Yesterday, at a friend’s birthday party at Barbès, we were painting and drawing on eggs with beeswax, as we usually do at her birthdays.

She performs in a fairly well-known indie band (as well as its manages the band itself and its grumpy founder’s various side projects). She also now has a 4-year old, and just returned from a tour in Europe. It’s a very well-traveled 4-year old.

At her birthday, I’m realizing, small children now outnumber the grown-ups. They were talking about day-cares and schools. Even in normal circumstances, I’m too overwhelmed to talk to people at her birthdays. But now, being a childless minority, it is becoming an impossibility, as I have increasingly little in common with them..