I really am too old for this

It was my Cousin Cassie's bachelorette party tonight. She's getting married in two weeks. She is the last of the four Ayers-Erickson Granddaughters to get married. I'm the oldest, at 30; she's the youngest, at 25. (We both also have birthdays in the next couple weeks - soon it will be 31 and 26!!!!) Sandwiched in between us are Kristy, Cassie's sister, who is 19 months younger than me, and Megan, who is nine months younger than Kristy. It's sort of the Four Musketeers. We're not best friends, but we're close. Closer than a lot of cousins are. Much of that is due to the fact that they grew up in Brooklyn Park, MN and we grew up in South Minneapolis. Every holiday, every birthday, every major life event is celebrated with them. So even though we don't hang out a lot, or call each other, we still hold each other very dear and expect to know what's going on with the cousins. I care about Kristy and Cassie dearly, and I have enjoyed growing up with them.

So Cassie is getting married. And moving to New York. Her fiance got a nice job out in Manhattan and they are in the process of moving out there for awhile. I think it's supposed to be a year assignment or something. It's a strange predicament. I, the oldest, am moving to Hawaii to be with my husband. She, the youngest, is moving to NYC to be with hers. And both of our sisters will remain in MN. Cassie is tight with Kristy. I am tight with Megan. It will be tough for both pairs of sisters to be far away from one another.

So we went out tonight. A final 'Hurrah' of sorts. It was dinner and drinking and dancing. It was fun. It made a few new memories that we can all keep with us as we move around and start our new lives. We're all supposed to be adults now, with jobs and families of our own to worry about. But as far as I'm concerned, it will always be the four of us, sitting around the card table at the "kids' table". And I will miss our holidays together. But I know that we're not foolish enough to let our friendships lapse, so I look forward to our future time together, even if it takes trans-American flights to see each other.

(And for the record, I drank hardly anything tonight, I just stayed out too late. I can't believe I used to be able to stay up all night when I was in college. I should have been in bed by 9:30. And I got home at 1:45. That's insane. I am going to need two or three naps tomorrow.)