All Grown Up is Not a Thing

Yesterday was Tori's 20th birthday. There was a bit of confusion over it, due to what her boyfriend referred to on Facebook as our joint custody arrangement, and the end result was three straight days of birthday celebration and enough junk food to kill the child.

I expected that she'd be doing something with Brad on her actual birthday (Friday), so I invited them over for dinner on Thursday and baked her a cake. Brad figured that she'd be doing something with me on her actual birthday, and so made the world's richest brownies (8 types of chocolate) for her on Wednesday.

Somewhere along the way, she cleared up her plans: she and I were going to Chipotle on her actual birthday, as we have every year since she was 12.

On her 12th birthday, Chipotle was pretty new (at least to us) and she'd only been there a couple of times. That was back in the day when they gave you four soft tacos in an order, and at 85 pounds or so she scarfed them all right down, saying, "I just love this taco so much!" So, when I offered her the chance to go anywhere she wanted for her birthday, she picked Chipotle.

Not what I was expecting, but we went to Chipotle.

It so happened that her 12th birthday was a pretty exciting one, because I'd spent a then-outrageous amount of money buying her tickets to see the Jonas Brothers. We had a pretty amazing time at the Batavia Chipotle that night, and her reaction made the money well worthwhile.

So, last night, for the 9th "actual birthday" in a row, we headed out to Chipotle. She'd already had birthday brownies and a birthday cake, but I brought these cupcakes anyway, because these are the same cupcakes I brought along on her 12th birthday, since she'd chosen a place that wouldn't serve her birthday cake.

I'll be honest--they taste about like they look. But, neither that nor the constant parade of home-baked goods stopped Tori and her friend Anai from eating six of them during the night.

Anai showed up unexpectedly; we were getting ready to head out to Chipotle when Tori learned in a Facebook message that she was in town from Chicago.

Tori and Anai have been friends since kindergarten, and they're "birthday buddies," having been born on consecutive days, 16.5 hours apart.

Here they are at 6 at the library sleep over, and at 15 at Homecoming.

And last night, at Chipotle.

Tori wanted to go to the Chipotle on the far end of DeKalb rather than the one on campus, because it wouldn't be so loud and chaotic. I hope no one else chose that way.

The bottom line, I guess, is that life and relationships don't necessarily change all that much, despite the big structural changes that might be occurring underneath. I'm sure I'll forget that many times in the months ahead, but that's where I am today.