30 is the new 20

Yesterday, a simple discussion about Italy turned into a "farewell, sweet youth" situation.

Wedding reader extraordinaire LS and I were talking about vacationing in Italy, and then we started talking about the prevalence of cold showers in Italy, and then we acknowledged that our long hair prevents both of us from taking two-minute showers, and we confided that we both intend to keep our hair long. And then LS provided a poignant observation about long hair--"You can get away with it while you're young--and that's almost over for us."

Youth ending!? Or is it? Everyone says that your 30s are the new 20s, though I don't want to relive my early 20s again in a few years, as once was enough for me. I've come a long way since 20. For example:

• I eat vegetables now.
• I carry no credit card debt.
• I own furniture that I purchased and that is not made of particle board.
• My expenditures no longer surpass my income.
• I throw parties at which wine is served out of real wine glasses, not Solo cups.

I suspect that others my age are proud of how far they've come, as well, and none of us wants to regress to a vegetable-free, particle-board, Solo-cup lifestyle. I think that "30 is the new 20" means that your thirties are the time to do what you wanted to do when you were in your 20s, when you didn't know better and couldn't afford "better" anyway. And, of course, the other implication is that you're still young enough to do all of that fun and exciting stuff. And I still feel young enough to do fun and exciting stuff, as long as it doesn't involve kneeling or sitting on the floor for long periods of time because while I still feel youthful and spry, my joints don't lie.

So bring on the long hair, the fun barrettes, and the graphic tees--if you're only young once, you might as well make it last as long as you can.