Panhandling

My 26th birthday was at the beginning of January, but I just this past weekend got my parent’s present to me. They gave me a gift card from Bed, Bath and Beyond on my birthday so I could buy new pots and pans. I got around to actually using the gift card now because I previously was convinced any set I wanted I couldn't carry back to my apartment. I was wrong. I learned a seven-piece set of cookware isn't really all that heavy.

And yes, my parents purchased the gift card with the intention that I would be purchasing new pots and pans. I had wanted new ones for a while. The last time I bought new pots and pans was about four years ago when I moved into my first post-college apartment. However, by the time I moved into my current apartment in August, I was incredibly sick of using my two small sauce pans every time made mac ‘n cheese. Over the years, my old pots and pans had dwindled from a full set to a rag tag bunch of scraped and burnt pieces. It was time to upgrade, and that’s what I did with my new Cuisinart set purchased this past weekend.

I consider my new cookware another sign that I am getting older. My home furnishings gift card was a repeat of the same lesson I have learned many a time over: I am not getting any younger. My excitement over new pots and pans ranks up there with other signs of my aging, such as wearing nylons, devoting week and weekend nights to cleaning, cooking and laundry, getting excited about saving money, owning a cat and feeling guilty when I’m gone for too long, enjoying being up by 8 a.m. on the weekends, and, lastly, being infinitely more attracted to men who own property as opposed to rent. (This is of course a double standard because I am a renter.)

If my new pots and pans are at least as durable as my last set, I did the math, and I’ll have them until I’m 30. That also made me feel old. But I guess if the alternative is that this is the last set of pots and pans I’ll ever own, I’ll take feeling a little older any day.