Somehow the girl’s 20’s become her 30’s
and though she still thinks of herself as a girl and doesn’t know how to get stains out of clothes and doesn’t earn airline points the way she probably should, she wonders if perhaps she is actually now… a woman? But would a grown-ass woman be delivering a speech from on high to a group of other seemingly grown-ass women in the backyard below as they ready themselves to play an hours-long flip cup tournament in the middle of the day, complete with an impromptu half-time show featuring tasseled nipple pasties and semi-erotic table dancing? Would a mature, adult woman go out of her way to see the latest Fast & Furious film in theaters, drinking Coronas to properly honor the occasion and, of course, for “family” (iykyk)? When picturing in one’s mind a woman in her 30’s, does one imagine someone intentionally paying for and playing “Tevye’s Dream” from Fiddler on the Roof on a public jukebox, followed immediately by “The Monster Mash” (played twice over) and a Raffi song? A “woman” wouldn’t put on her loudest jumpsuit and pilot a tandem bike through the streets of Portland at night for her broken-handed friend, along with hundreds of others blasting music and enveloped in bright LED lights, to end up at a waterfront party that doesn’t even begin until after midnight, not biking home until the mushrooms she took at 1:30am are starting to wear off and the sky begins to lighten… would she? Would a grown fucking woman attempt to the crash the private birthday party of some burly guy named “Moody” at a motorcycle bar, just to eat some gourmet hot dogs with friends? Or spend hours constructing a “Pink Pony Club” diorama out of a pizza box, plastic toy ponies, and crepe paper, for the sake of a one-time themed bike ride? The resounding answer is, of course: yes. She is a woman who is embracing her motto, that life is for living, and she is living it well, thanks to those by her side.
The SS Friendship would be dull indeed without all these able-bodied mates running around hoisting the sails and managing the cargo and whatnot. They curse and sing lustily and some have parrots, because that’s fun. But don’t be fooled - just because they’re a good time doesn’t mean that at night, gazing at distant galaxies, they don’t tell tales of their childhoods and ponder the mysteries of the universe and sometimes even tear up a little. They’re real ones, that’s for sure.