the palisades where instead of rebel-rousing in public, we will just do it indoors with our kids sleeping upstairs. until then i plan to live up this prolonged, la-induced youth, take in the nevernever land of it all…and wait for my age to catch up with me.