It’s my 30th birthday!! Today. Today I enter my 3rd decade. Dude. Time for a mini-midlife crisis?? Nah.
I am a birthday snob. For 30 years now (or at least ever since I can remember), I have felt that the entire world should stand still on May 24th in honor of me. Everything should go my way. It should be a perfect May 24th birthday experience every year. Like no hangnails. No cranky kids. No dishes. No laundry. No clutter. May 24th should always be devoted to honoring me with perfection. OK, while I’d be pumped about the lack of hangnail, cranky kids, laundry, etc. and I did just wake up the boys while singing Happy Birthday to ME, I feel I’ve reached a state of maturity this year. I don’t actually expect the entire day to be devoted to the worship of me (‘cuz that’d be bad)….I expect several WEEKS to be devoted to the worship of me.  And so far, things are looking good.

I got to see my FAVORITE musical group – Straight No Chaser – with a few of my dear pals. (What was ironic is that when Mike and I saw SNC in November we were LITERALLY in the front row. This time, we were in the front row of the 2nd balcony where I’m fairly certain they handed out optional oxygen due to the altitude. Still a great show though!). I also got to see a funky funk band at a funky bar on Friday night. I get to have a playdate with our best friends (Rebecca and her boys) today (and a gourmet-feast of a birthday lunch I’m sure). I get to go for a run this afternoon with one of my closest high school friends – who I haven’t seen in two years! I’m doing happy hours with friends tomorrow. Next weekend, we’ll be heading to Port Ludlow with my fam for a weekend of lazy luxury and further birthday celebration. And the weekend after THAT, I get to fly to Monterey, CA to see my dear friend Katherine, her army-man hubby Dan and her pixie-cute baby Grace.

Oh, we think Zachary broke his toe. Youch! The monkey was hanging on the towel bar in the bathroom (how many times have we told him not to??? Guess he HAD to learn the hard way). The bar came out of the wall including the big, solid medal attachment-to-the-wall-ball-part-thingy and landed on his toe. It is now purple-colored (the toe, not the wall thing) and all puffy-chubby. He’s hobbling about. Maybe we should consider having it looked at but what could they even do about it? Maybe he should’ve listened to his wise parents in the first place. Yeah, maybe.

So, it may not be a day of absolute perfection – we’ve a broken toe, there’s laundry literally stacked at the end of the hall just awaiting its’ put-awayedness, dishes need to get put away. We’ve already had two kids throw fits. (I’ve tried – and failed – to use the line, “Nope. Sorry. There’s no crying on my birthday.” Even that didn’t work). Sigh.

Thanks to all my readers, family, and friends for the years and years of support. Here’s to 30 more…and then 30 more after that.