Dancing like it's sophomore year of college

I'm going to let you in on a secret about me: I'm short, I've got a chubby face, and I've been told I look like I'm 14. This is going to be awesome when I'm 40, I used to think. Not so much now.

Only it is. It's very awesome. Now. This past weekend, my friends and I decided to do the "WE'RE IN COLLEGE" tour of Oshkosh. Basically, it involves going out to local bars, dancing in a mocking way, and saying "Woo hoo -- we're in college" 'til eavesdroppers want to punch us all. Or just me. The problem with our little charade is we're surrounded by people who are actually in college. And we look like we're in college, so we blend in. We're not those 25-year-olds who sit at the kitchen table at a high-school house party. But we don't want to be jerks.

We get our laughs from each other, not from making Frat Boy Joe angry for mocking his girlfriend's "dance" in her stilettos, capris and a tank top (dude, that's so last year).

So there we were, standing in the middle of a dance floor (mostly empty, school's out), half dancing, half stopping and laughing. And then there were all these college kids who looked like they wanted to hurt us. Or just ignoring us. There they were, dancing with reckless abandon.

"(BASS, BASS) Some song about hooking up (BASS, BASS)," giggling, spilling beer on the floor, holding a cell phone in one hand, a cigarette in the other, with multicolored bangs in her eyes. And you know what? I was a bit jealous. I'm glad I didn't look too old to be there, but I still felt it. I don't remember the last time I went to a bar and danced to some (BASS, BASS) song about hooking up (BASS, BASS) and danced like that.

Not that I want to start again. I'm just sayin'. It was fun. And now someone else is having fun. And I'm just standing with my friends mocking them quietly, saying "I'm in college!" And I'm thinking about the work I have to do the next day. And rent. And "Is that clock right? I need to get to bed." And laundry. And how out of shape my feet are in the shoes I have on. And "Don't I have the foresight to wear something other than a band T-shirt. Seriously."

And (BASS, BASS) Some song about hooking up (BASS, BASS) won't stop playing.

At least the college kids didn't point and laugh, "Hey, look at all the old people." Because, face it, when I was younger, I was saying that about people my age now. "I hope when I'm that old I don't still come HERE. I hope I have better stuff to do than go clubbing."

Oh, sweet, naive Erin and friends.

(Photo: pretty much how cool we all looked dancing. In our heads. Photo from ftw-designs.com. Incidentally, if anyone knows how to create such a thing in Illustrator, we should be friends.)