The One Before Thirty

I turned 29 this weekend, dear readers.  Twenty.  Nine.

The birthday before THE birthday.

I was hanging out with one of the coolest twenty-somethings I know recently, someone on the other side of this decade, and she let me know that according to this book, I’ve done a bang-up job with these formative years.  According to Kelly Williams Brown, I’m not doing too bad, either.

And so I’m not going to make a list of thirty things I’m going to do before I’m thirty.  I would love to read yours.  But I can’t make mine.  It feels too final.  Like thirty is it.  And that’s just not an attitude I can take on right now.  I had a hard enough time saying “I’m twenty-nine,” when my in-laws took me out to lunch.

So here, dear readers, are twenty-nine things I am incredibly thankful for, all of which have happened over my birthday week (everyone should celebrate their birthday all week long).  Well, plus a bonus 30th, because I really need to get used to saying that number.

1. Pedis with CV(D)
2. Surprise cupcakes x 4 (including that one pictured above, which CV(D) baked from A Glass of Milk!)
3. Being sung to by an awesome 12 year old at the top of her lungs
4. My new favorite smoothie (banana, yogurt, OJ, frozen raspberries, and frozen pineapple, spinach optional)
5. Ice cream with my ex
6. Getting lost while power-walking through the Georgetown campus.  It’s beautiful at night.
7. My new Lilly planner, and using it to mark a very important date next August
8. A day at home with nothing to do but catch up on Project Life
9. Re-watching Glee all the way through (nothing beats Season 1)
10. Happy hour and dinner with coworkers who are some of my best friends here
11. Lunch at a favorite neighborhood spot
12. Lunch at another favorite neighborhood spot
13. Trying new foods at both, and loving them (eggplant bolognese, and Muskeget salad, respectively)
14. My new Gap dress that I would wear all day, every day, if I could
15. Finding a new favorite local cupcake place (thanks Ali)
16. Seeing an envelope from Queen Cupcake addressed to my old last name
17. New scrapbooking goodies from Queen Cupcake
18. Summer Shandy
19. Free Starbucks (get the app, dear readers, and get free Starbucks on your birthday, too)
20. Talking to SCL on the phone
21. Hearing Hilton Head referred to as “a civilized beach” by someone I greatly admire (I have to get there some day)
22. Dreaming about my next trip to New York
23. Going to Dave Matthews
24. Getting caught in the rain (it always makes for a good story)
25. Cool Ranch Doritos
26. Road trips that get you somewhere quicker than you thought
27. Being at the beach
28. List-making
29. Seeing friends I’ve known my whole life
30. Turning another year older