20-Something Dramas

Last night I went to a 21st birthday bash at a karaoke joint. The original plan was to happily sing off-key from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. while kicking off the night with some feel-good juice, then head over to Pearl to continue imbibing the feel-good juice. But as the night wore on, the singing got extended twice so that we ended up renting the room till 11 p.m. And of course, by that time a good portion of the party was really feeling the feel-good juice.

Needless to say, certain members of the party still wanted to move the shindig over to Pearl, but due to some itty, bitty issues like not being able to stand straight and talk straight, it was decided for them that the party was definitely over.

The rest of the merry makers (all early to mid twenty-somethings) were not going to give up the night when the sun was so far from rising. So with Pearl nixed, they decided to check out The Shack in Waikiki, not really because it just opened, but more so because they knew the person working the door. Once this was settled, the real drama began.

Call me old fashioned (or just old), but I don't remember having so much drama when deciding when and where to go out. First, just selecting a place was a half-hour discussion. Obviously, if you know the girl with the list or the bouncer to some club, that's gotta be a good venue choice. I mean c'mon, skip right in why don't you?

The next issue was who would be driving and where would the extra cars go. This led to a heated discussion about what time people were going home and if they were going home at all. I assume the latter half meant one of three things: 1) Crash in town with friends, 2) Crash in town with new friends or 3) Stay up all night and go straight to work the following day. This was a back-and-forth volley worthy of Wimbledon.

Throughout this hour-and-a-half long discussion of the night's plans, texting and cell phone calls were abundant. Texters and callers ran the gamut: old friends, new friends, old flames and potential new flames. Other issues that bubbled up included where exactly is The Shack and where is everyone parking. This led to grumbling that people were tired and didn't really feel like going anyway. Then, of course, came the mandatory pep talk to get them back in the mood. No one was getting off the hook of going out tonight, no one.

Seriously, I was tired just watching them run through it all. Ok, it's granted that I'm older than this bunch, but I'm not much older and am still at 20-something myself. However I don't remember ever having this kind of drama just for a simple night out. Do you?

To add insult to injury, back in the day there were no cell phones to make organizing so much easier. Prior to that it was pagers, and we all know that those were of no real use. I guess the answer is that either the kiddies have just gotten more complicated as technology gets better or we were just more efficient at corraling the troops for a night on the town.

With the final goal of having a great time still playing a prominent role in these events, you'd think that technology would make it easier these days to get the show on the road. Somehow, it doesn't seem that way to me.

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