I nearly always get carded. For everything. I got carded trying to buy crazy glue once. I can sometimes buy a Rated M video game once in a while, or go to a Rated R movie, but not often, and only if I take pains to make myself look as preppy as possible. It doesn't help that my ID only sort of looks like me. I've changed quite a bit in the last eight years when that photo was taken, but, sadly, I honestly look older in that picture than I do in real life. I live in dread of the day when some bartender decides to confiscate it, telling me to tell my older brother to claim the ID in person.

Last weekend, I got together with my aunts and cousins for a champagne brunch. There were five of us in the 18-25 age bracket, and only two of us were of age to drink. Guess who got offered alcohol without getting carded first. Guess who had to show proof even to get a glass set. I could take the twenty-year-old not being carded, as not only does he not possess the babyface which both sides of my genetics favor, but he also looks like someone you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. I wouldn't card him either, without at least someone for backup and a knife my other hand. But the eighteen-year-old does have the baby face. Or, at least, he did. Seven years ago. But somehow he outgrew it by the perception of the general populace. We, his family, can still see it, and we are continually amazed that he doesn't get the same treatment that my two closest female cousins (who independantly of each other, and in completely different cities and times, worked in strip bars) and I regularly get.

I sometimes look forward to my thirties, when there's a good chance I won't be carded everytime I want to buy wine. Then again, certain store policies may mean I'll not be safe even then. My mom was carded a couple years ago when we were at a target. When we all gave the poor cashier goggled looks, she explained that she had to card everyone that didn't look forty. As my mother had just hit fifty-five at the time, she damn near skipped back to the car. I, meanwhile, prayed this was not a sign of a coming trend.