30 things I haven’t outgrown on my 30th birthday

It’s the morning of my 30th birthday, which technically started last night in a crazed dash to Fremont, that may have included climbing on the troll statue. I would like to thank our always up-for-anything friend Lauren who expressed absolutely no hesistation when we suggested we run out to drink vodka and take photos in the middle of the night. Hooray for that, and for her.

 Today’s post was going to be about 30 things that I’ve learned, in honor of my 30th birthday. However, there were some problems with that concept. Mainly, Gary Arndt, the brilliant chap behind Everything Everywhere, just wrote a great article on the Huffington Post that covered 20 things he learned while traveling, and I didn’t want to write something that would pale in comparison. Secondly, I’m not entirely sure I could even come up with 30 things that I’ve learned (I’m a bit dense, you see). So, instead, I’d like to present 30 things that, at the age of 30, I have yet to outgrow. Hopefully, I never will.

1. The Muppets 


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2. Cake
3. Using a piece of licorice as a drinking straw.
4. Comic books
5. This guy:
   

   Every day I like him more.

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6. The musical stylings of Mr. Billy Joel.
7. The Simpsons
8. Picking. (As in, “Stop picking at it!”)
9. Excitement over rainbows.
10. Making up new words.
11. Halloween
12. Heckling my brother.

    
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13. Slumber parties
14. A profound respect for the work of Dr. Peter Venkman.
15. Swearing
16. Eating raw cookie dough
17. My conviction that one day I will make a living off this whole writing nonsense.
18. A deep-rooted fascination for all things shiny.
19. Aquariums
20. A firm belief that Duran Duran sings Mysterious Ways.
21. Doodling
22. My tendency to take everything waaaaay too personally.
23. Asking, “Are we there yet?”
24. Staying up late 
25. Pink underwear.
26. My everlasting crush on Jeff Goldblum. Seriously, the man’s in his late 50s, and my infatuation shows no sign of stopping.
    

    Sigh.

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27. Snorting while laughing.
28. Baskin Robbins clown cones. In mint chocolate chip.
29. My crippling fear of moths.
30. The Princess Bride

And, of course, my amazing and wonderful friends. They don’t get their own number (because there are way more than 30 of them. It would throw off the entire list), but they do merit their own paragraph. They’ve put up with me throughout the years, and, I suspect, I will never, ever outgrown them. Thanks, guys. Here’s to another 30 years. And another 30 after that.

Now, excuse me: I’m off to eat some cake.