30 is bonafide

So yesterday was my birthday. 30. I don't know why, but I felt it necessary to tell almost everyone--including complete strangers--that I was 30. Leah's preschool teacher found out, the bagger at Safeway who wheeled my cart out to the car, and Elmer at DI who tried to console me after the fabulous mid-century couch that I came back to buy had been snatched up just 30 minutes prior. I didn't earn the nickname "emotional slut" way back when for nothing. Actually, I gave myself that nickname, but it caught on like wildfire around the inner sanctum.

I've never really dreaded these turning points. I know people who sobbed on their 30th because they felt some sort of loss and the need to grieve. I am happily saying 'hasta' to the 20s and the many interesting experiences of them. My 20s weren't bad, in fact they were a downright monumental decade (college, marriage, teaching career, two children, homes, starting a business), but I'm ready to settle into the 30s and realize that I probably won't have as many life-altering changes in this decade as I did in the last. And that is comforting, because although I crave and relish the little changes in life (hairstyle, furnishings, restaurant choice, etc.), I could win the WORLD'S LEAST GRACEFUL LIFE CHANGER award hands down.

I have a fabulous friend/soul sister/sister in Zion who turned 30 last month. She made it a beautiful and thoughtful occasion. She thought about what she wanted to do (i.e. have kids, make delicious food, buy a house) in the future and then celebrated each goal symbolically. I didn't have the forethought to make mine so amazing, but that's okay because it turned out pretty great anyway.

Although Jonnie decided that birthday week was preposterous, he surprised me with "birthday 3 days." So I received a beautiful bouquet of roses on Tuesday, a 4 gig nano ipod and the nicest card he's ever written me on Wednesday, and I think today is See's Chocolates. (Hoping, hoping, hoping.) I like 3 days for thirty. Maybe I'll get birthday week when I turn 70 . . .

Yesterday I talked to/spent time with many of my favorite people--you know who you are--and I think I kind of had this little smile inside all day, knowing that I had a secret----actually, it wasn't quite a secret because I felt obliged to tell everyone and their . . . , but you get the picture. It was cause for continual internal smile.

In the spirit of retrospection, I thought about some of my experiences over the last 3 decades and realized that I've experienced some amazing adventures, beautiful friendships, intense trials, hilarious escapades, and the comfort of a wonderful family from whom I came and a wonderful family of which I am co-captain. It's been a good 30 years. I have been abundantly blessed. Thanks!

And so 30. I woke up this morning and felt pretty grown up, but still pretty young. I'm legit, but I still have a few free-passes to be slightly foolish. No longer a 20-something wanderer? I feel re-inspired to live life to the fullest, and be deliberate in all of my actions. It's nice.

So I'm taking a deep breath and ushering in a new decade of renewed and continuing relationships, healthy lifestyle choices (although I don't think I'll be giving up my diet pepsi habit any time soon), deliberate decisions, exciting adventures, and renewed spirituality. It's refreshing. And although I'm perfectly pleased to be living in the here and now, I can't help but look a little forward to "birthday 4 days" celebration and what life will look like from that vantage point. Isn't life exciting?