Aging Gracefully

I've now been 30 for one week and enough time has passed that I feel I can comment on that momentous occasion with some perspective. At the start I would like to say that I'm not making any of this up. I know that my posts tend to be a little dramatic at times and many people are probably wondering if I embellish, but this stuff does really happen to me.

For some reason I have the immune system of a newborn baby. It doesn't matter what weak little bug is floating around I will get it. So the weekend leading up to the big 30 I got sick with the flu. When I get sick I sometimes have an unpleasant side effect of breaking out in cold sores on my face. Usually they confine themselves to my lips but this time one of those sores thought it would be a fun joke to set up camp on my eyeball. This isn't a picture of me but you get the idea. I know, it's very sexy.



On my wondrous birthday I looked out of the window of where I was taking one of my finals (Yup, my birthday is during finals week) and saw that my bike had just been stolen. The Fuji Odessa now lies in the hands of a hardened criminal. Honestly, I wasn't even angry about it because I live in Cleveland and really what should I expect? Here's a picture of the bike lock that gave it's life in defense of the Odessa.

To make my day even more special I saw a denture patient before my test and as I walked up he looked at me and said, "Man you really look like crap today." I didn't know how to respond to that. I admit that with a flu, an oozing eyeball, and sleep deprivation, I probably did look like short of spectacular. But this guy is in his 60's, smells of marijuana, wears a loosely buttoned Hawaiian shirt, and has hair that looks like it hasn't been washed since Woodstock. For him to comment on anyone's appearance is a bit of a stretch so I admit that it caught me off guard. This isn't him but it is a VERY close resemblance.

As I walked away after having kneed him in the sensitive parts I was left to wonder if turning 30 is really as much fun as people had said it was. Was I more mature now than I was during my 20's? Was I ready to enter the prime of my life with excitement and energy? I still don't know. But taking down a 60 year old hippie sure felt good, so being 30 can't be all that bad.