Babies Everywhere

EVERYONE IS HAVING BABIES. Or if they aren't having babies, they're buying fabulous houses and getting married. My Facebook news feed is littered with bridal showers, baby showers, and home improvement before/after snapshots. Girls I've met through friends, past and present coworkers, college friends, and high/grade school acquaintances: domesticity overload. Recently I reconnected with my little sister's friend from grade school. Tony was my best friend AJ's little brother. He and my sister were both the same age (about four-ish years behind me). Tony had a giant crush on my little sister. He bought her  the Princess Dianna beanie baby. For those of you who don't know, that's pretty much the equivalent of a diamond bracelet in 90's child world. He had a pet frog. He had a water bed his parents had handed down to him when the charm wore off. He had a bowl cut.  Little Tony? Married. Complete with newborn cutsie baby.

Don't get the wrong idea. I'm not into my little sister's crush. I wasn't then and I'm certainly not now. My point here is to underscore that EVERYONE is settling down. It's not just my older friends or people who are the same age as me, it's the little ones too.

And I'm over here super proud that my tomato plant is blooming. Is my tomato plant my child? No. I'm not crazy. But I am devoid of small things upon which to shower my love. See, I'm not a pet  person. I'm a big believer in not eating, wearing, or cohabiting with animals. I have a boyfriend but because of the vast geographic gap between his job and mine, we have yet to live together. And I love kids but when I envision parenting I see myself at a point with more free time, more income, and a larger home. I'll get there one day and hopefully the boyfriend will be a husband and he'll be pumped about the kid thing then too. But until then I guess we're pouring love into the foliage. So I'm growing tomatoes. And herbs. And a whole host of other plants.

In the mean time I am leaning in. I'm reading all sorts of books. I've convinced my boss to hire someone who will sort of kind of work under me. And I've pretty much taken over the day to day operations of 6 people with two more under them as well as super hands on role managing two others. And soon enough I'll be studying for a certification. Yay!

But I'm leaning into my personal life too. I have the boyfriend, right? And I think I'm doing a pretty good job pouring out the love and holding back the crazy. And I'm trying to be a good little financial worker bee so that some day I can afford the house and the kids and whatnot.

But it's hard not to feel like I'm falling behind when everyone is having babies.