The Evolution of the Sleepover

So when I was ten, I realized that there would be a point in my life when I would no longer go to sleepovers...those crazy fun girly, "truth or dare playing, movie-watching, staying-up-until-3-and- trying-not-to-be-the-first person-to-fall-asleep" events. I figured the cut-off would be around 13 or 14. And apparently, I was dead wrong.

Last night, as a matter of fact, I went to the second of a series of 'girls' nights' that some of my friends from church decided to implement last October. In a lot of ways, both this sleepover and the one previous resembled the sleepovers of yesteryear: movies, junkfood, talking about guys and life and everything else, finding that anything and everything at 2 o'clock in the morning is funny, and hearing weird noises at night. However, there are some interesting developments in the sleepover department that have been changed both by age and by the slow decay of time in general:

1) The sleepover world has been changed dramatically by technology. We no longer watched old VHS's, but DVDs on Emma's massive television with surround sound. We also had cell phones, and we texted or called 50 people that night. I counted. In the morning, we weren't woken up by a clock or a parent, it was someone's cell phone that was ringing. And, once we woke up, the first thing we did was check our emails and facebook.
2) We have become a lot smarter over the years -- instead of shooting straight for truth or dare, we checked out the lunar eclipse and we spent 2 1/2 hours figuring out a bunch of riddles that Emma had stored away in her memory. As an added technology change, Derek (Loralee's amigo) was on speakerphone trying to figure them out with us.
3) We have become more vain over the years...before going to bed, it wasn't just brushing teeth that was essential. It was all about taking out contacts and getting rid of makeup. And throughout, there were pictures being taken by random cameras, so one of us was always posing.
4) I drove myself home. Weird!

So I have to say, it was a different experience, but still amazingly fun. Sleepovers are a changing event in a changing world...and if they've changed this much in five years, I wonder what they'll be like in the next five.