I was cursed recently by a fortune cookie. Twice really, since the print looked as though it were printed twice in rapid secession which caused a shadowed look to the words. Bam bam, rapid fire curse casting; two hits, dead on. What was this horrible curse that my unfortunate cookie cast upon me, you may ask? The little, white, two inch piece of paper simple read, "You will live in interesting times."

Interesting times? Is that so bad? If you have to ask that then apparently you have never really lived through interesting times. Think about history. What happens during those interesting moments in history that we tend to remember and study? Usually it's something pretty drastic, like war or massive outbreaks of disease, or act of God type things. Now that doesn't mean that I believe my fortune cookie has now caused some sort of butterfly effect that will create global disaster, but I don't like the omen that my life might be "interesting" in the sense that I've already lived through some pretty "interesting" times and have had experiences that aren't the norm, and now I kind of just want to live and nice quiet little life were there isn't so much emotional upheaval. "Interesting" and emotional upheaval tend to go hand in hand, trust me.

This all leads up to my big question which is what truly IS normal? A nice, normal life; a nice, normal relationship; what is normal? Can you really make it to twenty-six (which is just where I'll be come March) without accumulating piles of emotion baggage? If you start a relationship now is it basically guaranteed that you are both going to be dinged and scared from past relationships and cluttered with doubts and uncertainties that will have to be dealt with? That could taint or corrupt the new life, the new relationship that you are trying to build? Once you live through interesting times is it pretty guaranteed you will continue through interesting times simply because they brand you and create more upheaval?

Why wasn't I hit by the knowledge wand when I became an adult so I could have the answers to all of these questions? I thought adults were suppose to know these things! I am greatly disappointed to discover that it was all an act and that even once you reach "adulthood" you are really just as ignorant about the big issues as when you were a child, only now you can understand that the big issues are WAY more complicated than you can ever imagine and that you have no real hope of every really solving them. Adulthood means you know the hopelessness of your situation and now you just trudge on as best you can, making up your own rules as you go along all the while pretending that you have it together and that you know what you're doing.

I still feel twelve.