30

I decided to leave my 20s behind with a bang. The 20s were pretty good. Probably peaked around 24, but hey, all around not too shabby. In any case it seemed only appropriate to GBOGH (pronunciation debatable). So we did. "We" because it was mostly a team effort with my role on the team being to show up and party. Done and done. The party weekend was awesome (better descriptions for great/fun/hilarious/fantastic always escape me). I ate a lot of my favorite foods, watched a fire & knife dancer try to shake hands with someone while his hand was aflame*, rode a mechanical bull (and got a little motion sick - stupid vestibular system...but it was still worth it!), got two tickets to that thing I love, played games with the fam, watched my March Madness brackets destroy everyone else's, and generally enjoyed myself immensely.

And to think, it started with a web of lies thanks to all my siblings who said they were too busy to fly in to see me. Examples:

Lie #1: "[sad] you chose to have your birthday bash on the weekend B is heading up a YM campout and I am speaking in ward conference....all committed to long long before..."

Lie #2: "I have to run this babysitting night thing for my calling. Sat night the moms in the ward bring their kids..."

Lie #3: [in response to my question about whether money or prior commitments was keeping my sib away] "It really is more a matter of finals/projects. Between this and next week I'm not even sure when I'll be able to sleep!"

Turns out while I believed them all (although I did think things like "didn't you give a talk a month ago? Are you the only one up there accepting speaking assignments?!" and "babysitting on the weekends?! They really DO take advantage of the newlyweds don't they!"....the projects excuse I believed pretty easily. I basically handed that one out to him. Planning a wedding gives you an out?) I should have known better because they all showed up, surprised me (REALLY surprised me) and redeemed themselves from their lying ways.

It was a fantastic surprise and a great start to my birthday weekend. In fact, by the time the weekend had ended I kind of forgot that I hadn't ACTUALLY turned 30 yet. It seemed like any other celebrating would be superfluous. But don't worry - I continued to party on for the rest of the week anyway. In fact the celebrating continued on until just about...now. Because right now it's settling in that vacation is over and tomorrow it's back to work. boooooo

Sometime when my camera is right next to me and I'm on my computer and can reach over and plug the camera in to download pictures from the party and from my trip (i.e. when the stars align) I'll dedicate more time to blogging about the birthday greatness. But for now I'm too old to still be awake on a weeknight. So I'm going to bed.

And so begins the 30s.

*I saw a guy do that in the PCC luau show when I was probably 6 or so and thought it was AMAZING and vowed then that if a fire & knife guy ever tried to shake MY hand like that I would do it because if it wasn't burning him it HAD to be okay, right? Plus he wouldn't offer it if it wasn't safe, right? ...I don't remember exactly when I finally realized that was flawed reasoning but it was definitely a lot later in life than it should've been.

Body Clocks & Birthdays

Having recently (as in...less than two hours ago) returned from a cross country trip, I would expect my body clock to be all out of whack. It should be a little after 3am to me now. But eh, no, it feels like a little after midnight. That doesn't make any sense. Also what doesn't make sense: my body wakes me up by 7:30a at the latest on the west coast, but first morning of being on the east coast? Up at 7:28a. What the? Shouldn't that be 4:28a to me? ...It CAN'T be that I'm young and spry and my body adjusts to this sort of time travel as if it's nothing because (a) I just had a birthday that objectively kicked me out of the "young and spry" club. And (b) I can't go on roller coasters any more because I'll get sick and throw up due to a failing vestibular system. And if that doesn't scream "you're old and your body knows it" I don't know what does.

But speaking of birthdays. Yesterday (as in March 30 even though it still counts as "today" to me because I haven't gone to sleep yet) was my dad's birthday. So Happy Birthday! You don't look a day over 45. No seriously, you don't. Remember how people thought you were my older brother? That's gotta feel good, right? And then there was that time just a couple years ago when one of my friends was looking at the family Christmas (Valentines Day) card and exclaimed "oh he's dreamy!" and we thought she meant Micah but she meant you. Kelly was there she can back me up on that.

Anyway I know your vestibular system is still functioning just fine so maybe in celebration we should take you on a roller coaster! Eh? Well think about it. I'll hold your popcorn and wait for you at the exit.

Happy Birthday Dad!