The official birthday breakdown

You only turn 30 once. And, sadly, some people don't make it that far. So I figured since my 30th was this year, I'd better go all out. I'd gone back and forth on ideas for a party for a while. I wanted a prom, but then I thought a quince would be fun, and funny since I never had one, and then it somehow just developed into an 80's prom, which, it turns out, is the BEST birthday party idea EVER.

Some wonderful friends allowed me to use their house for the party, so I went over earlier in the day to set it up. We had a dance floor, food area, picture area, and even a gift table, just like a real prom. The theme was Vogue, like the magazine, and the invitation was a Vogue cover I made of myself, Vogue-ing like Madonna, with all the details. NOT gonna lie--it was awesome.

I also made covers for several of the guests, to use for decorations. We posted them all around and they were great conversation pieces (plus, I'm now a master user of PhotoShop, which is good for, y'know, a journalism teacher), not to mention witty and hilarious. ;)

Then came the photo area, set up like a Vogue cover, where the Prom Committe and I (complete with buttons) took the first photos of the night.

The colors, if you hadn't guessed, were silver, black, and teal. I dressed to match. The table for favors looked a little something like this, with the favors being slap bracelets. Totally 80's.

The dance floor was awesome--we just set up a projector to project crazy colors and crap on the ceiling, and some sweet 80s jams were rockin' all night. "Don't Stop Believin'" was a huge hit, along with "I Had the Time of my Life" and a little "Lady in Red." Classics, my friends. Classics.

No prom would be complete without a crowning of the King and Queen, so of course people voted on winners. I, to my chagrin, won Queen and my friend Matt won King, mostly, I think, because of his awesome hair. Here I am, celebrating my win...

Here are Matt and I doing our King and Queen dance, complete with Dirty Dancing-style moves...

And this is our official King and Queen photo.

The whole party was just so fun. People went all out in dressing up and we were just dancing and talking and taking random pictures all night. I highly recommend it!

Now, of course, it was a prom and proms don't really have cake, but this was a BIRTHDAY prom, and you can't have a birthday without cake, homemade carrot cake with cream cheese frosting! My favorite!

Themed parties are key to life, and this one was no exception. It was exactly how I wanted to bring in my 30's--smiling, laughing, and dancing until I hurt. Thanks to everyone who came to help me celebrate, even the randoms. It was awesome.

My actual birthday was on the following Wednesday, when I had class at FIU. I didn't really celebrate much on the actual day, but I did make birthday brownies for my class (even though I had to sort of ghetto rig them) and I called it good. Poor college kids are grateful, so that was happy.

The next weekend was Labor Day weekend, and I hadn't been home since, I think, Christmas, so I went home to see my family and pick up Lancelot, who was in Michigan at his "summer home" while I was in Italy.

I got in later than I was supposed to, but my Coot came and picked me up faithfully and the next morning, bright and early, we headed to the season opener for U of M when they played Western. It was a bit too hot to tailgate, although we gave it a solid try, and the game ended up getting rained out, but it was still great to spend time with my Coot and see some college football at the Big House.

The Big House has been redone since I was there several years ago for an exhibition GVSU game. Now it has lights (!!) and a new press box area.

It also now has big, clear, beautiful scoreboards, with closed captioning that can provide some funny commentray (if you read it) during times of boredom.

And, while I don't care much about football, I DO love tailgating and marching bands!

The game started slowly with Western scoring early, but U of M showed them who was boss at the Big House before too long. At one point, though, during the second quarter, it started pouring. I mean, seriously pouring--we all got soaked! Here I am with my seat buddies, after the downpour...
We still look cute, it's true. Eventually, the game restarted and I saw an awesome half-time show that was based on MTV. It was, however, slightly depressing because I'm sure most of the members of the band weren't even alive when the songs they were playing came out. Tra. Gic. Eventually, the rain started up again, this time with thunder and lightning, and they had to evacuate the whole place.

Coot dropped me off at a Panera, where my parents met me with Bubba and we all went on our merry way.

I spent the rest of the weekend bonding with my family and Bubba. I was so glad to see all of them, especially Bubba and my sister, whom I hadn't seen since Christmas. My family took me out to Mitchell's for a birthday dinner (scallops, YUM) and we snapped a quick picture.



All in all, I got to bring in my 30s with some of my favorite humans, both in Michigan and here in Florida. I can't really ask for much more. To even have had 30 years is a gift; someone in my graduating class passed away last year and that is a total mind cruncher. I am so happy about where my life is at this point that I don't even feel stress about "the big three oh." I'm just happy to have been where I have been, seen what I've seen, and experienced all I've experienced.

The week after my birthday celebrations, Frank Warren, founder and creator of PostSecret, a Sunday morning tradition as faithful and sometimes moving, as church, was speaking at the University of Miami and then, a day later, at Lynn University. The Weave got a friend and me a ticket, and we went to see him speak. Here's Frank, on stage at Lynn.

The event was moving and fascinating, and it just made me so happy. The best thing Frank said, and something I will probably always remember, is that, in Hebrew, the word "secret" means, "come closer."

Really, I think, that's what PostSecret is about--by sharing a secret anonymously, you connect yourself to someone else who feels the same way, or has had the same experience, and you realize that, for all our differences, we are really more similar than different. The world really is a tiny place, and each human is just a part of this interconnected, beautiful, fragile network of others. A good lesson to begin a new decade.

So here's to my 30's. I'm embracing them with my arms open, ready for whatever shows up.

Much love.