4 Days In…and I Feel FINE! March 4, 2009
Posted by Stephanie in 30 in Seattle, Everything, Seattle, WTF?!.Tags: age, drinking, parties, patience, Seattle, tolerance, turning 30
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So, Saturday was the big day—the day I turned 30! And I must admit, 4 days later I still don’t feel like my world is falling apart / coming to an end / spiraling into oblivion. In fact, with the exception of the “Day After” (which was spent entirely horizontal on the couch to prevent myself from projectile vomiting), I’m feeling pretty good! That’s not to say that there aren’t some down-sides to getting older, though…
Everyone Else Is Getting YOUNGER: I’ve started to notice that the older I get, the younger everyone else seems to get. High School kids look like infants, and college graduates look like they should be heading to home-room, and not back to the bar for another round of drinks. Looking back at old photos of myself at those ages, I could swear that I never looked as young as the kids these days do. Which makes me wonder—how old do they think I look?!
Less Tolerant: Perhaps it’s because I’m now subconsciously aware of how little time I have left (god, that makes it sound like I’m dying), but I have discovered I have very little patience for a lot of things. Amongst them are slow drivers, oblivious people—the kind that come to a dead stop right in front of you at the mall to stop and tie their shoe/pick their nose/answer their phone, the generally obnoxious, and girls that I know are smart but that act like they are stupid because they think it makes them cuter/more charming (newsflash: it DOESN’T). There are so many other things that I have completely lost patience for that, were I to mention them all here, it would make me sound like a bitter and unhappy woman. And I’m generally happy.
Generally.
My “Legal Limit” Keeps Going…DOWN: As I experienced first-hand on Saturday, the number of drinks that I can have on any given night goes down significantly with every birthday. Similarly, the recovery time needed after a night of “heavy drinking” increases in proportion to my age. In my twenties, I could be 10-15 drinks in before I would consider myself unbelievably hammered. And even then, I was able to happily enjoy my buzz for quite some time before feeling like I was officially entering Pukesville via the Never-Ending Spinning Turnpike. Nowadays, I hit my limit around 5 drinks, and it goes a little something like this:
Drink #1: Sober
Drink #2: Still Sober
Drink #3: Disappointingly Sober, waiting for buzz to kick in
Drink #4: Sober—for the love of GOD!
Drink #5: Take me home*, cause I might puke right here at the table
*over the course of the ride home, the alcohol I have already consumed continues to enter the bloodstream, making me increasingly drunker. No amount of water will slow this process.
All that being said, I made the following vows to myself as I was nursing my hangover on Sunday: In my 30’s I will drink less, smile more, and remind myself every day that I’m only as old as I feel. Now if that isn’t a recipe for happiness and contentment, I don’t know what is…
Countdown To 30: why I WON’T be wearing black to my birthday party February 23, 2009
Posted by Stephanie in 30 in Seattle, Boys, Everything, Seattle, WTF?!.Tags: 30, alcohol, birthdays, Boys, Everything, growing old, life events, parties, quarter-life crisis, singlehood, turning 30
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In 5 days, I turn 30. And from what I hear, turning 30 strikes a chord of fear in most people. But for whatever reason, I don’t flinch at the thought. While the impending “doom” of my 30th birthday doesn’t fill me with panic, it DOES make me excited about what the next 30 years might bring. I thought I might take this week to reflect on the good, the bad, and the…miscellaneous aspects about turning 30. Today, the GOOD:
I know what I like and what I don’t like. For example, in my 20’s I experimented with a variety of different ways to have fun—from which I have deduced that I do NOT like clubs. Therefore, when planning a night out on the town with my friends, “clubbing” will not be on the agenda. If it is, I’m calling it an early night. And I’m ok with that.
I no longer get carded when buying alcohol. In fact even when I’m with a group of people, and everyone ELSE at the table gets carded, generally the waitress/waiter won’t ask for my ID. This is fine by me, because my driver’s license photo is ATROCIOUS. However, when I start getting offers for senior discounts on movie tickets or buffets, I’ll start to worry. Hell—the minute I start eating at buffets, I’m in trouble.
I’m average. Don’t get me wrong—I don’t mean “average” in the lame sense of the word: quite the contrary! I’m an exemplary human being in more ways than one. What I mean is that, for all the ways that I freaked out during the “Quarter-Life Crisis” years of my mid-twenties, I am perfectly average. Yes, I’m still single—but there are MILLIONS of 30-somethings happily riding the “singles train”, and I’m glad to be among them. So I don’t own a home—good thing, because with this economy, I’d likely be in over my head right about now. I have a great, professional job in the financial sector—and with record numbers of Americans being out of work right now, I’m happy to be ahead of the game. No, for all the catch-up I thought I had to do when I was 25, I’ve realized that I’m right where I’m supposed to be…and I have been all along.
My social circle is shrinking a bit. In my 20’s, I still felt the pressure to have a BUNCH of friends and a buzzing social life. The older I got, the more I withdrew from that way of thinking…almost to the point of becoming a recluse. Luckily for me, I work with a really GREAT group of people. So I feel like being at the office is a bit like hanging w/ my friends…during which time I also get work done and collect a paycheck. That being said, I don’t travel in such large social circles that my evenings and weekends are being pulled every which way. No, I’m free to enjoy 5 episodes of Battlestar Galactica back to back on a Tuesday night if I wish, or spend an entire Saturday on the couch watching a Top Chef marathon. I’m not obligated to anyone, can do as I please, and have to apologize to no one. Life is bliss.
Time flies…by which I mean it moves at a snail’s pace. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been on this planet 30 years. 30! Depending on which way I look at it, time either seems to be flying by, or moving very VERY slowly. It doesn’t feel like I’ve been around for 30 years: so much of that time has been a blur. But when I think back to where I was at this time one year ago, it seems like a decade has passed. And when I consider the fact that, barring some freak accident or a tumor, I will likely live well past the age of 60—well that means that my life isn’t even half over yet!
All that to say, in 5 days when the clock strikes midnight, I won’t be in mourning for my youth. No, if I’m shrouded in black on Saturday it will be because it makes me look thinner…NOT because I’m depressed. Turning 30 is going to be a GOOD thing—and here’s to 30 more!
