My dad emailed me this photo over the weekend. He wanted to post it with a comment but wasn’t sure how to do that, so he requested I post it for him.

This is the Trixie we all know and love.

That is pretty much exactly how I still dress.

I will be 30 in two weeks.

I can’t tell if it’s because I’m just paying more attention or if it’s a weird coincidence, but it seems I get asked how old I am more frequently in recent weeks. The answer is always the same: “I’ll be 30 in X weeks.” The response is also always consistent: “Oh, how do you feel about that?”

How do I feel about that? A lot of people struggle with the milestone birthdays, but we all age at the same rate so I don’t really see the point in worrying about it. Aging can’t be avoided, and pretending it’s not happening only traps you in that awkward “holding on to my youth but it only shows on the outside” phase which is always obvious to everyone but you.

Aside from the plain pointlessness of denying the inevitable, 30 doesn’t “scare” me because I’m holding onto my youth on the inside, and this time of my life has been, so far, the best and most exciting.

Amber recently asked for opinions on the “dilemma” that some single men feel they are faced with.

Mainly, it had to do with the pros and cons of dating a girl under 25 versus over 25. Two main points: Girls under 25 are fun but don’t know what they want, whereas girls over 25 usually know what they want but tend to have a lot of issues, etc.

At 43 comments, there are some really good opinions on the subject, and one in particular that I identify with completely:

It’s too bad young people think this way. At thirty five, I feel saner than I ever have. I am in tune with my instincts, my sexuality, and I have a better understanding about what I desire for my future. Because of this, I am more direct and honest in my relationships. [...]

Oh yeah, I’m also financially independent. Take that bitches!

Replace 35 with 30 and I could have said these same things, even though it took me a long time to get here. Everyone has their issues, but the older you get, the more prepared you are to deal with the curve balls, and the more time you’ve had to work out the issues picked up in your teens and early twenties. Your friends are aging and maturing right along with you, and it always helps having a solid support system.

30 years, three cross country moves, finding myself, new friends, old friends, losing friends, losing myself, several unsatisfying jobs, a divorce, success with OIM, more new friends, finding myself again, home ownership, success with love, peace with myself.

Photo credits: Coco & Aaron.

Framed, originally uploaded by ang.d.

Jeremy had one of my favorite photos of my Grandparents, on their wedding day, blown up onto canvas and framed for my 30th birthday. He gave me the present a couple weeks early, and I am really glad.

It’s one of the most touching gifts I’ve ever received, and I couldn’t have asked for anything better. I also couldn’t have asked for anyone better.

You may remember the Pillow Fight from last year. If it looked like fun, you have a chance to participate in this upcoming event. From what I can tell, the two pillow fights are not related, but don’t take my word for it. At any rate, get the word out.

Feathers fly and teddies soar as you converge for the Twin Cities first giant urban pillow fight! Swing and whack as you evade pillow-wielding assailants. Bring a soft pillow at 6 PM and wait for the signal (you’ll know when). Pillow fight!

PJs and funky pillows encouraged. More fun with Feathers.

Pillow Fight Minneapolis
Outside Walker Art Center (grass circles) @ 6:00 PM
Friday, October 12th 2007
Rain Date TBA. Free for all ages!

Rules: Please follow these guidelines to ensure a safe and fun pillow fight for everybody!

+ Soft pillows only!
+ Swing lightly, many people will be swinging at once.
+ Do not swing at people without pillows or with cameras.
+ Remove glasses beforehand!
+ Wait until the signal to begin.
+ Spectators welcome, but consider bringing a pillow.
+ Bring garbage bags to help clean up afterwards.
+ TELL EVERYONE ABOUT PILLOW FIGHT.

Feel free to repost this on blogs, forums, Myspace, Facebook, etc

Burning things., originally uploaded by smooth_d.

Jeremy’s party was fun. He has better (more pervier) commentary and additional photos. Delicious food, delicious beer, fire and almost a beard off. Fantastic.

And congratulations to the DeRusha family on their newest addition and newest Minnesotan. Going into labor in the presence of a Senator was way cooler than going into labor in the presence of all of us. It would have been awesome, though. Welcome to the world, Sam.

Humbird Cheese., originally uploaded by smooth_d.

This was one of the stops we made on the way home from Madison. We heard they sold cheese flavored with Guinness. Brilliant! I’m sure I could use the internets to locate where Humbird actually is, but I don’t feel like it. (actually, I believe it’s in Tomah) I did find a nifty Wisconsin shot glass and fridge magnet with black and white cow coloring. I’m that hip.

Before getting to the cheese/beer awesomeness, we stopped at a Cracker Barrel just outside Madison to clog our arteries. I had a delightful conversation with a little old man who told me speed metal was his favorite music. Well, Christian speed metal to be specific. After eating delicious meat filled meat covered with meat, we stepped out in the gift shop area to snicker at the crazy, sometimes interesting, baubles and whatnots they had passing as souvenirs. Jeremy found this wonderful sweater to keep him warm on chilly nights. Hot. While snapping the picture with my phone, the saleslady who was amused by this asked me if I was going to put that on the internet. I had already gone and judged them all (yeah, yeah, yeah, like you don’t do it) as those folks too scared of computers to know that the internet was not designed to steal your identity and your soul, let alone know you can put pictures from your phone!!!OMG to the internet. So, I just nodded and giggled a little and then suggested we take our leave. Between speed metal grandpa and the internet lady, I was overwhelmed. Anyway, check out ze flickr for more foto goodness, jes?

We’ve had a couple interesting weekends and the next few are just as busy, but it’s nice to know we won’t be traveling for a couple weeks. Also, me and my kidneys need the break, apparently! More on that later.

The coverage of yesterday’s bridge collapse has really been something to see. Newspapers from everywhere have dedicated their front pages to this tragedy, but the best stuff has come from the locals. There is a massive amount of information in that thread, from picture/video links to pointing out the newly updated bridge Wikipedia page to countless personal blogs where you can read first hand accounts to extremely insightful perspectives (via the suberb job Erica did on liveblogging at Metblogs). That doesn’t even include the local news sites, who did fantastic jobs covering the event, some staying up into the wee hours of the morning. It was particularly interesting to see how close the local online/blogging community is here.

My thoughts are with the people injured or deceased and their family members.

Who is ready for this Friday’s birthday bash? If you didn’t get the evite, which I’m sure you did because the only two people other than my folks that read this talk to me on a daily basis anyway, here are the details:

Mac’s Industrial Sports Bar @ 6:00pm Friday, July 13th to celebrate Overheard in Minneapolis’ 1 year Anniversary. It’s also slightly less known that yours truly takes a step into the next age bracket, or more specifically, 29. So, I hope to see you there! Pass it along. (Something I tried to do via MySpace but my anger with them grows more every day. Apparently you can only add one friend at a time to an event invitation. I ask you, how ridiculous is that when you have 293 friends, and their “add friend by location” doesn’t recognize anyone in Minneapolis, MN. Um, ok. Ridiculous!)

Three rounds, over three hours, multiple miles on foot, and I went home with these:

Click to enlarge.

Granted, there were three players and Aaron and I were two of them, but the clues were good. The weather had a lot to do with this as several people wanting to play decided to stay home instead. Also, the ground that had to be covered added to the difficulty. The last stretch was particularly crazy. When we spotted him, the other player was just a few yards behind us. We grabbed our task notes and started running back to the Advanced Wireless booth, which had to have been 12 blocks away. Since she was a runner (even though she was also a smoker), I didn’t feel like my chances would be good, but somehow I made it back at least 6 minutes before she did, and a few minutes before Aaron did.

Midway through the crowd, I saw a friend and his girlfriend eating hotdogs. I slapped his shoulder on my way by, yelling out a hello, and was gone in a flash. He probably didn’t even see me. I laughed for 3 blocks, mostly out of exhaustion.

Inbetween finding Aric and getting back to the booth, there were some tasks that had to be completed. Round 1 was having 5 strangers text message your phone number to a particular number. Not knowing how the general public would react to such a request, we utilized our own address books and twitter. Hey, I don’t know everyone on my twitter. In his haste to send the text out, Aaron gave out the wrong number to send the text. Some poor guy got a half a dozen or so random text messages with Aaron’s phone number. Two thumbs up.

I have no idea if anyone actually sent the text out, but when we got back to the booth, they said we were good to go.

The Round 2 task was to bring 5 strangers back to the booth with us. Because there were only three of us playing, we were all so very tired, and the miles back to the booth hung in front of us, the tasks became less important to the completion of the game. I think if there were many participants, those tasks could be quite fun. Three random people running around Grand Ave trying to round up 15 strangers might prove almost impossible.

Now that I’ve been sitting on my couch for a couple of hours, and have laundry to do, my legs are strongly resisting any activity. I don’t blame them.

On a final note, here’s my favorite character from the whole day:

Click to enlarge.

See the rest of my photos here, and the few that Aaron took here.