What a trip it was to turn 29 this year! I can’t say that I was most excited about this age because generally, I find it to be an unattractive number. It doesn’t have the cool factor of “27” or “28” and it’s certainly no milestone like “30.” It’s just a number (shrugs). It was, however, my favorite celebration.

Every year, my birthday becomes a whole thing. I love gathering all of my friends together in one place from all walks of life, but as a host, it’s stressful. Constantly, I am trying to make sure that everyone is having a good time and that they are mingling, and this year I said “Hell no!” to that. My friends are good people; I know this. As we get older though, the energy to extend friendships and meet people becomes more challenging and this year, I’ve accepted this. Why? Because I’m the same exact way! There was also no excessive drinking and for that, I am grateful. We are getting a little bit too old to put everything on my tab at the end of the night or sign up for bottle service.

So instead, I separated said birthday into sections. There was a time for myself – for self care – and a facial. Honestly, this is me every weekend so this is no different! I celebrated first with my coworkers by doing casual drinks after work, which expanded into dinner with a smaller version of that group. It was the best ever!

My coworkers surprised me on the Friday before my birthday with flowers and a cake from my favorite place – Whole Cakes!

Lastly, I happen to have a smaller group of friends that I spend time with together more often. On a monthly basis, we try to get together for dinners at a different chain restaurant. Even though it was my birthday, I didn’t want this to be any different. Since we hadn’t landed at McDonalds yet, I thought it would be the perfect occasion. It absolutely was!

That day, every person played a role from providing the lighter to light my candles on my Apple Pie cake, to engineering how this was going to be done and prepping the invite even for a small group of 8.

We ended the night at bowling; a sport that I’m not great at, but can appreciate. I think everyone had a good time and that’s the most important thing! There was no running around trying to catch up with everyone on life for minutes or asking if anyone needed anything. We could all just be in one place without all the hustle and bustle and it was perfect. Here’s to starting 29 with being a little less frazzled!

Thank you to everyone who made my week so lovely and sent me birthday wishes!