3.0.

Today is the big 3-0. I still have so many posts I want to blog about like Britney Spears and recent movies and television but now I'm distracted by hitting that next decade in my life. Obviously no one really "feels" different on their birthday when they turn another year older but this year it definitely feels weird when I hear myself saying "I'm 30." Damn. Not 20-something. Everyone says it's a great decade but what do people know anyways? Most of them are old and probably getting senile. But I thought I'd take this opportunity to combine my usual thanksgiving post and my 'oh my god i'm old' post and list the things I'm thankful for today as I plunge into the depths of middle age.

I'm thankful for... (Let's get all the sentimental ones out of the way first...)

1. A healthy and happy family. I'm thrilled that my parents and brother and sisters are all doing so well.

2. A wonderful husband who puts up with my bitchy moods, long absences, and general malaise.

3. Some of the most awesome friends in the whole world. We can dance together, eat cheese and bread together, enjoy award shows together, have hour long discourses about different ice creams together, watch football games together, sit in saunas together, and get drunk together.

4. The current fashion trend which really allows scarves to be worn most days of the year. Thank god because I have about 30 and I have to get some use out of them.

5. Shane and Vic in "The Shield" finale, the introduction of Jason Stackhouse and "True Blood", and the ongoing greatness of Dennis, Mac, and Charlie on "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia".

6. My iPhone. Seriously. I now get agitated and jittery if I forget it somewhere. Can't live without it.

7. Facebook. Silly, yes. But it allowed me to wake up to about 30 birthday wishes which was pretty awesome.

8. My new friends in Europe. I especially enjoyed this birthday pic from a friend who found a satellite picture of my house on Google Earth. Notice the gift of rum. Ahh, they know me so well.


9. My house. Been here over a year and a half but I still love it and still think it's an awesome house. Especially now that I've stripped the ugly white paint off my now beautiful brick fireplace.

10. That gelato in Milano, that pasta amatriciana in Roma, and that pear ravioli with gorgonzola sauce in Firenze.