During a recent Saturday morning shopping trip to the market, I found myself confronted with an overwhelming array of exotic dips.
Yep, that’s right. From roasted red pepper hummus to olive and feta cream cheese, it seems the cracker-topping possibilities are endless these days. I lingered at this particular stall for a while; I was attending a housewarming party later that evening and had been given the responsibility for “all things spreadable.”
Apparently, while I spent the last couple of years doing the whole graduate school, unpaid internship, backpacking in Europe thing, one of my much more financially responsible friends had found the time and the money to purchase her very own condo.
Although I recently hit a couple of pretty big milestones — signing the lease for a tiny (but beautiful) apartment and landing a full-time job — I can’t help but think I’ve fallen behind the pack a little. Sometimes it feels like everyone around me is getting promoted, or pre-approved or proposed to, while I’m just happy to be getting health benefits … finally!
During the 20 minutes I spent trying to pick an appropriate housewarming dip, I started to wonder — if I had this much trouble choosing between sundried tomato or spinach, how could my friends possibly be committing themselves to mortgages and husbands?
Soon I’ll be moving up into that next age box — you know, the 25-29 range — which is both horrifying and exciting. I’m sad to say goodbye to those hilarious and irresponsible years of my early 20s, but there is something to be said for maturity. Sometimes it’s nice to a spend a sunny Saturday morning pondering over patés at the market instead of in bed with a serious hangover and a bass player’s phone number written on your arm in eyeliner.
Ultimately, I couldn’t bring myself to buy just one type of spread. I decided to waste far too much money and indulge in a variety of hummuses and tapenades and cream cheeses, because those are the silly little luxuries you can afford to overspend on when you don’t have a mortgage.
