Thrilling Thirties

Yup! I'm thirty. 30. Tengo treinta añitos. I'm now in the decade of grown-ups, but still young grown-ups, where I'm old enough but not yet old. Clearly I'm actually 12. Or 14. Alas. Regardless, my twenties were tumultuous, to say the least. I turned 21 while living in Spain, lost my mom at 22, went to Bali at 22, went to Ghana at 23, started grad school in Texas at 23, started going to Peru at 24, got my heart broken (really broken) at 24, got my master's at 25, took doctoral comps at 27, lived in Peru from 27 to 28, celebrated 29 in Austin, got a new boyfriend at 29, went to India at 29, and moved to Cleveland to start a new job at 29. There have been some serious ups and some serious downs in that decade, as with any decade, and I'm assuming that my 30s will bring more of the same. The difference is that I know myself a lot better now than I did then. I'm much more comfortable with me, myself, and I. I have grown and changed tremendously in these past few years, and I don't expect the growing or changing or learning to stop, I just expect it to come with bigger grains of salt and maybe some warm weather, if Cleveland would please oblige.

So I'm calling this decade The Thrilling Thirties. I will be graduating with my Ph.D. in this decade. Aside from that, who knows what this decade will bring? Hopefully another stint in Spain or maybe in India. Hopefully warmer weather. Maybe less anxiety about my professional future. Maybe a little dent in school loans, or even a car. I guess we'll see...

In the meantime, I had a wonderful birthday week complete with a visit from Nik, a lovely party with Cory, and snow. The snow was less welcome than the other two things, but it added a bit of adventure regardless.

And of course I still am ga-ga over Lenny Kaye. That may fade. It may not, but who cares? It's rock n roll, right?