Becoming an Adult

Some days I wonder if I will ever feel like a real adult. Late twenties are a strange time where everyone is sorting out what growing up really looks like. A group of friends can be in such different places: married mothers, struggling grad students or working city girls. At the same time we are struggling to figure out what we want from life, the world is changing significantly so the life you envisioned may not be attainable anymore. Maybe my reading style has just changed but it seems like the popular books featuring women my age focus on the struggle to sort out how to reconcile the girl you were with the woman you are becoming, while sorting out a career, relationships and friendships. These books don’t end up with the heroine in a perfect career with an adorable boyfriend/husband and the perfect bag. They don’t even discuss Manolos; they are focused on relations between friends as they grow up. There is no neat ending but just the sense that they will manage what is in front of them. These books feel truer to real life than some other books, movies and TV shows that have explored similar themes over the years.

Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close, explores a group of college friends as they graduate college and begin attending the weddings and showers of their friends. The book is less one complete story than a series of vignettes of the different situations of the women in the ten years following college. It examines single life, apartment hunting, career dissatisfaction, affairs with older men, inappropriate relationships, marriage, motherhood and the difficulties of growing apart from friends as life changes. I really enjoyed the writing and found myself smiling at a lot of lines that remind me of my life.

Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan is the story of four very different women who room together from their first year at Smith College. It begins with an exploration of adjusting to life on an all women campus and reconciling your college identity with the person your family and friends from home remember. The book continues with the struggle of the four to find their place in the real world, through different jobs and relationships. I really appreciated the honesty of their friendship and how sometimes it hurts to hear things from the people who know you best. It really captures the feeling of meeting strangers and discovering they will be your lifelong friends.

Rent This: Comedy Movies

If you are feeling up for some giggles, here are some comedy movies I have enjoyed in the last few months.

Our Idiot Brother: When Paul Rudd appears in a trailer, I am already interested in seeing the movie. When you add in so many other funny people (Elizabeth Banks, T.J. Miller, Steve Coogan, Adam Scott), you can’t help but enjoy this good-hearted, silly movie. I would watch this entire movie again just for the ending because it makes me giggle just thinking about it. Paul Rudd is the idiot brother in question, who has to take turns living with his sisters when he is paroled following his conviction for selling marijuana to a uniformed police officer. He doesn’t believe in lying and is always trying to improve the lives of the people around him, in ways that often make things worse.

Take Me Home Tonight: Many of my favorite movies to watch over and over again take place in one night, with a series of silly events leading to a fun romantic conclusion. Take Me Home Tonight follows this formula with a group of recent college graduates, most of whom are trying to figure out where their life is headed, gathering for a summer party in their hometown. Topher Grace is the lead character, who is stuck working at Suncoast and trying to hide it from his high school crush by pretending to be a finance guy. The movie is fun and you can’t help but root for Topher to win the girl despite his missteps along the way. The supporting cast (including Parks and Rec’s Chris Pratt and Anna Farris) are hilarious in the side storylines.

Paul: Two British nerds come to the US to attend ComicCon and go on a roadtrip of all the alien hotspots. They get more than they bargained for when an alien trying to escape federal agents and return to his home planet hitches a ride on their trip. This movie features Simon Pegg and Nick Frost from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz and is directed by Greg Mottola of Superbad. It combines the silliness of the first two movies with the bromance of Superbad.

Cedar Rapids: An innocent Wisconsin insurance adjuster (Ed Helms) heads out to the big city of Cedar Rapids for an annual insurance convention. He quickly finds himself getting corrupted by a notoriously wild conventioneer (John C. Reilly) and enjoying a flirtation with an attractive fellow adjuster (Anne Heche). One of my favorite parts is when his roommate (Det. Bunk from The Wire), who is the calm in the storm of Cedar Rapids, uses a little acting to get Ed Helms out of a jam. Cedar Rapids is both funny and sweet, with an under layer of comedic darkness.