Today I turned 30. Woot.
My mom didn’t make me pose under an “I AM 30” banner this year, nor did she craft a crown as she’s done before, but my parents did host a surprise brunch for me on Sunday. Sherry helped plan it with them. I knew about the brunch because my cousins, aunt, uncle, and little sister had traveled in from DC, but I didn’t realize they were celebrating my thirtieth until someone set a muffin plate topped with candles in front of me. My mom also made a cute handmade gift:
Rather than slipping cash or gift cards into a plain envelope, she created a paper “flower” with a smiling spatula as the stem and paper leaf pockets holding gift cards to my favorite spots. The tin can “planter” was stuffed with new running socks — likely one of my dad’s contributions.
My sisters pitched in on another present:
They got me the Christine Berrie bicycle print I’ve admired for a long time. It’s a perfect match for my growing bicycle-themed art collection. Speaking of that collection, I finally managed to track down the Gap bicycle prints I’d wanted for ages when a helpful Gap manager sent them to our PO Box after I kept asking. It was a happy surprise. The lesson: sometimes persistence pays off — and hooray for recycling, get it? Bicycle, cycling — I’m pleased with the pun.
We haven’t decided on exact places to hang the bike prints yet, so photos of them in their final spots will have to wait for a future post.
I do, however, have photos of Sherry’s gift. Any guesses?
It’s a white rhino. Specifically, she surprised me with a large Robbie trophy from Cardboard Safari. I know it sounds odd, but rhinos have become kind of our thing—we even worked one into our blog header.
Sherry knows I’ve always loved the bigger Cardboard Safari pieces. We also have a smaller full-bodied Robbie that appears around the house from time to time, in spots like the console table and the laundry room. Big Robbie makes sense since I once surprised Sherry with a ceramic rhino for Valentine’s Day and staged a rhino scavenger hunt. Apparently we enjoy giving each other horned mammals, and each gift keeps getting larger. Maybe someday we’ll have a life-sized rhino in the kitchen, à la the giant dog from TV.
One practical note for anyone considering a large trophy: check how far it protrudes from the wall. Big Robbie juts out about 18 inches, so we chose a corner spot where people won’t walk into him. So while nobody puts Baby in a corner, we happily placed Robbie in one — and he fits perfectly there.
Overall, the birthday celebrations were low-key, which I prefer. My family took me out to dinner last night, and tonight my mom is watching Clara so Sherry and I can have a date night. Lately Sherry has been calling me her “silver fox” because I’ve got a streak of gray up front. She insists it’s a compliment and often cites Anderson Cooper as evidence.
I never made a public “30 before 30” checklist like some bloggers, but it turns out I had written a to-do list back in high school for a senior English assignment. Finding that old notebook felt oddly satisfying. I’d even updated it once around 2005, marking some items as completed. Many things remain unchecked: visiting more countries, bungee jumping, and getting movie roles weren’t in the cards yet. But Sherry and I did visit Hollywood in October 2005, and I had a brief encounter with Kelly Clarkson at an event in May 2005, which feels like a partial win.
Some other items are hazy — I can’t remember if we still had our fish when we adopted Burger — and I never learned to play the bass guitar, or even the regular guitar for long, though I owned one briefly in 2002. On the career front, I did work for the National Geographic Channel in the summer of 2001. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was meaningful and a nice memory from youth.
I had already visited Hawaii with a friend before meeting Sherry, and we later added Alaska to our honeymoon trips. That counts toward travel goals, and we plan to visit Hawaii again next year to celebrate both Sherry’s 30th and our fifth wedding anniversary, so I’ll be checking that box soon.
As for turning 30 itself — it feels a lot like 29. We’re enjoying this time, especially watching Clara grow; she’s walking, talking, and singing adorable, unexpected versions of songs. This morning she sang, “Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you said.” It made everyone laugh.
Thanks to my family for a warm, fun 30th celebration, and to everyone who helped shape my twenties into an eventful decade. Here’s hoping the thirties bring just as much joy and adventure.