| M: | You're not a real grown-up, you know.
|
| A: | I'm not?
|
| M: | No.
|
| A: | But I do grown-up things, don't I?
|
| M: | Sometimes. I mean, you're 24. You're married. And you have a grown-up job. But that doesn't make you a real grown-up. You're like a kid in a grown-up body.
|
| A: | How do you figure?
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| M: | Well, you wear t-shirts and jeans. And you don't fix your hair fancy. And it's long. Grown-ups usually have short hair.
|
| A: | So my superfine, impossible-to-do-anything-with long hair and the clothes I wear on my days off negate my degrees and my occupation?
|
| M: | Well, you also don't eat grown-up foods. You hate vegetables.
|
| A: | I eat them sometimes. I don't prefer them, but I do eat them. Which is more than you can say.
|
| M: | You like cookies.
|
| A: | Plenty of grown-ups like cookies.
|
| M: | And cupcakes.
|
| A: | Ditto with the cupcakes. I'm not seeing any of this as legitimately excluding me from Land of the Grown-ups.
|
| M: | Well, I don't know any other grown-ups who talk to me about Twilight and listen to Ke$ha and Katy Perry with me.
|
| A: | You're 12. You're into vampires. And it's kind of a distinct part of our friendship that I'm supposed to point out problematic messages in the media you consume, especially if it's Stephenie Meyer. And as for Ke$ha, well, everybody likes a catchy pop song. But I don't really listen to Ke$ha on my own time, if you want the truth.
|
| M: | What do you listen to?
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| A: | Lately? Eels. Coconut Records. Best Coast.
|
| M: | I don't know who those are.
|
| A: | I know. I played a Junior Senior song for you once and you acted like you were going to die.
|
| M: | Well, just because you like music that real people don't like doesn't make you a grown-up.
|
| A: | True.
|
| M: | . . . Actually, no, I take that back. You probably are a grown-up. I mean, you like the Beatles. Only old people like the Beatles. |
