To Be Young.

"Do you girls have any tea?" he asked as he shut the door in a hurry. It was the coldest night of the year in Denver thus far, one of those that only calls for chili, cornbread and a cozy blanket on the couch. Stepping into our living room, he waved while the two of us shook our heads trying to suppress our laughter. As he removed his fleece lined Crocks, shaking snow from the bottom of his pajama pants and pulling his plaid old man robe closer to his body, I smiled and stood to get our neighbor his tea. "Looking good Logan" I said five minutes later emerging from the kitchen with three mugs and a pot of hot water.

"What are you girls up to tonight?" he asked as he sipped on the honey vanilla tea. "Paying bills" my roommate answered in the gloomiest of voices. "It's the worst" I added as we began calculating how much we owed and how much debt we were both about to be in. Conversation then flowed from cutting down on happy hours or trips to San Diego to winning the lotto, to writing a book, to inventing something miraculous, to anything that could possibly put us ahead of our expenses instead of behind.

"Well girls, I'm off to bed. This head cold has really got me feeling under the weather" he said a while later as I breathed a sigh of relief after my mouse clicked, paying the last bill of the month. "God, we're broke" I said aloud as my computer screen went black and I fell back into the cushions of the couch and the comfort of a cozy blanket.

"See you tomorrow" he said as he opened the door to leave. Then turning back, he left us on the couch with these words to ponder: "You know girls, you may be young and broke but don't stress, there's nothing wrong with that. The real problems and stress will come if you're old and broke. And thank God, we've got years until then."