Three Oh

Yesterday, I turned thirty. It is one of those milestones that’s supposed to mean a lot. I’m supposed to have a list of things I wanted to accomplish by the time I was thirty and spend yesterday going through that list, checking off items and leaving a large chunk unchecked and feeling depressed all day. Isn’t that what those ‘significant’ birthdays for after all?

After a really long week at work and an even longer weekend before that, Jake and I had decided to drive up to Santa Barbara for my birthday. His thirtieth was a week ago and since I was rolling out my new system, I could only take a day off so we went to Cleveland National Park for the day and figured we’d celebrate both of our days in Santa Barbara this past weekend. We ended up sleeping much later than we planned to on Friday and woke up way too late and struggled to get out of the house on Saturday morning. Despite the late start, we made it into the city well before sunset and managed to stay in a beautiful, simple hotel, see some sea lions, watch the sunset from the pier, eat a delicious Italian dinner, have several romantic walks and see a lot of the city.

I used to make a big deal about birthdays. I had to have candles and presents and people calling. A few years ago, I gave it all up. Now, all I need is a simple, wonderful day with my wonderful husband and I am glad for each friend who remembers and don’t keep track of the ones who don’t. Friendships aren’t built around remembering birthdays; they are built on being there day in and day out. So are relationships. I feel like I may not have accomplished a long laundry list of achievements by my thirtieth birthday but I am in a truly loving relationship with a man I adore, I have a job that keeps us sustained and gives me the luxury of working from home, I am healty, and out family is about to increase by one. I don’t think there’s much more I could have asked for my birthday.

Thank you to all of you who remembered and thank you to everyone else for stopping by.