"Thirty Schmirty" by Jenelle Landgraf

The big 3 -0 is right around the corner for me and I am in the mood to celebrate. I refuse to be one of those people who complains about their age or dreads their birthdays (at least not yet anyways....)

Although the big day is still a week out, the festivities began early with a girl's weekend in Leavenworth - 10 gorgeous ladies between the ages of 23 and 59 acting like teenagers (some more than others - the pictures tell all....). No work, no kids, no husbands, no pets (well, Wrigley made an appearance or two), just the girls lunching out on the deck at Gustav's, lounging at the riverfront beach while sipping champagne and eating amazing cheese from Cheesemongers, and turning heads at the Leavenworth bars.

This is definitely not how I pictured myself celebrating this milestone birthday when I was "younger". It's not like I thought I'd be sitting home alone cleaning my dentures, but I just thought I would "feel" different and act "older". I still feel like I'm 21, so that's why I say "thirty shmirty". It's just a number and it definitely does not hold me back from having just as much fun with the girls as I have been doing throughout my twenties. We all still got carded at the door, which I can finally appreciate. And some of us even ended up at a "house party" with a trampoline at the end of the evening, which I realize is slightly juvenile and reminiscent of high school parties, but....ummmm.....I'll just leave it at that.

So now it's time for me to be honest about what HAS changed about girl's weekends now that most of us are on the brink of a new era (my baby sister Jillian needs to know this stuff because SOMEDAY she and her girlfriends will hit this same point). We may be able to drink just as much as we always have, but the next day feels different than it used to. And by different, I mean worse. Instead of sleeping til noon, most need to be back at home with their families by noon. The "older creepy" guys hitting on us at the bars don't seem quite as old, but they do remain just as creepy.

As the old saying goes, the more things change, the more things stay the same. So, I am now convinced that I will continue to have amazing fun crazy girl's weekends and birthday celebrations at all stages of my life. As a wise woman named Jeani Stevens once said, "Let's get ROWDY".