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Recently I discovered How I Met Your Mother, which means I was the second-to-last person on Earth to get obsessed with it. This show nails what it's like to be a young adult in the city. And so far my favorite episode has been "Murtaugh." In it, Ted says he has a list of things he is now too old to do, like pull an all-nighter or drink from a beer bong. The list is named after the main character in Lethal Weapon, Roger Murtaugh, who famously says, "I'm gettin' too old for this sh*t." But the item on Ted's Murtaugh List that resonated the most with me was: Crash on a friend's futon for the night instead of getting a hotel room.

This week I'm visiting old friends in New York City and my husband and I decided to spring for a hotel for three whole nights! As a bit of back-story, we always rent hotel rooms when on vacation, but Manhattan is a bit of a special case. We lived here for four years and have plenty of people we can crash with--and it's insanely expensive to get a hotel room.

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Flash forward to the night before we were supposed to check out and suddenly I'm filled with anxiety. "I can't do this!" I said to my husband. "I'm gettin' too old for this sh*t." And so, we added "Crash on a friend's futon" to our collective Murtaugh List for Travel and quickly booked a room through the end of the week.

But the more I thought about it, renting a hotel room wasn't the only thing on my Murtaugh List for Travel. In fact, it looks a little something like this.

Things I'm Too Old to Do While on Vacation

- Stay at a hostel, particularly a "hip" hostel

- Take a shoddy bus in a remote location when a train is available

- Figure it out when I get there

- Get a massage at a hole-in-the-wall establishment

- Wear cute but uncomfortable footwear to explore the city in

- Refuse to take a cab when practical

- Pretend I can drive stick-shift

- Participate in extreme sports with questionable tour operators

- Visit during the low seaon and brave monsoons, blizzards, etc.

 

Add your Murtaugh List items in the comments section. I know there are more I'm forgetting!

Better still, if you have a crazy story about crashing on someone's futon, tell us about it here. We're collecting Houseguest Horror Stories to be featured on our blog. Leave your blog address and we'll link back to you.