Thoughts of an upcoming birthday...

I drove down to Cape Coral today to visit an old friend... one of my oldest friends, actually. This is one of the first people I met when I moved to Florida when I was eight years old. The drive down here is two hours, so I had plenty of time to do some thinking, so think I did.

With all the recent planning for my birthday extravaganza, i started to think about which birthday its going to be for me. My thirtieth. I'm turning thirty. After that point, when i write my age it will start with a three instead of a two.

How weird is that?

Craziness.

Pure insanity.

I'm turning thirty.

I'm not upset or scared or angry or anything like that. I'm just.... surprised. Not that I didn't think I'd make it this far, just that I didn't think I'd get here so quickly.

My twenties are a blur. Not from week-long drinking binges or anything like that. It's a motion blur, like when you take a picture of a race-car going twohundredmilesanhour with a POS digital camera.

I'm not even sure I remember my twentieth birthday... that was the year I was with Michelle, though, I remember that. Still living on campus at UF. That was the year Marco turned 21 and we had our first bash with alcohol. We drank beer, did lemon drops and somehow Marco ended up putting his ass through Amar's sister's wall (we actually had to re-do the drywall before she moved out.)

My twenty first was great. Dinner and drinks at Chili's and then back to ARF for a mini-party. I drank a fifth of SoCo, dare me to drive? I invited Regina, but she didn't come. We weren't friends yet. Tracy did, though, and so did Mike. That's not the night they met, though. I think I said good-bye to Tracy at least a dozen times. I also think I threw up in my shower that night, but it was clean by the time I woke up and none of my roommates ever told me they cleaned it up, so maybe it was just a bad dream. Even though Regina wasn't at my party, she was around shortly after. We were together every night, basically, for the next five years or so.

Twenty two through twenty five were all spent with regina and old friends in Gainesville. Things were good. Plans were being made. The future was becoming more and more clear. I graduated college and worked for bedbathandbeyond, then for the Department of Otolaryngology at Shands and then at BestBuy and the Gainesville Sun. Things were good.

And then I turned twenty six and things weren't so good. Regina and I were divorced. I was still working for Bestbuy, but I was starting to grow apart from some of those old friends. Thankfully, though, I made some new friends and started a new phase in my life. This was the start of the Era of Ale House. The waitresses knew us by name and as soon as we'd sit down we would have a pitcher of Miller Light and a handful of frosty mugs. Nikki, I still love you, and if you would have me, I would take you anywhere. And it was here that I took my first road trip. Gainesville to Tampa to Pittsburgh to Cleveland to Chicago and then back to Gainesville. By myself. I watched a lot of baseball, met a lot of amazing people and put a lot of miles on my car. It was two weeks of asphalt and hotels. Baseball and beer. Good times.

Twenty seven was my next road trip, this time with Mike. Gainesville to Vegas to Chicago to Cleveland and back to Gainesville. Amazing. People say that after 3 days in Vegas you should get out while the getting is good. We were there for six days. It was pure madness. Beer Pong at Blondies. You scratched my sunglasses! The long walk home. Best. Vacation. Ever.

When I turned twenty eight I moved to Tampa for no particular reason. On a whim. Unemployed and unconcerned.

In the year I've been twenty nine I've traveled to San Diego and LA, Vegas, Cleveland and I'll be going back to Vegas and San Diego for my thirtieth birthday. It's been the year of vacations (and for some reason it feels like I'm missing one...)

So, my early twenties were all about staying the same. Staying in the same place with the same people doing the same things. My later twenties have been about change. New places and new faces. I'm proud to say that I've probably lived more over the last five years than some people live in their entire lives. I'm not saying that to brag or anything like that. I just find it amazing that I've found the courage to do some of the things that I have done and I can only hope that I can continue to live a life as happy as the one I've lived these last few years.

I do have goals and aspirations and all that jazz... but my number one goal is to be happy. And even if that's the only goal I reach, I'll be ok with that...