Countdown to Thirty: One Day

Blogging later than usual today, because...well, it's my first day of vacation and I slept until 10:30. That felt SO good. I wasn't even out particularly late last night; one of Jake's former grad school friends (still a friend, but not at GW any more) came to town for the weekend, and we met up out in the city. We should know better than to go to Gallery Place after a Caps game, but our friend wanted a central location, and it's difficult to get people to come out to Silver Spring.

We had a great time, but I couldn't help feeling like the oldest one at the party. Probably because I was the oldest one at the party. It's not a big deal; I get along great with these folks, but sometimes our age differences stand out. The group last night ranged from 23 to 27, plus Jake and I. (We do have a friend who just turned 22, but she wasn't there last night.) Again, it's not a big deal--honestly, it's just a couple of years--and I really like the people around the table. But I'm in a very different place in my life. One of the girls at the table, someone a friend brought and I had never met before, kept cracking me up by remarking on how much she loved me. She capped the evening by saying I was "the best wife ever!" to which pretty much everyone else nodded their agreement. (If I remember correctly, that was because I said I liked strip clubs. Or something.) Jake and I joked that the crowd keeps us young.

Which brings us to my goal for the day: emulate Jennifer Garner in 13 Going on 30.

The movie is the namesake for this blog--near the beginning, Garner's character Jenna closes her eyes and wishes with all of her heart that she could be "thirty, flirty, and fabulous." I will admit that it's one of the movies that I will watch any time it's on television, regardless of what point in the movie I'm turning on. It's in good company with The Devil Wears Prada and Mean Girls.

So, today, I will:

1. Smile to the point of dimples.
2. Be pleasantly surprised with everything in my closet, and how I can fill it out.
3. Avoid back-stabbers. (Ha!)
4. Dance at least once to "Love is a Battlefield" and/or "Thriller.
5. Revel at how well I get along with people younger than me, and the wisdom I can give them.
6. Realize how lucky I am in my home life (I got the Mark Ruffalo!).
7. Be proud of something I've done that was outside-of-the-box and artistic.
8. Walk down the street with "Head Over Heels" running through my head.
9. Tell my parents I love them.
10. Take in the world around me with new eyes.

That's "all." Whew!