The Big 3-0.

I think I’ll take a moment, celebrate my age
The ending of an era and the turning of a page
Now it’s time to focus in on where I go from here
Lord have mercy on my next thirty years

Hey my next thirty years I’m gonna have some fun
Try to forget about all the crazy things I’ve done
Maybe now I’ve conquered all my adolescent fears
And I’ll do it better in my next thirty years...

-- Tim McGraw, "In My Next Thirty Years"

Thirty was so strange for me. I've really had to come to terms with the fact that I am now a walking and talking adult.

-- C.S. Lewis

It seems only appropriate to mark this occasion with the wisdom of two prominent influences in my first 30 years: C.S. Lewis and country music!

Since I was born at 8:33 AM Pacific Time, it's wasn't really my 30th birthday until 4:33 this evening. :) So I packed, cleaned and vacuumed our old apartment in my 20s and not on my birthday. I even defended my dissertation at the age of 29. Thank heavens, because it was no fun and not something I would want to do on my birthday (see previous post for details).

But I have just now turned 30 by any reckoning of time, and it's all good! Now that it's here I don't mind being 30. I feel 30, really. And my master's degree is complete, our move to the English countryside is nearly done, and I have a nice dinner out in Oxford with my lovely husband to look forward to tonight. Yay.

The birthday and finished-with-school celebrations will continue with a trip to Scotland soon, but that will be a couple weekends away so we can rest and settle into our new place. Pics coming soon.