This "Adult" Thing

As a child, I always thought that becoming an adult would be a specific point and time, or what they refer to in psychology as quantitative change.  One day you're a child, the next day you're an adult.  One day you don't understand velocity, one day you do.  (I had that day.  Sort of.)  As I grow up, however, it's become apparent that this is not the case.  Over the years, I've come up with a list of things that classify one as an Adult:

Buying your own cleaning supplies
Being responsible to someone other than yourself
Taking out your trash
Having a retirement plan
Commuting
Saving money
Paying taxes
Picking out tennis shoes for fit and not look
Drinking coffee
Working full-time

You know, normal "adult stuff," none of which really looks that appealing.  As I've moved away from home, gotten my own apartment, got into serious relationships, moved farther from home, signed onto a full-time job, and been married, these little adult-life pieces have fallen into place.  It's easy to say a 17-year-old isn't an adult and a 34-year-old is, but what about the 25-year-old?  I think I'm an adult.  I do all those things above, and I'm even married and everything.  There's also good parts to being an adult, or psuedo-adult, or what have you.  I can come home as late as I want, I can eat whatever I want for dinner, I can order a drink at a restaurant, I can pay for that drink at that restaurant, and I could get a puppy.

What didn't occur to me until last weekend were the little, somewhat non-specific parts to being an adult that are great.  There's this show on National Geographic called "Rocket City Rednecks", and I'm pretty sure someone was hanging around my husband and the Best Friend's husband and got an idea for a show.  These men, literally rocket scientists at NASA in Huntsville, go to work during the week, and on the weekend, build stuff.  Like moonshine-powered rockets.  Shopping carts with motors.  A bomb-proof truck.  While watching this I realized that these guys have what is commonly known as a "hobby".  

My hobby?  Or surgery?

I've had hobbies in the past and I have hobbies now- knitting, playing video games, baking- but they've always been things that were a reward for finishing a semester or having spring break.  Ah, that 10 page paper that you spent the last three weeks on is finished?  How about an hour of video games before the next paper, go on, you deserve it.  Completed 750 hours of unpaid labor- I mean, counseling internship at a psych hospital?  How about two straight nights of sleeping for 13 hours and a half gallon of Eddy's Rocky Road?  Until now, there's never been a point when I've had so much free time.  I was in school for six years, spending every free moment cramming information into my brain, and when I wasn't, I was working one/two/three jobs.  Last summer I was job hunting and falling in love.  And last winter, I got engaged and spent the next eight months completely absorbed in wedding planning.  (See previous eight months of blogs.)  But now... what?

There are still "adult" things I have to do when I get home after work, you know, after working full-time and commuting; I go grocery shopping, fix dinner, wash dishes, do laundry.  The thing I'm learning to become accustomed to now is what to do with the other hours in the week.  It's a very odd feeling to come to the end of a day and think "What do I want to do?" and not just "What do I have to do tonight?"  I'm slowing walking through this path, checking things out, figuring out what I *want*.  Spend more time with friends?  Spend time with husband?  Bake poppy seed almond cakes?  Knit Christmas presents?  Work out?  Watch reality television?  It's especially difficult with Bobby away from home more often than not; without him there, I wander around the house like a lost puppy and wonder if it's too early to go to bed.

Is he home yet?  How about now?  Now? ... Now?

It's a good thing to get used to, this free time concept, but it's an adjustment, just like spending money on Windex and laundry detergent instead of shoes.  So tonight, I'm going to Sips-n-Strokes and get my paint on with a swirly tree, a nice Chardonnay, and my two best girls.  And tomorrow night, cooking dinner for the hubby, perhaps a movie or another two hour marathon of DVR'ed Storage Wars.  Might as well give this free time thing a shot, eh?