Wordless Wednesday: 30th Birthday

 

 

Saturday night I was completely surprised by a birthday 

dinner my friends organized. It was an incredible night and 

by the end I felt spoiled rotten. What a way to ring in your 30s!

More Wordless Wednesday here.

  

Photos by friends.

On Turning 30

 

 

Today I turned 30, so I couldn't help but think about the past decade. It has been an incredible one filled with unexpected trials and joyful moments.

 

In the last decade I have ...

 

- Graduated from college

- Lived in London

- Worked at a daily newspaper, ad agency, and medical journal

- Become an aunt

- Made friends that will last me a lifetime

- Visited 12 countries in Europe

- Joined the book blogging community

- Bought my first house

- Gotten married to a handsome devil

- Gained a wonderful family of in-laws through my husband’s family and siblings’ spouses

- Taken dozens of road trips across the United States

- Read hundreds of books

- Gained an 80lb bundle of canine love

- Become the editor of a monthly magazine

- Learned how to cook

- Seen 321 plays and musicals

 

I loved my 20s. They were full of adventures and struggles and they taught me so much. I learned how important it is to be unashamed of who you are. I learned that strength comes in many forms and that it's the people in your life that make it both wonderful and challenging. I learned that I need grace every day. I learned to never put your dreams off for another time. If something is important to you, do it now. You don't know how many tomorrows you get and you'll never regret taking one more trip.

 

 

So here's to whatever the next decade holds. I have so much to learn and so much I want to do. I think it’s going to be even better than the last.

 

Hello 29!

Oh my goodness how I love birthdays and lucky me, today is mine! Seriously guys, birthdays are the absolute best. It's not about presents or anything like that. I love having an excuse to celebrate life, to do fun things that you might not normally do and to spend time with all the people you love. Instead of presents, the Huz always spends a whole weekend having fun adventures with me around the city. We check out new restaurants and go to museums or events that I've always wanted to check out. 

I've never dreaded becoming a year older. I think it's fantastic. I've never regretted one year of my life or the way I've lived it, so each new birthday is a chance to celebrate another year of possibilities. Who knows what adventures this year will hold! 

So here's a few lists to celebrate turning 29! 

5 Things I'm doing during my birthday weekend:

1) Attending my first roller derby game

2) Dinner at a Kurt Vonnegut inspired restaurant 

3) Touring Monument Circle 

4) Drinks at a cool new martini bar

5) Check out the local craft brews at Tomlinson Tap Room

5 Things I'm planning to do this year:

1) Go to Harry Potter World in September! (already bought the tickets!) 

2) Celebrate my BFF's destination wedding as the MOH in June, so freakin' excited for her!

3) Visit Margaret Mitchell's house in Atlanta 

4) Swim with Dolphins 

5) Attend my first Indy 500 Race (I'm a Hoosier and I've never been, shameful)

5 things I'm grateful for:

1) The Huz, always

2) Health, I take it for granted, but all of the people who are incredibly important to me are healthy, such a blessing.

3) Steady jobs for both me and the Huz

4) My niece and nephews. I may not be ready for kids, but these guys are such a joy.

5) The pup, I post way too many Ollie photos on Instagram, but I seriously love that dog. 

5 awesome things I'm grateful for in the past year:

1) Lots of weekend trips and the friends I've taken them with: Shakespeare plays in Wisconsin, a lake house in Kentucky, the Smokey Mountains, Washington DC, Louisville, and Chicago. Each one of those trips was a chance to spend time with family or friends who I love so much. There's something about traveling with people that gives you a chance to get to know them so much better, I love it.

2) Every new thing I learn how to cook

3) Time to read and the desire to do so, such a gift! 

4) A massive road trip to Montana with the Huz

5) All of the joyous events in the lives of the people I love: graduations, babies, marriages, success at work, new houses, new pets, new adventures; each one makes me so happy.

Image from here, because birthday pie is way better than birthday cake.

27

It’s my 27th birthday today! Woo hoo. Birthdays are big for me, probably because my sister’s is the day before mine and my Dad’s is the same day as mine. So I “shared” my birthday growing up, which isn’t a bad thing, but it does make you want to carve out some space for your own little b-day.

My poor husband knows that I get a birthday “week,” (which I would highly recommend by the way). Instead of just celebrating for one day, I get to do fun stuff for a whole week (my sister does this too)! It’s not about presents (though yay for presents), it’s about spending time with the people you love and celebrating your life in different ways. One night I’ll have dinner with a good friend or something like that, then the next I’ll watch my favorite movies at home with the Huz, but the best part is saying, “but it’s my birthday (week)” everyday. Want to have your favorite thing for dinner or get control of the TV remote… it’s your birthday!

Anyway, to celebrate I decided to make a list of 27 of my favorite books. It sounds incredibly easy, 27, there should be plenty of room on that list for everyone, right? Apparently not, I traded a few on and off and found in the end I still didn’t have anything by Neil Gaiman or P.G. Wodehouse or Roald Dahl on the list. My list is also sorely lacking all my favorite books I read as a kid/teen and some great dystopian novels, etc.

That’s ok, here’s the best I could do with fitting them all on there…

27 of my Favorite Books

1) The Book Thief
2) Jane Eyre
3) The Shadow of the Wind
4) Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
5) Persuasion
6) Ender’s Game
7) A Moveable Feast
8) Hamlet
9) The Harry Potter series (yes, I’m including all 7 books in one slot)
10) Me Talk Pretty One Day
11) The History of Love
12) Catch-22
13) Maus
14) Nine Stories
15) I Capture the Castle
16) Empire Falls
17) Travels With Charley
18) The Importance of Being Ernest
19) The Time Traveler's Wife
20) Great Expectations
21) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (all 5 books)
22) To Kill a Mockingbird
23) Howards End
24) Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
25) Tuck Everlasting
26) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
27) And Then There Were None

What are some of your favorites?

p.s. The photo is of the giveaway books I won from the wonderful Ruby at BookQuoter. I got the box on the first day of birthday week (yes people, it’s a real thing), and it felt like a birthday present! I’m so excited to read them all, especially The Weird Sisters.



p.p.s. I got a haircut! Haircuts are not news, but I felt like sharing anyway... and it's birthday week so I can (see how that works). I've had short hair for years. Then I grew it out in'09. I always think I'll love long hair, but it inevitably ends up looking like it does in the first picture. And why go to all the trouble of keeping you hair long if it's always up? So it went from the length in the second picture to the third picture. I'm happy and love it.

Photos by moi.