The SLO Life

This weekend, the family all hit the road and headed down to San Luis Obispo to celebrate my cousin's 21st birthday. It is where I also spent my 21st, so being back down there brought back some great memories.

I headed down with my cousins on Friday night after work. Car rides are never so long as when you're stuck in traffic, then have to take the long boring highway in the dark. But my one cousin had also graduated from SLO, so we were both so excited and rambling on and on about our memories, I am sure much to the chagrin of the driver. As we crested the grade and headed to Woodstocks, we could barely contain our excitement.

Neither of us could believe how the town had changed. Progress, I guess, but I miss the old time quaintness of it. I am sure if I were still a student there, I would love that there is now a Banana Republic and Abercrombie. But for this old-timer...not so much.

We headed out to my cousin's to escort her to the bars at midnight...upon walking in we increased the average age at the party by quite a few years. Or, as my cousin said, "Man, we are OLD." We had a drink or two while there...sharing a half tray of ice between the four of us, and finally got out to the bars.

Some things just don't change...it was like flashing back to college but watching it from the outside. Everyone just looked so young, and those who weren't, who were perhaps in their late 20's or older, looked ancient by contrast. Despite the cold, there was a lot of skin showing at all the bars. The bouncers think they're the coolest things to grace the planet, and, really, time to get over yourselves.

The highlight of the evening came when, upon last call, we realized we had no way to get back to the hotel. Calling a cab would have been the easy solution, but, we forgot we were in SLO. I don't remember seeing a cab once in my entire college career, much less using one. We called for about 20 minutes to no avail; then my newly 21 year old cousin had a brilliant idea - call her dad. Which she did, and then she headed on her merry way to get some food. This left the 4 of us "grown ups" standing on the street, waiting for our Uncle to pick us up. Some things are priceless.