Strong Start.

Rather than keep you in suspense, I might as well go ahead and tell you that my 30th birthday was stellar. I suppose the fact that I kicked off the celebrations a few days before my actually birthday and kind of, sort of, have been continually celebrating on various levels every day since tells you a few things. 1.) I decided to embrace my 30’s with wild abandon and B.) my friends are rock stars. iii.) no really, they are.

Some highlights from my first week + as a 30 year old:

Saturday:
-- Bar gathering with super fun, fabulous group of friends on my last Saturday night as twenty something. (Because, as I said to my friends, don’t 20-something’s spend their weekends at bars? Shouldn’t I adhere to that stereotype one more time?)

Sunday:
-- Brunch with another super fun, fabulous group of friends – even one in from California! – my last DAY as a 20-something. (I figured 30-somethings do that, right? Lots of brunches? Act all sophisticated and what-not, while 20-somethings sleep their hangovers away? I wanted to get a jump start on the good life.)

-- Spent my last night as a 29 year old with Bono and The Edge. Which, of course means, I saw U2 play at Gillette Stadium. Who doesn’t love U2? Communists. I mean, even my Dad knows who Bono is. (The Edge? Eh, I had to educate him on that one. We can’t win all battles though, can we?) Anyway, this concert happened rather spontaneously because I have one amazing friend who gave me two tickets to the show for my birthday. Love. I didn’t exactly love the traffic (3 miles in 3 hours, I am not exaggerating in the least) getting home, but we survived.

Monday: (The birthday!)

-- Summarized, in run-on sentence format:

From the first moment I got up and opened a present from my Dad to walking into work to find my desk covered with cards and presents, to getting email after text after facebook message wishing me a Happy Birthday, to co-workers treating me to a delicious lunch complete with dessert, to an hour + phone call from my brother in Afghanistan(!) to chatting with my Mother, to heading over to my favorite restaurant in the city to meet some of my super fun, fabulous, and delightful friends for cocktails and drinks, to more cards and gifts and stories and laughs and hugs and champagne and singing waiters, to phone calls with family and friends, to collapsing into bed with a huge grin on my face, it was an absolutely perfectly perfect day. One I want to squeeze every last memory out of, one that made me want to bubble over with happiness, and gush love to all those around me. If this is 30? You and I are going to get along swell.

Tuesday:

--Woke up with a cold.

Isn’t that always the way? It’s no matter though because if anything I was just thrilled the Sick Gods kept away until the day after the big celebration. Of course, they’ve been hanging out with a vengeance ever since. You’ve got to admire their intensity at least.

So far the rest of 30 has rolled by in a glorious, fun, amazing blur. (Well, except for this head cold.) There have been more dinners out, more laughs, more lovely moments than I can count. And the gifts? Not a materialistic person, I’m all for the it’s just the thought that counts mentality, but wow! my friends have really blown me out of the water with both their thoughtfulness and ability to find the exact, perfect thing for me. (See above, rock stars, friends.)

As I sit here typing this entry, I wonder if perhaps I should edit my ramblings down a tad or if I should have thrown a photo or three in to keep you all entertained. But, then I wrinkle my nose and think, nah. My birthday was simply perfect – in all of its unedited, rambling, keep the party going fabulousness, so I’ll keep it that way -- wrapped up in my brain as the loveliest start to the most wondrous decade forever.