Three

Yesterday was my cousin’s daughter’s third birthday party. She’s so adorable — she has rosy cheeks, a big smile, and so much personality. Almost every present was Barbie-related.

I got to meet my (female) cousin’s new boyfriend; he was tall and strikingly handsome, with a shaved head, a goatee, an earring in each ear, a ring on his finger, a gold and silver watch on his wrist, and a gold cross around his neck. He was wearing a crisp white button-down shirt with the top button opened, tucked into a pair of black pants, fastened by an Armani belt with a silver buckle in the shape of the letters AXI. He spent much of the afternoon cooking. If he weren’t my cousin’s boyfriend, I would have sworn he was gay.

This small party had quite a cast of characters. Between my cousin’s throaty-voiced Italian friend, her friend’s darkly attractive, quiet Italian husband Carmine, her overly chatty other friend, and the other friend’s father, Tony, a gruff, retired window installer, I felt like I was on an episode of “The Sopranos.” If a casting director had been there, they all would have been hired.

I didn’t tell anyone what I was thinking, but I didn’t have to. Afterwards, we were back at my parents’ house, and my mom said to me, “Didn’t you sort of feel like you were on an episode of ‘The Sopranos’ this afternoon?”

I was watching my baby cousin run around the room, playing with her toys, yammering with everyone, and I couldn’t believe she was already three. It made me kind of sad. Then I thought, wait — she’s still so young. In ten years, which is a long ways away, she’ll still be only 13. She has a long, long childhood ahead.

When you’re a kid, time doesn’t seem to pass; you live in a vast expanse of timelessness. You’re a kid, you’ve always been a kid, you’ll always be a kid. On family trips, it’s your role to sit in the back seat of the car while other people do mysterious adult things up front. Your role is to go to school and encounter new ideas every day. There’s no need to think about the future, and in fact, the future isn’t even on your radar screen; because whenever it may come — if it comes at all — it’s still a long, long way off.