Yesterday was my 30th birthday. I am not the person who complains about getting older every year. On the contrary, I always thank God for blessing me with another year of life. When I was in my early twenties, a fellow camp counselor, who had just gotten engaged and was sweet and full of joy and life and kindness, was killed at the age of 22 by a drunk driver. It completely shook me up, and I have not been ungrateful for any birthdays since (and honestly wasn’t before, either, just because I was very young and wasn’t feeling age).
Now, all I feel is a little bit of restlessness with goals that may not have been achieved, or things I thought would be happening by a certain age that aren’t. I think this year’s is obvious, and having a milestone birthday really makes it sink in. I think young women set high standards for what 30 should be – what should have been accomplished, and what we expect our thirties to look like. I had wanted to have my first child at 30, and a year or so ago, settled for being pregnant 30. Now I would settle even for being able to say we are TRYING to get pregnant at 30. But we aren’t there.
I won’t go further into that because I want to stay focused on my gratitude, both for life and for the people in my life who made me feel so, so loved this year.
I was pretty disappointed initially, because the two things I really wanted for my birthday wouldn’t be happening. The first was ziplining. It’s on my “bucket list” and I had tried to arrange for a group of my friends to go on Saturday, but it didn’t work out. Everyone had other commitments such as planned vacations. It took a lot of work to try to coordinate it amongst everyone, and then to be the only one who booked was upsetting. I had to cancel my reservation and we all agreed to try again at the end of the summer, but obviously it wouldn’t be happening my birthday weekend.
The second was going to see the play Once. I’ve been dying to see it, and we never go to shows just because it’s not in our budget while we are always saving money for The Next Big Thing (wedding, house, now babies). I had been set on this for months. However, tickets were far more expensive than we had anticipated and we just felt we shouldn’t spend on that right now. For the short amount of time between that and Nicole coming up with another idea, I just felt so disappointed and let down. I admit I had a miniature pity party. But my birthday ended up being so, so wonderful.
Nicole booked an excursion for us in Juneau, which was the one town that no one in our family had booked anything. She then invited the rest of my family if they chose, while understanding they may not want to spend the money to go. My parents agreed to accompany us almost immediately, and my sister and brother-in-law decided to minutes before the excursion. It was SO much fun having all of us together. We went to a salmon hatchery, Mendenhall Glacier, and a salmon bake, and it was an absolute blast. I felt so loved that they would all come on an excursion that they would not otherwise have done.
Back in Seattle after the cruise, my parents took Nicole and me to lunch at the top of the Space Needle. The restaurant rotates sloooowly so that you get to see the entire Seattle landscape during your meal. It was so beautiful. Because it rotates, some people leave notes on the sill which doesn’t move so that others will find them. Unbeknownst to me, my mother had put a note there saying they were from SC and were taking their daughter from NYC out to lunch for her 30th birthday. When I found the note, there was a “Happy Birthday” wish from someone in another state. By the end of the meal when we retrieved it, there were two more messages, one from Australia and one from Copenhagen, Denmark. So cool!
The Sunday before my birthday, our friend C took us on a picnic at the Nassau County Art Museum’s grounds, which were gorgeous and empty due to construction that week inside the museum. We had tuna salad, chicken salad, watermelon, cherries, grape leaves, and lemonade. C also brought a mini cake that was made in a Montauk bakery and had only whole ingredients in it. After lunch, we went to the Queens County Museum, where C bought me a cute gardening mug and a pail of alfalfa to feed the alpacas, sheep, and goats. Llamas and alpacas are my favorite animal and it did my soul good to pet and feed one.
Sunday evening, Nicole took me to dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant that is only a block from our house. On Saturday, I had asked if we could go over to her parents’ for dinner the next night because I like being around them for my birthday. Apparently she had already planned our dinner out, so she called them last-minute and asked if they would join us. Her parents, sister, and sister’s boyfriend were able to go. They gave me gift cards for Starbucks and Amazon and paid for the meal. So sweet of them.
Monday, my actual birthday, my coworkers had lunch with me (including a co-supervisor who was on vacation and came in just for this) and Allyson baked me a lemon raspberry cake from scratch. My best friend N sent flowers to the office for me. That evening, my friend C was driving down to pick up another friend on their way to Florida and stopped in to have frozen yogurt at Red Mango with us, which she treated.
Next week when we get out early the day before July 4th, N is taking me to a movie and dinner. Then later in the month, another friend J is taking me to the movies. (See a pattern here? Movies are my favorite thing and something my wife can’t do as it makes her motion sick.)
I feel so loved and spoiled.
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