Two weeks ago was my birthday. This year was a big one… the big three-oh! Rick was so great and took me out to an oyster bar for amazing seafood. And he bought me pearls. See how great he is – oysters, pearls. 
To me pearls are real-life grown up jewelry. Ladies wear pearls. Not girls. I’m not normally a jewelry person, but I loved this gift. Totally appropriate for a thirtieth birthday. He got me a set; a necklace, bracelet and earrings.
The necklace was a bit longer than I preferred, so we decided to see if we could exchange it or have it shortened. We went to the jewelry store the day after new years. It was very busy in there. Lots of newly engaged couples getting their rings sized to fit their fingers. The guy behind the counter helping us was also helping one of these couples. We had our three kids with us and they were behaving very well for being in a jewelry store.
As our sales guy bounced back and forth between us and the newly engaged couple, I heard the woman talking about how she had to go home, across the country, and was hoping the ring would be done before she had to leave. So I joked with the guy that he should go ahead and take care of them, saying we’ve been married almost ten (nine, actually in February) years and that we were not going anywhere. I motioned to my three kids behind me, implying that they were proof of our comparatively long relationship. Some jokes were made about not seeming old enough to have been married so long, and then he lays it on…
He says, “Yeah, kids can make you feel old. I used to work at a laser tag place. There were days, after all those kids, I’d come home feeling like I was thirty!”
Wow. Thirty. I can’t imagine.
Happy belated birthday! My 30′s have been my best years! We’re really not old yet, but definitely wiser! Cheers!
1. Aawww! Good hubby!
2. Happy bday!
3. Ouch. Bad salesman.
Happy Birthday! I like the respectability of being 30 (I am too) and married “almost ten years” (our 10th is in June). There’s something very settled and honorable about making it into adulthood and to a decade of marriage. Congratulations.
wait until you reach mid forties. It’s just as much fun, maybe a bit more sore, but nowhere near past it. Also, you get a great view behind you. What do i mean? If we are all on the road of life, my wife and i are much further ahead and a little higher up the climb. Looking back at people who are not so far along ( younger people!), we can often see the way they are heading. All these new ‘urban homesteading’ type blogs and movements give a little burst of hope and pleasure that people might just make a good job of dragging humanity in a better direction, into a better future. Good luck, keep it up.