Of all the people I know who seem to be growing up way too fast, Marissa is not one of them. It seems like it’s taken her forever and a day to turn 18.

Naturally the occasion called for a celebration so John, Marissa and I formulated a plan for Tuesday evening. We only brought John along so he’d pay. That’s actually not the whole truth. We brought him because we’re all friends but who were we to turn him down if he wanted to pay? Unfortunately, he forgot his wallet so somebody else paid but it’s the thought that counts.

As usual, I was the designated driver since Marissa doesn’t have her license and John’s car is not registered. {What is the point of having a perfectly good car sitting in your driveway for 10 months and not registering it? Sometimes I just don’t understand him.} At any rate, I was babysitting so by the time I picked them both up and we got to the restaurant, it was after 8:00 but as Mom often says, “the rich always eat late”. {Although I’m not really sure how well the “rich” part applies to us.} Hannah and Ben were going to meet us at the restaurant and while Marissa was waiting for them outside, John and I had the following conversation.

me: “You are so confused.”

I swear a version of this happens every single time I go out to eat. It almost takes away the relaxing nature of going out.

When we were done eating we walked around the plaza looking at the stores lamenting that they were closed so we couldn’t go shopping. John and Ben were so thankful for that. They really had no reason to be surprised about it though because they were with three girls. The plaza overlooks a huge football field that the boys wanted to see and after standing there for about 20 minutes, I started wondering what we were looking for. It was dark and there was no game going on so basically we were just staring at a bunch of seats. I personally thought the baseball game on the giant tv was much more interesting. During this exciting seat viewing time, the topic of what to call ourselves came up. John, Marissa and I are the Three Musketeers but we had to think of a new name since we had Ben and Hannah. The Einstein in our group said, “why are you guys trying to put the word ‘five’ in front of the name? ‘Three Musketeers’ doesn’t have any numbers in it.” Let’s just say everybody looked at Miss Einstein like she was crazy and she wasn’t included in the rest of the conversation. I think we finally decided on The Fabulous Five{it’s subject to change at any time}. That sounds like a band to me but I was out-voted 4-1. I guess it’s not bad considering that Marissa suggested “The Five Felines”. {I don’t have any idea why either.} I’d much rather be called fabulous than feline!