30 Soon in Days of My Destiny

I am turning 30 in precisely 4 months.

I hadn't given it much thought until recently.

When I met up with Helen, Kate, Kim and Tracey at the park, I told them I needed ideas. See, there's a really nice restaurant in the next town. I'd love to have a dinner there. But it's not a kid-friendly place. It's more the kind of place you'd want to really enjoy and make an effort for, not run around frazzled after your kids. I am the youngest of my friends and yet my daughter is the oldest of all our kids (except Little L). Which means they all still have kids under the age of 3 (not that fun).

One suggested a weekend winery tour down south. How on earth do you do that with kids? I asked. Easy, she said, while one child sleeps, you or your partner watch that child and you enjoy the wine tasting, and then you swap when necessary. I'm thinking, clearly you are a mother of children who still sleep during the day, but more importantly, WHAT IS THE FUN IN THAT?!?!?!

I was browsing dresses online today, just for fun (because it was one of those things that popped up on another page) and I'm sitting there browsing, thinking, wow these are beautiful, I'd love to wear one..... and then I remember my 30th. It'd be a great excuse to wear a dress like that...... to look glamorous for one night. Get my hair done all beautiful, my make-up just right (not too much).

The truth is, thinking about my 30th is slightly depressing. I never thought it would be and in fact I used to tell myself I wouldn't be one of those people. But it is, because everyone I know down here just is not someone I want to celebrate my 30th with. I haven't known any of them long enough to go, hey, come celebrate my whole 30 years of life with me, because we are awesome amazing friends that have created awesome amazing memories together. Because we haven't. We're just mums who happen to get along, and amidst the glamour-less daily raising kid-ness, we talk and make jokes occasionally. But see, that would be a great reason TO celebrate with them too - to get us all in a new bubble of socialisation. But yet I'm a little bit MEH.

And yet I don't know that I will be able to travel to my family or closer friends (friend) for my 30th and I don't know that I would want to. It's my 30th and I just don't feel like travelling and making that gigantic effort for MY birthday. You know?!

I came across a list of 13 ideas to celebrate my 30th. Some of them I like, some I don't. I may yet apply the ones I like. I may yet do a dinner with my friends down here. I may not. I may simply do something awesome with my husband and children. I may do both. I have no idea. But here's the list:

1 - Take a roadtrip somewhere you never thought you'd want to go

Really? I think by the time November comes, I will be so over road trips. Read the paragraph about me not wanting to travel for my birthday.

2 - Try a new restaurant somewhere not in town

Hmmm.. that's what we try to do all the time on our dates. So no.

3 - Bake your own cake

Hell no.

4 - Get a new hairstyle

Not good enough.

5 - Paint a room in your house a new colour

That would maybe work if I was still childless. All these cool leisurely things seem to lose their touch once you have children. I used to do some fun arty stuff before I had kids. Now it's like, I can't get into my "zone" doing these things, because it's just not allowed. Besides, I don't live in my own house.

6 - Check something off your bucket list.

I don't HAVE a bucket list. That right there is depressing.

7 - Instead of a dinner party, throw a brunch party.

Nah.

8 - Write those you love the most a Thank You letter.

I like.

9 - Volunteer somewhere special to you

Not many options where I live, sorry. Actually make that no options. Especially not to do with things that are special to me. You know, the thing that would be most special to me would be to work with kids who have additional needs - which is what my career is about to be. (Yay for a fulfilling career, though, hey!)

10 - Make a list of 5 things you want to accomplish or change

This is something that can be done anytime, anywhere. But I don't do this anytime, anywhere, which means that perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad thing to do this as part of my 30th. It wouldn't be the only thing I'd do, though.

11 - Ladies only weekend

...........maybe? Might be too hard with all the ladies I know. I couldn't even get a few of them to the Justine Clark concert I went to an hour away (their loss, cos she is freaking awesome. Yes okay, she's a kids' entertainer, but she's a cool one, not like the bloody Wiggles or Dora, okay.)

12 - Photo shoot

........................maybe............................................ not sure how I feel about this one. Part of me finds this a tad self-centred. Part of me thinks, well why not, it's not like you'll always be this young and beautiful (tee hee!)

13 - 30 wishes come true

The idea here is to do 30 things for a day that would Pay It Forward. Such as paying for a meal for the person standing in line behind me at a café, or buying a random kid a balloon, or paying for all these parking metres. I actually don't mind this idea, I would just prefer to sit down and really spend some time thinking about the things I would want to do as part of this - not just get some list off the internet. It'd have to be way more personal than that.

These ideas all came from a website called allwomenstalk.com