oh joyce

The problem with adulthood was feeling like everything came with a timer-- a dinner date with Sam was at most two hours, with other friends, probably not even as long. There was maybe waiting for a table, there was a night at a bar, there was a party that went late, but even that was just a few hours of actual time spent. Most of Alice's friendships now felt like they were virtual, like the pen pals of her youth. It was so easy to go years without seeing someone in person, to keep up to date just through the pictures they posted of their dog or their baby or their lunch. There was never this-- a day spent floating from thing to another. This was how Alice imagined marriage, and family-- always having someone to float through the day with, someone with whom it didn't take three emails and six texts and a last minute reservation change to see one another. Everyone had it when they were kids, but only the truly gifted held on to it in adulthood.